Been on here a bit so as I've also been under the car quite a bit I thought it best to track my goings-on.
A few years back (in a land when even a 97 Puma was a £1500 + car) I had a red R reg 1.7. I was back on here then but don't know which email I was using, nor can I find anything I had posted before. Assuming there might have been a reset? Anyway, it was up for £500 'buy it now' on ebay needing a bit of work, rusty arches and the like, and considering the price these were going for at the time it seemed a bargain, so I trekked across the country (birmingham or coventry if I remember right) from the north west to collect the car. I arrived in a beirut type area and it was a swift happening. The puma was parked up, the guy arrived in his car, I had a look round and it seemed alright, paid, but as he was leaving he mumbled that he though the headgasket was gone. I don't recall being aware of this before that point, so rather than drive away I still had it for the money. With the expansion cap loose it made it back surprisingly fine, pinked like a bugger with anything more than very light throttle but I crawled back in around 3 hours.
That car I did a lot of work on, built the head back up with new belts, bolts and gaskets, did the arches with filler and hycote cans and it looked great, went great and kept it for a while. Eventually I had bills to pay and, being a student at the time, I chose to sell the car for not much more than £600 and at a loss.
fast forward around 6 years or so later, and I've had a few cars in between. I last had a G7 Celica 14 months ago which I sold due to living in the city and having no parking. This wasn't an issue as I lived within walking distance of work, but soon missed a car when lugging groceries from then nearest Tesco a couple of miles away. My circumstance soon changed, and I finally got the opportunity to use my degree - I'd spent ages 18-23 in the army and also doing mechanical work, with a bit of labouring here and there, but couldn't get a break. I eventually decided to go back to learning and started a degreed in Automotive Engineering, which I finished nearly 2 years ago. Getting into the right employer in that industry is difficult, as is convincing people that you didn't get a degree to go and work in a garage, but having switched to a different industry and managing to gain promotions to more than double the salary I'd started at I decided I was climbing the wrong ladder and got offered a great opportunity. I needed (and have since) relocated across the country and having seen the difference in cost of cars down south I wanted to buy a car up north and travel down with it.
I had a bit of savings but I could either spend £1500-3000 on a car that was newer, but would probably need work doing, and with the inevitable threat of a DMF or anti-pollution system to be a premium on maintenance, I had a think.
I wanted something that was good fun but good on fuel and good looking. This was leading me to diesels, and I considered a 406 coupe, but wanted something in black (in a very stupid criteria kind of way!) and I started swaying towards the TT, Z3 etc then came full circle back to a Puma.
Reading up on these I reminded myself why I wanted one a few years back, and the 'Steve McQueen ad' always shows how attractive a car it is. I'd notice that it had won a few awards since for being best used car in this category and that, but more importantly it had consistently better ratings across whatcar, parkers and other sources, especially in comparison. I also remembered that it's cross platform with the fiesta and ka, so parts were plentiful and cheap.
I'd seen and missed out on some really nice examples, and at the time (excluding the dreamers and deluded traders) it seemed that £700 would get you a great example, and a rock bottom £250 would get you one on the road, but needing work. A road legal shed of sorts.
I narrowly missed out on a sub 70k FSH 01 which went for £600, but had my eye on another. It was a reluctant plan B, as it seemed to have a bit more rust than others, but also because the photos had been taken 'wet'. This was bad for two reasons - 1, usually is hiding something, and 2, the water had no beading whatsoever, meaning it was likely it hadn't been cleaned or polished often at all. Like a greasy sheeting effect. I went for it and despite wanting to pay a max of £500, I went to £550 knowing this was nearer the price for a decent one but it seemed less of a deal.
note: the steering wheel is 'melted' out of the ad's photo shot!
