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MK2 Focus Saloon (GHIA) 1.8 TDCI build thread


FatHead1979
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I've had the car about 4 years & not really done much to it other than an EGR blank & servicing (until this week).  This week I decided it was time for a change, below is a list of what I've got done so far in the last 3 days:

  • Wrapped as much of the front interior as I can (easier said than done for some parts) so that's:
    • The 4 satin steel steering wheel trims
    • Single DIN head unit fascia
    • Upper centre console
    • Gearshift fascia
    • Handbrake fascia
    • Foot well lower trims
    • Lower centre console including the rear "cubby hole"
  • Fitted a single DIN Sony head unit with bluetooth
  • Fitted the external mic & route the cable out of sight
  • Fitted a new chrome & leather gearshift gaiter & surround
  • Replaced the tatty black gear knob with a nice silver one from a Mondeo
  • Replaced all the accessible interior lighting with "white" LEDs
  • Replaced the number plate bulbs with "white" LEDs (integrated resistors because the previous set flickered like a B**CH)
  • Replaced the brake & reverse lights with CREEs (hint the reverse lights now illuminate the kerbside like sidelights which makes parallel parking/reversing at night without clouting the alloys a whole lot easier)
  • Replaced the main beam & side lights with nice "white" ones (side lights are LED)
  • Replaced the single light bulb in the glovebox
  • Replaced the single light blun in the boot with 3 "white" LED pads (I had to wire resistors to ensure there was enough load to stop them flickering, so they're not a bright as they were originally but at least now they won't give someone a epileptic fit!)

Unfortunately I didn't think to take "before" photos although I'm sure everyone here knows what the inside of a MK2 looks like & how crap the standard "yellow" interior lighting is along with "real" wood effect plastic trim!!

To get a bit of practice with the wrapping I bought some unbranded (cheap) carbon wrap on eBay & had 4 goes at the centre console before I was happy that I'd got half an idea what I was doing.  From Friday night onwards I've pretty much worked non stop on the car, I removed the entire centre console (head unit console, surround, gearshift fascia, handbrake fascia, footwell trims & the main centre console with the cup holders etc) & got to work wrapping.  The final wrap material I used is 3M 1080 which is what the wrapping specialists use & there is a MAJOR difference in quality.  If you're thinking of going for the carbon fiber vinyl look, once you've had a good practice with the cheap stuff, don't be cheap get the good stuff, it's even got the tactile finish to it i.e. it's not a flat print & is much more resistant to being overstretched.  Unfortunately it seems to be pretty much impossible to wrap the bottom centre console itself due it's shape (6 different wrapping specialist confirmed that they can't wrap it). :sad: I'm really happy with the end result although I am thoroughly sick of the sight of carbon fiber wrap, lol! :tongue: I've still got the 3 screw covers for the foot well trims to wrap but that should only take 15 minutes or so (but not today).

I replaced the rather poor Ford Transit style head unit with a single DIN Sony with bluetooth & fitted the external mic with the cable routed out of sight but once again forgot to take pictures as I went along :blush: (removing the front A pillar trim was a bit of pain but I managed it without breaking any clips so I'm happy with that)

I've also replaced the brake & reversing exterior bulbs with CREE LED's & all the user accessible interior bulbs including the glove box light (i.e. not the SMDs in the door controls etc) with "white" LED's (I'll take pictures tonight of the lights - & yes I know the car needs a good wipe down/vacuuming) :biggrin:

I'm really happy with things so far.  I've also removed my EGR blank & booked in for a Terraclean on Thursday so i'll be sure to post back with the results.

My plans between now & 3 months time when I get my annual bonus are:

  • Upgraded climate control dials (like Lenny's)
  • 2 new front wings (rust bubble central)
  • New mud flaps all round
  • Strip back both sills to the metal
  • Colour code the fog light front bumper strips
  • Respray for the bonnet, wings, sills (all the way up to door seals) & all 4 doors so hopefully I should have nice "shinee" front end.

