Hey, how's things with Paddy?

my sincerest apologies, thought I'd replied to this at the time, sorry!

not much has changed in the last few months with regards to getting any welding done, but I'll try to get the ball rolling once summer holidays are done.

In other news, on 2 occasions now over the last year the clutch pedal has been floppy when either myself or my dad have attempted to move the Punto out of the driveway (after it's been sitting). I learnt a while back that the clutch and brakes shared the same fluid (which was low), eventually coming to the conclusion that the clutch needed bleeding. Fairly simple job after taking battery and battery tray out, stuck some clear hose on the bleed nipple and had my mum press the pedal until i saw no air bubbles in the fluid (draining into an old Heineken bottle )

This fixed the problem both times, but coming back to the car months later to move it, the fluid was low again and clutch needed bleeding. I can't see any signs on the ground or around the engine bay of leaking clurch/brake fluid, and after a bit of research this week it sounds like the seals in the clutch slave cylinder may have gone since the car's been sitting for a while - anyone any advice on this?

Not an expensive part to replace, but again I wouldn't do it unless the rest of the car passed an MOT!

cheers & regards to y'all

Yes you need to change the clutch slave cylinder, absolutely classic fail with Puntos, Bravos, Tipos etc...

I think the seals stick when not used and then rip when suddenly reactivated: just a spanner job to change plus the bleeding which you've already done before.

Biting the bullet

Have forced myself to get my act together and sort this once and for all, for better or worse.

Got the idea of having a 'pre-MOT check' done which I remember hearing a few years ago on this forum was a possibility. My nearest MOT centre (which i think our family mechanic uses as his centre) offers a free 'Health check', which covers mainly the working parts of the car such as tyres, brakes, suspension, fluids etc.
I asked them over the phone if this included structural/rust investigation which it didn't (which I expected as it wasn't on the checklist) so I just decided to bite the bullet and book a full MOT for this Saturday. This also has the benefit of covering me from a Tax/SORN point of view, as I have a pre-booked MOT to drive to.
Gonna take Friday afternoon off work to drive back home and get the PUnto ship-shape as much as I can, pump up the tyres, check fluids etc. (might have to bleed the clutch again :/ )

So we'll have to see what happens when the test sheet comes back, the extent of rust being my main worry but there'll probably be a few niggles i miss beforehand.
Will keep you updated, but wish me luck! :slayer:

Keeping fingers crossed for you and Paddy!

Good luck. My mk1 has it's MOT on the 23rd and I'm cacking it

simon_16vpunto: I don't think you'll have anything to worry about. It's very well cared for and looked after, so I'll be amazed if it fails full stop, let alone on anything worse than a minor fault.

Good luck on the MOT , and thank god for you deciding to revive the Paddy-Punto-Project. You've a lot of fans here who want to see results ;-)

good luck for saturday! I shall be checking in for a result so don't keep us hanging

turns out me dad had been to see our mechanic and penciled the Punto in with him, so cancelled the pre-booked MOT and got the car ship-shape on friday evening. Arranged for Car to be picked up today (Tuesday), I'm back at work but it's now in his yard.
Apprently mechanic thought the engine was running surprisingly well, which means my top-end rebuild mustn't have gone too badly!

Will keep you posted, waiting on texts from my dad but only time will tell haha

Success!

The Punto's only gone and passed the MOT! Got word this afternoon, all involved were impressed with how it ran, £250 in total including welding of the floor pan and the actual test fee. Wish I could have got photos of the rust before & after but will takes some at the weekend when I'm back to see the car.

No further details yet but will update soon!

now to sort out bloody tax and insurance haha

Bloody brilliant results!!! Show us some photos when you get the time?

Congrats. Bet you can't wait to get it back now.

Fantastic news kazer92!

Something I thoroughly recommend that you do is get Paddys' entire underside completely cleaned, then have it rustproofed. Given how healthy his mechanicals are now, it would be a worthwhile investment for Paddys' continued and long term survival.

good news [emoji106]?, a waxoil kits are well worth it too , gets it into all the internal panels .

Taxed the Punto and insured it on Thursday, on a temporary basis for a month in addition to my Fiesta as my renewal for that is due in November (and just in case)

had the Friday off work due to a planned trip to Bristol to see the girlfriend, so obviously after driving home from Maidstone to South London I swapped cars and took the Punto on a 300 mile round trip over to the West and back. Took a bit of getting used to (back to no power steering or AC is a big one ) and took it easy for the first hour, but temps looked good all the way there and back, just a bit of a rise in a jam on the M4.
Cooling fan now seems to have 2 speeds when on, the 1st being what I'm used to with not much additional noise, and the 2nd higher speed making an absolute din and sounding like a bearing is gone somewhere. Don't think I can replicate in the driveway so will do a bit of research on that.

Saw the MOT sheet when I was home but forgot to take with me, a few advisories, mainly to do with inbalance in the braking system (parking break and generally) and body corrosion.
The breaks seemed fined on the road all weekend but will have a look at some point and replace the leaky clutch slave cylinder.

On the topic of underbody coating/rustproofing/Waxoyl etc, I briefly looked into this in the past and didn't really deem it a viable option for me and this car. I've heard it's a pretty messy and difficult job to do yourself, even with the right equipment, and looking into specialist places to undertake the work the running rate would be £200-£300 for basic coating/protection. This would be fine for an existing classic or a car I'd spent a few grand on and plan to keep for many years, but it's probably not far off what the Punto is actually worth at the moment. Not sure I can justify putting in that sort of investment in the hope it'll explode in value over the next few years like a Mk1 Golf or something. Need to do a bit more research though so not off the table.

Anyway, thank you all immensely for the kind words of support and advice, without which the Punto may have been banished to the scrapyard many years ago.
The adventure continues! :slayer:

Paddy just before the drive to Bristol (one of rear alloys has a slow puncture, hence the steelies )





(P.S. need new wipers desperately, praying for no rain this week!)

kazer92 said:

,On the topic of underbody coating/rustproofing/Waxoyl etc, I briefly looked into this in the past and didn't really deem it a viable option for me and this car. I've heard it's a pretty messy and difficult job to do yourself, even with the right equipment, and looking into specialist places to undertake the work the running rate would be £200-£300 for basic coating/protection. This would be fine for an existing classic or a car I'd spent a few grand on and plan to keep for many years, but it's probably not far off what the Punto is actually worth at the moment. Not sure I can justify putting in that sort of investment in the hope it'll explode in value over the next few years like a Mk1 Golf or something. Need to do a bit more research though so not off the table.

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If you read classic car magazines, you'll see a lot of restoration stories where the cost of parts/sheer amount of work exceed the restored cars' value, but it's done for the love of the car itself.

Given how you've basically rebuilt the engine, £300 for rustproofing which should prevent any more corrosion for at least 3 years is a very small price to pay, especially as I get the impression you've become very attached to Paddy?

The other aspect of ownership to consider is the sheer rarity of the car. Mk1 Puntos are already getting rare and becoming sought after by enthusiasts, especially the 75 models. Keep it protected now, and I'd imagine 1 day it'll be worth over 2k!

number of punto 75sx left .

139? huehuehuwehue

There are 5 Punto 60D's on the road
Probably because they were all so slow they got rear-ended on the motorway