Rear arches - an interesting solution from ProjectPuma!

spjmorris

spjmorris

Well-known user
Apr 10, 2012
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2,271
'Fampton
Following on from discussions HERE and HERE, this will no doubt be of interest to some!

Anyone who has ever had anything to do with Ford's baby cat knows the rear arches are the weak point on these cars, in fact it's getting hard to find a Puma now that doesn't have rusty rear arches.

Having bought one ourself recently I've been spending a bit of time over at ProjectPuma, and have discovered that the guys over there have hit upon an ingenious solution.

Like our Cats repair panels are largely unavailable, and whilst our cats are nowhere near as bad, some of our rear arches are also starting to feel the effects of timworm...

So the answer some of the Puma guys have turned to is to cut a section from a Peugeot 206 front NS arch to repair a rear OS arch, and vice-versa, which I think is damned clever!

some pictures...

My rear wheel arch (Before).jpg My rear wheel arch (After).jpg

these are the two best threads on the subject (you might need to register)

http://www.projectpuma.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6960
http://www.projectpuma.com/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=10548&start=275

so this got me thinking, couldn't we do the same? I have been paying close attention to lots of wheelarches recently and wondering which would suit! there must be something that does!

Whaddya think?
 
Great idea Steve, we'll have to be eagle eyed and see if we can find any slab sided models similar to the coug that could possibly be used. The idea itself though seems to be a good one, but don't know how practical it would be?
 
I thinks its very clever and it would be great I'd we could find an equally cheap and readily available source such as they have.

I fear the shape and contours on the Cougar will be very tough to match though, but its another potential solution worth exploring.
 
90% of Puma's have some rust on the rear arches and several have used Peugeot 206 front wings to do so or just cut in new metal

Mine had two little bubbles on one wing when I got it and they are still there now and no worse at all - mind you I always kept it well maintained and washed and waxed weekly!Puma wing.jpg
 
I was just standing in my front room looking at the Cougar and had a brainwave!

What panels can you get hold of easily if you're a Cougar owner? Front wings.

If you look at a cougar side on, the front wheel arches and rear wheel arches have almost exactly the same profile, just on different angles. The little lip on the edge of the arch is even very similar and even on pretty much the same angle as the rears. Take a look and tell me i'm wrong?
 
sheet of steel welded in place and bent to the contour is just as easy in my opinion, or even build it out with fibreglass, remember rebuilding the hole front wheel arch on an Austin 1800 out of fibre glass with only the headlight surround and the opposite side for templates.
 
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