On an unrelated note I can thoroughly recommend Nokian Weatherproof tyres for snow & wet weather driving (Auto Express weren't wrong when they rated them 100% for snow/rain).  I had 2 fitted on the front in January for the MOT & I've given them a thorough thrashing in the recent weather, despite the big heavy lump up front (the engine not me) :laugh: the front end has a lovely positive turn in, even in heavy rain.  Not something I could say about the Chinese "ditchfinders" I had on previously. :blush:

Feel free to comment, any suggestions etc are very welcome, if I can give anyone else any help I'll be more than happy to.

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The single din unit looks like a downgrade aesthetically..

Surely a double din unit would have filled the gap and looked better? They can be had for similar prices as single din these days too

www.yorkshiredetailing.co.uk - approved resellers of the Highest quality detailing & Valeting supplies

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I 100% agree that given a choice free of money restraints I would have gone for a decent double DIN installation.  The cost of a decent double DIN head unit was going to be an issue, I got the Sony head unit, external mic, cage, single DIN fascia, harness & steering wheel controls daft cheap on eBay (blind luck) which saved me over £100 on what they all should have.  I had looked at the branded touchscreen double DIN's with a view to fitting a reversing camera but financial common sense won out when I stumbled across all the single DIN stuff I needed at a bargain price.  At least with the single DIN installation I've got somewhere to chuck my phone! :biggrin:

If I'd had to pay the "proper" prices for all the bits required I'd have paid the relatively small price premium for a double DIN installation but I dropped on all the single DIN stuff cheap.  Incidentally by "decent" head unit I don't mean some of 8 year old Sony/Pioneer units people try to palm off on eBay that take 10-15 seconds to read a USB stick.  I wasn't expecting any miracles with the Sony unit I've got now but from the point that it's powered on it starts playing off a USB stick almost instantly which is more than the 4-6 year old Sony & Pioneer units in a couple of my mates cars do (long think before they decide to start playing).

If I was brave enough (& good enough with a soldering iron) I'd replace all the green internal SMD's with blue ones as someone on the forums did a few years ago (I think it was JohnH & they looked MINT!) but I know my own limitations :sad:

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And so we move onto the light show or "Blackpool Illuminations" as my dad would no doubt call it.  It seems the external lights are too bright for my camera phone although I will try & get clearer (less over exposed) photos when it's not -1'C outside.  Although the colour balance of the photos seems to a bit out, the bulbs all have a nice "Audi-ish" cool white look & yes I know by boot is currently full of crap!

At least no-one will be able to say that they didn't see me braking :biggrin:

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Hi Damien, 
Your focus looks great, I like the wrap on sides of centre console very nice idea. 
 
 
Rear 10" HD roof monitor also keeps passengers entertained 
 
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4 minutes ago, Lenny said:
 
Hi Damien, 
Your focus looks great, I like the wrap on sides of centre console very nice idea. 
 
 
Rear 10" HD roof monitor also keeps passengers entertained 
 

If I was to do a 10" screen in the roof I think my wife would divorce me!

Your guides are awesome by the way mate.

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6 hours ago, 1979Damian said:

If I was to do a 10" screen in the roof I think my wife would divorce me!

Your guides are awesome by the way mate.

Thanks very much, 

Suppose I'm lucky i finished the focus before getting married 😀

She's got me modifying the living room now instead, 

Took out fireplace and floor on saturday,

Next to brick up double doors between living room and kitchen and put a 1.5" plastic drain pipe in floor and up middle of wall to hold HDMI cables from cabinet in corner to tv on wall where double doors used to be.

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On 2/15/2016 at 11:17 AM, Lenny said:

Thanks very much, 

Suppose I'm lucky i finished the focus before getting married 😀

She's got me modifying the living room now instead, 

Took out fireplace and floor next brick up double doors and put 1.5" drain pipe in floor and up wall to hold HDMI cables from cabinet to tv on wall 

Hi Damien, 
Your focus looks great, I like the wrap on sides of centre console very nice idea. 
 
