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Much appreciated! I'm learning about this as I go with this thing, so I'm taking a crack at this because I couldn't find a shop around here that would touch it once they found out what it was (still guessing on that one).
The Rieger has been fixed, btw! Got this done o'er the weekend last.
I got together with my brother tonite and we headed over to get welding... we ended up getting damn-near 'there' in a couple hours.
Keep in mind, I really only saw this kinda of work on car shows and every so often a friend/relative! I'm already in the industry so learning to weld is on my checklist for life; that and I can make other parts of my life less expensive by making what I need.
I've been using my car to teach myself all sort of chicanery of the autophile type kind. It was fun at first, and even through tech school... now that it's my week it has gotten a little tougher to keep happy and motivated about hurrying/spending. I might be able to scrabble it all together by Focus Rising/Ford Nationals 2016, so that's what I'm shooting for. I need to learn (guess) where to put these o2 bungs in the whole thing but I keep hearing everyone knowledgeable (in my opinion, anyhow) saying "18 inches downstream"... I had the AEM instructions for the damn gauge when I first set it on jackstands but they are long gone now.
I'm headed back Saturday after I snag up another 3" ninety degree exhaust pipe or two for cutting & welding what I need. Intuition tells me to make the shape of the route to the exit as smooth as possible to cut down on turbulence inside the piping, so I may need to cut slices and weld them to the shape I need to cut this last bit! AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH! SO CLOSE!
It's like I never get out of work... gotta get over often and put in work there, too. Man, it'll be worth it I just wish I'd seen the snafu's coming faster!
The downpipe needs to have the o2 bungs welded on the holes I drilled and it's done. My brother & I got the two nineties damn-near perfect. The trouble was we didn't catch my missed measurement until the last v-band was welded on. Just one more slice outta that thing and it will be clear (comfortably) of the axle & shift cables finally.
It turns out after 5+ emails I needed to call GReddy to FINALLY get an answer on the power harness/connector I bought a month or so ago for the boost controller...it's on galactic effn backorder! I anticipated this after almost two months and no return correspondence about the harness my kit was missing; in the end I had to make my own circuit.
In my "off nights" I also got my rear valance finished and the washer fluid reservoir modified (finally). Pics to follow!
I got this off a fellow fanatic up in Pennsylvania accidentally. I have been looking for a Stoffler rear valance for a few years having run across a familiar conundrum: got money-no part but if you are flatfooted the thing is right there! This time the site in Australia I found a while ago (that had it AND would ship here) was gone when I had the budget back on track.
I got a splitter from the Rieger from this gentleman and he also had this thing for sale. It was meant to be! I like most of the lines on the piece, but I have no desire to run dual tips on mine so the center bit was unnecessary for me. Learning the body repair chemicals to fix the rear the way I wanted has been pretty fun, possibly because I picked an easy project to start with!
The valance
I wanted to get the front fascia supported a little bit better, so I made some brackets with aluminum bar stock. New retainers in the fenders (Thanks, Internet!) and the aluminum holding more surface area. I'll really need to screw up for this to go awry.
These bastards took the better part of a week to get finished because the car is spread out at too many places. That, and I don't have a garage at my place I can put shop tools!
... man, I tells ya.; ain't no rest for the weary! I haven't kept a very sleeping schedule the last few weeks. It's all rather exciting, I managed to not get completely freaked out by the tune (blowing up, collateral damage from new physics, misc. SNAFUs that always happen...) until the drive up to pick it up.
I was cool even when he called me during a lunch; the ceramic of the plugs had degraded and stuck to the boots so when the boots came out the, chunks went in the cylinder bore. It was caught and the guys were able to get the process moving again. Stuff happens; it could happen to anyone in there (happens to myself as well: c'est la vie!). I had left a bunch of odds and ends in the wrong orientation, the charge pipes kept blowing off mid-pull, too.I had left a few notes of things I knew I wasn't sure of and dammit: they managed to get it pretty much tuned up!
