Hey folks,
I'm new to the forum and done a little work on my tdci focus in the last week so thought I'd introduce myself....
My previous car was a fairly tidy bmw e46 318ci, I grew bored of it though after having it for 18 months so I sold it with the plan of having no car for a while but I couldn't hack it and my friend was selling a focus tdci 115hp on 123k miles with terrible bodywork and no service history. Sounds awful but I thought I'd take it for a test drive anyway, the only mechanical fault as far as I could tell was a sticky caliper apart from that the engine was as sweet as a nut so I took it home for the total sum of £450.
This is how it looked when I bought it
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It doesn't look that bad from that photo but it's the best I have of it standard. It had matching nasty dents on both rear corners, rusty sills and arches, a welded door where a lorry had reversed into it and slow punctures on the front tyres.
So, I priced up 4 new tyres and I couldn't justify spending it on tyres for crappy standard wheels so after a scan on eBay I found these fairly rare flat faced 16"compomotives with 4 brand new tyres two of which are toyo proxes for £350.. Close to the price of the car but hey I liked them a lot!
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You can see the welded door on that picture. The car came with a 2nd hand door, 2 wing mirrors and a brand new front bumper. Unfortunately the door was actually from a 5 door, upon discovering this we took our frustration out on it and had a little fun driving over it and into it etc with my friends beat up micra...
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Then because the bodywork was so bad.. There was no way I was
Going to attempt or pay to have it all fixed as it just was not justifiable, instead I bought a gallon of nato green paint then the work began.... Sanding it down, grinding the rusty arches back and the rusty sills
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Also sourced a 2nd hand door pretty cheap from the scrappys. After a couple of days of sanding the painting began...
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Then this is the final product (I don't actually have any good pictures yet)
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In my opinion not a bad finish for a roller painted car in a dusty garage done in around 4 days.
It's a £450 car with £350 wheels and a £40 paint job and now I'm actually really starting to like it! While it was in the garage my friends being car nuts decided to chop the centre box out and weld a straight pipe and also fir an induction kit to it all for free and now t sounds mad! It whistles a little and on 4th and 5th gear it chatters when I let off which is so addictive!
I wasn't planning on spending money on it but I'm quite enjoying how different it is and I've had lots of positive comments so far so I have a few additions to add to it soon which I will keep you updated on. It's not a serious show car it's just a bit of fun we're going to attach mad ideas to for the hell of it!
All the work so far is I've fitted a new caliper, new front pads and discs, a bearing, a tie rod and had the timing belt done seeing as it has no arrive history. Anyway it won't be to everyone's taste but let me know what you guys think and throw any cool ideas at me!
Thanks for reading!
Oz
I'm new to the forum and done a little work on my tdci focus in the last week so thought I'd introduce myself....
My previous car was a fairly tidy bmw e46 318ci, I grew bored of it though after having it for 18 months so I sold it with the plan of having no car for a while but I couldn't hack it and my friend was selling a focus tdci 115hp on 123k miles with terrible bodywork and no service history. Sounds awful but I thought I'd take it for a test drive anyway, the only mechanical fault as far as I could tell was a sticky caliper apart from that the engine was as sweet as a nut so I took it home for the total sum of £450.
This is how it looked when I bought it
It doesn't look that bad from that photo but it's the best I have of it standard. It had matching nasty dents on both rear corners, rusty sills and arches, a welded door where a lorry had reversed into it and slow punctures on the front tyres.
So, I priced up 4 new tyres and I couldn't justify spending it on tyres for crappy standard wheels so after a scan on eBay I found these fairly rare flat faced 16"compomotives with 4 brand new tyres two of which are toyo proxes for £350.. Close to the price of the car but hey I liked them a lot!
You can see the welded door on that picture. The car came with a 2nd hand door, 2 wing mirrors and a brand new front bumper. Unfortunately the door was actually from a 5 door, upon discovering this we took our frustration out on it and had a little fun driving over it and into it etc with my friends beat up micra...
Then because the bodywork was so bad.. There was no way I was
Going to attempt or pay to have it all fixed as it just was not justifiable, instead I bought a gallon of nato green paint then the work began.... Sanding it down, grinding the rusty arches back and the rusty sills
Also sourced a 2nd hand door pretty cheap from the scrappys. After a couple of days of sanding the painting began...
Then this is the final product (I don't actually have any good pictures yet)
In my opinion not a bad finish for a roller painted car in a dusty garage done in around 4 days.
It's a £450 car with £350 wheels and a £40 paint job and now I'm actually really starting to like it! While it was in the garage my friends being car nuts decided to chop the centre box out and weld a straight pipe and also fir an induction kit to it all for free and now t sounds mad! It whistles a little and on 4th and 5th gear it chatters when I let off which is so addictive!
I wasn't planning on spending money on it but I'm quite enjoying how different it is and I've had lots of positive comments so far so I have a few additions to add to it soon which I will keep you updated on. It's not a serious show car it's just a bit of fun we're going to attach mad ideas to for the hell of it!
All the work so far is I've fitted a new caliper, new front pads and discs, a bearing, a tie rod and had the timing belt done seeing as it has no arrive history. Anyway it won't be to everyone's taste but let me know what you guys think and throw any cool ideas at me!
Thanks for reading!
Oz
yeh the whole process has been a laugh! Off to pick some budget coilovers up today 
