| Puma How To |
What to look for when buying a Puma
Since the Puma is not as well known as many other cars out on the road, it can be a very confusing ordeal when you are considering buying one for yourself. That being said, there should be a few things that you should watch out for when looking over a prospective purchase. I will list a few of the big ticket items, but please keep in mind that you should look over the entire car before buying...You never know what you will find!
Rust: Rust on the underside of the car can be problematic since these cars are typically 15 to 35 years old, if not older. Most cars will probably need the pans replaced since this is the thinnest of all metal on the car. If you know what you are doing with metal cutting and welding, then you can take a pair of Karmann Ghia pans and cut/weld them to the proper length. If you are unsure about this task, then consider the amount of money it is going to require you to have these replaced (if they need it).
Fiber Glass: Most Pumas will have some sort of
spider web cracking in the body if they have not been restored recently. This is nearly unavoidable since
the fiber glass and paint are affected by the elements day in and day out. Unless you are prepared to rework
these areas and repaint the car, then you may want to look for one that has already been restored.
If you are up to the task of correcting these issues, then here is what I have done in the past...
For major structural damage, you may want to consult a professional body man to determine the amount of work that will be required to fix the issue(s)
Parts: This can be a tricky area since a lot of parts are hard/impossible to replace. Obviously, you want to make sure that you can replace any of the parts that are missing/damaged, so make a list of what the car needs and then contact the guys over at Purring Pumas (also on the 'Links' page) Here are some of the things that you should really take note of when making your list...
Now there are some things that are pretty easy to find through your local/online VW parts supplier...
Some parts will not be able to be replaced without some creative skill or professional help. These include...
How to correct a sloppy shifter
A sloppy shifter is usually the cause of an old, worn or missing bushings in the linkage between the shifter and the transaxle. Most of the time, if you replace two bushings (shift coupler and linkage bushing), your entire system will feel tight and new.
Shift rod bushing replacement: The shift rod bushing is located within the tunnel just to the rear of the shifter. Remove the shifter and you will see the shift rod that goes back to the transaxle. You will also need to remove the shift coupler (see below) so that the shift rod is completely free of everything. Once everything is unhooked from the shift rod, then work it forward towards the front of the car. Essentially, you are trying to get the shift rod out of the piece that holds the shift rod bushing. If there is a bushing there, remove it. Mine had deteriorated a long time ago, so it clearly needed a new one.
The new bushing should have a round retaining clip
that came with it. If not, then get one before you proceed. Place this retaining clip on the bushing before
you put it in place. It should look like this:
The bushing is going to be installed in the tunnel with the retaining clip facing towards the front of the car. Once installed, put some grease on the inside of the bushing so that the shift rod will slide through easily. Now comes the tricky part...getting the shift rod back into place. I used a mechanic's magnet to grab the rod and get it into postion. Push the rod through the new bushing (this may take some muscle and/or ingenuity, so be sure that the bushing is really well greased). There are probably many different ways to do this task, but I will tell you how I did it. I used a flat head screwdriver and a few light taps with a hammer to get the rod started in the bushing. Once it was started, then I went to the front of the chassis and opened the small access plate located at the front of the frame head. Using a piece of rebar, I was able to put the shift rod towards the back of the tunnel. Voila! One item to note here...the body was not on the pan when I did this procedure, so you may have to be "creative" when doing this with the body on. Send me an e-mail if you get stuck.
Reverse the previous step to re-install the shifter and you are done. One thing to note...you will probably need to realign your shifter so that it goes into all of the gears properly. You do this by screwing down the shifter, but leave enough play in the base plate so that it can move freely. Hold the shifter in 3rd gear and then thoroughly tighten the bolts with your free hand. Check to see if you are able to find all of your gears with the engine off. Once you are certain that it feels right, then start up the car and CAREFULLY try it with the motor running.
Shift coupler replacement: The shift coupler is located at the front of the transmission where the tunnel inside your car ends. Essentially, follow the tunnel on the inside of your car to where it meets the firewall (in the back!). There is most likely a small piece of carpet that is covering where the shifter coupling resides. My car had a plastic piece under the carpet to serve as a cap for the hole. Pull back this carpet and remove any cover that may be there to show the shifter coupling. There is a bolt that goes through the coupler to hold it to the shift rod, and a retaining bolt that holds it to the transmission nose cone. Remove this hardware and remove the old coupler.