Then an oil leak. They kept throwing oil through it to finish the tune and then the f*#king dipstick broke off at the top indicator hole. This damn car... (it's like I bought a lemon I DIDN'T EVEN WANT RED. but I knew they weren't going to take that seriously either). I got it towed back to my work the next day and it's full-tilt boogie now! The rest of the parts are getting lined up now... pics as I get time to upload and post!
More work coming!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now this!!! I hear that a Contour piece fits here and it's *GASP!* metal piece... so that's happening a.s.a.p. now.
I stayed at the dealership all. damn. weekend. didn't sleep; just punchlist. You're not gonna believe the crap that got done overnight! I also took tons of pictures, so this thread is about to moneyshot err'whur.
'Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life'.
Well, it certainly does feel like work sometimes but I do love the free-time activities!
Here's my home-away-from-home these days. I've been doing 12+ for a few weeks in prep for Ford Nationals / Focus Rising 2016. I used to work here for a few a bunch of years ago and that long weekend was possible because they leave me keys before they go now... I love this place!
I don't have a home space where I could do any of this easily/safely and the work has been non-stop, not only that but there's this pesky punchlist I need out of my brain. The only way out is through it all.
In the process of finishing the coolant housing leak & thermostat replacement one of my coworkers came over and pointed out how bad the serpentine (accessory) belt was... that led to the awful and fortuitous discovery that not only had the bolts that attach the alternator mounting bracket to the block walked out down the road. And a while ago at that. The corrosion and stains definitely had some time on 'em. Not the bad news: two bolts had snapped off just below the block!
Ford up the hill at the dealer I work at tells me the part had been discontinued. Off to the pick-n-pull yard I went for lunch.
Here went the chaos that was last weekend's 26hr work bender until the biggest bunches of upgrades were installed (finally!!!!)
The front SVT (ST170) swap, the valve cover, the rear deck carpet, the iffy rear speakers and sub, and the new lower control arms with polyurethane bushings to match the rear that came with the cradle.
The hits just keep on comin' with this thing. Finding it all early is miraculous, though. As the evenings roll by, I stay at work until close to "do me" for once... as long as I stay motivated at work they're cool with it.
Sorry for the radio silence recently!
Ford Nationals (the BIG one here) has been looming and I needed to keep the progress-pics down to a minimum until afterwards!
It's looking alright for it's age and experience, or at least as good as I'd want a car to look that I still plan on thrashing! That, and in my haste I couldn't get paint & body done professionally so I decided to learn.
Two days until the prep gets it's day. I have forum/driving club friends coming from West Virginia, New York & New Jersey to crash the night prior. With the show in Pennsylvania only thirty minutes north it makes for some very interesting back road routes. I've gone up so many times for family and car shows; rarely ever repeating the last handful of trips. Like getting lost then immediately recognizing everything... it's crazy!
Then you're gonna sh*t rainbows like I did last night, say around 11pm...
Stayed late at the dealership to finally get my special ordered FL paint code in spray cans applied and cleared last night...
I'll preface this by saying: I love my wife, she's an unbelievably great lady and a saint for living with my ass. I'm still glad she's involved because the alternative is like the ancient allegory about pushing the stone up a hill; but she DID order the wrong paint code in haste. I also failed to confirm that I had the correct shyte at a dozen or so points along the way TO THE THIRD COAT before I realized I was throwing the wrong paint code on my car... and I leave for Focus Rising in less than 24 now!
Things are about to get reeeeeeeeally interesting. Pictures to come; SOOOOOOO MANY PICTURES (only once I debut this pig, though)!!!
Ford Nationals/Focus Rising 2016 was just this last weekend, so I can show off and tell everything now!
3rd place Mk1 Modified Hatchback AND "Finest Five" @ FR16!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*PHEW!* Glad to get that out finally! I can sleep again, too! I'm super excited to take some new ideas into the next year along with the detailing supplies I stocked up on at All Ford Nationals @ Carlisle, PA Fairgrounds.
