[Sighborg]

Hello there,

- Just picked up a silver Thunder, always thought these were stylish looking motors.. the GF thinks it's a midlife crisis (which tempted me to go for a red one).

- Couple of questions (these might belong in other sections).

- Bathing : This one seems to be in pretty good shape, coupla bubbles here and there, how do you all wash your puma's (how does one best wash a motor with rust/bubbling etc, do you just steer clear of automated car washers/jet washes).

- Headlamps/windows to the machine soul: Both the driver's front and rear have condensation (there's a coupla bugs in the front one), is this commonplace, would you advise replacement or is it straighforward to dry and seal them.

Ta/ fingers crossed for a mild winter.

[happy-kat]

Welcome
I never use automated car washes or pressured wash units, if a wash is needed it is done by hand but not with a sponge evil grit holders
Check the drain hoses are fitted on the two front lamps.
The rears is steamed up might have hairline cracks in them, take a close look to see what is going on.
The front units do benefit from a good hard polish by hand with a mild cutting compound such as safe cut or similar.

[Sighborg]

Thanks for the tips, will have a fiddle with those front lamp drains first off.
- Having taken a first spin round town, was pleased with the sense of nimbleness/agility the car provides.

MerryXmas/ Safe Winter Driving PumaPeeps

[StevenRaith]

On the washing front, there are three Christ auto washers around here. One of them ripped off my wing mirror (they don't fold in - other than to prevent injury etc) so I just jetwash it now at the local pound-coin-jetwash emporium.

Give the car a good - proper - hand wash. Clay the paint. Machine polish it (even if it's just a basic Halfords polisher). Seal it. Wax it.

Then the next three months of cleaning will involve £2 of jetwash time.

Repeat wax, repeat three months of jetwashing. Maybe give it a proper strip back once or twice a year to reclay it....

My car is due another stripback and machine polish, but then it's also due at the bodyshop to get it's rust cut out (my man already has the arch pieces waiting) so I'll likely get him to do it for me this time />

[Sighborg]

- Ta for the knowledge.

- I must confess I had to do a quick 'Claying' search (modelling clays am familiar with, the Halfords type not so much), the concept seems sound!

- And just to reiterate info elsewhere on the site for prospective buyers- check the Heater (mine's generally stuck on hot, as the car seems to mist up quickly, it's a slight annoyance on an otherwise sweet drive {will be picking up a HCV this week and see what happens}).

[happy-kat]

There is a guide in the wiki on changing the HCV