Use urethane bushings if you have the option, since last longer and perform better in the long run. The new bushings may have to be pressed in using a bench vise, but try to do this carefully. You don't want to damage the new part you are about to put in. When putting in the new coupler, make sure that you put the correct side up. The coupler has a retaining bolt that it used to secure to the transaxle nose cone, and the hole for this bolt needs to be pointing up. If it is put on the other way, you will not be able to properly secure the coupler to the transaxe. Attach the coupler to the shift rod first and make sure that everthing is tight. You don't want any loose hardware on your shift linkage! Once you have done that, then hook the coupler and linkage to the nose cone of the transaxle. Tighten the retaining bolt and re-check all of your hardware. If the retaining bolt that secures the coupler to the transaxle has a hole in it, then use a piece of wire to run through it and around the nose cone keep it from backing out.
Installed coupler
How to remove the sound-deadening material from the pans
From the factory, the Puma came with a sound- deadening material on the pan to quiet road noise and make the driving experience more enjoyable. This is great until you need to remove it for pan repair or complete restoration. The most effective way to do this is to use an air chisel with a flat blade insert. Be sure and set the air chisel setting on medium-low so that you don't damage the pan. Use it at about a 45 degree angle and the sound-deadening material will come off in a fraction of the time compared to doing it by hand.
Air Chisel Picture
Air Chisel Blade Insert Picture
How to remove the body from the pan
If you are going to do a full bottom-up restoration, or just replacing the pans on your Puma, then you will have to separate the fiber glass body from the structural component of the car. While this may seem like a huge task to undertake, it is really not terribly difficult to do with a bit of time, patience and the right tools.
Knowing what is involved: You are going to have to address the following items in order to separate the two components:
Disconnecting all electrical connections that tie the body to the chassis:
There are several electrical connections that you will need to disconnect before removing the body from the pan. The easy part is
removing them, but it can be a real challenge to put them back in the right place if you don't label them clearly while you are taking
them off. Using some type of masking tape, mark each connection on both the wire and where it plugs into, so that it is a matter of
matching the numbers/descriptions/symbols.
The engine electrical is pretty obvious, but don't forget to disconnect
the following items:
Removing the gas tank: This is actually one of the easier tasks that you will have to do since the entire tank is held in by 4 bolts. Once you remove those 4 bolts (located on the top side under the bonnet), you will need to remove the wiring on top of the tank and make sure to have an appropriate gas container for the next few steps. This will be used to hold any of the gas that is currently in the tank while you take it out of the body.
The next step will require you to jack up the car and remove the front passenger wheel so that you can access the gas line at the framehead. Under no circumstances should the entire weight of the car ever be supported by the fiber glass body! Only jack up/support by the chassis! With the gas container ready to go, loosen the hardware that holds the gas line to the tube coming out of the frame head. DO NOT disconnect the gas line from the tank or you will have a mess that will most likely soak you, your car and your garage in gasoline. Once the retaining hardware has been loosened enough for the gas line to come off of the hard tube, then quickly pull it off and cap it with your finger so that the gas doesn't shoot out all over the place. Using your free hand, bring the gas container within reach of the tube and let the gas flow into it.
With the gas line thoroughly draped into the gas container, tip the tank (the car tank, not the container catching the fuel from the line) so that it is level. This will allow the last little bit of gasoline to flow out of the tank and into the gas container. Once all of the gasoline has been removed from the tank, simply lift it out of the body and carefully place it out of harm's way.
Disconnecting the steering: With the gas tank out, you should be able to see the steering linkage. You will notice that there is a rubber or urethane bushing that ties the steering column to the steering box. Remove the 4 bolts that hold in the bushing and your steering will then be disconnected. Be sure and order a new bushing and hardware if yours are old and worn!
Taking out the seats: There are some bolt heads that need to be access from the inside of the car in order to remove the body. They all reside behind the seats, so the next step is to pull the seats out of the car completely. Each seat has 6 bolts holding the brackets that allow the seat to mount to the pan. If you have aftermarket seats, this bolt count may vary. Typically, there is going to be a nut head on inside of the car and the corresponding bolt can be found on the underside of the car. Remove these bolts and the seat should just lift right out. Repeat for the other side and you are done. Be sure and bag and label all hardware so that you can keep it all straight!
Pulling out some interior carpet: Now that the seats are out, you will need to pull out some of the carpet from the inside so that you can remove the body mounting hardware. Now please note that this process will most likely trash your carpet, so be prepared to have it redone. If you look at the back of the pan (towards the rear of the car), you will notice that there is a ridge that goes from the drivers side floor up over the center tunnel and back down to the passenger side floor. It is only about 1 inch wide, but this is where some of the bolts are hidden...under the carpet. I believe that there are 6 bolts total, but take a second look just to be safe.