 
Rear 10" HD roof monitor also keeps passengers entertained 
 

I did it the other way around (living room 1st then the car).

The funny thing is although the wife complains when I'm "messing" with the car if I give it a few days of driving the car, she usually comes round to my way of thinking.  Fitting Nokian Weatherproofs instead of "no name Chinese Ditchfinders" caused some initial earache regarding the pennies but after she drove in heavy rain with them on for the 1s time she changed her tune :tongue:

At some point this year I'm hoping to replace the front discs with some vented ones & some EBC yellow pads (there's a bit of pulsing when the brakes are applied) although the main focus has to be the bodywork.

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Now I'm back at home I can see linked pictures, that will look look great when it's finished

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The heater controls knobs that so many members have fitted are on their way :biggrin:

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On Monday, February 15, 2016 at 9:34 AM, 1979Damian said:

 

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Look forward to seeing the heater controls fitted when they arrive mate, 

This guy in Poland makes some nice glovebox strips aswell you may be interested

Also to mention; the grooved discs make a nice drone sound under heavy braking like "stewwwww" 

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lol, got the dials fitted & the coked up engine Terracleaned today.  Not had a chance to do a long run but so far it idles a lot more smoothly, pulls more smoothly at lower revs & the 45 miles total I've covered today have managed 51 MPG which is about 10 more than I've been averaging lately.  The other rear speaker has stopped working now but I really can't be bothered with paying out the cash for decent replacements, gaskets etc for fitting when I sit in the front so I can hear my tunes just fine :tongue:

Will also definitely need to sort out the front discs, I thought I'd give the engine a little test & got it up to 80....sorry Stoney I meant 70, braked fairly hard & the steering wheel nearly jumped out of my hands :blush:

The joys of car ownership!  Will sort out a picture of the dials fitted, they look pretty good on top of the carbon fiber wrap.

Roll on the weekend!

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  • 2 years later...

Okay chaps, just a quick update.  She's still going strong at 152K miles (original turbo, injectors, clutch, MDF etc....famous last words :whistling:) and I've busy with a few extra mods including @Stoney871 guide to fitting a MK2.5 centre console.

Recent mods/work include:

  • Spider Arachnid tuning box (fitted around the end of last year and on the Road 3 setting I'm now averaging 61 MPG brim to brim with a nice increase in shove when I need it)
  • K&N panel filter
  • New Pagid brake discs (all 4 corners)
  • New Brembo brake pads (all 4 corners, my EBC Yellowstuff pads were coming to the end of their service life)
  • New brake calipers (all 4 corners, 2 Pagid, 2 genuine Ford, 3 od the original ATE calipers were starting to stick a bit)
  • New Pagid brake hoses (all 4 corners as it seemed a bit daft not to replace the 13 year old hoses whilst I'd got everything off the car)
  • Swapped the centre console for a MK2.5 one
  • Wrapped the upper and lower console sections as well as the "spokes" on the steering wheel using Vvivid Tech Art carbon fibre wrap.  (I have to say I like having a proper "cubby hole" under the arm rest as well as now having 3 power points to choose from, I doubt I would have risked it without Stoneys guide so thanks once again!
  • New gear knob (genuine Ford) and gaiter (eBay special)
  • Holographic Ford blue" badges (front badge, rear badge and steering wheel) :wub:
  • Xtrons PB78FSFP-B Android head unit (8 core, 4GB RAM, 32GB storage, also fitted an external mic, the DAB dongle and 128GB microSD card)
  • Fed one of the 3 USB cables through into the glove compartment just in case 2 SD card slots isn't enough :huh:
  • Replaced the knackered factory fit rear door Speakers with some cheap Pioneer's (They might only have been 20 odd quid but they're a load better than the crappy "paper" ones that were fitted by Ford
  • Fitted the common Focus "knob" upgrade for the fab/temperature controls
  • Fitted Heko wind deflectors (front and rear)
  • Fitted 16" alloys from a MK4 Mondy to replace the hideous :sick: looking Ghia ones

Work still to do:

  • Purchase and wrap the side trims for each footwell
  • Possibly replace the windscreen DAB antenna with a "proper" replacement for the roof aerial that will do GPS, DAB and FM.

