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Wild E. Coyote said:
Brian' said:
Another update.

Was looking at new seats for a while now and I finally bought them. They are reclining because the car is a daily and I don't really want 4-point seatbelts and all that madness.
So I went for the Sparco R100's. They are planted on a Sparco ECO slider and under that is a custom made subframe made by my uncle. It's made out of 8mm thick construction steel. Strong enough, safety first ;)

I was looking at those seats. How do you like them? Ar they comfortable enough for daily use? Could you take some more pictures of them in car? I am interested in clearances to the doors, between them etc..?
How high have you installed them? Height adjustability? Belt pretensioners are mounted on the frame, or?
Lots of questions, sorry. If you could take few more pictures, that would be lovely, cheers!

I really like them yes, They are comfortable however I haven't drove a lot of miles in it yet. Will be going on a two hour trip tomorrow though so will let you know.
Clearances to the doors is like none, To be fair if you close the door it softly hits the seat, You can change this by customizing your frame more to the middle of the car so that shouldn't be a big problem at all. I don't mind myself because it's really minor.

The height is about 1 inch lower than the standard seats just perfect for me. There is no height adjustability in the seat itself. If your technical you can build it over from the original seat, I haven't done this because I don't need it. Belt pretensioners are indeed mounted on the subframe, There was really no other way to mount them it's not possible to mount them on the slider.
Will post some pictures of the frame when I got them!
 
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These are the photos of the frame, Haven't had the time yet to make photos from the inside for door clearances ect.
 
I really like this project I have a question for you
Hoe krijg je zo'n klein fototje bij je naam?
 
Did some things to the Puma.

As I had holidays it was the perfect time to remove my dashboard and sent it to the flockers. Easier said then done.. As a first timer it was quite tricky, but using the guide of 'danielz000' http://www.projectpuma.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=13577" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; it was feasible. Without this guide it would've been a lot harder.

The beginning, What have I done.. what have I started?
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During....:
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Trunk full of Puma pieces:
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Steering wheel removed, If you need a guide I used 'red' 's guide http://www.projectpuma.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=66" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Dashboard completely removed, Puma was such a mess then. Screwdrivers, ratchets everything was all over the place. And this was just halfway :p
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So the dashboard itself was completely removed on Saturday. Immediately after that I called the guy who flocks and asked him if I could come by to drop off my dashboard. He was okay with this.
Called him on Tuesday to ask if the dashboard was finished, didn't really expected to be finished yet. But it was. So me and my mum ( :p ) picked it up. By Thursday evening the dashboard was back in. (except for 7 screws which I have no clue on where they should be, Yeah.. weight reduction ehhh. :p)

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Result! :)
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Got two projects on the shelf one of which is the boot release button which I have to look into. I believe Wild E. Coyote has a guide for this (sort of)

Second project is a new exhaust tailpipe..
Sadly damaged the current while reversing in complete darkness, and suddenly a big construction lamp went on and I was completely blinded and reversed onto a trailer (my uncles) was extremely lucky to only damage my exhaust and not the complete back bumper, my car was literally hanging on it's exhaust, Didn't make a picture of that, Did make a picture of the result of my stupidity;
awfbHhs.jpg


Got a replacement via eBay, got it custom made because Piper uses 10'' long tailpipe which are hard to get by.

Andd.. my headlights are fogging up and tips for preventing this? I've tried a reseal but that doesn't work. The rubberpipe on the back is attached to the headlight

Also still on the hunt for Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2's, color doesn't matter will probably respray them in bronze, Don't really want to go mainstream black :p. These rims are not that common here in The Netherlands. And if someones selling them they are for peugeots with strange ET's.
And still looking for decent ST-calipers/carriers for the front brake upgrade.
 
Ok, Time to blow the dust off this topic ;p

Have done some more work to my Puma. Been busy with the brake upgrade. I went with the ST150 upgrade. Knowing that it wouldn't fit behind the standard propellor alloys I opted for a new set of alloys. I went for the Borbet Type E's 15x7(As used in the German Puma Cup only in 16'') wrapped in the Uniroyal Rainsport 2's that were on my propellors. Got them from Germany, Condition of them was really poor because of the aluminium lip, The clearcoat that's on there started to corrode and went all messy. They were all like this:
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Eventually after a lot of grinding, sanding and polishing they turned out like this:
IMG_5838_zpsi897zcbq.jpg

Not 100% happy with it as the inner lip still has some black tar on it that is in the aluminium itself. The paint on the alloys have a lot of stonechips/scratches on them so will probably be resprayed in silver, which is a nice project for the summer ;).

ST150 setup is currently with standard discs/pads but I had a set of M1144 pads laying on my desk, Saving up for new discs. Will be going for National Sports 8-Grooves as a lot of people recommended these.