Next, you will notice that there are two humps in the cargo shelf behind where the seats were. These humps are the wheel wells. If you look underneath the car in the rear wheel wells, you will notice that there are two shock towers...one for each wheel. These shock towers have a single bolt that goes through the body (on this inside under the carpet) and screws into the tower. You will need to feel around the carpet to find these lumps where the bolt head is. Once you have found them you will need to cut out the carpet and remove these bolts. Now you are done with all of the interior bolts!
Removing some engine components: Whether or not you are going to remove the engine, you will still need to remove some engine components so that the body has enough room to come off of the chassis. After unhooking the throttle cable from the carb linkage now you are ready for the next step. Remove the two carbs, intake manifolds & linkage...this should free up a considerable amount of room on both sides of your motor. If your car has the plastic heater tubes that route air from the heater boxes to the car body, be sure and pull those off.
Next, remove your exhaust system so that you don't have to worry about it being in the way. Finally, remove the engine tin that goes under the lower pulley (This is often referred to as the Rear Cover Plate). If you plan on leaving the motor attached to the transaxle, then you are pretty much done here.
Removing the engine (optional): When I removed my engine, I did it by myself, but I would suggest using a friend to help out with this process. Make sure that you have a floor jack & a small piece (2 feet x 2 feet) of plywood at your disposal. Unlike most cars, the Puma's engine is dropped out from underneath rather than lifted out from the top. In order for you to do this, you will need to jack up and hold the car with some pretty tall jack stands. The body is going to need to be high enough for you to slide the engine out from underneath.
Since you already have all of the wiring and carb components off of the engine, it is merely a matter of undoing 4 bolts for the engine to come out. The first thing that you will want to do is to remove the rear tires so that you can access the bolts that are holding the engine onto the transaxle (I am assuming you already have the car up on jackstands). Once you have removed the rear tires, place the plywood on the floor jack and give a little support to the engine. Do not put too much force on the engine...you are not trying to lift the car, but rather support the weight of the engine only! So what is the plywood for? It has two purposes...first is to protect the underside of your engine from being scratched up by the floor jack. Secondly, it will allow you to slide the engine off of the floor jack once it is out of the car.
So now you have the engine supported with the floor jack, the car supported with the jackstands and a small voice inside your head saying "What the hell am I about to do?!" Don't worry...you will be fine. Start by unscrewing the bottom two nuts (always start at the bottom!) Here are a couple of photos so you know where to find these 4 bolts
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Once you have removed these 4 bolts, carefully work the engine towards the rear of the car so that it can come off of the tranaxle shaft. You may have to adjust the height a bit to help the engine come off of the shaft, but this should not be a terribly diffcult process. If you are getting resistance (more so than just the weight of the engine), then something is in a bind or still attached to the motor. Perhaps too high or too low with the floor jack? Any wires/cables still attached? You will need to bring the engine all the way to the rear of the engine opening in order to clear the shaft and drop it all the way out. Be patient and have your friend(s) help you with this.
After you have the engine out of the car and lowered as far as the floor jack will allow, carefully tip the engine and plywood off the floor jack and slide the floor jack out from under it all. This should leave your engine and plywood sitting on the ground after a bit of man handling by you and your new best buddies. Now, to get it out from under the body I found instead of trying to jack the car up high enough to allow the fan shroud to clear the rear valance, I merely pulled my engine out of the side through the rear wheel well opening. Now you can lower the jack stands down a bit so that the bdy is not sitting so high, but do this carefully.
Disconnecting the brake reservoir from the master cylinder: The brake reservoir is found under the bonnet just behind where the gas tank used to be. It is attached to th master cylinder via two tubes that carry the brake fluid down to the braking system. Clearly these two cannot remained joined if you are going to be removing the body from the chassis. Be sure that you have an oil pan or bucket ready to catch the brake fluid since you don't want this stuff to run all over your garage floor. One important note here...brake fluid removes paint so DO NOT get this stuff on your car body. If you do, wipe it off fast and thoroughly!
I found the best way to do this is to pull the driver's side front wheel off of the car so that I can full access to the brake reservoir tubes that go to the master cylinder. So, at this point you will probably have no wheels on the car at all! Put your oil pan/bucket in the wheel well so that it is as close as possible to the master cylinder. Use a pair of cutting tools that use a utility blade (Craftsman Handi-cut) or a really good pair of scissors. You don't want to be knawing through a brake fluid line because it will be a mess if you do.
