FocusCanada Forums

I'm a little lazy. So I'm simply copy and pasting the relevant (and typically picture heavy) postings from my focal jet thread here.

this "build" has been more of a rebuild than anything.

Riitm;7377186 Wrote:Well let me start by saying I am new to the focus owners club. Not my first Ford, but my first Ford worth driving. My previous cars consisted of:

1987 Mercury grande Marquise (R.I.P)
1990 Mazda Protege GT (which I still have but unfortunately is in a serious state of disrepair probably my favorite all around car.)
and finally (before the Focus)
1990 Honda Civic SI.

Editors Note: apparently photobucket is being lame and for some reason my photos are showing up rotated in odd directions. this may be a cache issue on my computer but sorry if it's a universal thing.

Now onto the whole point of this post, my Focus:"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly".

Found the car through a co-worker of my girlfriend, it was his daily driver for the past few years, including some serious commuting when he lived in Calgary, and worked in Drumheller. Car came with 200 000+ Km on the Odometer, but otherwise felt reasonably solid. after a few inspections and some talking down, he took $1400CAD for it.

Now onto the name.

The Good: I found a car that wasn't 20 years old, and cost me only 1400 (plus a $100 inspection), that ran... well it runs. The body isn't rusted out, the undercarriage is actually in great shape, and aside from some bolt on mod's it was relatively stock. (Note: I am not a fan of buying previously tuned cars, because you have no idea what exactly has been done, and how well it has been done). It came with remote locks and an alarm (not a feature I adore but in a bigger city it has it's purposes), a nice set of after market (I think MOMO) racing pedals, and it had an alright CD player and after market speakers installed.







The Bad: As stated previously, the body isn't rusted out, but its certainly no blank slate. There's a nice dent in the front, right behind the passenger side wheel which is estimated at $1000 to fix. There is a dent in the rear quarter on the drivers side which is estimated at $100 to fix (and has some minor scratches). There is also some paint chipping behind the front tires from the car having been lowered, and I assume driven on gravel and not having had any protection or mud flaps to deflect away debris not to mention some rusting/paint chipping on the front hood. The seat's had some ripping along the side, and it was a little skummy on the interior, though that's now cleaned (he was a coffee drinker, I can tell by all the spillage along the front right hand side of the driver seat.). The tint is a little old and faded, though it's about as dark as I would ever want it, and finally, the front windshield needs to be replaced. Period. It's a veritable roadmap of rock chips and spider cracks.









The Ugly: 200 000 km's on the engine. Aftermarket headlights. Oh and I can't read my speedometer at night.

I'll start at the back and work my way forward.

When I was test driving the car i never thought to ask to do so after dark to check out the lights and dash situation. Well, lo and behold a few days after I paid for the car and was reasonably content with it, I go to drive somewhere after dark and half of my gauge cluster is so dark I can't see it. It's nothing big, just a burned out dash light but I think it was the fact he didn't inform me of it, and I don't know how many average people would think to gauge their speed simply on their RPM.

The headlights are some Ebay special projector set that well... I don't have any instructions for, and the drivers side refuses to work so far. The running light works on the passenger, as does the low beams, and the divers side is entirely dark aside from the little LED ring around the one projector. Oh and I don't have high beams. At all. Thus far I've been lucky and night driving has been minimal, but this is just one more issue I have to contend with on top of...

The engine. Just your average 2.0L ZETEC power plant, with a AEM intake and some noisy and rusted out exhaust. It's Dirty, it's seen some k's, and it needs a lot of TLC. I'm fortunate, though I am not a mechanic, I have friends who are, and who are willing to help, and excited to have a new little project to play with. thus far the list of repairs/upgrades goes something to the tune of:
New air filter (seriously the old one was disgusting)
New gaskets (pretty much all around, not leaking like a civv but there is some weeping that needs to be dealt with sooner than later)
New spark plugs
New O2 Sensor (the check engine light is tripped, what else could it be?)
New (and upgraded) ignition leads
New fuel Filter
New Exhaust Heat shield
New fuel pump (maybe)
New belts (all around)
New engine mounts
and a good general clean-up and proper tuning.











new air filter and gaskets are in and going in on friday along with a full fluids flush and engine cleaning. everything else will be done as I can afford it and as my friends can fit me into their busy schedule between working on their own cars.

