Project: Ford Focus timeline/build thread

[pyroinsa]

I see some very clean rides on here! I love the European look, since my car was originally sold in Europe 2 years before it hit the U.S. market, there is a plethora of genuine EDM parts available for this car. Only problem, which anyone who has sourced EDM bumpers for their BMW's or JDM parts for their Honda's can agree, these parts are hard to find and I have spent many nights convincing overseas sellers to ship me their EDM parts! I have spent several years gathering all the European parts that were not included with the U.S. model. The biggest changes are the bumpers and lightning. To meet U.S. crash standards, the bumpers had to be a lot larger than the EDM counterparts. The lights were cheapened by using a single bulb in the headlights as opposed to the 4 (total) bulbs in the European ones. They also moved the turnsignal from the headlight housings to the grille for the U.S. models. The U.S. fogs are plastic and use an 899 bulb whereas the EDM versions are glass and use an H1 bulb. The taillamps in the U.S. use a dual-purpose brake/tunsignal and have an integrated reverse light. The EDM have separate brake and turn, and have a reverse light and reverse foglight in the rear bumper.

Anyway, I have sourced all the major parts and a lot of the smaller parts as well, has taken a lot of time, as well as re-wiring some major components to get things working properly.

I bought the car in the winter of 2003 while I was stationed at Ft. Leavenworth, KS. I traded my Mazda MX3 MTX, for the Focus ZX5 ATX, its original purpose was our first family car. My wife could not drive ATX and we had a baby on the way. After many years of daily use, I decided to start transforming it into what the car should have started out as.

Here is what I began with, excuse the stickers - my wife's idea:





The first major changes included de-badging it, installing EDM tails that I tinted with Lamin-x smoke and adding a R/S collections rear bumper, this bumper is one of the rarest bumpers to be seen in the States.



After a few months, I decided to upgrade my suspension/wheels and lower it 2" I used Megan Racing springs paired with KYB-AGX adjustable dampers and MassiveSpeedSystem endlinks. The wheels didn't stay on the car very long, they were Konig Hotswaps, very stupid decision on the wheels, so you don't get a pic lol





Now, during this time, the car had an aftermarket front bumper from Extreme dimensions, tbh I thought it looked really nice. But it didn't match the true EDM rear bumper, it didn't flow well with the the SVT sideskirts. I really wanted an EDM front, but I could never find one. But here is what that front looked like with some Audi style lights and an EDM grille:

Next came the time to really wise up and de-rice what I had done and also finish making the car into an EDM Focus. I put the OEM bumper back on with a bra, vinyl bandaids to hide body damage from an accident. I was still in the process of finding true EDM lights and an EDM front:

Finally after a long time searching, I found a 1998 EDM front bumper and EDM fender lights. Here in the pic, you can see the other mods I had also been doing: SVT painted doorhandles, SVT sideskirts, and color-matched SVT folding mirrors. So I pulled my fenders off and cut the holes in them for the EDM lights and was left with this:

After that, I got SVT Mach HID's, these were the first HID lights that Ford used on any SVT.

Those lights look amazing at night, but I still wasn't happy with them. I also picked up a Rieger lip, a 1998 EDM lower grille, a first edition Hofele upper grille and an EDM air deflector.



All that and a few more things left me with this:


Yes, I put a fire extinguisher on the pillar like an idiot, it eventually got removed with all the rest of the de-ricing.

I was not happy with the appearance of the Mach HID's and I wanted to continue my car's transformation into the European look, I sold the Mach's for EDM ST170 lights and I started the process of converting all the OEM green lighting in the interior to blue - all SMD LED's were eventually used:

All the interior lighting in that pic will be explained a little later.
So, I installed the ST170's along with a Euro plate that matches the Colorado plate on the back. It's still illegal, but cops don't care. The other Euro plate I had got me pulled over smh

It was now time to paint the bumper and make a few more changes:


I did not like the look of the mesh that came with the lip and I also don't like that cheap-ass mesh you get in Autoparts stores that most people use for bodykits so I got an SVT grille and cut it up to fit, in this pic, the European glass fogs are also in. During this time, I also got carbon fiber eyelids and a Ford Focus Kona edition rack, the rack was only available for one year as an optional for the Focus Kona. I also got Ford Mondeo wheels around this time as well.



