Project Tango (PICTURE HEAVY)

[rocky_85]

Hi everyone!

It's been a LONG time since I owned a Puma and decided that enough was enough and have purchased my third Puma. This Puma is a Millennium edition and is numbered 0362. Before her I have owned a standard 1.7 puma and an FRP. My ideas for this car is to turn her into a fast road/track car with a difference........... a BIG DIFFERENCE :twisted:
This particular difference will be revealed as soon as it's completed and not before but I shall be sharing everything else with you along the way!
I do not have masses of amounts of money to put into this project so it may take a while to make some serious progress but I am confident that lots will be done in a short amount of time as I shall be buying new as well as used parts for this car.

Here are some pictures from when I bought her:-

DAY ONE
First thing on my agenda was to remove the stupid yellow line around the alloys, how hideous they looked! When I first drove her the back end felt like it was on ice and was pulling both left and right so it confused me straight away (I am not a mechanic by any means so bear with some of my potentially stupid comments on faults!!). After getting her on the ramp I discovered that the rear bushes were absolutely dead. I also found that the tyre pressures were all random and as low as 7psi so they were pumped up straight away. I managed to push the bushes out with my fingers that's how loose they were. And here are the replacements:-

Another problem that was bugging the hell out of me was the ABS/Traction control lights were constantly on the dials. I plugged my friends Snap On Diagnostic tool and it stated that the N/S/F ABS sensor was not functioning so that was immediately replaced:-

Seeing as I bought her this November it's already rather cold a to my disbelief the heaters were not working so another quick trip to the parts department was in order:-

As good as the brakes are on the car I decided to have a little play with these and try a retro fit with some spare parts that were hanging around in the workshop. I just so happened to have some Mondeo discs, pads and calipers from a 2.0 tdci sitting about so I potentially had a 300mm brake upgrade just sitting there........ :grin:
Me and my friend Dan got to work and started by drilling the Mondeo discs to accomodate the Puma hub. We then spaced out the discs to allow the caliper to fit and drilled the caliper bracket for the bigger bolts. And below is the results:-

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

After completing all of the above jobs I took her to be washed by the friendly Polish car washers down the road (couldn't be bothered to do it myself!) and then took some pictures of her clean.......... :-

A little bit of rust emerging.....

 

[evilrob]

Nice! Top work so far, fella! k:

 

[quest63]

Err you can see this top work??? I cant

 

[evilrob]

Err you can see this top work??? I cant

Do you mean you can't see the photos or are you being rude?

 

[quest63]

I cant see one single picture they all say the user either moved or deleted the pictures

Did you think I was insulting the motor lol your Evil I say Evil

 

[quest63]

Just tried via firefox and still no piccies, I think we have had this north sarf divide before

 

[jifflemon]

can see the pics but only if I go directly to the library

http://s862.photobucket.com/user/rockywatton/library/Project%20Puma?sort=9&page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[rocky_85]

The pictures were working yesterday?!?! I uploaded them to Photobucket and copied the link for IMG. Am I doing that wrong?

 

[quest63]

You have to be standing in a bowl of cold rice pudding while you do it, its so obvious they dont mention it in the photo instructions.

You did know didnt you?

 

[rocky_85]

I have managed to get pictures working now (hopefully!!)...........

 

[red]

yep I can see pictures now, good job

 

[rocky_85]

yep I can see pictures now, good job

Thanks :grin:

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Looking good!

 

[rocky_85]

Looking good!

Thanks as well :grin: I have been reading your project thread and realised that you bought my old LHD Puma foot rest such a small world haha

 

[rocky_85]

Day Two

Right I have been busy scouring the net looking for some parts that I want to buy for Molly. I managed to find two major components that I want to fit to my car. The first one is these....

As you can see the calipers that I bought are quite dirty so I will be cleaning these up first so that I can paint them.

The second item that I found was these..........

I managed to find these coilovers really cheap on eBay and they come with a 3 year warranty so i'm pleased with them. I need to try and decide how much to lower the car by without affecting Molly's ability to go over speedbumps without catching, has anybody else lowered their cars, and if so, do you have any advice on how much to lower by?? These coilovers can lower the car by up to 120mm.

 

[trueblue]

I have lowered mine on AP coilovers. Not too sure exactly how much lower it is over the std ride but they claim to lower by 80mm. At the moment I am down as low as they go but have had to remove the sports cat before I ripped it off going over the speed bumps
I still have to be careful as the exhaust still catches now and then especially as the roads around where I live are far from maintained, pot holes ? more like mini canyons :lol:

 

[rocky_85]

I know what you mean by the mini canyons!! Where abouts are you based in Essex? I'm an Essex boy too :lol:

 

[trueblue]

Stanford Le Hope. Where are you ?

 

[rocky_85]

Braintree. I am often visiting my friend in Tilbury and that place is definitely a suspension killer haha

 

[trueblue]

Good old Tilbury. Still have a few relatives live there. With all the roadworks going on at the moment around the area for the new port its like driving through a building site every day, mud and crap all over the roads :x