Wish me luck as I have VERY limited funds, and very ambitious goals/plans with this car. this sure as **** ain't no 90 Civic (even an SI).

Other hopes/plans:

new driver side rear view mirror cover
new rear hatch plastic piece(?)
european style honey comb grill(s)
foglight fix-up (they're dingy anyone have a good DIY on making them look nice and new?)
SVT front bumper cover (maybe) or front lip spoiler
Rubber baby buggy side skirts (off the 00 foci to hopefully help protect and cover up the bits of damage already there)
SAP rear bumper cover
SVT suspension upgrade (oh yeah, i have lowering springs in the back and stock ride height in the front... it looks kinda sad)
SVT rear disc brakes upgrade
SVT front brakes upgrade
new rubber all around, and possibly new rims (thinking the original stock web style, not the five spoke I have)
new headlights, possibly hella's if I can find them within my price range, if not thinking I might get a pair of stock ones from a pick-a-part and paint them up nicely as per a DIY I saw in the exterior forum.
and a new exhaust (definitely digging the FSwerks Stealth, it's the top of my list).


to anyone who made it through my veritable novel, thanks for taking the time and reading, any criticism's or advice are welcomed. :rock:

Riitm;7452280 Wrote:Update: thanks to spyder, I now have a new set of headlights which look mighty spiffy. the engine is now nicely cleaned, and the few new parts are slowly making a difference, the car still makes some odd noises, but one thing at a time. hopefully a new suspension and tires are in the nearish future after I get thing settled from moving.

and for the visually preferred, here are some pictures of the new lights and the nice clean(er) engine.

Riitm;7635177 Wrote:"It's update time, it's update time..." (Plus ten cool points if you can name the semi butchered reference I just made)

Damn it's been a while, I've been stuck working more than anything, and despite all the money, not much has been done on the FoFo.

Finally got the wheel bearings fixed. Both of the rears are now brand new, and no longer making that throbbing hum. Though I'm thinking the fronts may be one of the not to far down the line projects. Going through the old receipts from the previous owner, I found one of them had been done (not sure which) and usually when one is going the other isn't far behind. Might as well get them both done, and make sure it won't be an issue later down the road.

As for the actual repair itself, as always it did not go smoothly. I was unable to access the compound my buddies shop was on (secured military base, go figure) so he did it on his own. In the process of pressing the first bearing into the drum, it decided it no longer had the will to live. $230 later I had a new set of rear drums, and within an hour or two everything was back up and running. The only thing he didn't do before putting the new drums on was get a chance to paint them, so I did that last weekend. Nice simple black rock guard. Hopefully they won't look like **** like the old pair did.

But my next set of repairs will come in the form of my tax return getting turned into parts. Thus far my list is as follows:
-Timing belt (I've heard mention of a "kit" that Steve puts together, going to ask him about that)
-water pump (as a "while we're in there" thing)
-SVT suspension (finally... to replace that lean back Joe cool look my car has adopted)
- last but not least, a set of those nice black plastic side skirts they had on the zx3's till about '02.

The main reason for the timing belt is that the car has 200 000+ km's and as far as I can tell has never had the belt replaced. It’s been feeling laggy and it's long over due.

After that... maybe I can get a windshield that isn't sand blasted and maybe get a few dents pulled/buffed out. But that's a story for another post.

Riitm;7656867 Wrote:aaaand more pictures. yay. keep in mind this is only the primer, unfortunately it started chilling down just as i was laying down the final coat of primer, hopefully next weekend the proper black will get laid down.









Special thanks to my dad and his ability to remember how to do this after 40 years.

Looking good.

Nice work man. Coming along very nicely.

It is coming along nicely..
the good, the bad, the ugly is a Clint Eastwood film.... "Hey Blondie!" No?

And that's why I don't watch old movies heh, my bad. And little update. Tail lights are now looking much cleaner and oem.