Having spent money on train tickets to get to the car it was now dark, and I was picked up by the chap in the car and it seemed to drive fine, although it had naff all fuel in it (which is always a low blow). The sellers were genuinely very nice people and the car seemed to be fine, no worries at all. I was given the normal blue ford book, the only key (always disappointing) and was 'gifted' the 2 months tax that had been taken out the window and was going to be cashed in. I was also told that the bonnet had a small mark on it but it was 'probably where someone had sat on it' and it hadn't been in a bump. This was beginning to sound nothing like the car I'd bought. There wasn't a tax disc holder to put the disc in and the windscreen was damp, so it stayed on the passenger seat.
The ad also said it had £160 spent on two new tyres for the MOT, so I expected decent tyres - unfortunately they're called something similar to ChingWong Supreme, so perhaps a '0' too many on the estimated cost... :roll:
Driving away to the bottom of the road it got very foggy inside very quickly, so it had obviously been wet inside or left sitting for a while. I stuck in £30 of fuel and set off. This was the least of my concerns as on the way back, although it was wet, the clutch started slipping badly between 4th and 5th. I wasn't sure if I had a lazy left foot so carried on regardless. By this point I'd spent nearly £60 in fuel and transport (10% of the value) so just had to sigh. On the drive the engine management light also came onto compound things.
Pulling up in the pay and display near my flat I had heard rattling in the glovebox, so I tried to investigate but the whole glovebox fell off in my hand. Having had enough by this point, I went in for the night feeling disappointed.
The mrs wasn't very impressed with me at this point, but even more so when I went to check the levels before driving to the shop the next day. The bonnet wouldn't open and was wedged shut. A bit more encouragement got the bonnet open, at which point it was catching very badly by the 'bit where someone sat on it'. Engine bay looked very neglected and oil was black but levels were okay. I then discovered that the bonnet wouldn't close at all. I was not popular with the other half by this point! The interior, described as clean, was now (in the daylight) very tatty. The paint on the CD player (standard 6000 unit) was peeling off and the drivers seat had white paint stains on it. The bodywork was also a lot worse when dried than I expected, with the arches looking much worse than the photos. When I inspected the docs, it had no SH (which it didn't say it did to be fair) and the mot had a list of advisories basically describing every corner of the car having worn suspension and bushes, plus corroded fuel and brake pipes.
I'd considered leaving negative feedback after all this, and although it was perhaps my fault for not being thorough when I turned up, the idea of ebay is to take condition based on photos and the description, which stated it "Drives well" and had a "clean interior". In addition, spending £30 on a train and being driven back to someones house in an unfamiliar area puts you at a disadvantage, especially as I'd got the last train. I decided to contact the guy before leaving the feedback to explain why I felt that way, and although I'd already filled the car with fuel and spent on going to view the car, the guy said he wanted the car back and I'd have to bring it back to him, minus £100 off the price I paid. I refused this as it would mean I'd have paid £200 for a very pointless weekend of disappointment. Long story short, I got £125 back towards costs/contribution to the clutch and other parts. I was now left with having to move 200 miles across the country with a car on its last legs.
A trip to the shop after this point resulted in the temp gauge shooting to the red and the heaters going cold. I swiftly pulled over and bled the system to avoid any permanent damaged, but felt a little extra peeved by this point. I felt like I'd paid double what this car was worth, even with some money back. It essentially had no real redeeming points.
Faced with no other option, I managed to limp yet another puma across the country to its new home. What started from here was a massive outlay on parts to be added to the fitting queue including:
(new parts)
- 2 x Bottom Arms
- 2 x ARB Drop links
- Rear polybushes
- Gen. Ford brake shoes and fuel filter
- Gen. Ford timing belt kit (due to no service history and evidence of poor maintenance)
- New wishbone bolts (2 subframe and 1 knuckle per side)
- Gearbox Oil 75w90 semi syth 5ltr
- Sachs clutch kit
- Sachs Concentric Slave Cylinder
- Air Filter, Pollen Filter, Oil Filter
- Shell Helix 5w30
- bosch spark plugs
- rocker cover gasket and some liquid gasket
- braided brake hoses to replace the crusty set
- weitec adjustable coilovers (used)
- thermostat
- water pump
- replacement driver's side bonnet hinge and a spare wheel tray (not included!) from a scrap yard.
also picked up some kurust, davids 'metalik', primer and bodyshop mixed panther black & lacquer ready to do a short term rust fix. A tin of Hammerite black 'straight to rust' will be applied to the underside of the sills too as a short term measure.