I sold this car to myself when I was a Ford salesperson at Sheehy Ford in Gaithersburg, MD. Traded in a Toyota Paseo I absolutely hated for $100, but bought it back with the next check to resell @ $800 two weeks later. It was six ways to screwed up but somehow still ran well as old Toyotas do. I was thinking of getting an imported Toyota Starlet front clip and swapping it all in the pursuit of speed. The Focus is so much better, though! I need to find the first one before I changed anything.
The big thing for the car season for me has become this airport auto cross that takes place on the tarmac of Cumberland Regional Airport. These grounds, considered hallowed by many, once hosted real racing competitions with some well-known drivers such as Roger Penske or Carroll Shelby. Massive crowds would gather and line the hilltops to watch the action take place. The local racers have National Road Autosport to help get racing back on the property and continue the history of racing at the airport.
All kinds of history with this airport (CBE as it's known to pilots) including grassroots and major level racing events, this joint was also a frequent testing ground. Several of the most wild prototype Corvettes were tested here. http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/...pskszmpyyf.jpg
Folks from across the Mid-Atlantic flipped out and sought any legal help they could to save it, and much lobbying and digging were done to get this airport event running again. The fact that the season is available at all is a blessing so I have a few club dates coming up where we're making a weekend out of this: It's an awesome way to keep up with you car family outside the major events! All I can do is see if anyone else wants to go racing out here! There's a restaurant on-site and their staff as well as those of the National Road Autosport club that host the racing event are all super nice folks, too. The local hotels aren't too bad and if you jump on the schedule well-in-advance you can get better prices that once they catch on something is going on in town that weekend!
I used to drive up before dawn to race, but I just don't have the patience for that these days. I stay up in town so the heat-soak is less a factor and the mind is fresh. Here's a few of the spots around town to get into something NON-racing related.
I'm gathering some of the race footage to throw up so you can see what we get into up there... come on out and see what your car and you can do!
I've been coming up to this place since 2003 when I bought my car. The earliest picture I have of my car is from this spot, and you can only see the front of the thing!
It's come a long way from stock
A few buddies & I created a little car club (started by Focus Fanatic friends!). We range from Central PA, another from West Virginia, and another from Staten Island NY. We went on the Coal Country Cruise a number of years ago after the discovery of a crazy-awesome trip through the woods and mountains of central Pennsylvania... the sad fact that these airport events were shut down for a while due to politics was why we met and cruised through those old routes.
We have fantastic events like this one, and many more local and more serious events to distract us now! The mountain runs are still some seriously beautiful weekends of low-key hangouts and fun driving. PLENTY to do!
I got a few races in at the airport auto cross events before the car suffered from crappy heat issues it never dealt with before. That power steering line is stuck between heat exchangers and just cannot be helping power steering temperatures throughout the system! The original rack just went haywire and would twitch powerfully (a, worse w/ speed, b, more once hot) to the right. I found out while passing someone and between 3-and-4 it pulled the car HARD at the cars I was passing. What a ride... I need to get some catch up pics up here!
It's gotten crazy as I've progressed in my career... I have a number of stupid, nagging items in my own cars and a few things between friends and family work that I've just sort of accumulated recently.
This damn Civic has been a project for the little brother that I'm dealing with while I also get the steering twitch-afflicted rack out.
I needed to replace the SVT axle in the thing; the inside boot was splittng from dry rot and making a big mess. All sorts of stupid little grievances and nearly-finished bits. I ran out of money to throw at the thing and made it well past Nationals with it... the borrowed time now over I need to get the few parts in my possession so I can race this damn thing again!!! While I replaced the entire rack I figured that addressing the excessive heat through this old "cooler" linewasn't a half bad idea. I would've done an engine oil cooler but I need fittings and a larger cooler by the looks of these fittings.
I need to realign the suspension and do a few few shakedown drives next before I really trust this thing fully. Oh! The damn door handle snapped internally... AGAIN! Gotta love that pot-metal b.s. they built these assemblies with.