So after a long time searching, I found the perfect headlights that work perfectly with my EDM theme! They are Hella Dynabeams, Hella manufactures some of the highest OEM lighting that comes standard in more higher-end cars. They are the Dynabeams which are very popular with the Vauxhaull VXR and the VW Jetta. What makes these lights great is not only is quality far superior to any other aftermarket light you can buy, and these move with the car! Yep, that's right, if you turn right, the lights will "look" right as you are turning, thanks to the motors in the headlights and the Adaptive Frontlighting System (AFS) module. Just to add to the cool factor, each time you turn the lights on, they do a self-calibration check by looking left and right then back to center, so each time you turn them on, they dance for you!

Here they are new out of the box:

They even get the Hella logo under the projector

Here is the Adaptive Frontlighting System module. I had to make sure that is was level wile I installed it, so I assume that it has mercury in it.


Now since I had already converted my car's electrical system from the cheap-ass U.S. to the VW harness (same harness used on the MK1 EDM Focus), these lights were nearly plug and play except for a few wires needing to be jumped and I had to change the cutoff from RHD to LHD.

Here is a vid of another Focus with the Dynabeams in action:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeMWfEp4k34"]03 Ford Focus with Hella Dynabeams in action - YouTube[/ame]
I have been steadily acquiring parts for the motor but that was the least of my concern because these cars are slow to begin with 130hp at the crank, some people have gone crazy with their Focus engine builds and have gotten over 300whp, some over 500whp! I am not prepared to build my motor up to that level, I would get a fast car and build it - the Focus is not worth my time. At least I can make it look good and I do have a few more parts that are going in so when I am done, it might be 135-140whp LMAO!
Here is one of the earliest pics I have:

I added a K&N drop-in filter, then I thought the battery cover and the fusebox cover would look good silver. Yeah, it looked pretty stupid:

One of the first mods I did was the Injen intake, very rare for a first gen Focus to have one because Injen made a real limited number of these intakes and I thought some blue would look good too smh.

Then I get an order from Steeda which included a sparkplug cover, strut tower bar and a billet oil cap cover. I was pissed about the oil cap cover, it looks nothing like the one on Steeda's website and it looks cheap. But I did take the paint off the plastics and reverted everything back to black.


Then I get a Ford Contour metal valve cover

I grinded it smooth:

and painted it wrinkle black:

I got a MassiveSpeedSystem install kit for it which included bolts, fel-pro gasket and an oil cap

Somewhere along the way, I got FocusSport plug wires, also rare since the company changed their name to FSWERKS

I still wasn't happy with the wire cover, I wanted an OEM one, so I finally found one off a Roush Focus:

Then this happened:

I still have a lot of parts that I need to install:
-early Zetec intake mainfold. The old style was made better and will increase HP by 3 to 5
-Focus Central 65mm throttlebody. The OEM TB is a 58mm, I can't install the TB I got onto my intake manifold since the style is different. Oh and Focus Central went out of business 8 years ago, so that is another rare piece
-SVT header, offroad pipe, flex pipe. I have collected everything that I need to do the swap which included re-locating my power-steering line, SVT dipstick, EGR block-off plate, and all new gaskets. In a few months, after I do some traveling, I will install it. It should add between 10-15 hp, maybe?
-FSWERKS lower strut bar. I tried to install it, but the LCA bolt was hitting the tranny, so I need to loosen the motor mounts to install it. While I am at that I will also instal the Ignalls Stiffy mount that I have, also another rare item.

^Also in that pic is the European lighting which I will go over when I get to the interior.