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Quickly cut one tube at a time and direct the flow of brake fluid towards the oil pan/bucket. Repeat for the other line and allow these lines to drain thoroghly.
Removing the bolts that hold the body to the chassis: First put all of your wheels back on the car. Now use your creeper to slide under the car and first verify that the jack stands are holding the weight of the car by the pan and not the body. Under no circumstances should the entire weight of the car ever be supported by the fiber glass body! Once this is verified, remove all of the bolts that are around the perimeter, include the 4 larger bolts that are found up by the frame head (at the front of the car).
So now the body is merely sitting on the chassis with nothing but gravity holding it on. In order to drop the chassis down and support the body, you will need another two pair of jack stands. Be sure that these jackstands are tall enough to allow you plenty of room between the body and the chassis once the chassis has been lowered onto the ground. This will become important once it is time to build a lifting frame to move the body. With the chassis supported by one set of jack stands, place the other jackstands under the body (on both sides of course) of the car as shown below. You will only be able to get them in position and ready to hold weight at this point. Nothing should be actually sitting on them since the chassis and body are supported by the first set of jack stands.
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Now use your floor jack to lift the front of the chassis (in the center, using the frame head as a lifting point) enough for you to lower your front chassis jack stands by one or two notches (both driver and passenger side). DO NOT lower the body jack stands! Carefully and slowly lower the floor jack until the front body jackstands start to take on the weight of the body. Have your buddies reposition the jack stands as required. Once you are comfortable with the position of your body jack stands, continue to lower the floor jack and the front portion of the body and pan should separate from each other. At this point, the front of the body is supported by the body jack stands and the front of the chassis is supported by either the floor jack and/or the front chassis jack stands. The rear body and chassis is completely supported by the rear chassis jack stands.
Now use your floor jack to lift the back of the chassis (in the center of the frame, using the middle of the framehorns as a lifting point) enough for you to lower your rear chassis jack stands by one or two notches (both driver and passenger side. DO NOT lower the body jack stands! Carefully and slowly lower the floor jack until the rear body jackstands start to take on the weight of the body. Have your buddies reposition the jack stands as required. Once you are comfortable with the position of your body jack stands, continue to lower the floor jack and the rear of the body and pan should separate from each other. At this point, the rear of the body is supported by the body jack stands and the rear of the chassis is supported by either the floor jack and/or the rear chassis jack stands.
Now that you have the body and pan completely separated from each other, you can go ahead and lower the chassis off of the jack stands and let it sit on the floor. Since the body jack stands will be in the way of the tires, you cannot simply roll the chassis out from under the body.
Building a frame to lift/hold the body while it is off the chassis: There are a few of different ways to lift the body off of the frame, so I will explain a couple of them. First, the easiest. Simply buy two 10 foot 4x4's and some heavy duty saw horses and then find about 5-6 strong guys to help you out. Have two of the guys ready to position the sawhorses. Have the other 4 or so guys use the 4x4's to go under the body (one 4x4 right behind the front wheel wells and one 4x4 right in in front of the rear wheel wells. You may want to build a cross member between these two 4x4's so that they are stable while lifting like so:
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The casters can be put on later if you want to use this frame as a mobile device for the body to sit on.
Now for method #2. If you have an engine hoist, you can create a wooden frame that can be lifted hydraulically and stabilized by your buddies. Essentially, you are going to need 3-4 96 inch 2x4's, some eye bolts, eye bolt nuts, washers, heavy duty wire and some wire clamps. Measure, cut and build the frame out of the the 2x4's so that they fit where the body used to be bolted to the chassis (sides only). Use the eye bolts, wire & wire clamps to create a lifting structure that can then be attached to the engine hoist. The final product should look something like this:
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Lifting the body high enough to clear the shock towers on the chassis: If you are using your friends to lift the body instead of the engine hoist, have your 4 guys lift the body off of the body jack stands using this new frame and have them walk it over to an open area in your garage. Make sure they are careful when walking around the chassis! You don't want them to get hurt or drop the body. Now have your two saw horse guys position the saw horses so that they take on the load of the body and then the heavy lifters can carefully set the body and wooden frame onto their new saw horse supports.
If you opt to use the hoist method, attach the engine hoist to the wires (where they cross in the middle) and carefully lift the body. You will probably have to do this through an open door so have your buddies stabilize the body to keep it from shifting or rocking while you lift and move the body away from the chassis. Again, you can either set it down on jack stands (as pictured) or on saw horses.
I am sure that there are several things on this list that I have not included, so feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.