I also had some respray work done about a year ago to tart her up a bit so I've included a pic of what it looked like afterwards.

Yes I know it needs vacuuming out! (before anyone comments on the state of the carpets etc) :blush:

She's getting on a bit now so I doubt I'll be doing much more on her although the head unit is transferable to a MK4 Mondy so I know what I'll be getting as and when the time comes for this one.

Incidentally the Xtrons unit was really easy to fit because it was from their "car specific" range, other than fannying about with ACC everything including the box for steering wheel controls was included and just plugged straight in, also no need for any unsightly "trim" pieces to make the unit "fit".  I'm a picky person when it comes to tech etc and I'm VERY happy with the performance of the unit, especially now I've spent a little time installing my choice of apps.

The only caveat to the above was that I originally bought the lowest spec Ford specific head unit and it struggled to run Google Maps and MediaMonkey (media player) for longer than a few minutes before closing one due to a lack of RAM as the unit only had 1GB of RAM.  My advice is if you're going to fit one then avoid the PCD77FSF model because it simply won't get the job done.  The top spec model also comes with Android 8 so it looks a bit more modern than the older versions of Android as well as starting up in about half the time from a cold boot.  Oh and the button lighting is "full palette" so I was able to try and get a decent match for the old fashioned factory fit green lighting in the car.

 

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Glad I helped in a small way [emoji41]
Looking good so far.

Sent from my SM-G965F (S9+)

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Just now, Stoney871 said:

Glad I helped in a small way emoji41.png
Looking good so far.

Sent from my SM-G965F (S9+)

Cheers, as I mentioned above I think it's about as far as I can justify taking her.  Having had 6.5 largely good years out of her with the biggest "bill" I've had being what I paid for parts when renewing the brakes, I've more than had back the £3.5K I paid for out of the car and couldn't be happier with her.  I suspect that the old MK2 weakness of rust will finish her before anything major goes (obviously the DMF will explode during my morning M1 commute tomorrow now that I've said that!) :taz:

To be honest I plan on running her until something major goes pop on the basis that I know she's been looked after (because I've done it myself) and ultimately I think it's "Better the devil you know".  There's no guarantee that even if I spend £6K on a MK4.5 Mondy to replace her, it could turn out that the service history is Mickey Mouse and the only oil change its seen is the one done by the dealer before I buy it!

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Decent looking car 👍. Also rare seeing the focus saloon in the UK. Like those carbon fibre bits. 

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On 9/10/2018 at 3:18 PM, zain611 said:

Decent looking car 👍. Also rare seeing the focus saloon in the UK. Like those carbon fibre bits. 

Cheers mate, I'd wrapped my old stuff in 3m 1080 stuff which was pretty easy to work with, the Vvivid stuff was initially a lot harder to work with but looks a lot more realistic i.e. real carbon fibre usually has a smooth/glossy finished, not matt texture like the 3m wrap.

The only thing I'd change about the saloon relative to the hatchback is the ride height, it doesn't feel too high once you're in it but when you look at it from the outside (side on) it looks a bit like it's sticking its backside up in the air!

I'd have also like to have fitted the front bumper from the Focus CC but it'd be far too much money including spray work, although it does transform the look of the car.

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My dad used to have a mk1 focus saloon and that also looked like the rear end was high. Don't get why ford did that. He lowered the car and the back actually sat nice. He put on some 17' ford 7 spoke alloys some of the focuses came with and that looked good. He had the 1.8 TDCI engine which he experienced stalling issues and just put him off a manual car

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