The bitter sweet is that although work has been delayed until possibly january, it has given me time to try and tackle the important issues.
The car was driven into the Puma Hospital!
Not a lot of space to work on the car, but it was dry and secure
The engine bay was a little cleaner after I'd given a quick once over when replacing the hinge before moving.
I also had a lovely knob (see topic in general puma chat!)
Mostly, what started was a sign of things to come. I've had around about ~51 cars in my time, some cheap sheds that got sold on, some rust buckets that got split for parts, but I've never had one quite as bad as this was with the condition it was in. Every bolt so far has been a nightmare and severely seized, sheared or needed to be extracted due to rounded heads.
The lower arms were original ford items, possibly original ones - they were ford items as per the bushes, which were far from good safe condition!
Comparison of old and new
This condition continued as did the stripdown, with the clutch hydraulic pipe becoming one with the CSC through corrosion
The gearbox was also a nightmare to remove, with more seized bolts and one that sheared clean off with only a 3/8 ratchet. The gear linkage was fully seized on and required a lot of coaxing. Eventually, I got to the clutch with the 'box off.
Caught it perhaps just in time before the flywheel started to suffer
On close inspection, an original motorcraft part. Whether it was the original one I'm not sure
So, the new sachs unit was aligned up and ready to fit
In the meantime, the gearbox was coated in grease oil and dirt - I didn't want to put it back in like this, and although I didn't have the time or equipment to do a thorough job, I did have Mr Muscle...
some scrubbing later, not perfect, but a lot cleaner
and eventually back in
I've done some more since, but so far this has taken quite a lot of blood, sweat and energy. What should have been an easy job was complicated by overdue poor maintenance. A part of me has felt sorry for the car and hopefully it should be worth it in the long run!
A few years back (in a land when even a 97 Puma was a £1500 + car) I had a red R reg 1.7. I was back on here then but don't know which email I was using, nor can I find anything I had posted before. Assuming there might have been a reset? Anyway, it was up for £500 'buy it now' on ebay needing a bit of work, rusty arches and the like, and considering the price these were going for at the time it seemed a bargain, so I trekked across the country (birmingham or coventry if I remember right) from the north west to collect the car. I arrived in a beirut type area and it was a swift happening. The puma was parked up, the guy arrived in his car, I had a look round and it seemed alright, paid, but as he was leaving he mumbled that he though the headgasket was gone. I don't recall being aware of this before that point, so rather than drive away I still had it for the money. With the expansion cap loose it made it back surprisingly fine, pinked like a bugger with anything more than very light throttle but I crawled back in around 3 hours.
That car I did a lot of work on, built the head back up with new belts, bolts and gaskets, did the arches with filler and hycote cans and it looked great, went great and kept it for a while. Eventually I had bills to pay and, being a student at the time, I chose to sell the car for not much more than £600 and at a loss.
fast forward around 6 years or so later, and I've had a few cars in between. I last had a G7 Celica 14 months ago which I sold due to living in the city and having no parking. This wasn't an issue as I lived within walking distance of work, but soon missed a car when lugging groceries from then nearest Tesco a couple of miles away. My circumstance soon changed, and I finally got the opportunity to use my degree - I'd spent ages 18-23 in the army and also doing mechanical work, with a bit of labouring here and there, but couldn't get a break. I eventually decided to go back to learning and started a degreed in Automotive Engineering, which I finished nearly 2 years ago. Getting into the right employer in that industry is difficult, as is convincing people that you didn't get a degree to go and work in a garage, but having switched to a different industry and managing to gain promotions to more than double the salary I'd started at I decided I was climbing the wrong ladder and got offered a great opportunity. I needed (and have since) relocated across the country and having seen the difference in cost of cars down south I wanted to buy a car up north and travel down with it.
