Roffle Puma: holey shite!

[Rocket88]

On 3/27/2022 at 7:24 PM, Sunny Jim said:

Not a fan of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue then @New POD?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTMKj2eHB28

The finest radio show of eva…….

[Sunny Jim]

Servo fitted today so silent braking restored. Tester's opinion is that rust in rear is too close to the axel mounting point so it'll need doing before MOT - at least I've got some time to get it sorted before the car's out of test in November. As it'll be out of sight I might have a go at doing it myself - about time I learnt to weld. Sills and arches can wait until after MOT and I probably will pay to get them sorted neatly and properly.

I was also missing a centre cap and thought £8.50 was a reasonable price for a set. Unfortunately I didn't read the listing properly and have paid £8.50 for just the one - bugger! Still looks neat and now I'm ready for the trip to FoTU tomorrow.

[Sunny Jim]

Another three months on and now I have the 106 for daily duties I finally got round to looking at the rust on the Puma today.

Bumper came off easily enough to reveal crispiness.( @Dan29your man was right the back end's pretty flakey).

It's worse underneath

particularly this box section which holds the captive nut for the towing eye.

I pulled the arch liners out and fortunately both sides are ok but the same can't be said for the rear of the o/s sill.

Tomorrow it's time to get busy with the grinder, clean it all up and make some templates. I'm very lucky that my neighbour is an engineering tutor at a local FE college and has offered to give me a hand. He'll make the repair sections at work next week and fingers crossed for good weather next weekend so we can get the welding done.

 

 

[loserone]

Bloody hell!

[Sunny Jim]

It's only a year older than the 106! I was pretty daunted by it but neighbour is of Welsh farming stock, he just shrugged and said he's done worse (tbf he's worked on a lot of local farmers' 4 x 4 and trailers so this is probably a walk in the park to him).

[hairnet]

jims welsh bit not that far from the water

still eek tho

but 90s ford so no shock

 

[Turbowomble]

Blimey, that’s bananas - I knew the body panels on these 90s/early 00s Fowds have a habit of disintegrating, but nowt like compared to that underside. Is it just crap steel, poor design allowing mud/moisture to get trapped or a combination of both?

[grogee]

1 hour ago, Turbowomble said:

Blimey, that’s bananas - I knew the body panels on these 90s/early 00s Fowds have a habit of disintegrating, but nowt like compared to that underside. Is it just crap steel, poor design allowing mud/moisture to get trapped or a combination of both?

I think mainly not enough paint/Underseal at the factory. 

Some of it is poor design - dirt trap behind front wheels on lower wing, and the fabric arch liners hold water. 

Also sills get peppered by stuff thrown up from front wheels, then blisters grow into big rust. (Probably not exclusive to Puma).

But I have a feeling that some/all of the underside paint and protection was applied by hand rather than robot, so depended on how Klaus in Cologne was feeling that day. (I don't mean with a brush, but with a spray gun).

Ultimately though it was spun off mk4 fiesta, a cheap supermini not designed to last 20+ years. 

[Sunny Jim]

19 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

I pulled the arch liners out and fortunately both sides are ok but the same can't be said for the rear of the o/s sill.

Yeah, about that o/s sill...

The back end of turned out to consist of rust and 3mm of filler. It appears that repair sections were layered over the old rot and rather than welded were held in place by bondo. Trouble is the rot is getting perilously close to the mounting point for the rear beam.

I was ready to cry by this point but my neighbour Llifon remains sanguine. "It's a bit more than I first thought," he opined, "but no bother, I'll just copy the other side." Once again I'm counting my blessings that a generous person is willing to help me.

We've decided to chop out the lower 40mm of the valance below the boot opening. Llifon will make a repair section and spot weld it in place. We've also made a template and worked out how we'll go about sorting the towing eye mount.

I've wire brushed everywhere underneath and got some rust converter on. I had hoped to get some primer on today but it's really windy here.

[grogee]

Check the tank by NSR wheel, it's a bit exposed. Mine went by the seam area halfway up the tank. Tried to seal it with magic tank epoxy but failed and bought a new pattern tank. 

You have found a superhuman welder. Nurture him, feed him and eventually you must propose to him, lest he leave you for another Shiter.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Everybody needs good neighbours but I'm fortunate to actually have them. People round here go out of their way to help each other out. Llifon has two boisterous young sons and on more than a few occasions has called upon my services as a First Aider to patch them up after a mishap - you patch my boys up, I'll patch your car up as he put it.

