Twenty's Twenty-twelve

[Twenty]

Tonight a quick detour on the way home allowed me to roll the Focus over to 10,000km and grab a picture.

Also as a comment on the lip in winter, it is NOT a snowplow. This was the one and only time I hit snow with it, and that was just a small pile of loose stuff.

[Young gun]

FORD. Snows coming. And around here and when I drive, My stock height GA is ALMOST a plow. If it had the SC/T bumper it would be a plow for about 1 mile before it probably would get ripped off

[Twenty]

It's been a while since this thread has been updated, life has been hectic lately. I did manage to find the time to 'customize' the Focus a little further on Sunday though. The lip was hit when I found myself stuck on a steep ramp down into a parking lot. I couldn't take it sideways as it was too narrow, so I inched my way down but sure enough heard the sound of carbon fiber scraping. I knew the underside received a few scrapes, and a closer inspection later showed cracks were formed too.

I took a closer look after washing the lip yesterday. I still need to check the mounting holes underneath but there is some subtle damage on up. I tried to make it show up as best as I could in the pictures; in real life you have to know where to look for most of them, and even then they're pretty hard to see.

Underside, scrapes:

Top side, cracks:

This one is by far the most noticeable, it's on the passenger side. It's still pretty easily missed though. It looks worse here.

That sucker wasn't cheap at all, but at least it's in one piece. seeing as how the scrapes are on the backside of the bottom lip, I was extremely close to doing much more damage.

[Coupe_GXP]

I feel for you that dif. sucks.

[[ChaosweaveR]]

Well, that sucks.

[Twenty]

At least it's in one piece. Don't really want to shell out the money for a second.

Alcantara shift boot:

This is something I've wanted to address for a while, but only finally had the chance to.

Having the Sport seats in my Focus, there's plenty of nice silver accent stitching in the interior. It runs all over those seats but doesn't continue to the rest of the cabin. I wanted to tie in other parts of the interior by using matching stitching, and the shift boot was one of those parts. I was prepared to restitch the original but then I saw that Redlinegoods had a pattern for the Mk3s so I placed an order.

I also took this as an opportunity to change to a different material for the boot. Since some Ford models like the new Taurus SHO have Alcantara accents, that's what I opted for; genuine black Alcantara.

It was a bit of a gamble to specify the stitching colour with only a photo on their website to estimate a match, but I feel it worked out pretty well. All together I think it'll be a nice OEM-inspired update.

Since it's now Christmas break for a couple of days hopefully I can find the time to take the old boot out and switch over to the new one.

[Coupe_GXP]

Will look good now some STi seats to match your new shift boot lol.

[[ChaosweaveR]]

STOP MAKING ME WANT A FOCUS.

[Ghost]

' timestamp='1356449012' post='77612']

STOP MAKING ME WANT A FOCUS.

jus give in and bleed blue.

[Twenty]

Alcantara shift boot installed:

Yesterday I started on the process of installing the new shift boot. Overall it was fairly straight-forward, and I am very happy with the finished product.

It started by once again removing the stock boot and silver trim from the car and separating the two.

The OEM boot is held in with glue around the plastic base. I used a hobby knife to carefully cut them apart, trying to keep the original leather boot more or less intact. It came out just fine with the only cut sections being the small square contact points where it was glued.

Alignment of the new boot was critical. With the obvious silver stitching, I did my best to ensure it'd line up like stock so that the stitching would be in each of the four corners of the silver trim. It would be clear if it wasn't aligned properly.

It took some delicate repositioning but I got it as close as I could. The new boot wasn't exactly the same dimensions as the stock one, but I was able to position the four coners fairly well around the plastic base.

Looking at the plastic base, you'll want the stitching to line up, centered, within the indented section at each corner.

Some binder clips were used to hold the boot as I adjusted its fitment, continually placing the silver trim back on top to double check.

When I was happy I then used a high-strength modeling adhesive and worked my way around the boot, applying it to one section at a time while leaving the rest clamped to avoid the boot becoming misaligned. When I was done I let it cure overnight.

Today I removed the clips, did some minor trimming of the boot to clear some of the tabs on the backside of the silver trim, and reassembled it (Bad picture, I apologize. It was the only one I had).

I then went into the garage and tested it. I found that the new boot was actually tall enough to sit against my shift knob while maintaining enough slack to go through all of the gears. This was not the case with the OEM leather piece.

However, I felt I wanted it tied down a bit lower as the original had been. I fastened a ziptie around the end and set it to the height I wanted. With the trim clipped back in place and the shift knob reattached, it was in and I'm happy.

As I had mentioned I had to take a bit of a gamble in specifying the stitching's colour, as I only had an online photo to work from. It worked out and I was able to get a very good match for the seats.

SUMMARY

Quality: Very good. Beautiful material, even stitching.

Fitment: Snug but good. Almost sized exactly like the original.

Installation: Needs patience but is straight-forward. If you have that and some basic hobby supplies you're set.

Overall: Very happy. This is something I've wanted for a long time and RedlineGoods came to the rescue.

[Twenty]

' timestamp='1356449012' post='77612']

STOP MAKING ME WANT A FOCUS.

STOP NOT GIVING IN TO ME MAKING YOU WANT A FOCUS.

[Coupe_GXP]

He really wants a STi lol.

[Ghost]

that looks great!

[Young gun]

He still wants his GA cause he still has it so you all lose

[[ChaosweaveR]]

The GA can kindly fuck off.

I want a new car.

[Ringo64]

Woah, woah, woah... We all know Chris is a closet Camaro fan, all that hate is to just put on a show

[havoc1482]

Woah, woah, woah... We all know Chris is a closet Camaro fan, all that hate is to just put on a show

qft

[Twenty]

FSWERKS intake:

I had originally ordered this so it'd hopefully arrive around Christmas, and it was a gift to myself. After some shipping mixups it finally arrived yesterday. It would replace the OEM airbox and K&N filter already in the car.

Normally I don't post photos in which the car is dirty, but here's the finished product anyway. The engine bay is due for a clean.

[[ChaosweaveR]]

That engine cover is teh ugly.

I know what I'm ditching first if I ever get one.

[Coupe_GXP]

he actually had to add that engine cover lol, it didn't come with his trim.

[Twenty]

he actually had to add that engine cover lol, it didn't come with his trim.

Correct. It only came stock on very early Titanium builds. I'll admit it's plasticy, but it looks better than the exposed wire looms.

[Ghost]

with that engine cover, it seems like you have a really big engine or a really really small car...

[Twenty]

It's a milk jug. Tiny little engine.

Intake part II:

Tonight I picked up a couple of parts and updated the intake a little. The assembly now consists of the FSWERKS heatshield, a K&N filter, and a K&N prefilter.

The reason for the filter swap was due to availability of the oils for the two filters; I can easily get (and have) K&N re-oiling supplies whereas I didn't know if I could get the specific supplies for FSWERKS' filter. Plus I have experience with this brand and like their products.

The prefilter had to go on for winter as the intake's location puts the filter in the path of dirt and water being sprayed on the front of the car.

I have no actual complaints with the original filter though, just to be clear. This is more about personal preference and making maintenance easier for myself.

[Twenty]

OEM ST side skirts: ordered.

[Ghost]

nice. when and when?