I had a bit of savings but I could either spend £1500-3000 on a car that was newer, but would probably need work doing, and with the inevitable threat of a DMF or anti-pollution system to be a premium on maintenance, I had a think.
I wanted something that was good fun but good on fuel and good looking. This was leading me to diesels, and I considered a 406 coupe, but wanted something in black (in a very stupid criteria kind of way!) and I started swaying towards the TT, Z3 etc then came full circle back to a Puma.
Reading up on these I reminded myself why I wanted one a few years back, and the 'Steve McQueen ad' always shows how attractive a car it is. I'd notice that it had won a few awards since for being best used car in this category and that, but more importantly it had consistently better ratings across whatcar, parkers and other sources, especially in comparison. I also remembered that it's cross platform with the fiesta and ka, so parts were plentiful and cheap.
I'd seen and missed out on some really nice examples, and at the time (excluding the dreamers and deluded traders) it seemed that £700 would get you a great example, and a rock bottom £250 would get you one on the road, but needing work. A road legal shed of sorts.
I narrowly missed out on a sub 70k FSH 01 which went for £600, but had my eye on another. It was a reluctant plan B, as it seemed to have a bit more rust than others, but also because the photos had been taken 'wet'. This was bad for two reasons - 1, usually is hiding something, and 2, the water had no beading whatsoever, meaning it was likely it hadn't been cleaned or polished often at all. Like a greasy sheeting effect. I went for it and despite wanting to pay a max of £500, I went to £550 knowing this was nearer the price for a decent one but it seemed less of a deal.
note: the steering wheel is 'melted' out of the ad's photo shot!
Having spent money on train tickets to get to the car it was now dark, and I was picked up by the chap in the car and it seemed to drive fine, although it had naff all fuel in it (which is always a low blow). The sellers were genuinely very nice people and the car seemed to be fine, no worries at all. I was given the normal blue ford book, the only key (always disappointing) and was 'gifted' the 2 months tax that had been taken out the window and was going to be cashed in. I was also told that the bonnet had a small mark on it but it was 'probably where someone had sat on it' and it hadn't been in a bump. This was beginning to sound nothing like the car I'd bought. There wasn't a tax disc holder to put the disc in and the windscreen was damp, so it stayed on the passenger seat.
The ad also said it had £160 spent on two new tyres for the MOT, so I expected decent tyres - unfortunately they're called something similar to ChingWong Supreme, so perhaps a '0' too many on the estimated cost... :roll:
Driving away to the bottom of the road it got very foggy inside very quickly, so it had obviously been wet inside or left sitting for a while. I stuck in £30 of fuel and set off. This was the least of my concerns as on the way back, although it was wet, the clutch started slipping badly between 4th and 5th. I wasn't sure if I had a lazy left foot so carried on regardless. By this point I'd spent nearly £60 in fuel and transport (10% of the value) so just had to sigh. On the drive the engine management light also came onto compound things.
Pulling up in the pay and display near my flat I had heard rattling in the glovebox, so I tried to investigate but the whole glovebox fell off in my hand. Having had enough by this point, I went in for the night feeling disappointed.
The mrs wasn't very impressed with me at this point, but even more so when I went to check the levels before driving to the shop the next day. The bonnet wouldn't open and was wedged shut. A bit more encouragement got the bonnet open, at which point it was catching very badly by the 'bit where someone sat on it'. Engine bay looked very neglected and oil was black but levels were okay. I then discovered that the bonnet wouldn't close at all. I was not popular with the other half by this point! The interior, described as clean, was now (in the daylight) very tatty. The paint on the CD player (standard 6000 unit) was peeling off and the drivers seat had white paint stains on it. The bodywork was also a lot worse when dried than I expected, with the arches looking much worse than the photos. When I inspected the docs, it had no SH (which it didn't say it did to be fair) and the mot had a list of advisories basically describing every corner of the car having worn suspension and bushes, plus corroded fuel and brake pipes.
