[gimmickyflea]

Hello all,

My daughter has it in her head that she will never want another car other than her beloved Puma and wants to carry out some major works including a complete respray in iridescent metallic orange , rust cure with replacement of corroded parts where required etc. interior refit in leather, new carpet and a new set of powder coated black alloys. In a nutshell, rip it to bits and rebuild it!


The car is low mileage and very good condition for it's age but there are a few rust spots starting to appear and a small oil leak was noticed at last MOT although they could not see from where and it does not use any oil. The rocker cover gasket was replaced by Ford only 18 months ago so guessing it's not from there. Next MOT booked for Saturday morning as it happens, so we'll see what that throws up.

She is saving at the moment but I want to ask if anyone can recommend someone who can do this amount of work, likely costs, how long it will take and how it affects insurance bearing in mind that Pumas are worth about £5 to an insurance company in the event of an accident. Does anyone know if it is possible to get a gap insurance to cover such a cash investment on an older car?

She is willing to get the car transported when the time comes to the right person or garage because she wants it all done to the highest standards so any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanx
GF

[eldoodarino]

wow, that could rack up a fair bill...potentially 5-10 grand by the sounds of it...

That's proper Puma commitment... />

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[eldoodarino]

What area are you in..?

I know a 1 or 2 good bodyshops around my way..

[gimmickyflea]

Hi Chris,

Well now I have picked her up off the floor and resuscitated her we live in Gloucestershire. Not sure her commitment is that strong but she is saying she'd still do it!! So you're a man who knows his stuff and I'm guessing the first step is a bare shell respray? What happens then and what problems are we likely to encounter?


Thanx
GF

[eldoodarino]

If your serious about doing a 'proper' Puma refurb... I think the way to go would be to use these guys to strip and re-coat the shell

https://www.facebook...cessing?fref=ts

weld up any bits that needed doing... bare in mind new sills are no longer available, so you'd have to make sure these are in good condition

you'd have to budget for a fair amount of parts and fixings too I imagine before you actually got to throw some money at the more obvious parts you can see like the wheels..lol

[eldoodarino]

You'd have to pick very carefully who takes it all to bits and rebuilds it

put back together in a rush and the whole lot will drive like a bag of shite and rattle like the clappers!

I could certainly help you out with the engine/gearbox side of things if you wanted to get an engine service done whilst it was out, but i'm not sure i'd be up for stripping the whole shell down...sounds very time consuming to do properly and would tie up my garage for ages

Chris

[happy-kat]

Depending on how young your daughter is then the insurance could be pretty crippling too.
How was the small oil leak diagnosed?
If you did not see where it was coming from or that it uses any oil why say it has a leak?

What about wrapping it instead? Might be cheaper and easier.

[gimmickyflea]

Hi both,
Thanx for the replies and it's also my concern that she will spend much cash and end up with a very pretty car that doesn't run as well as it does now. She's 23 and if the Puma was still made would buy a brand new one...as would many of us I think. Because she can't she is trying to make herself one which I can understand.

Thanks for the tip about the sills no longer being available. Perhaps another option after this MOT is for her to get it professionally tidied where it needs it. We do know of a guy who can match any metallic and flash panels in so it is not even noticeable, and just change her interior 2 leather. She already has decals down the sides and around the rump but they could be easily replaced.

Cheers for your help.

[gimmickyflea]

Ps. Oil leaking was spotted at last MOT. There were a few tiny spots on drive at that time but even those seemed to have disappeared. She's having it serviced also with any MOT repairs so maybe it was just a flook or they'll be able to see better if it's still seeping from somewhere.