While I was at it, I painted it wrinkle black



I figured since I am done with the exterior and the interior, now I can concentrate on the motor. We will see how far I take it!
With this car, I decided to makes it as OEM+ and European as possible. I got the Ford Focus Kona edition roof rack, but the rack never came with a fairing. I decided to re-badge a Thule fairing. I found some "Kona" logos on eBay and I went to a local vinyl shop to get some black vinyl. I decided that vinyl would be the way to go because the fairing flexes and I think paint would peel off it. Here is what I started with:

I wrapped it in matte black vinyl:

Added the decal:

I am always looking for other ways to continue the OEM+ look , what I want this car to represent is how Ford should have made it for the U.S. market. and for the hell of it a random car pic!

Now I'll explain the interior, I have extensively gone through every element that I could to enhance the look and feel over the crappy stock interior:

^iirc, that is the only pic I have of the stock interior but you can see how horrible this car starts out as.

Now, the interior took a few years to get it to the point it is at now and I have been extremely lucky to find everything I did. I'll start back at the earliest mod I did, which was the stereo:

^Yes that fire extinguisher eventually comes off and believe me I know how stupid and unsafe it was. Now I also at the time used seat covers to give the interior a better look, but seat covers never look good. Now the stereo was a Dual, very crappy brand. I had 2 Alpine amps, 1 10" Alpine sub and Alpine 6x8 door speakers. I also had a brilliant idea to mount my iPhone in that spot but it never looked right and those cables look hideous. After a few months, I decided that the sub was too much for me and my daughter to handle, so I sold the amp and sub. The amp you see is for the door speakers:


Now, I decided to clean up the trunk and install an OEM sub box from an SVT. I put a Rockford Fosgate 8" sub in it and it's the perfect amount of bass for me and my daughter. I do however regret selling the Alpine V-power amp because I had to get another one, the new ones are not as nice as the older ones.

Now, I used hushmat to line the inside and the outside of the sub enclosure and I used the leftover to cover the quarterpanel where the sub was going:
[IMG]https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/309975_583418691692132_1004700435_n.jpg





I had to plastidip the top of the old amp to get it to match the new one.

I also added LED's around the speaker that come on when you open the trunk Oh and I also used the OEM sub grille for the new sub:



Next I added a Focus Sport rear stress bar. When I got it, the entire bar was blue, even the logo. I taped up the logo and painted the bar black, then I used a Dremel tool to polish the letters. This is where I ended up re-locating the fire extinguisher, now it is black:

Here is how the hatch looks for daily use, I have an OEM SVT cargo net. Also, I ride bikes, and actually use the rack, so I thought it would be a good place for a bike lock, right on the stress bar!

Next I decided to clean up my radio bezel add SVT HVAC dials (they are silver instead of black) and aluminum knobs:


Now, I wasn't really happy with the rest of the lighting in the car so I went with a blue theme to match what I had done in the hatch. All the lighting is done this way, all door locks, window switches, etc:

I wasn't really happy with the stereo and I didn't like that it covered my vents. I think unless your car comes OEM with a screen, don't put one in. So I went with a Pioneer HD HU that had the USB in the back and was iPhone compatible. I also got a Kuda phone mount. It is made out of fiberglass and wrapped in leather. If anyone is looking for an OEM way to mount your phone go to kudausa.com and get one of these, they make them for just about every car!

The new stereo sounds so much better than the Dual ever could.
I learned somewhere along the way how to do vinyl wrap, so a lot of interior pieces eventually got covered in it with either #M1080 black brushed metal, or 3M Di-Noc CF vinyl:

^The door handles, looked like crap when I put them in, so I took them out, but the mirror covers didn't!


^The map lights are still white using SMD LED bulbs, it's just the dome that's blue


I have always **'ed the t-stick handle for the shifter and I have found that the Ford Edge uses a great leather-wrapped handle that I just had to have! Now I had to re-drill some new set-screw holes and I had to splice the OD plug into the OEM one, but after about an hour, I was left with this:

Trying to find anyone who was selling the seats that I wanted was an impossible task because nobody wanted to ship them. I was very lucky when I called a guy who was parting out an SVT. I went to look at them and the seats were in decent shape (one cig burn in the D/S seat). Usually the seats sell for $300 to $400, so I offered $300 for the seats and he asked me if I just wanted to buy the whole car. His price was $700 for the car, he was a mechanic who was re-building the motor when the owner couldn't pay and he just wanted his money back for what he had into it. I told him how much parts off this car normally go for because I didn't want to screw him over, but he was fine with letting it go. So now I had an SVT! I later found out that the motor was worse off than the mechanic let me know, if I wanted to save the car, I would of had to find a new head, those are getting real hard to find. So I parted it out.