Also got my exhaust tip fixed, Didn't weld it myself cause I can't weld TIG :p - Result is better than I expected cause it's a bit hard to re-weld a pipe on these back boxes cause they are not ''straight''
IMG_3564_zps09lbpnik.jpg


Lastly I changed my airbox to the FRP airbox with a cold-air feed in the front. I reckon it looks really awesome.
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Plans for the future are:
* Bodywork, The paint is really showing it's age. The left arch I bogged and repainted previous summer is already rusting again.. So will get that sorted, Also need some welding done on the sills as there is a big dent in the sill created by the previous owner(s). Bonnet needs a respray, Needs a new front fender, front bumper. I think I'm better of with a full respray :pinkeye:
* Also going to protect the underside, Will be using FE-123 Rust converter, Some sort of Etch primer, Sikaflex Seam-Sealer, Dinitrol Stonechip and or paint/schutz. Will be ordering this as soon as possible as the weather is getting better by the day.
* Need to rebuild the seat frames as the driving position is a bit too much to the left (LHD) I'm sitting a bit too much to the door card.
* Find or let someone make a midpipe with sportscat and fit the 4-2-1 so that I have full exhaust system.
 
Last update: 11 April 2015 13:39..

That's a long time ago, As I said before, I bought all the stuff for the underside, That's been quite a project if I say so myself.. I also work on my car in my grandpa's barn. A few months ago we bought a 4 point lift and were able to place it there. This was really really helpful in the process of doing the underside. We've done two undersides of a Puma. Both mine and my mums (a Jewel green Puma) with both Puma's we've used the same steps. There might be a mix of photos of my silver one and her green one but they both came out pretty much the same.

photo_2015-07-26_21-56-37_zpsvpwshzsw.jpg


We start with inspecting the underside. Mine was in better shape then my mum's. After inspecting we noticed there were a few spots that are always rusty. Near the jacking point, At the left rear wheel next to the sill, And most of the seams near the exhaust tunnel. And obviously the rear beam.
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We started cracking with an angle grinder with a wire brush bit on, which went perfect. We sanded all the old protecting off and found nice shiny metal underneath, perfect! The places I just shown were just surfuce rust after all. But sometimes there might be a hole hiding behind all that gunk. I was lucky to find no hole at all, And all the old protection stuff has been removed to either the factory etch primer or bare metal.

This photo is taken after around 3-4 hours of work. Started to look pretty good already, but it might be already finished but the bit where the spare tyre sits is also quite a lot of work, Also had to do the inside wheel arches. These also tend to rot on the rear and near the brake line assembly. Mine does had some rust there but nothing to be worrying about. I haven't (or can't find) any more progress photo's of the grinding. Haven't made much photos of that eitherway as my hands were dirty all the time.
IMG_1595_zpsvp28vcg4.jpg


So the next step was to apply some product that fights against the rust. After looking and reading about rust-stoppers I came to a product called FE-123 from the lovely country of England ;) - I ordered all my stuff via Rust.co.uk and it was at my house in no-time. I bought stuff for two cars so you can divide everything in 2. Intotal we've both used this much:
Rustconverter: FE-123 250ML
Epoxy Primer: 500ML
Seam sealer: SIKAFLEX 521UV 450ML
Stone chip: Indasa Stonechip GREY 2L

We did do this on warm days so it might differ with what you need to use. Temperature really does help when doing these jobs, it makes everything flow better.

IMG_1568_zpsia7nn5kf.jpg


So after everything was back to factory primer we brushed the rust converter on everything. I've heard that you can thin down the FE-123 1:1 but I haven't done this as I want the full potential of this product. I really rate this product highly as it really converts the rust. I've used it on other things in the meantime and the working process of the product is really interesting. It starts of as a kind of white/cream color, After that it turns into a dark purple color, which says that the product is working. After the process is finished it turns into almost black, I believe it also can be used as a primer layer. To be sure we haven't done this. Will talk about that after the rust-converter pictures.

Purplely:
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Black, doing it's work!
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So after we brushed on the rust converter we let it dry for 24hr. Just to make sure the process is fully completed. Now the fun part starts. The primer. We used an Epoxy primer on 2K basis. Which needs to be mixed 4:1 (4 parts primer, 1 part hardener) and need to be thinned with thinner to your likings. Before we could spray the primer on we needed to tape everything up, to protect all the brake lines, handcable lines, fuel lines everything. We also had to tape up the exhaust as there was no way we could remove the rusty bolts without spending hours on it. It was not in our way anyways. After everything was prepped and ready we mixed the primer and started spraying it on the underside of the Puma. We used a spray gun for this, This was not ideal as we used a top-mounted spray gun instead of a bottom-mounted spray gun in combination with a small compressor with a maximum of 7-8 bars of pressure.
After a good 30 minutes of work the underside already started to look like new:
IMG_1590_zpsnao9tx8j.jpg

IMG_1591_zpsqnppz4k7.jpg

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The wheel arches also were primered, But I don't seem to have pictures of that. When everything was primed we let it dry for approx 24hr. The next day I seamed the seals of the car. In the beginning I did this with sealant gun but later discovered that I was better of putting the sealant on my hand and put it on evenly. After I seam sealed everything I let it dry for another 24hr.

