1999 Ford Puma 1.7

[3xpendable]

Yeah I'm very fussy whe n it comes to tyres and keeping them matched. The fronts are getting on so will change them soo, then maybe the rears after xmas.

[3xpendable]

Havent used or touched the Puma much recently, but on the weekend had some adventures.

I found one locally that the guy decided to break as he had a lot of timewasters looking at it so I got a load of bits off it. It was an S reg 1.4 and mine is the T reg so I thought everything would be compatible, wrong. I know the later cars (from about V reg on) had an intermitent wiper setting option so when you fit a later wiper indicator stalk to an earlier car, it will keep blowing the wiper fuse. My car wouldn't auto cancel after right turns so I thought I'd change it (not that it botheres me as I cancel my indicators manually) and gatting a spare from a car earlier than mine I thought I'd be safe, but no, so bang went the fuse and I had to refit the old stalk. I think I'll leave it on tbh now.

I got a new boot mat:

Old


New


I also got the spare wheel and tyre as I'm going to clean it and paint it up. I may powder coat it, if the surface is too rough to get a nice as new finish. I also plan to get the spare wheel tray powder coated too.

After the indicator stalk drama I did some more cleaning, the Ford badge was missing from the engine cover so I got a replacement cover and took the badge off it, I took the opportunity to clean and polish the cover too:



I friend then told me of APC (All Purpose Cleaner) that a lot of detailers swear by so I gave it a go on some of the brightwork in the engine bay. This bonnet stay grip was almost black when i started:



A weak spot on the Puma's are the door trims/clips, which fail and then become rattly. On the passenger side it is the clip thats failed so I;ve ordered new ones. They come in 2 parts and its the bit that clips to the door that usually breaks. On the drivers side its a bit more problematic, as you can see this is what the clip holder in the door SHOULD look like:



And this is what it actually looks like



This is the 'spare' doorcard I bought with exactly the same issue. So I will probably cut and graft some bits off this one to fit the other one, maybe re enforce it with a riveted plate or similar to stop it happening again.

So, after all that I decided to go for a short drive Sunday morning. Nothing fancy but I went to see the old Transporter Bridge in Newport
http://www.newport.gov.uk/heritage/inde ... terBridge/

But the pain point of my trip was to check out a 'Touchless & Spotless' drive through car wash. I'd heard about it online and its one of the few in the UK at present but they are popular in America. Intrigued I took the Puma up there, its between £8-£10 depending what was you have. I couldnt get out of the car but here are some pics of another car going through it (taken from detailingworld)






The car is then blown dry, here is the Puma afterwards:



My verdict? It's good as it obviously doesnt touch the car but also jet washed underneath. However for £9 I can get my car washed twice in my local jet wash with a wax finish (only the £10 option gives you this) and the car wasn't fully dry and spot free afterwards. There are arguments for and against, but one big plus for this is the underbody washing. I would probably use it if it were too cold to hand wash my car, or maybe once a fortnight in winter as it would be great for keeping salt at bay.

Plans for later in the year are repairing the arches, oil & filter change and some new tyres.

[JPB]

For £3 a hit, I take cars to the local manual car wash where highly skilled Polish lads use constantly wrung and rinsed microfibre clothes and steam cleaning machines to make a really good job of every inch of the car, including the spot-free dry and the cleaning of all of the door shut faces and sill steps. It's only an extra £4 on top to get it fully valeted - including clay - and for that, it would cost me more to do it myself as that £7 represents just under 6 minutes of my time at my current fees. It did admittedly take a wee while to find a trustworthy site to use, but the one that now does for me even manages to take all of the bugs off and the brake dust from the wheels but hey, maybe that gimmick in the images above will cheapen as they roll out to more UK sites?
Loving a good gadget as I do, I have a compulsive need to try to find one locally. I already searched within a 60 mile distance of the capital as that tends to be my local daily range but I may yet extend the search as far south as Newcastle and as far north as Dundee because you've shewn me a new toy that I have to try out!

For now, I'll keep on handing £3 to my trustworthy and conscientious Eastern European crew.

[3xpendable]

I pretty much share the same view as you JPB, but I thought it was worth a try out

[JPB]

Well worth a try, yes. It's a new gadget and as close as I'd ever get to having a hurl in the sonic showers from Star Trek, so I need to try one.

[rich.]

i am impressed, it went in as a saab & when it came out its a rather shiny ford!
nice

[arceye]

We don't even have an IMO car wash up here let alone a gang of willing Polish immigrants skilled in the art of spongework.

There is one Jetwash in town but its crap.

Hence my now once yearly habit of washing ( the car not me, we have mod cons such as baths up here) roughly around the time an MOT is due.......

Mind, they don't seem to be any muckier 12 months on compared to a day or two after washing

Damn Farmers and their machinery dirtying everything up

[3xpendable]

I still hadn't had the V5 for the car last week, 2 months after buying it. So I contacted the seller who assured me he had sent it off, so I contacted the DVLA. They basically told me they had no record of processing the V5 and I'd have to apply for a new one. It would be free if I had the new keepers supplement BUT I'd also have to tax the car. I said this was unfair as I have the new keeper supplement and a written reciept dated 6th August to prove I bought the car that has tax till January BEFORE the new regulations came in. Anyway while I was pondering what best to do, the new V5 dropped through the letterbox yesterday! The DVLA really don't impress me.

The great thing is though, is I found out the previous keeper had owned it from new! So I'm only the second owner, very cool

[3xpendable]

Got new tyres fitted last weekend, but didn't get an opportunity to take the car out until yesterday. Wow, what a difference! It's like a new car. I took it for a good 70 mile run on Sunday morning and loved it. Gave it a clean after too. Will try and enjoy it as much as I can before it comes off the road in December when the rear arches are getting sorted out.

The rear wings have been painted before, and I think a bad polsih job because swirl marks are noticeable on them. I bought a Clay Bar kit to try and which a lot of dirt came off, it seemed to mark the paint so I ended up T-cutting the area I had tried. Think I need to get my technique right with the clay first.

[3xpendable]

Not many things to update with this really. The weather has sucked so I haven't used it much apart from last weekend when I went on a trip to Aberdare and found a beautiful mountain road! The arches haven't been done as they aren't that bad and there was no space in the garage at home to do them plus it's way too cold to be doing painting if you want a decent finish.

I'm taking it up to Black Mountain Pass on Saturday, should be fun! Other than that it's just cleaning and tinkering is all I've done. I still want to get it over the pit to have a good look underneath too. However our partnership might be short lived for I may be getting a Cooper S in a few months and if I do, this baby will be up for sale.