Having talked about it further I'm going to go down the route of a Peugeot 206 wing (it is a 206 that fits right?) for the outer skin. @grogee do you know a source of any pictures that show what the structure (especially adjacent to the rear beam mounting point) is like please?

[grogee]

35 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

Everybody needs good neighbours but I'm fortunate to actually have them. People round here go out of their way to help each other out. Llifon has two boisterous young sons and on more than a few occasions has called upon my services as a First Aider to patch them up after a mishap - you patch my boys up, I'll patch your car up as he put it.

Having talked about it further I'm going to go down the route of a Peugeot 206 wing (it is a 206 that fits right?) for the outer skin. @grogee do you know a source of any pictures that show what the structure (especially adjacent to the rear beam mounting point) is like please?

Yeah, 206 wing. I believe it's corner opposite, so NSF Pug wing fits OSR Puma rear and vice versa. It's actually only the fairly 'flat' piece of the arch that suits. Some pics on my Spannering thread of arch welding before paint. 

Have a look at projectpuma, there should be some weldathon pics there. I will wade through my archive to see what I've got. 

[Sunny Jim]

Thanks, I'll look through your thread and try Project Puma.

[grogee]

 

Let me know if you can't see these:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WUoE5Cb3cMA5gdUF6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2JDD95sGCn2qtUF66

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8HsqYwbndMpMi4fb6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9tUNKdMSYA9q1GAd9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Deypx6JTsVpxqfy39

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1vg6qV3FgwapUjtaA

[Sunny Jim]

Thanks @grogeeI can view those fine.

[Dan29]

Oh no! From the MoT tester's comments, I didn't get the impression that it was too rusty - he said it needed wire brushing and painting/underseal!

Re the 206 wings, it's the opposite corner as @grogee says, and apparently 206 GTI wings are different and not suitable. Here are a few threads about it: 1 - 2 - 3 

Pob lwc to you and Llifon. 

[beko1987]

I remember Project Puma! Probably still got a login for it somewhere! We used to do wonderful club drives. I'd be driving my filthy rusty sheddy 1.7 amongst garage Queen FRP's and fully restored ones 😂

 

[Sunny Jim]

After yesterday's monsoon conditions here in North Wales today dawned bright and sunny so it was time to put my big boy pants on and start cutting holes in the Puma.

As feared the rot had got through the outer skin and into the box section underneath so all that had to be cut away too.

Llifon could then start welding metal back in.

Then a new box section in front.

Ready to be skinned once I've got some primer and cavity wax in there.

A more robust poke of the near side has revealed it to be in a similar state so that'll be getting the same treatment while we're at it.

We're falling into a good rhythm of work with me cutting and grinding and Llifon making templates and welding. Don't think we'll be able to get it all done by the time the MOT is due on 4th November but I am feeling confident we'll get it done eventually.

[grogee]

Hats off to you and The Steel Whisperer. Cutting bits out and making them the right shape isn't trivial and takes a bit of skill.

Did you find anything in the sills? Inside mine (or possibly in wheel arches) there was a shitty plastic bag full of foam, believe it or not it was an OEM NVH measure ('palliative' as they say in the industry). Given that mine has polyflex rear bushes, it makes a racket anyway so these were soon jettisoned. 

[Sunny Jim]

Yes, I found the 'palliative' in the bottom of the wheel arch when I removed the interior panel! We had some panel sealer catch fire at one point but Llifon calmly hooked it out with a screwdriver, chucked it out from under the car and said, "Stamp on that." I haven't proposed marriage yet but I'm really enjoying spending time with him and getting to know him better but most of all learning lots of useful new stuff.

[grogee]

1 hour ago, Sunny Jim said:

Yes, I found the 'palliative' in the bottom of the wheel arch when I removed the interior panel! We had some panel sealer catch fire at one point but Llifon calmly hooked it out with a screwdriver, chucked it out from under the car and said, "Stamp on that." I haven't proposed marriage yet but I'm really enjoying spending time with him and getting to know him better but most of all learning lots of useful new stuff.

I'm imagining his calm Welsh lilt now. He sounds like a super bloke, I'm well jell. Could I borrow him to do the Maestro please? He'd like the Midlands, we've got electricity and internet and things. If he gets homesick my BiL is a sheep farmer. 

[brownnova]

He doesn’t fancy welding a Pontiac does he? 😂