Green and Orange Project...

I have been lurking on here for well over a year now posting my problems here and there... so I thought it was about time I started one of these. Here it goes:

My first car ever (despite being 23 at the time) the brilliant 1.4 Puma. I looked for ages and ages, once I saw the puma I couldn't get it out of my mind, after driving one I was hooked!!! I went for a 1.4 purely because of the price of my insurance...

This is how she started out:




what a beauty :grin:

I had no problems for ages... then disaster pot holes dented 1 of my wheels and I had to pump up my tyre every 2 days!!! So I got a spare off e-bay... a few weeks later another 2 started leaking air due to dents (one of them being the ebay replacement) instead of risking it again I decided to replace them all with new ones.... That's when I joined Project Puma and got waaaaaay to many ideas....

I settled on these that I got for a great price:



After that (also moving to Suffolk in the process), I went a bit mad... mainly thanks to this site :thumbs:

A stripe followed (not to everyone's tastes but I loved it)...



And little side logos...



Door kick plate trims...



Mmmm shiny ....
I also put in a full leather trim new osram night breaker headlight bulbs (soooooo much better than the Phillips that were in there), new side light bulbs, fixed the glove box and the parcel shelf, upgraded the speakers/head-unit and added mud flaps.

But I wanted more... looking through peoples projects gave me too many ideas... however I only had a 1.4 so I waited...

The day of my insurance renewal quote .... YES !!! Sooooo much cheaper.... so I started a looking for a 1.7 I could put my stamp on....

I ended up taking home this... (you may know it)



OHHH yes....
1.7 plus:
Coilovers
FRP rear axle (so no ugly drums + widened track)
Fantastic colour
4-2-1 manifold
And a host of other bits..

All well and good, or so I thought...
That picture was taken outside Halfords while I was locked out of the car after driving it home !!!
What a great start!!!!

Turned out the connections in the key remote had broken and the door locks were pretty jammed... after getting her broken into and driving her home I managed to eventually get the passenger door lock working (lots of lubrication and wiggling later that is). After sorting out the key issue I thought I would tackle raising the suspension as the previous owner had it slammed down which was ruining the ride for me.

This was the view in my local parking area when I finally got her home:


Beautiful :lol: the middle one turned out to be my next door neighbors and I still owned the black one ;p

Firstly I removed the FRP front seats (as I preferred my leather ones) and the other (very VERY badly put in) interior. Botch job is an understatement, I know it used to be stripped for a track car but he put an interior in for resale, it was god awful.... a trip to the local scrappy where I took home every interior clip, some boot carpet, some fuses and a few other botched together bits I had to replace.... It's a good thing I was enjoying myself....

I ended up putting the original interior back in the black car and my leather one migrated to the new green car, along with the kick plates, puma mats, mud guards, osram bulbs (replacing the rubbish HID kit), basically everything I done to the 1.4 found it's way into the 1.7 (except the white wheels).

Once I got the interior to how I wanted it (I can't list the amount of botch jobs I found along the way) I went to tackle the suspension.... Oh dear....

The previous owner had stripped all the grub screws in the ap coilovers.... Brilliant!!! After multiple attempts to drill, torx, and lubricate out the little buggers I took it to a local garage, thankfully the only one near that would touch coilovers turned out to be fantastic!

I ended up having to buy new locking rings and the garage chopped off the old ones and I got it raised up.... ohhhhhh.... sooooo much better. All this ended up costing me a third of the price of buying new coilovers... thankfully the sale of the FRP front seats covered that...

I also cleaned up all the windows and lights, stripping the tinted effect the previous owner had painted on. Which in my opinion was nothing more than dangerous blocking vision and lights!

Next I set about changing that UGLY green splatter the previous owner had on some of the interior parts... So I went wild......

And sprayed it Ford Electric Orange:




The keen eyed may also notice the green and orange detail I added to the gear knob... I also added a hit of orange to the outside. Not to everyone's tastes but I love it. (I moved house again during all this).