I had already acquired all my other SVT parts off various other SVT part-outs, so I still only wanted the seats, the rest of it went to good homes in the Focus community



So, I was left a some cash made off the part-out and some nice new seats!


So, I started my headliner project. Here is the result of day 1:
I pulled all the pillars.

I vinyl-wrapped them with 3M 1080 black brushed-metal

Added a piece of clear door trim to help protect the vinyl-wrap from tearing on the seatbelt

Well, I ran into a few problems. The grab handles were destroyed when I removed them(every damn clip broke). The interior panels over the small back windows would only come out if I disassembled the rear seatbelts, so after fighting with the grab handles, I didn't bother trying to remove those panels. I slid the headliner out the back, but those rear panels were fighting me every step of the way.

Once I got it out, I had to remove the old fabric and foam from the board. That was a pain in the ass to do. The board was so thin that I thought I was going to destroy it while I was peeling off the fabric, thankfully it didn't. Once that was off, it took me another 4 hours to scrub off all the foam so the glue would have a clean surface, I used a couple green scratch pads to do that, there might have been a better way but I couldn't find one. After the foam was off and I was left with a paper-thin board, I began wrapping it like I do with vinyl. I started spraying a liberal coat of headliner glue(it came with the new headliner) in the largest and deepest area first(the rear section). Once I put the fabric on top of it, it immediately stuck and I couldn't move it to re-position it in any way, luckily I didn't need to move it. Well I wish I could have had a little bit of play with it because there are a few imperfections in it, but it still came out great. I might have sprayed too much glue because I ran out 3/4 the way done. So I ran to Home Depot to get a can of 3M #77 spray adhesive, I wish I would have started with that because it was easier to work with. After it was done, I let it dry for a day before I cut it off of the cardboard I had laid it on, yes the overlap had glued itself to the cardboard. I am glad that I had went dumpster diving for some extra large boxes to protect my shitty carpet in my house. I then cut out the holes for the lights, sunroof, etc. I went through 5 razor blades doing that, the damn suede dulled the blades real quick!

Now it was time to re-install it. I had to fight to get it back in the hatch because of the rear trim, I got it in far enough so I could open the rear doors and start to pull, I kept going back and forth between the d/s and p/s rear doors, pulling it in a few inches at a time. When it was finally in, I put it up over the rear first, since the trim was still in. Then I popped in the 2 plastic buttons in the rear. I moved up to the front to secure it with the visors. I started with the visor clips close to the domelight so that way I could still bend the headliner down to look where the screw goes. Once I got those on, the domelight and all the rest of the trim went back on easy, until it came time to put the trim ring around the sunroof. The new material was thicker than the old so I put the ring around the headliner first, then started at a corner to secure it to the metal ring as well. I had to push hard, rally hard and the more I would work my way around the ring, the more it would pop back off in areas I had just done, but I kept working it around until it finally sat secure.

Headliner removal took about 1 1/2 hours.

Headliner clean-up took about 5 hours

Headliner wrap took about 2 hours (because of a run to the store for more glue)

Headliner dry 24 hours

Trim vinyl wrap took about 1 hour

Headliner re-install took about 1 1/2 hours because I didn't have to worry about re-installing the grab handles.

Total time spent was about 3 days.


Here is where I added the European lights where the U.S. models had no lights:




A close up of the Euro sunvisors - they are different than the U.S. ones because the U.S. ones would have got in the way of the Euro lights. I also had them wrapped in black leather with blue stitching to match the seats:

One more thing, I kept changing my instrument panel until I finally found the setup that I like the best.

