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Infra-Red Focus RS replica/conversion build!

152K views 516 replies 123 participants last post by  sicskate 
#1 ·
well, I've been collecting and building(yes building) parts for about a year now, and I'm finally set to get moving on this project. I traded in my beater today for a brand new F150 so now I have a reliable vehicle to drive daily while I work on the Focus build. Starting life as a 2003 SVT:



I used to have a Euro facelift front bumper and 98spec rear bumper, with rieger lip up front.....but someone backed into the front end and it got broken to bits, so I put it through insurance and used the money to buy the last set of RS bumpers from Capaldi.







So then I had to start sourcing all the other parts. Scouring ebay.co.uk I was able to get the foglight bezels, brake duct vents, front indicators, and rear fog and reversing lights complete with bulb sockets. I got a splitter from Spudo, and a wing from Cayse. Then I hit a wall, not being able to find sideskirts or fenders and quarterpanels, I had to get creative.....

An opportunity arose..... a fellow member here doing an RS conversion had obtained a set of RS skirts that were damaged....I messaged and offered to make all the repairs for FREE, if he would just pay shipping to me and back with the aggreement that I would be allowed to make a mold of them....and to my pleasant surprise, he agreed!

So I still needed fenders and quarterpanels! About 6-8 months go by of me searching for these.....my gameplan was to obtain a set and make molds like PUMASPEED has in the Uk, they sell fiberglass replicas of the OEM panels for conversion purposes.....but then something incredible happened. I recieved an email from a member here, that he knew of a fellow up in British Columbia that had a complete set of molds (besides sideskirts.....weird, that's what I made!).....he had fenders, quarterpanels, and both bumpers molded from OEM stuff and was willing to SELL THE MOLDS!!!!!

I got in contact with this gent, and we negociated over numerous emails until we settled on a price. MAN, was I a happy camper! what a huge savings in time and energy not having to source panels, then make molds!



So here they are all unpacked:







bought a 50" wide roll of fiberglass, 80yards long to make all my parts



So I'm going to get started over the weekend setting up the molds and begin fabricating the front fenders and Quarterpanels, I figure I can have the front clip finished, painted, and mounted in the next week or two time permitting.....Then I'll have to clean out my garage and pull the car in to remove rear glass and start working on the rear quarters. I have a concept image I made in photoshop but I can't find it right now, I'll have to post it up later on......

Thanks for reading!
 
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#182 ·
Not a whole bunch to report, but after getting some advice on the situation it was determined the best course of action is to sand the entire car back down to at LEAST the primer I applied. So I've got about 7hrs of hand-sanding in already and it's very tedious and labor-intensive.....and I've only barely finished the driverside so I'm not even half done yet. I'm REALLY losing steam on the project and having a hard time motivating to get out there and just keep sanding and sanding for days.

In other news, I went to the junkyard and snagged some parts that I misplaced and a couple parts I grabbed online came in



the blue door trims are from the rear doors of a sedan focus, I got them with the intent to modify to use for the rear quarter strips for the RS (people are paying over $100 for the two strips because they are different from regular hatchback trims...which blows my mind)

I have to make all new mounts for the hatch-door trim strip and shave the ford emblem off it and then paint it

Also grabbed a set of Carbon Fiber B-pillar trims:



I had previously ordered "RS" emblems on ebay, thinking based on the pictures they'd fit the pillars.....OOPS, lol



basically, there won't be much to post about until I have the whole car sanded down and decide whether or not I want to respray myself or ask someone else to do it.
 
#186 ·
so since all the sanding was pissing me off, I decided to work on something else cause I had some free time today....

here's the only patch left to be "half done" (I.E. the driver side all sanded)



just that area from the door to the arch below the rub strip line.

speaking of rub strips, that's what I worked on.

as you can see, the RS even has a unique curvature not equal to standard rub strips:



so I made a paper template and cut the rub strip to the right shape:



just like I expected, there's a dead-zone inside that I'll have to fill with two-part epoxy on either end now that I cut this thing





after some further trimming and sanding it into shape:





I can't seem to find my epoxy so I'll have to grab some more before I can finish the strips.
 
#192 ·
Upper grill??
If so I'd be down to buy one


Sent from jeremy's iPhone using FF Mobile
yeah, I'm working on a design for it....it's going to be nearly identical to the RS oem upper grill, but no ford badge area....can use the stock ford badge off existing grill or enjoy it badge-less. Once I make it I'll mold it and make extras
 
#196 ·
haha. stall and buy my parts then! do it right the first time?? :p
 
#198 ·
probably going to be a couple weeks, I've run short on money to re-up on supplies such as resin and gelcoat....buying this stuff in small quantities is silly when I plan to do so much of it and buying in bulk costs a lot of money up front. I would've been in a better boat had I not ruined the paintjob that cost $700 in materials :-/

doing things the right way is expensive, even if you're doing all the labor yourself. DuPont chromabase is fantastic paint though, and certainly worth spending the extra money on compared to Nason and other cheaper lines of paint.

le sigh.
 
