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Because I'm back to school, and not able to get there by car because of parking costs, I have time to do some mods I wanted to do long time ago. Which is Powerflex bushes and coilovers. On advice of Noobrider I went for the TA Technix coilovers, they are not yet at my place so don't have photos of that yet. Also chose Powerflex bushes as they are great quality and I read mixed reviews on the cheap Flo-flexes. Powerflex bushes are also not yet at my place but should be here tomorrow.

So because I don't use the Puma as a daily now I can take it off the road for a few days/one week so that's what I did. Already went and removed the wishbones which were kind of hard to remove because one bolt that goes through the lower rear bush was really stuck! The bolt really have seen better days..

Here is a comparison which new bolts including the pinch bolts which were in bad state aswell.
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One of the wishbones' balljoint rubber was faulty so had to be replaced, Have bought the part but not yet fitted on the wishbone
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So after that I removed the other bushes that were in the wishbone which was a piece of cake really :p
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After that I decided to give it a new lick of paint
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Til now everything was not that hard to do.. Until I started on the rear beam bushes.. :roll:
Ream beam bushes really was a **** in the ass.. Literally took about 1,5-2,0 hours per side to remove the bush, Once removed gave a really satisificing feeling!
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So now it's waiting for the replacing parts which should arrive before the weekend! Keep you update :)
 
Got the Powerflex bushes yesterday.Had the afternoon off so had one of the wishbones fitted. Today I have done the rest but the rear bushes. Rear bushes are not fully in yet but was tired. Will finish it tomorrow, TA Technix coilovers haven't arrived yet so should be Tuesday/Wednesday before that arrives.

Pictures should follow once I made a few.. Kind of hard to make photos while your hands are covered in lot and lots of copper grease :p
 
All poly bushes are in, Rear beam ones were easy to fit. Bushes really make a difference and solved my problem I had when turning to the right(http://www.projectpuma.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=28547" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

Guess what it was.. One of the bolts that hold the wishbones' lower bush was a bit loose. Good thing I bought new bolts for it now it's nice and solid again! Really happy with it! Haven't made photos yet but will do next time! :thumbs:
 
Another parcel I was waiting for were coilovers. On advice of Nick (Noobrider) I went with TA Technix, found them cheap at a german store for €270 incl. shipping which is roughly 190GBP, bargain if I say so myself. Fitting them was really easy to do, Make sure you grease the threads really well, will make life easier when you want to adjust it ;)

At first the car was at it's lowest setting, however the TA Technix set does lower really well on the rear but not on the front, It also causes to scrape my exhaust on higher speedbumps. It's now about 2cm higher then the lowest setting but it's still settling in so will probably drop another cm.

Coilovers fitted and set to my desired ride height, about 35cm from the centercap at the front and 34cm at the rear.

What the set looks like, brand new and shiny :thumbs:
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How they sit atm:
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After that I decided to wrap the doorcards in faux suede to make it more classy inside :p - Result came out really well, Thanks to a guide here I knew that I could remove the plastic rivets, makes it really easy and a lot neater because you can hide the extra suede at back of the panel so that it sits nice and flat no rough edges.

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Interior is starting to look awesome! Few things need to be redone or added such as the seat frame needs adjusting to the inside of the cabin it's not properly centered and this has been like to for almost a year.. I'm used to it :p - I might change the steering wheel to something more black that will suit the rest, the floor mats need changing and I might get the rear seats retrimmed in the fabric of my sparco seats, not sure if this fabric is available though.

All comments welcome :thumbs:
 
Managed to do some more work on the Puma. I bought old frames of a Puma seat and removed the frame so that I can use that to rebuild my own custom frame.

So I removed the frame from the seat, faster that I used an angle grinder to remove the mounting points of the seatframe.
This is what it should look like:
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What needs doing now is to get them leveled, after that I can weld on the slider and mount it to my Sparco seat. Should be a tad lower aswell! Currently it's about the level of the FRP which is already a bit lower that the standard seat due to the seating position however a bit lower would be even greater!

Will most likely continue next weekend, I think it will be a lot of effort to get it right. But I want it to be perfect now!

