frinesi2's build - Road Magnet springs and more!

[frinesi2]

Well, I guess it's time to start compiling all of my little modifications to the Focus. It's slow going because I'm cheap but hopefully it will be of interest to the community.

First of all, bought it last March. I ordered it from the factory because I had a specific set of options I wanted - almost none of them. I got a Tuxedo Black hatchback with the 5-speed manual and the convenience package and the SE sport package. I wanted a simple car with no extra gizmos. I'm at about 9600 miles at this point.

Here it is new with my first mod, fuzzy dice in the mirror. I also debadged it because I like it like that.



My first true mod was to do something about those gaudy chrome fog light bezels. I don't want to modify any original parts if I can avoid it because if I ever sell the car, I can put the stock parts back on and sell my customized parts to other MK3 enthusiasts. To that end, I bought a set of Euro fog bezels (they came from Australia, about $35 total). Since I wanted a gloss finish to match the grille, I took inspiration from newmission and got some Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy.

Here is an after/before shot of the bezels.


The first time I painted them, I did a few coats and let them air dry. They wrinkled like crazy, but luckily the epoxy peeled off easily so I could try again. For the next try, I did two coats and then cured it in an oven for a few minutes. Unfortunately I don't remember the temperature or the time, but it was probably something like 150 for 20 minutes. They came out without wrinkling that time.

Next on the mod list, lowering springs. I just got my car back from Road Magnet on Friday after them borrowing it to develop lowering springs for the platform. I am glad to say that they are totally awesome. 1-5/8" drop all the way around which just tucks the rear tire nicely.





Of course this sort of makes the stock 16" rims look a little small, so I am thinking of going with gold Sparco Assetto Gara's when I have the money and need new tires. Here is a photochop courtesy of Tire Rack:


Last but not least, I am working on building my own intake kit because I refuse to drop over $200 on $40 worth of material and a filter. Here is a teaser image of the (very incomplete) kit in the works. It's really incredibly simple, just some aluminum pipe, some couplings, and a filter.


The filter is just an old one I had laying around and I will buy a new one before actually running the car. It will include a heat shield inspired by the K&N Typhoon kit and hopefully some modifications to improve efficiency of the cold air ducting. I might make a custom MAF housing inspired by the Steeda intake if I get bored enough some Sunday in the future.

Well, that's about it for now, more updates to come as I have lots of plans for this car depending on how things go.

[Sponsor]

[Ox-y-GenIII]

Everything looks god. Drop is perfect. bezels look professionally done. Good job.

[frinesi2]

Originally Posted by Ox-y-GenIII

Everything looks god. Drop is perfect. bezels look professionally done. Good job.

Why thank you. Road Magnet did a great job with the drop. I actually misheard them when I picked up the car, it's a 1" drop in the front and a 1.6" drop in the rear. I like the levelness of the drop rather than tucking the front wheel like the Eiback sportline kit does.

I'm hoping in a couple of weeks it will be warm enough and dry enough on a day that I actually have some free time so I can finish up the intake and post that project for people looking to save a bit of money.

[gold_zx3]

Originally Posted by frinesi2

My first true mod was to do something about those gaudy chrome fog light bezels. I don't want to modify any original parts if I can avoid it because if I ever sell the car, I can put the stock parts back on and sell my customized parts to other MK3 enthusiasts. To that end, I bought a set of Euro fog bezels (they came from Australia, about $35 total). Since I wanted a gloss finish to match the grille, I took inspiration from newmission and got some Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy.

Here is an after/before shot of the bezels.


The first time I painted them, I did a few coats and let them air dry. They wrinkled like crazy, but luckily the epoxy peeled off easily so I could try again. For the next try, I did two coats and then cured it in an oven for a few minutes. Unfortunately I don't remember the temperature or the time, but it was probably something like 150 for 20 minutes. They came out without wrinkling that time.

Hey my job is to protect those damn gaudy chrome fog bezels! Seriously though, my company makes those and I'm the packaging designer/engineer haha. Don't worry I hate the look of the chrome too! It's funny how much we invest on protecting our product and half of them get painted over anyway.

But anyway that drop is perfect dude. It will look sick with the gold rims, but I'm partial as I have some gold BBS's on my black WRX too.

[frinesi2]

Originally Posted by gold_zx3

Hey my job is to protect those damn gaudy chrome fog bezels! Seriously though, my company makes those and I'm the packaging designer/engineer haha. Don't worry I hate the look of the chrome too! It's funny how much we invest on protecting our product and half of them get painted over anyway.

But anyway that drop is perfect dude. It will look sick with the gold rims, but I'm partial as I have some gold BBS's on my black WRX too.

Don't worry, no chrome bezels were harmed in the making of the black ones! I ordered a set of black ones from Australia to paint. My chrome parts are in a box. If I ever sell my car, I'll put all of the stock parts on and sell the aftermarket parts individually.