My Puma
Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 4:38 pm
I was 9 years old and here dad arrives on the farm with a Sports car. This car the first Righ thand drive Puma in south Africa belonged to my uncle and was on loan to Dad until our Beetle could be delivered. For a young boy living in Naboomspruit this was like heaven. I did not mind that we had to drive extremely slowly over the 6km gravel road to the farm or that there was no space for passengers at all. Those few moments were pure bliss when I could take a drive with my dad. Turns out that my uncle was a partner in the first Puma Factory. Government regs only allowed Pumas to be sold as new cars if they contained all new parts. VW SA did not want to supply Bromer Motor Assemblies with any parts and legislation forbade the importation of Brazillian parts. Those early Pumas had to have serious local content.
The solution: They bought brand new beetles 10 at a time and stripped them! This was my Uncles operation at first. He then sold The bodies to panel beaters and even rebuilt quite a few. I suppose this was the only time an almost brand new car could be bought as a rebuild. The engines was stripped of the Carburetor, distributor and exhaust these were replaced with twin carbs and a mechanical distributor and a branch exhaust was fitted. The seats carpets wheels etc was left with the body . the only parts taken off from the bodyshell was the voltage regulator and fuel tank. The chassis was then sent down to New Germany in Natal where they were shortened and the Bodies fitted. Our family car was a beetle that was rebuilt in such a way and we drove it for almost 6 years before dad traded it in on a brand new Passat.
I rebuilt a Puma in 1991 and unfortunately sold it when my kids grew to big to fit in the luggage compartment By the time I sold it I only covered 3000 km with the car being babied. Ever since that time I regretted the sale. In 2000 I was offered a basket case. The price was right and I brought it home. The car was a mess it had 13 coats of paint of which two was spray filler. I decided that the only way to do this was to do it right. Since chemicals and sandblasting was out sanding the paint down was the only option Each afternoon after work I spent 2 hours sanding. This took about 5 months and eventually I had a bare body. The fiberglass was in very poor condition with cracks and previous repairs every where. I bought a second wreck as a body parts donor and cut quite a few bits from that. Any large cracks were ground open to the max and filled with new fiber and resin I went overboard and probably fixed more cracks than were strictly necessary I had the body upside down for about 6 months cleaning off under seal and fixing those hard to reach places.
Disaster I became increasingly allergic to the fiberglass and eventually could work only a few minutes and then a rash would appear. The search was on for someone to redo the whole gell coat. Allan Brown a legend in the old car world as well as the owner of a fiberglass company in Stilfontein was contacted and he agreed to complete the work. I left the car on Wednesday and he told me to contact him the following Monday. That Monday evening I phoned and Allan’s wife picked up. She told me that Allan died the previous Friday after a massive Heart Attack. She graciously allowed me to fetch my car before the business was closed by the curators as it would have been very difficult to get it back otherwise.
I met up with David Matsotso soon afterwards David is also a wizard with Glass fibre and the Puma was soon at his place. He layered the whole car with a layer of fiberglass tissue and then a complete new gell coat. This was applied by brush and looked Horrible but the cracks was now repaired and they haven’t appeared again . I was completely disgusted and switched my energy over to other cars. The puma was standing in my Garage and it accused me each time I walked past. Eventually I just packed every thing I could find on top of it and tried to forget. When Jack Wijker contacted me and told me that he was starting production again I dusted the puma off and started sanding. Now Gell coat is not the easiest stuff to sand and it took me a few months to get a semi smooth surface. I then filled imperfections and continued sanding. Eventually I started laying on Filler Primer (MS) I estimate that I used about 10 liters of the stuff with a sanding of the whole body between coats. When I was happy I asked a buddy who is a professional spray painter to come and judge my efforts. He said that I managed to get it about 90% but he was not happy with certain areas. With his help we got it to the stage where I was Happy to have it painted.
The solution: They bought brand new beetles 10 at a time and stripped them! This was my Uncles operation at first. He then sold The bodies to panel beaters and even rebuilt quite a few. I suppose this was the only time an almost brand new car could be bought as a rebuild. The engines was stripped of the Carburetor, distributor and exhaust these were replaced with twin carbs and a mechanical distributor and a branch exhaust was fitted. The seats carpets wheels etc was left with the body . the only parts taken off from the bodyshell was the voltage regulator and fuel tank. The chassis was then sent down to New Germany in Natal where they were shortened and the Bodies fitted. Our family car was a beetle that was rebuilt in such a way and we drove it for almost 6 years before dad traded it in on a brand new Passat.
I rebuilt a Puma in 1991 and unfortunately sold it when my kids grew to big to fit in the luggage compartment By the time I sold it I only covered 3000 km with the car being babied. Ever since that time I regretted the sale. In 2000 I was offered a basket case. The price was right and I brought it home. The car was a mess it had 13 coats of paint of which two was spray filler. I decided that the only way to do this was to do it right. Since chemicals and sandblasting was out sanding the paint down was the only option Each afternoon after work I spent 2 hours sanding. This took about 5 months and eventually I had a bare body. The fiberglass was in very poor condition with cracks and previous repairs every where. I bought a second wreck as a body parts donor and cut quite a few bits from that. Any large cracks were ground open to the max and filled with new fiber and resin I went overboard and probably fixed more cracks than were strictly necessary I had the body upside down for about 6 months cleaning off under seal and fixing those hard to reach places.
Disaster I became increasingly allergic to the fiberglass and eventually could work only a few minutes and then a rash would appear. The search was on for someone to redo the whole gell coat. Allan Brown a legend in the old car world as well as the owner of a fiberglass company in Stilfontein was contacted and he agreed to complete the work. I left the car on Wednesday and he told me to contact him the following Monday. That Monday evening I phoned and Allan’s wife picked up. She told me that Allan died the previous Friday after a massive Heart Attack. She graciously allowed me to fetch my car before the business was closed by the curators as it would have been very difficult to get it back otherwise.
I met up with David Matsotso soon afterwards David is also a wizard with Glass fibre and the Puma was soon at his place. He layered the whole car with a layer of fiberglass tissue and then a complete new gell coat. This was applied by brush and looked Horrible but the cracks was now repaired and they haven’t appeared again . I was completely disgusted and switched my energy over to other cars. The puma was standing in my Garage and it accused me each time I walked past. Eventually I just packed every thing I could find on top of it and tried to forget. When Jack Wijker contacted me and told me that he was starting production again I dusted the puma off and started sanding. Now Gell coat is not the easiest stuff to sand and it took me a few months to get a semi smooth surface. I then filled imperfections and continued sanding. Eventually I started laying on Filler Primer (MS) I estimate that I used about 10 liters of the stuff with a sanding of the whole body between coats. When I was happy I asked a buddy who is a professional spray painter to come and judge my efforts. He said that I managed to get it about 90% but he was not happy with certain areas. With his help we got it to the stage where I was Happy to have it painted.
), this car is also going to a stunner.
can you still get those centre caps made up coz im short of one ?