To be continued!
 
Continued making the seat frame, It's not welded yet as it will need a bit more work but the shape is there. Even test-fitted it and it was better than expected cuz I only grinded back the 'guide' frames and made them flat. After that I decided to mount the frame to my seat and check for any height difference. So that needs sorting. However to make it flat I put a sidecutter underneath it and had a test-sit. Really, If I am able to weld it like this it is spot on, It's as low as it gets with a bottom-mounted seat, sits straight and centered how it supposed to be.

Only thing left to do is to weld up the first frame and start making the next frame for the drivers side. Tomorrow is welding-day for me. Can't wait :p

Did make a few photos but they turned out blurry because of the lightning, Will make some tomorrow might be handy for someone else.
 
Hi Brian
Well done with all the work, I hope you manage to lower the seats as I want to do the same.
Barry
 
Passenger side (driver side UK) is done and turned out great, better than I expected! Really happy with the result :lol:

Managed to drop the seat a whole 8cm and is now at the lowest setting it possibly can go. Went from 12cm headspace to 20cm headspace, Awesome difference. Only managed to finish the passenger side today as there was a lot of measurement needed to get it spot on. The seat has been in and out about 10 times today just to check if it's still correct :p

Did make some pictures, Not the greatest since they're phone pictures.. But I think you guys will get the idea ;)

Start with this one, The left seats' frame is rebuild to the 'more' lower frame which you clearly can see:
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As seen on this picture you can see how low the seatframe actually is. Literally on the ground tbh :p - Top of the seat is about square with the belt on the B-pillar
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Height difference seen from the base of the seat, Not a great photo but might be useful to someone.
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Next weekend will be the drivers side. Will make some detailed pictures of the frame itself aswell, Needs to get painted first looks quite the mess right now.. :-D
 
Love what you have done to your seat frame, I could do woth doing the same! Im 6ft 2" and struggling for headroom
 
Finally bit the bullet and brought the Puma to a welder to get rid of all the rust. Luckly it's only one arch and a few sill bits to sort out. Other arch is in mint condition even in the arch itself (interior)

Made some photos over the weekend of what I've done, as seen in the pictures you can see that I removed the sound deadening (most of it I forgot a few pieces).

I have done this because after it's welded it will get a full respray (in and out). Guess by who? Yep.. by me :p - Color is still a secret, althrough is quite flashy!

Now for the pictures:
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All bits removed. Drove around a few days without any interior at all only one front seat. Was so noise but so much fun :p
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Another reason it's getting welded is if I needs to go to MOT now it would probably fail on one vital bit.. Which is this crusty bit on the sill:
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Besides that bad bit the rest seems to be pretty solid, no holes in the floor at all! The welder said it shouldn't be too much work so hope to have the car back in 2-3 weeks. Then the hard work for me begins.. the prepping of the paint!

Also managed to test fit my brothers wheels for his XR3i. I think they looks really good, however can't convince him to sell them to me :(
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Will try and keep this thread up to date over the coming weeks/months!
 
Good luck with restoring it and getting rid of all the rust, will be worth it as this puma looks real clean. I wouldn't wait to fix it anymore either :) wheels look great btw
 
Wild E. Coyote said:
[post]348760[/post] Twist his arm a bit using the SW refurbishment service as a negotiation tool :wink:
Tried this but didn't work :( :(

TGPlayer1 said:
[post]348772[/post] Try and find out what model they are cause they're well cool.
Found out they are Compomotive CXN2's but aren't made anymore and are really rare I believe.

On other news, today I went to the welder. Sadly there was no one there but managed to peak through the windows and I assume there is already some work done. Will be calling him either Tuesday or Wednesday and ask if I can come around to see the progress. Will be making some pictures then ;)
 
Brian' said:
Found out they are Compomotive CXN2's but aren't made anymore and are really rare I believe.
Just read through the thread...nice work Brian :eek:k: Another vote for the wheels too :grin: Out of interest, how do you find those TA Tech' coilovers for ride, handling, lowering, etc?
Greg
 

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