The last step we did was the stonechip layer. Which was really fun to spray on. We used a the spray gun seen in one of the first pictures. You can mount this spray gun on the stonechip flasks (1L) and go mad (of course with compressed air attached :p) The result should look like this when you're done:
IMG_3900_zpszbejppnz.jpg


After this Puma and my mums we were sick of it so didn't take any further steps. It is possible to spray 2K based paint and clear on it to protect it ever more, However this is when you're going for show-class finish. We had no intentions to make it show-class worthy it was only to protect it for 5-10 years. Put the steps are made if we want to.

The underbody project wasn't the only project I have done during the long period of silence. As some of you might know, I was looking for new weatherstrips. I bought these new from CarParts Pros in Germany. Excellent service and turned out to be cheaper than FordpartsUK (Obviously because of the shipping costs and currency exchange)
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Perfect fitment and the most important, No more wind noises when my windows are closed.

As resprayed the alloys, I kept the shiny dish as it was too much effort to get it to this state. It would've been a waste if I sprayed it aswell. I went with a VW Metallic Antracite color. Result is really good if I say so myself. After the paint I used a 2K based clear coat which is more scratch resistant and reacts better to brake dust.

2 layers of paint.
photo_2015-07-26_21-57-10_zpseymgeuak.jpg


Finished with 3 layers of paint and 3 layers of clear coat (1 dry coat/guide coat, medium and wet coat)
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Something I have been looking for for a long time is a complete exhaust system. Back in January I already bought the 4-2-1 manifold from eBay. The guy that was selling it didn't know what brand it was, Turn out it was a Milltek EVO 1 (without the flexi) so the hunt began to find the rest of the milltek exhaust. About a month ago a for-sale thread popped up. The guy, Clemo, was breaking his Puma and had a Milltek centrepipe, decat, sports cat and backbox for sale. So I tried my luck and asked if he would post it to the Netherlands. He accepted my request and a week later the exhaust was delivered at my house. The package was so well packed! It literally took 15 minutes to unpack it. Everything was included, from exhaust rubbers to the springs/bolts which was a life saver! I couldn't be arsed to buy them from Pumabuild for a silly amount.
photo_2015-07-26_21-57-28_zpskmpnznqw.jpg


The old exhaust system was a pain to remove, especially the heatsheat on top of the original manifold! Every bolt was rounded, Eventually we cut the heatshield of, revealing some sharp edges which cut my earth wire in 2 :evil: - Luckly we had a spare :p. My brother lengthen up the lambdasensor wires and within a few hours the exhaust system was fitted. Compared to my Piper backbox the system is quiet on low revs, But boy o boy when you rev it and let the revs go down! It pops and bangs, just like an FRP!

Also gave it new oil, filters, spark plugs and a new rocker cover gasket. Engine is so mint now :D - Current mileage/km: 101000 miles/163000 km

For those of you who read until now thank you for reading! Next thing on the list is the re-do my seatframe, Already have a set of used Puma seat rails which will be used in the process. Plan on making loads of photos when doing.
 
I'm pleased it arrived safely, even at all, the parcel looked as though I'd wrapped a small child in bubble wrap and posted them!,
 
Interesting reading, when you fitted the manifold did you also remove the heat shields from around the cat area, and one last thing, did you have to remove the drive shaft to get it in place.

I'm currently doing the underside of my car, and loosing the will to live, I've removed the exhaust, drive shaft to get the cat out, fuel tank etc, got rust, no that's not right, I've got huge holes in the inner sills, that I hope can be repaired.

Anyway, good effort, and you've not gone mad, when I clearly have ha ha.
 
You don't have to remove the driveshafts to get the cat out. If you take off the exhaust manifold with the cat it comes out from above into the engine bay.
Barry
 
Ok, ill put it all back together, should I keep the cat heat shields, or remove them, not sure if they will get in the way of the 4:2:1manifold.
 
If the 4 branch has stud holes in the top you can use the top heat shields but the back one won't fit. I was going to heat wrap mine but never got around to doing it. To get the four branch on you need to go from underneath so you will need the car high in the air and also to take out one of the bolts on the gearbox stabiliser so you can move the bottom of the engine forward to get enough clearance.
Barry

PS Brian sorry for hijacking your post.
 
tuonokid said:
PS Brian sorry for hijacking your post.
Haha no problem, Everything you said is correct and useful to someone else! It sure was a bit of a pain to remove the old system that's for sure, Especially if the heatshield on top has rounded bolts :p
 
Thanks for the info, the original exhaust is rusted, so the plan eventually is to put a nice one back in, I had to grind the nuts of also on the top heat shields, ill leave the rest in for now. It's good to see other folks projects coming on, as you can get stuck with your own somtimes.
 
Been busy with the Puma. A thing that keeps bugging me was the broken headlamp adjuster in the RH headlamp. So I decided to tackle that problem and fix it with a new (used) leveler bought from Ian. I used the guide I found on ProjectPuma which was really helpful!

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Was really hard to remove the top clips as they were really stiff, I was also scared to break something :p
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