The All-American Puma

[Wooticus]

Hi all,

As a brief recap from my introduction thread, I am American military stationed in the UK and I purchased this 97 1.7 Puma with the intent to ship it back to the states with me. As the Puma begins to enter the golden age of 25 for importation into the states, I am very curious to see how much interest they will develop over the next few years. Since I have been in the services, I have seen the GTR and Defender crazes, and I think the Puma will be a lot more niche in the future, but either way I am excited for its future.

Anyway, first I will introduce her, name pending:

She came with some rust, but all the material is sound minus the rear wheel arch flanges. Working airframe the past decade, I have some ideas how to hopefully make it look brand new, and waiting on a few more materials to arrive, but here is what I am working with:

In the meantime, I have been trying to get the interior looking spiffy again. Interesting thing about this Puma, one of the previous owners retrofitted Recaro seats into it. From the ones I have seen on Ebay, these are in great condition comparatively. Forgot pictures, but will get those. The plastic seat covers were cracked/warped so did some work on those. Not too happy with how much the epoxy is bleeding through the finish, so getting better sanders on the way to improve the finish. Used BMW black sapphire for the repaint, snapped a shot of how it compares to the original plastic before repainting it all. Critique away!

 

[st220kyle]

Looks like a nice base for a project,

Be interesting to follow the journey and see what people think of it in the USA once you get it back home.
I would definitely be filling the inside of that car up with as many spare parts as I can find before importing it back, not sure how easy spares will be to get hold of back home?

 

[Wooticus]

I would definitely be filling the inside of that car up with as many spare parts as I can find before importing it back, not sure how easy spares will be to get hold of back home?

For sure! I am going to be building a grocery list of parts to bring back, as I am nowhere close to my allowed weight limit for shipping as it stands and I am also considering buying a second Puma to part out if the ends justify the means. I am trying to gather as much historical data from these forums as possible to get a good purchase list together over the next year.

 

[mmc757]

Anything RHD gets immediate attention as a curiosity. Since most people in N.A. don't even know this car exists, they will definitely ask questions. Unfortunately, since its a compact car that doesn't start with "Cosworth", the interest level will quickly evaporate. That's okay, do it for yourself, take pride in your work and in your car and it will be its own reward.
Then, when you get tired of it, sell it to me LOL.

 

[Wooticus]

Hi all! Not dead, just between working fulltime, going to school part time, and being a husband when my wife reminds me to be keeps me busy!

Progress on the Puma has been steady. The left side turned out to be way more than I anticipated. That dark grey rhino liner crap ate through so many sanding disks. The rust was about as bad as I expected except on the rear wheel arch, I decided to implement some aircraft metal bonding into it, I will let you all judge the finish. Left hand sill is sanded and on cure for topcoat, way more imperfections than I would like, but I think it is acceptable... again, judge away! Right hand side being worked in tandem during cure. Estimated about 20 hours or so into it so far. No rust is being left behind in these fixes that my eye can see, and I hope the rust converter is getting what I can't see. Tell me what ya'll think!

 

[RICHARD MANSFIELD2]

Hi,
That sounds interesting.....aircraft bonding metal. I know that a lot of glues and bonding agents are incredibly strong. How does that compare with welding.
Regards,
Richard.

 

[Wooticus]

Richard,

Metal bonding is only done on aircraft skin and never on the actual substructure. Following the same principles with vehicles, I would never use it on a structural member. These instances where I could sandwich it between the sill structure and skin and inside the wheel well where aesthetics are less of a concern I think works out nicely, but it has limited uses in the automotive world. Doing that as opposed to trying to weld in a repair on such thin contoured steel I think worked best, and saved me doing the entire arch.

...That being said, I'm finding automotive painting is nothing like aircraft painting. Not pleased with my work on the sill, but I'm going to press on to the left side and see if I learned from my mistakes or not. Surface preparation is a much bigger deal and well put it to you all this way... we don't blend paint on military aircraft. Stay tuned!