[Knight_Night]

Also, here's some pics of her since I haven't posted some in a while. During the time I didn't post, I have gotten an alignment, and dropped her slightly more in the front and back, also I had a buddy of mine that owns a tint shop black out my tail lights, and cut out the reverse light tint. Almost complete with the black on white look I have been going for. I've got an "ST" style SE badge coming in the mail within the next two weeks from Vellosa Tech Engineering and I'll be debadging the rear end and only putting on the new SE badge. Stay tuned guys!!!!!

 

[Yezuz]

So I'm guessing I can fit them on a 2012 model? And what mudflaps are those?

 

[Knight_Night]

You should be able to for sure. They're rokblokz mud flaps. Really stiff but they get the job done. They scrape going over speed bumps though, which was hard to get used to hearing lol

 

[SPIinDisguise]

The rear lower than the front? It all flows nicely.

 

[Knight_Night]

The rear lower than the front? It all flows nicely.

Yup. Rear is lower right now. I still have to get my fronts rolled before I can go lower up there. Once it's lower in the front it should look a lot better.

 

[Knight_Night]

Decided to try to lower the front end this upcoming weekend. Going to try to go a with having the top of the tire meet where the fender starts at the top. Also, going to stiffen up the front dampers substantially so I dont get any rub on the tires. If I absolutely need to I'll mess with the top hats and see if I cant get a little bit more camber out of the fronts. Updates by monday for sure.

 

[sailor]

Substantially stiffer on front dampers will INCREASE rubbing as the suspension lowers itself over bumps.

Most damping is on rebound, what keeps the car from bouncing as springs extend again after compression. When that is too high for the springs/bumps it doesn't come back to level over a series of bumps. Usually referred to as pumping down.

Keeping the wheels from moving upwards is done by spring stiffness, even with adjustable compression damping separate from rebound only the rate of compression is slowed a bit.

 

[Knight_Night]

Substantially stiffer on front dampers will INCREASE rubbing as the suspension lowers itself over bumps.

Most damping is on rebound, what keeps the car from bouncing as springs extend again after compression. When that is too high for the springs/bumps it doesn't come back to level over a series of bumps. Usually referred to as pumping down.

Keeping the wheels from moving upwards is done by spring stiffness, even with adjustable compression damping separate from rebound only the rate of compression is slowed a bit.

I'm already at 15 out of 30 for damping up front. So it's not like I'll be going from full soft to full hard. Was thinking of going to about 23-24 out of 30 hard. I honestly don't think it will cause more rub at all because we have really good roads in Orlando. And hardly any speed bumps at all.

I have a friend that has the same coils I do (BC Racing BR) on his FR-S that he drifts, and he recommended to stiffen the damping up to fix it. Gonna try it and if it works then awesome. If not then I'll contact BC racing and spend the $160 on stiffer springs and have them install them for me since they're 5 minutes down the street. Thanks for the heads up though, sailor. Learned something new today.

 

[sailor]

If your damping isn't adequate now it'll help to go firmer, but only to the point that eliminates bounce that can let it move more than desired.

Tuning gets more obvious when working with something more extreme, Moto-X long travel suspension involves setting ride height/sag for the exact rider load and tuning both compression & rebound at both ends. Different tracks gave different results, pump down over a series of whoops could be a real problem.

BMW had a load leveling set of rear shocks back then (Nivomat) for the street, pumped up to a std. ride height on purpose to avoid spring adjustments.

 

[Knight_Night]

If your damping isn't adequate now it'll help to go firmer, but only to the point that eliminates bounce that can let it move more than desired.

Tuning gets more obvious when working with something more extreme, Moto-X long travel suspension involves setting ride height/sag for the exact rider load and tuning both compression & rebound at both ends. Different tracks gave different results, pump down over a series of whoops could be a real problem.

BMW had a load leveling set of rear shocks back then (Nivomat) for the street, pumped up to a std. ride height on purpose to avoid spring adjustments.

Did some calling around to BC Racing NA to find out some info, and it turns out that the damping adjustment on their coilovers adusts both compression AND rebound. So this past weekend I dropped her half an inch on both sides in the front and brought the damping up to 25 of 30 hard. Much stiffer ride now, so slower speed bumps lol. No rubbing with the tires whatsoever. Tested it by going back up to UCF from Fort Lauderdale Florida (3.5 hour all highway drive). No bouncing or anything. So in the end it all worked out and it looks amazing. I'll have photos by the end of the week once I get all the dead bugs from the drive off of her.

 

[SPIinDisguise]

I thought that bugs added character?

 

[Knight_Night]

Just debadged her today and installed the ST style SE badge. Also, here's a photo of how much lower I went with the front. Really coming along nicely.

 

[Knight_Night]

So its been pretty a pretty long time since I've done an update on here.
In the last three months I've was a guinea pig for rally innovations, test fitting their fog light kit onto the 2012-2014 focus N/A and I'm so glad to say it went so smoothly. If you guys have any questions dont hesitate to ask, and yes I didnt have fog lights before this, they are wired through the firewall and into the cabin just under where the headlight switch is.

Also I installed a zetec front bumper piece, which was pretty interesting to install with the fact that I had to remove the bumper in my parking garage at my dorm, and carry it through the building to my room so I could work on it. The WTF stares I got walking to my room with a bumper were uncountable but funny as hell. The bumper piece went on very smoothly and looks awesome in my opinion. But its only there for the time being since I plan to do a ST bumper at the beginning of May this year.

I also have tons of plans to do for her this year.

First, I have to get that damn front end lower, by folding in the little piece of fender that occasionally rubs my tire on bumps that I dont see.

Second, I am already talking to and have scheduled an appointment with Circuit Demon to send my headlights out to be retro fitted with HIDs and much more. No pics of what they're going to look like yet cause that's something that youll see in the next update.

Third, throughout February, March, and April, I will be getting the 3D Carbon rear valance through RDC, anf the OEM ST side skirts directly through Ford.

In May, I will be doing the ST bumper conversion through Ford also. Then I'll be getting the SPR Splitters front and side splitters for the ST with black rods for the front splitter.

From that point on I'll be saving up for a new PC and DSLR by the end of summer. That means way better pics of the car, and drift event edits lol.

Overall this is going to be the biggest and best year for this build yet.
I can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

[ANOTHERgreyFOCUS]

Hey great build! We are going to be getting an intake and exhaust soon and where wondering how you liked the stealth system? Did you feel any gains in power? Thanks