I'd considered leaving negative feedback after all this, and although it was perhaps my fault for not being thorough when I turned up, the idea of ebay is to take condition based on photos and the description, which stated it "Drives well" and had a "clean interior". In addition, spending £30 on a train and being driven back to someones house in an unfamiliar area puts you at a disadvantage, especially as I'd got the last train. I decided to contact the guy before leaving the feedback to explain why I felt that way, and although I'd already filled the car with fuel and spent on going to view the car, the guy said he wanted the car back and I'd have to bring it back to him, minus £100 off the price I paid. I refused this as it would mean I'd have paid £200 for a very pointless weekend of disappointment. Long story short, I got £125 back towards costs/contribution to the clutch and other parts. I was now left with having to move 200 miles across the country with a car on its last legs.
A trip to the shop after this point resulted in the temp gauge shooting to the red and the heaters going cold. I swiftly pulled over and bled the system to avoid any permanent damaged, but felt a little extra peeved by this point. I felt like I'd paid double what this car was worth, even with some money back. It essentially had no real redeeming points.
Faced with no other option, I managed to limp yet another puma across the country to its new home. What started from here was a massive outlay on parts to be added to the fitting queue including:
(new parts)
- 2 x Bottom Arms
- 2 x ARB Drop links
- Rear polybushes
- Gen. Ford brake shoes and fuel filter
- Gen. Ford timing belt kit (due to no service history and evidence of poor maintenance)
- New wishbone bolts (2 subframe and 1 knuckle per side)
- Gearbox Oil 75w90 semi syth 5ltr
- Sachs clutch kit
- Sachs Concentric Slave Cylinder
- Air Filter, Pollen Filter, Oil Filter
- Shell Helix 5w30
- bosch spark plugs
- rocker cover gasket and some liquid gasket
- braided brake hoses to replace the crusty set
- weitec adjustable coilovers (used)
- thermostat
- water pump
- replacement driver's side bonnet hinge and a spare wheel tray (not included!) from a scrap yard.
also picked up some kurust, davids 'metalik', primer and bodyshop mixed panther black & lacquer ready to do a short term rust fix. A tin of Hammerite black 'straight to rust' will be applied to the underside of the sills too as a short term measure.
The bitter sweet is that although work has been delayed until possibly january, it has given me time to try and tackle the important issues.
The car was driven into the Puma Hospital!
Not a lot of space to work on the car, but it was dry and secure
The engine bay was a little cleaner after I'd given a quick once over when replacing the hinge before moving.
I also had a lovely knob (see topic in general puma chat!)
Mostly, what started was a sign of things to come. I've had around about ~51 cars in my time, some cheap sheds that got sold on, some rust buckets that got split for parts, but I've never had one quite as bad as this was with the condition it was in. Every bolt so far has been a nightmare and severely seized, sheared or needed to be extracted due to rounded heads.
The lower arms were original ford items, possibly original ones - they were ford items as per the bushes, which were far from good safe condition!
Comparison of old and new
This condition continued as did the stripdown, with the clutch hydraulic pipe becoming one with the CSC through corrosion
The gearbox was also a nightmare to remove, with more seized bolts and one that sheared clean off with only a 3/8 ratchet. The gear linkage was fully seized on and required a lot of coaxing. Eventually, I got to the clutch with the 'box off.
Caught it perhaps just in time before the flywheel started to suffer
On close inspection, an original motorcraft part. Whether it was the original one I'm not sure
So, the new sachs unit was aligned up and ready to fit
In the meantime, the gearbox was coated in grease oil and dirt - I didn't want to put it back in like this, and although I didn't have the time or equipment to do a thorough job, I did have Mr Muscle...
some scrubbing later, not perfect, but a lot cleaner
and eventually back in
I've done some more since, but so far this has taken quite a lot of blood, sweat and energy. What should have been an easy job was complicated by overdue poor maintenance. A part of me has felt sorry for the car and hopefully it should be worth it in the long run!
