LESS BUCK FOR MY BANG
James’ Fords aren’t known for being lucky, but a simple fix could make the Puma’s latest prang less expensive
2000 FORD PUMA
It’s well known that both the Mondeo and Puma have met the bumpers of other cars, recently, though neither incident was my fault. I am, however, doing my best to find a less dented Mondeo rear door. The Puma, on the other hand, recently received a dent and scrape while parked, the culprit leaving no trace of an apology or contact details – just a nice concave mark on the Puma’s nearside rear wheel arch with some lovely black paint to go with it.
It looked worse than expected at first glance. I couldn’t do much about the dent, but the paint and scrape looked fixable. Close inspection revealed that the Puma’s Moondust-Silver paint was actually still intact – it was mainly the other car’s that had illegally emigrated onto the rear wheel arch.
I decided to give the car and good clean, using a pressure washer. It did nothing to remove the paint but left the car looking very sparkly in the winter sunshine. I’d bought some Waterless Wash and Wax a short time ago and thought I’d give it a try by applying it to a leather chamois. Many applications later, the rogue paint began to disappear and I finally reached a point where I couldn’t remove any more. I was left with a few faint marks that should either polish or T-Cut out. A trip to Halfords might help there – I’ll pick up a can of ‘Moondust Silver’ spray paint just in case, too.
Some people say ‘it never rains, but it pours’, well in my case with the Puma this is very true. No sooner had I received a nice dent to the bodywork, the exhaust started making some
Max Power- esque noises, and I’ve a sneaking suspicion that that the clutch is slipping. It also needs a new nearside door mirror and the increasingly loose parcel shelf needs sorting!
For the time being, though, I can do a few odd jobs myself, but I’m determined that X147 OBV will look as good as new one of these days. I’d best get cracking then...