READER’S RESTORATION
Think a Racing Puma wouldn’t need a full restoration? Think again!
When James Suckling decided to buy a Ford Racing Puma (FRP) to use for his forthcoming wedding and to pass down to his children, the pressure was on. The hunt started in February 2015, and the wedding date was set for June 2016.
At the time, used prices for FRPs started at £4000 for a rust bucket and went up to £15,000 for a low-mileage car that needed work. Luckily, he received a message from a fellow FRP owner, who had spotted a car for sale in Wales.
“The lady selling it wanted above all else to make sure it went to a good home, so I was interviewed to be sure I was a suitable custodian,” he recalls. “The car was MoT’d and straight, but it had all the expensive bills which are FRP-specific just around the corner...”
So James knew he was heading for some major bills, such as brakes, bodywork, clutch and rust treatment, but he was keen on this particular emerging classic, which had only two previous owners and a low mileage. He has since discovered he bought FRP number 477. The donor car was built on April 14, 2000, delivered to Tickford for conversion on November 13, 2000, was registered on December 12, and completed on December 19 before being shipped out to a Ford Dealer in Cambridge as a demonstrator. It was one of the last to be registered and the third to last to be built.
Tooled up
With the car at home, the first job was to replace the timing belt on the Puma’s Zetec SE engine, but this requires special tools. James also knew the brakes weren’t going to be cheap to service or overhaul as they are unique to the FRP and the brake discs are no longer available. Luckily, he managed to find FRP specialist, Chris Allison, so the car was transported to him to have the engine removed before the timing belt and water pump were renewed and the brakes were overhauled.
The next job was to start stripping the car down to see the extent of the corrosion.
“The interior of the car was stripped out, as was every last nut and bolt from underneath,” he recalls. “During this process I made a complete hash of removing the fuel tank, breaking the fuel line in the process which meant I had to find and replace the whole front to back pipe. That was an awful job! The car was then put on some old steel wheels and a slave rear beam so it could be trailered away to be sandblasted back to bare metal.”
When it came back from the blasters it was sent to Jessop Motor Bodies near Wakefield. “Paul and Rob never got annoyed with my ridiculous attention to detail,” James comments on the helpfulness of Jessop Motor Bodies. “I even asked them to paint the inside of the panels before fitting, like they would have been originally, even though you’d never see them.”
“THE SELLER EVEN INTERVIEWED ME TO SEE IF I WAS A SUITABLE CUSTODIAN...”
Jessop’s first job was to cut out the rust, fit the repair panels and respray the revived bodyshell in Ford Imperial Blue.
“The worst part of the rot was in the rear quarter panel where it’s double-skinned,” James explains. “The FRP metal arches were bonded onto the original donor car arch, riveted at the sill and then painted. It’s a really bad rot-spot and to do it properly once you’ve peeled back the layers is not for the feint-hearted. It was quite amusing to find the original hammer marks in the panel underneath where the original quarter panel was massaged with a hammer, so the new arch could go over the top.”
At the time of the restoration, even standard Puma parts were becoming rare, but James managed to find essentials items such as sills, which had just gone into production through Ex-Pressed Steel Panels of Keighley in West Yorkshire, so he had them replaced where needed.
While the bodyshell was being repaired and then painted, James got stuck into cleaning, polishing and painting many other parts. He had the rear beam and bumper grilles powder coated and the original Focus rear brake callipers refurbished.
“I even went to the lengths of getting a roll of the original green coloured brake pipe from Ford to replicate the original rear brake lines,” he says. “Two guys from the FRP Facebook page, Aaron Bentley and Simon Crosby, were the two biggest saviours when it came to tracking down parts. Simon even managed to get Goodridge to remanufacture the original recall-style rear brake hose which had been unobtainable for years. It’s this kind of attention to detail that I love!”
Once the revived and painted bodyshell was returned home, James got stuck in to painting the underside in Audi Nardo Grey, which he admits is not an original colour, but it looks good. He sprayed all the inner arches in Ford