Next I upgraded the speakers, bigger orange EDGE component ones to go with my interior, (you can see them through the grills at the right angles), they are brilliant.

After a good winter clean here is how she looks now:




The next things on my list include 16" wheels (that I have acquired) for the 300mm brake upgrade that I want and to sort the damn ABS out... I will post more on that soon...

What do you think? Writing this has knackered me out so that's it for now... More updates coming soon

Happy New Year everyone.

Looking good, many modified cars are full of bodge jobs imo, this does not go for everyone though, glad your sorting the problems out, the glove box being painted looks a bit overkill but the dial surround and gearstick bit look ok

I love this car, it's a gorgeous colour looks so.good it should of been a ford option, keep up the progress bet your a very happy guy

Love the colour, hate the orange inside (thats just me) also love the earlier picture of the three Puma's....."the yellow one turned out to be my next door neighbours"...how had you not noticed it before :?:

Middle car obviously the best colour :grin:

i parked next to this car on my way home from trax at south mimms!! i love this colour and looks even better in person! i have been after one for ages!

nice car! k:

Love the exterior paintwork. The interior though...

Love the Car, Hate the Interior Orange Bits, Sorry.

ha Orange haters... i love it so

Basically i painted over the previous owners green splashing effect so every orange bit used to be splashed with green paint. I only added the bits in the door extra because ... why not :twisted:

Had a right crappy start to the new year! on top of all the other things i have to fix i got a puncher the day before new-years eve and yesterday (new-years day!) the starter motor gave up in a hospital car park!!! brilliant!!! A bump start and i was off... its now in the garage and i have given them a list as long as my arm to look at....

including -
The starter motor,
the disconnected lambda sensor,
the missing octane regulator fuse,
The fact that i have no EML light come on at all (bulb is there though)
The fact that i have no Traction control light come on at all (bulb is there)
And the ABS light is always on....

i guess there is my list of stuff to sort....
Not a happy new year :'(

Think of it this way: everything you do to the car will bond you two better

Appreciate the effort, but that orange interior is not my cup of tea. Sorry

ethanfitz said:

This was the view in my local parking area when I finally got her home:

Click to expand...

Love it, looks like our driveway!! :lol:

great thread so far, keep us updated on your progress k:

This is what i have to sort out (more a list for me so i remember):

1. Replace entire exhaust system from Manifold to back box. - 4-2-1 manifold is de-cat and wont pass MOT + it is blowing/leaking and the rest of the install is so shoddily put in i have been advised to replace the entire lot. Inc the back box which has been welded on :roll: . This should solve the EML problem as i plan to replace it with a standard manifold and cat (i haven't decided on the rest yet).

2. ABS problem - Diagnostics cannot communicate with the ABS module. I don't know what this means so i will start investigating once i have sorted problem 1.

3. Traction control light doesn't come on at all (but bulb is there). possibly linked to ABS problem

4. Half of heated windscreen doesn't work. I just had this replaced twice (first under insurance 2nd for free) and the drivers side still doesn't work... any ideas???

5. Sort out 16" wheels and fit the spare.

That's my list for now... Only found out about the manifold being de-cat and blowing because i had the starter motor replaced!

Any ideas for solutions to anything are welcome

I have the same ABS problem!! I wonder if the module has died?

moondustka said:

I have the same ABS problem!! I wonder if the module has died?

Click to expand...

glad im not the only one (but also :-( ) if you get to the source of the problem before i get to it please let me know so i don't go round poking in the dark. if i find the problem first ill share too :thumbs:

ethanfitz said:

moondustka said:

I have the same ABS problem!! I wonder if the module has died?

Click to expand...

glad im not the only one (but also :-( ) if you get to the source of the problem before i get to it please let me know so i don't go round poking in the dark. if i find the problem first ill share too :thumbs:

Click to expand...

Yup! :grin:

As you may see i have changed the name of this project....