#201 ·
doing things the right way is expensive, even if you're doing all the labor yourself. DuPont chromabase is fantastic paint though, and certainly worth spending the extra money on compared to Nason and other cheaper lines of paint.

le sigh.
Did you ever find out what the cause of the lifting was? I only go for brands I recognize... Dupont, PPG, Sikkens, etc. I just assume that if I havent heard of it, then it cant be that good, but thats not always the case
 
#199 ·
I have time
I understand about doing it right!! And I know how much good paint cost
I don't mind the nason clear coat 3800 I believe
I've use DuPont before and since I do most of my painting Ina garage or outside it doesn't dry as fast as the nason does



Sent from jeremy's iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#204 ·
nothing worth posting pictures of..... I actually finally finished block-sanding the whole car back down into primer. have a few spots to touch up now before I can re-spray.....but I'm hoping to re-paint this weekend when the temps come back up to about 65-70. Then I can focus(haha) on the details like the rubstrips and re-molding the front fenders and such. I really wanted to be farther ahead than this by now, because I didn't want to wait until spring to make molds of everything I've fabricated/corrected.....but it's looking like that's going to be the case.
 
#206 ·
Thanks for reading and for the kind words. I'm still chipping away at it, but after such a huge set-back it's hard to hit this with the same vigor I was for those few weeks where I was just CRANKING out progress. If I can get paint on it this weekend, the car will be 80% done, and at least will be driveable as soon as the paint cures a few days and I get the rear glass back in.
 
#207 ·
Hurtin this thread is freaking awesome. I just read the whole thing tonight in one sitting while having dinner. My fiance was sitting next to me and when you finished molding and painting i kept pausing her show and made her read your posts! Please dont give up. I could only dream of having the space, money, and skill to do something like this. People like you and everyone else who are putting all their time into making hand made pieces and painting on their own, rather than paying other people is AWESOME!!! I would love to see the car finished. DONT GIVE UP!!!!
 
#208 ·
I really appreciate that combzy....you might get a chance to see it! one of my VERY close friends lives just outside Dayton in Plain City! I visit him almost every year!
 
#211 ·
well, not to RS spec no. I'm going to strip the seats and make bolsters from scratch and re-upholster in a similar pattern to the stock SVT interior. but that's probably a project for next year. As far as drivetrain, I'm not planning to stick with a 4cyl in it....but I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch.
 
#212 ·
well. long story short the car is not painted. I spent almost 6hrs working on it and it's still not ready. by making sure ALL of the old paint was off, I sanded through the gelcoat in some spots and exposed small pinholes in the fiberglass flares.....and everytime I fill the ones I find, and go to sand the filler down, I expose more. So I'm continuously chasing these pinholes before I can paint. I've got the driver side I THINK ready. I sprayed it with SEM rattle-can filler primer instead of buying a whole quart.....and the passenger side MAY be currently in it's last skim-coat of filler I HOPE.

Looks like the next chance I have at proper weather is wednesday. It's probably best I didnt paint today, as it ended up being way too humid anyhow.

but, I snapped some pics anyways:

Here's how the hatch/boot came out (realized I didn't take many pics of it)







(I still have to finish shaving the emblem from the trim piece)

and the car after 21hrs of sanding, first all in 320 until the mistake-paint was gone, then again in 600 wet for prep.





I did also re-mask off the rear quarter window openings and the windows on the doors....but no pics of that. Still have to mask the roof, finish repairs on the rear flairs, and THEN maybe I can paint wednesday. If this doesn't come out good, I'm seriously setting the car on fire and claiming the insurance and getting out of the focus game.
 
#214 ·
UGH...this car is totally fighting me every step of the way. Basically, everything I work on for myself comes out like shit while work I do for other people always goes smoothly.

So, I have the whole car prepped....I go to start spraying....I get to the third coat of color after two light coats, and start to get the SAME GOD DAMNED LIFTING SHIT happening again. I don't know WHAT THE [:)][:)][:)][:)] is going on, but it's god damned annoying. It was nowhere near as bad as the last time, so I just waited a little extra time between coats and did 3 more coats to kind of try to level it out and hide it since last time this happened wetsanding with 600 seemed to make the issue WORSE. Anyways, to sum things up.....I said [:)][:)][:)][:)] it and continued with the paintjob.

Here's the shit I'm talking about:



so I figured since it's not metallic it could possibly hide in the clear.....so I banged on a crap-ton of clear in three coats (two real heavy) and got it done.



I did however put a couple runs in it....so I'll have to let it harden up for a few weeks (might just wait until spring) to go ahead with wetsanding them out and buffing it.

probably going to leave the car sit for a week before attempting to put the glass back in and get into re-assembly.
 
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