^That's when I had just swapped the lights and scraped the green off the back of the panel:

Now I still wasn't happy with it, so I swapped face for a metalmonkey.co.uk one and added new SMD 194 led bulbs to it along with a new set of needles:

I thought the needles were cool, but they didn't go with the color scheme, so I swapped them yet again:

^Now those needles are white during the day, so they really tie everything together. Now, I might open the cluster one more time to sand off the green on the LCD screen and light it up blue.
So, moving forward with making changes, I just bought the fifteen52 Tarmacs off of this ride!!!

You can see the blog that I Love Driving Slow (ILDS) did on his car here:

http://ilovedrivingslow.com/svt-ford-focus

Now I prefer the form>function look myself, especially with a Focus. Now these wheels are very heavy wheels, almost 30lb each, so if you do a lot of Auto-x or drag, these wheels are not for you! These wheels certainly serve a purpose at being damn sexy!



Mod list:
Performance
-Injen SRI
-Magnaflow exhaust
-SVT intake snorkel
-Focus Sport plug wires
-Tuned by http://www.focus-power.com/

Suspension/Wheels
-KYB-AGX adjustable Dampers
-Megan Racing 2" lowering springs
-MassiveSpeedSystem Endlinks
-Steeda Strut Tower Brace
-Focus Sport Rear stress bar
-Ford Mondeo 17" wheels(winter wheels)
-Fifteen52 17x8 Tarmacs(summer wheels)

I.C.E.
-Pioneer DEH-P7400HD head unit
-6x8 Alpines all-around
-Alpine 4-channel amp
-Alpine 500w mono amp
-Rockford Fosgate Punch 8" slim sub

Interior
-SVT leather seats with blue inserts
-SVT door cards with blue inserts
-SVT leather steering wheel
-SVT peforated leather e-brake with SVT leather boot
-SVT HVAC controls
-SVT subwoofer enclosure
-SVT vents (they are grey instead of black)
-SVT center console
-Ford Edge shift knob
-Kuda phone mount
-Aluminum HVAC knobs
-Blue LED interior conversion
-Metal Monkey instrument faceplate
-Carbon fiber instrument cluster surround
-Upgraded 05 - 07 OEM floormats
-EDM interior lighting
-EDM sunvisors
-Suede headliner
-All dome/map lights are lit up with SMD LED's

Exterior
-1998 Focus EDM front bumper
-Rieger lip
-1998 EDM lower grille
-European RS collection rear bumper
-Hofele grille
-SVT sideskirts
-SVT spoiler
-SVT doorhandles
-SVT mirrors
-Euro front plate
-Ford edge rear wiper
-SVT Cobra fuel door
-Kona Edition roof Rack
-Hella Dynabeams (dynamic bending lights)
-EDM smoked taillights
-EDM smoked bumper lights
-EDM glass fogs with Hella yellow H1 bulbs
-EDM clear sidemarkers

Engine Dress-up
-Shaved Ford Contour metal valve cover painted wrinkle black
-MassiveSpeedSystem dress-up kit
-MassiveSpeedSystem Billet aluminum oil cap
-SVT coolant tank cover
-Roush spark plug cover

Miscellaneous
-Debadged
-Silver-tinted 3rd brake light with black "Loading..." decal
-Carbon fiber "shorty" antenna
-30% tint
-AVS ventshades
-"Superbright LED's" license plate bulbs
-Di-noc CF wrapped lots of things
-3M 1080 black brushed metal wrapped all the pillars
-Pink car seat

[Nagah]

You already went far from "ugly as fuck" to now. If you keep on the pace your car will be awesome soon!

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Those Tarmacs just fuckin' work, don't they? What are your future plans for your build?

[Stupid Kid]

Yeah It went from absolutely terrible to pretty decent. Seems like you put alot of money in parts, shit I'd personally just rather spend that on a better car

[pyroinsa]

You already went far from "ugly as fuck" to now. If you keep on the pace your car will be awesome soon!