I think i have been completely duped when i brought this car... the guy (who used to be a member on this site) looked me right in the eye and said it had no problems at all, FILTHILY F***ING LIAR!!!!

I have owned this car for 6 months and what a nightmare!!! although i enjoy driving it the problems i have encountered are endless...

starting with the key problem (sorted) then the coilovers (sorted) + replaced 2 tyres.
Then a tyre blow out (on one of the new tyres :-( )
followed by a puncher (un repairable)
then the starter motor died (sorted)
Exhaust was Blowing puls there was no CAT and it was welded onto the car!!! (only just sorted replaced from manifold back completely!)
Pinched brake line (sorted)

In between all that a rust issue was pointed out so i have just had that investigated and now im at a cross roads....
Its bad!!! basically all the sils on both sides need cutting out and starting again... i have been quoted up to £1000 by 3 different places to do the job properly and up to £800 to just be finished in black (will go partly up both sides of the car ...
Plus i still have to sort out several issues including:

The wheel bearing is making a hell of a noise now,
The ABS light which is probably down to a faulty pump (no coms on a scan)
CV boot is cracked
need to replace a few lights (side and number plate)
Small oil leak
the steering column coupling is damaged (resulting in light steering for about 1-2 inches, (i have been told its not dangerous but would be £200 to fit a replacement because its an arse to get to)
and the previous guys removed the wiring to the OCTANE regulator fuse, so that has to be done too...

The question is what do i do?? there is so much involved to save this car...

If i was to replace it i would probably replace the wheel bearing and run it till the just before the MOT in June and then break it apart (or sell it as spares to someone),as it has several high value items on eg frp rear axle, coilovers, poly bushes, strut braces etc. But if i was to replace it i would only want to replace it with a FRP (because i don't want a normal car lol) so i would have to save up for that.

or do i spend well over what its worth, fix everything and hope i don't get hit in the face with anything else?

Annoyingly i spent over what i should have on this car and another £400-500 fixing the problems so far. If some one had told me about the rust before i had started fixing things i would not have started.

What is the most annoying thing is the guy who sold it to me obviously knew these issues... but how was i to know, stupidly i didn't know to look for rust on the sils (as i only really knew about the arches) and the only advisory on the MOT was the wheel bearing that was it! I should mention that this was done at his dads garage and everyone who has seen the rust says it should have been on at least one MOT to get to the stage it is now... So he defiantly knew and the scum bad hid it completely. (I will be reporting his garage for this).

So in essence... should i save this car or cut my losses and hunt for a FRP i like? Its going round and round in my brain and i thik some outside opinions may help me focus on what i want... Please help... :'(

Bit of rust shouldn't put you off, and all the stuff you've fixed so far is pretty much par for the course on these cars now. But if it's an FRP you want, you'll never be happy until you get one, so maybe cut your losses.

FRPs get expensive if you find stuff needs doing, though! So maybe better the devil you know?

Just out of curiosity, how much would you be looking for the car as it is?

On the plus side, it looks great in that colour!

In all honesty, it depends on how much you need the car for doing every day things like getting you from A-B. If you have other means of transport, then you can view it as a project. If not then you probably need something that hasn't been dicked around with as much as this one has.

It sounds like the thing it has going for it is that the body shell is an interesting colour but if that needs repair then it's just another old car in need of lots of work.

You need to tot up how much it's going to cost you to repair and decide on whether you really want to carry on (please note I've spent 3 years and a great deal of money doing up a pup that is still pretty much a pup which makes my advice almost worthless).

I had a golf gti mk4 that needed some work, I did one thing, then another thing appeared, I fixed that, no bother problem appeared..some was into the same situation, do I sell, and cut my losses or keep and get myself a decent enough car....I sold....and now I regret it!!

I should of kept it, and made it a long term project...think long and hard!

You moron.

There was nothing wrong with this car at the time of sale, you've blatantly fucked it and now trying to pass the blame to the previous owner.