What a cracking job you've done on that car. Bet it goes well too. Wow $30k in college fees to become a technician! Amazing how different things are here in England. We just start in a garage on the job learning from leaving school aged 16 and go to college one day a week for the theory. And the college course is free and we get paid a low weekly wage while we're learning lol.
What a cracking job you've done on that car. Bet it goes well too. Wow $30k in college fees to become a technician! Amazing how different things are here in England. We just start in a garage on the job learning from leaving school aged 16 and go to college one day a week for the theory. And the college course is free and we get paid a low weekly wage while we're learning lol.
Thank you!
There are still technical high schools around, but "career & technology" schools are more common. The focus tends to be on college/university attendance though... the funny thing is how it's all to lead to the next payment. Lincoln Technical Institute is involved in some kind of legal wranglings among with all the other tech schools/community colleges/etc. involving the overuse of student loans. So, I'm still stuck with the bill without even a lousy completion printout to throw in a frame.
I tried to get into a shop years prior to no avail. I had only sales in my background, so I never got calls back. After LTI I could get all kinds of interviews, though.
Show season being on the rise again, I've been putting some prep time in for Focus Rising @ Ford Nationals (Carlisle, PA) again.
I had a hiccup in the shop at work that required a deduction... long story short, I forgot about them and they did too. A windfall check hit me for about $1000. I was over the moon, but then the clutch started acting dead.
Turns out it was.
I have been hoarding extra SVT/ST170 getrag parts and upgrades (and an entire spare trans), sooooooooooooo... all the goodies found their way in over the last weekend; pics to come!
Love a good MK1 focus. Always helps being able to do the big stuff at work. Luckily we have a Bodyshop at our dealer so my paint work is always well priced ��
Love a good MK1 focus. Always helps being able to do the big stuff at work. Luckily we have a Bodyshop at our dealer so my paint work is always well priced ��
Man, that is my next big need: a complete refresh. I've certainly had my fun with it, so the paint looks it up close (in my opinion).
Has anyone with an SVT lightweight flywheel ever replaced just the frictions?!?!?!?!?! It's the first or second line in their sales pitches but hold yer breath and try to find them shyts online some damn where.
Welp... $900 to get everything back in there brand-new off some rando's shelves... Thank God for eBay! I snagged an open box deal for another Clutchmasters FX400 (this one has a four puck clutch W/ matching aluminum flywheel): $349 to my door!!!
Have I expressed how pleased and genuinely happy I am that the clutch finally ess'd the bed; I get to play with upgrades again, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! That spare transmission has been glaring at me in the hallway for months now, and the differential has me geekin' out... so long as I don't mangle anything during the install next weekend!
I was also shopping for autoX supplies last week and some suggested ad popped up for a company that sells really cool looking door decals and magnetic versions for race weekends this summer... just under $100 for the magnets for both door numbers and class lettering... no WAY I'm dropping that much coin for the idea! So, it sent me down a click hole looking up magnetic sheets and vinyl... first up was the carbon fiber mk1 Focus badges a fellow Fanatic has got himself making.
... and then there's the really exciting parts!!!!!
So, using Friday evening to gather needed supplies...
The power has been dwindling and I suspected the clutch. Turns out I was right.
The new one
New passenger axle had to go in, too. Damn.
I used the last few days to clean off the trans case in preparation of the install day, and the day was upon me.
Last night turned into an impromptu fix-it session when Craig stopped through en route to Florida. We (He) got his collapsed PCV hose sorted and off he went.
She rolls nice and tight again!!! Now to just put a few hundred break in miles on it all and then commence to the thrashings!
... making my autoX numbers instead of throwing a hundred build-dollars at magnets.
Focus Rising 2017 prep can go into the detailing phase and final bits before the show... running down to the last few weeks I always get jittery when I sit still. There's gotta be something I could be doing to be better prepared!!!