Thanks!

Those Tarmacs just fuckin' work, don't they? What are your future plans for your build?

Why yes, yes they do! Future plans include buying a second Ford Focus for a daily so I can send this one to paint and get the dents fixed a few minor fitment issues fixed and have it re-painted. I haven't yet decided if I am going to keep the factory color, or go with something different. Then, it will be dropped a little further on coilovers

Yeah It went from absolutely terrible to pretty decent. Seems like you put alot of money in parts, shit I'd personally just rather spend that on a better car

Thanks. I really love these cars and I still don't know why other people think so poorly of them. The way I see it, ( I know I'll get famed for this LMAO) these cars are in the same class as the Honda Civic, but everyone seems to love the Civics, don't get me wrong, I like them too.
Both the Focus and the Civic are 4-cylinder econoboxes, both come in all styles(hatch, sedan, coupe) both have performance versions (Si, SVT) both have the nicer performance versions that never made it to the States (SiR, RS) and we Americans spend unreasonable amounts of money getting the more desirable parts from overseas(JDM, EDM).

With all that said, I built my car for me, I made it into the Focus that should have been sold in the U.S. and I am damn proud of it!

[SunOfABeach]

this was pretty sick to scroll through. Good stuff man, keep it up.

[dvious]

Nice progress. Ditch the bodykit and go back to stock, car will look so much better.

Also, them taillights. Apart from that good work so far.

[pyroinsa]

this was pretty sick to scroll through. Good stuff man, keep it up.

Thanks!

Nice progress. Ditch the bodykit and go back to stock, car will look so much better.

Also, them taillights. Apart from that good work so far.

Thanks, but this car has no bodykit. All the bodypanels are OEM(except the front lip), without the lip, the bumper sits really high. The sideskirts are from an SVT, the rear bumper is an RS collections (produced by Ford of Europe, so technically still OEM), the front bumper came off a 1998 European Ford Focus(2 years before it was released in the U.S.)

Plus I wanted the European look, they get the smaller bumpers, no way in hell would I put the big-ass fat American bumpers back on

About the tails, yes I still have a set of OEM EDM tails that I can install, I have went back and fourth between the 2, but the ones that are on it are not smoked, they are black-housings. Here is a better pic of them:

[pyroinsa]

Here are the other tails that I have for it, EDM tails with Lamin-x smoke:

[pyroinsa]

Here is a better view of the tails currently on the car. This pic, however does the fuel door no justice

[SunOfABeach]

Does that sticker on your hatch say "Nurburgring" or "Neverbeen"

I had the "Neverbeen" one on my old mk2 Jetta

[pyroinsa]

Does that sticker on your hatch say "Nurburgring" or "Neverbeen"

I had the "Neverbeen" one on my old mk2 Jetta

The sticker is the outline of the Nürburgring track but, it says "Sofuk"

[pyroinsa]

Recent pics:





I have replaced the headlights yet again, haha! I still have the Hella Dynabeams, but for now I got Hella Mach HID's installed:


I also cleaned up my hatch a little bit with a blue fire extinguisher to match the black/blue interior.(a black one was there before)


Ok, so here is the real reason why I took off the dynabeams:



In the above pic, you can see that one of the trim rings fell off. I happened on the way to FocusFest So, here is what I got going on with those:







Since I had the apart, I decided to customize them a bit more Since all the other lights(except fogs) are black on the silver car, I decided to blackout the Dynabeams. I am painting them with duplicolor perfect match, why you ask when it is just black? Well I like the Honda black that has a little metal flake in it lol



I also got the paint code for my car to color-match the trim rings:



I even left off the Hella logo off the trim ring so it can look like one sparkly jewel when I put the lights back together:





Here is kinda what it looks like, no this is in a dark room, I have already looked at it in the sunlight and they look great!



So, why are these not back together again? Well, I am adding one more color




That is the high-beam housing. I ordered yellow stained-glass paint so the highbeams can be yellow!

Headlights are done!

Before I sealed them up:


On the car:




Nighttime: