Phil's Build Thread

[Stoney871]

Bwahahahha. [emoji83]

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[FatHead1979]

5 hours ago, Phil21185 said:

Feel free to not do anything which plasters that picture all over my build thread, guys!

Y'know, where I proudly post what I've done to my car so others can follow if they want and occasionally rebrowse it myself so I can once again bask in the glow of a mod well done.

Now it's "cool mod, nice mod, sweet mod, AAARGHHH, PINKLE!!"

Too late 

[Phil21185]

Update to my interference problem:

I tried fitting ferrites directly behind the light cluster, ie as close to the source as physically possible and with the light cluster hanging off the car (resting in the boot) the problem is solved. When refitted to the car however the problem returns as if the ferrites aren't there at all.

The problem did still occur with the clusters off and without ferrites so that's not it. The other thing is I only put ferrites on the positive wires so I'll try on both when I have some more daylight.

The other thing to consider is that the ferrites I bought were huge as I wanted them to go over the whole loom. Theyre too big for just one wire but too long to loop the wire through twice...

As an aside, rear fogs are NOT 380 bulbs either! They are actually twin filament (though they don't need to be) white (not red!) 566 bulbs or BAZ15D. They have pins at the 12 and 5 positions (ie roughly 150 degrees apart) and also offset in height. I have also seen bulbs advertised as 567s which seem to have the same pins but look like they are amber.

ALSO! I get a canbus error with 2 led fogs fitted. With just one and one original filament bulb it's no problem, so one side needs a resistor fitting.

When I'm finally done with no errors, I'll condense the last page of waffle into a straightforward concise post with everything I've done!

 

Whew!

[Phil21185]

Yet another update with my brake lights. Turns out the problem was gone mid testing last time because the boot was open and the hatch was shielding the antenna...

Time to just buy decent bulbs if anyone knows of any which definitely don't cause interference I'd like to know!

[Phil21185]

Well they weren't due to turn up til late October but my illuminated scuff plates have arrived! They look great and I can't wait to fit them! 

Of course I'll have a full write up with pics and links when I do... =]

New toys!

[Phil21185]

Hehe toys are fitted and looking pretty tasty if I do say so myself. Teasers for now, write up later!

Bear in mind my whole car needs a clean, inside and out!

 

[kpg]

Hehe toys are fitted and looking pretty tasty if I do say so myself. Teasers for now, write up later!
Bear in mind my whole car needs a clean, inside and out!
 

Very cool indeed. I'll have to jump on this too.

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[yunii]

Hehe toys are fitted and looking pretty tasty if I do say so myself. Teasers for now, write up later!
Bear in mind my whole car needs a clean, inside and out!
 

Very nice mate,
is them red lights on door standard?
Yunii

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[Phil21185]

@kpg thanks pal, I'll put up a link for them but they were just from eBay from China. I decided to wire in both sides of the car separately into my rear foot well lights so that was kinda easy for me.

@yunii no, I've a write up for those earlier in the thread.

[b4zz]

loving the scuff plates fella very nice touch

[Phil21185]

Thanks mate. Think I might have to give it a rest with putting LEDs all over the place now though. The only (semi) stockish ones I haven't done are rear reflectors I think. All my other lights are led apart from main headlight cluster.

Thing looks like Blackpool Lights...

[bananacat]

Just had a look though and wander to use the fuse tap but not sure what amp fuse to use, can you advise please mate?

[Phil21185]

Anything led draws very low current so 5 amp will be plenty.

Edit: you meant for the DRLs didn't you?

Unrelated edit: Crap! I still haven't put up a write up for those scuff plates have I?

I've enrolled as a mature student at uni this September to get moar brayns and nollij so I'm having my time harshly divided now!

[bananacat]

Yeah for the drl's thank you.

Does it need to be mini blade or standard?

[Phil21185]

Mini.

[Phil21185]

My mate turned up with my birthday present yesterday (though 3 months late lol)! He'd already told me that he'd got me a set of wind deflectors for the car but didn't tell me which brand!

I was guessing he'd just picked up China specials for which I would have been grateful. I noticed he has climairs on his 3 door mk2.

Well I opened them yesterday to find that they are.....

 

 

 

 

 

...Hekos! 

Let the wars begin!

[Phil21185]

As promised:

Illuminated Scuff Plate Installation

Crapola you will need.

• Scuff plates - This is for a set of 4 for a 5 door Mk3 focus.  The listing also says they will fit the Mk3.5.  If anyone with chassis knowledge can confirm, that may help =]  You could use just the front pair for a 3 door, but usually the doors and therefore the scuff plates are bigger so it may not look quite right.
   
• a Dremel and slitting discs, or better drill bits than I had, suitable for drilling through bodywork.
   
• electrical tape, or rubber grommets
   
• Soldering iron, scotch locks and/or a fuse tap, depending on where you get your 12v from.  I just tapped into existing rear footwell lighting, so I just soldered onto that.  The link above comes with an inline fuse but you could tap into an unused passenger footwell fuse, but which one I can't say.
   
• IPA (Isopropyl-Alcohol) or nail polish remover.
   
• Cotton wool.

Lets get cracking.

Because of my personal set up, I knew I was going to wire these in in 2 halves, each side of the car seperately.  The supplied loom connects all 4 plates together and is long enough to go from the front footwell fusebox, all round the car.  I just didn't fancy hiding the wiring somewhere across the back of the car to the other side.

The process is very similar for front and back, with a slight difference in the trim pieces needed to be removed.  Unless otherwise mentioned, each photo and instruction applies to front and rear.

Grab a hold of the door seal on the inside side and pull upwards.  It should satisfyingly come away from the car.  You don't need to remove the whole things, just pull it free at the bottom.

FRONT ONLY:: Remove the trim piece as shown:

Get your fingers underneath it on the inside, near the front end and pull up.  It should come fairly easily.  Work your way towards the back until it comes out.

REAR ONLY::  Remove as shown:

Release the clips by lifting from the outside edge, upwards.  Once the front is free, there is another push stud going sideways into the seat.  Pull the whole cubby towards you (ie, out of the car) and it'll come away.

Next, offer up each plate to figure out the position.  The one niggle with this cheapo set is that when the front lip is butted up to the car, the swage line doesn't quite line up with the one on the car, but actually when fitted, it looks fine like that.  Mark where the wire needs to go through the metalwork.

Now, the seal we removed comes almost right down to the surface where the scuff plate will go.  We don't really want to drill a hole below it as that lends a possibility of water ingress, unless you have very tight rubber grommets to use.  Any other solution I could come up with still mean the wire going back on itself 180 degrees from one side of the metal to the other, so I needed to be sure that the wire would be protected and not move once everything was back in position.

My initial solution (after I failed to get a drill bit through the metalwork!) was to grind a dip in the metal that the wire could sit in so that if anyone stands on the seal with the wire underneath, there wouldn't be any strain on the wire.  This was a rubbish idea which resulted in this:

You can see where the drill bit gave up!  Then I had a   moment where I realised I was being stupid, and that slitting a channel in the metal was a much better idea:

I've also ground the edges to help protect the wire.  I lined the slit with electrical tape for extra protection, but a small rubber grommet could be cut and used to great effect here I think.

I've also put some tape around the wire where it goes through the metal for even more protection.

Before fitting, clean the area with IPA to make sure there is a perfect surface for the adhesive to stick to.  These plates come with a fairly generous amount of 3M tape, and an extra roll of double sided gel adhesive.  Make sure you apply even pressure for at least 30 seconds to create a good bond. 

Whether you did what I did, which was to wire the driver side 2 together and the passenger side 2 together or, simply use the loom as is and leave all 4 connected, you will need to feed wires behind the B-pillars to keep things tidy.

I moved the front seat all the way forward and pulled the pillar cover firmly towards the inside of the car.  Repeat from the rear so that the bottom of the pillar cover comes away from the pillar enough to feed the wire tidily behind.  I fed the wire running from here to the plate under the carpet while the trim piece next to the sill plate is off.  This way, all wires are tidily hidden away.

Again, I wired each side to my rear footwell lights so that they come on any time the footwells are on.  Only necessary when the doors are open really, but easier for me than finding a fuse which was live when the doors were open.

Re assemble everything in reverse, but be mindful of the front sill trim piece:

There are 3 plastic clips here which can be in danger of breaking if not careful.  Make sure you guide each one to its hole before forcing the trim piece back done and you should be fine!

Done.

 

[Phil21185]

also:

I really really would like a ZS/ST spoiler now...

[Phil21185]

@kpg  Could you possibly point me in the direction of the right type of wrap that you used on your grille (and preferably the same colour?) please?

I've still got a hankering for mods =]

[MjCarr]

On 29/07/2017 at 8:44 PM, Phil21185 said:

Joy and frustration today (well, that's cars, innit!?)

Got my DRLs through =] time to leave the wife alone for an hour!

Sorry but yep, they're the 'fang' style not oems (£230 can be better spent!)  These were £35.  The same ones are available for even less on eBay but come from China instead of their UK warehouse so you have to be patient for them and I'm....not.

 

Well, I THINK they're from china anyway...

 

Mmk, definitely from China. Couldn't help seeing what the other options were!  I love the literal translation for indicators - "Lose one's way" =].  Also, what would the third colour be?!

Connected via the box and a 9v battery.  Fook they'll do!

First job is lights out.  Gives much needed room to move.  Two T25 torx bolts on each light, front and back.  Don't forget the loom connector.

Get a thin butter knife and wrap it in at least 2 layers of something like a duster, then just gently work it in where those clips are and lever out.  Start at the top and work down one side, then from the top again, down the other.  Then across the bottom and they'll pop straight out.

"Gat-tothed was she..." Notice the gray poly behind the drivers side one.  If there was ever any behind the passengers side that's long gone.  Drivers side one will have to come out to give space for the led unit, which is thicker than the sails themselves.  Of course OEM's sit across the bottom...  That poly also goes behind the little panel for the towing eye and actually around the towing eye itself.  I cut it away to leave some behind that panel, so basically, I just removed what you can see.

Loom for the DRLs, These are the 3 wire kind so there's a signal to go to the headlight for 50% dimming.

Headlight loom in blue there.  Shiny black is the DRL loom taped to the cars existing wiring.  Don't shout at me, brown tape was all I had and not very much of it, but you can bet your botty that'll be swapped for black.  I always try to run new wires where there are existing ones to be sure they're not going to foul anything else.

This is behind the front badge really, from the passenger side looking towards the drivers side.  The DRL box is currently sat on foam which in turn sits atop the radiator.  I glues that box to the bottom of the plastic above so it wont get too hot.  Actually there aren't many choices for placing this as the wires from it to each DRL are equal length so it has to sit somewhere in the middle...

@madmoleStephens guide on fitting Nolden OEM's has the official instructions which say to use a fuse tap in F42, which is currently unoccupied.  So I gets my trusty fuse tap (also arrived this morning) and then frustration happens...

WTF??!!!? What the hell use is that to anybody?!!  Bear in mind that the piece of plastic between the metal pins is about 4mm thick.  That and those stubby little pins don't even reach the fuse socket before the double fuse holder hits the beige plastic in the fuse box.  Pants.  This means waiting for the right ones to come before I can finish my project.  Waiting for all the parts to come before I begin is fine, but having to leave a job half finished...well let's just say it vexes me.

Still, they look pretty sweet even not lit up.  Couple of points.  While these just snap nicely into place, they do leave a slight gap at the bottom in the middle (more noticeable in this picture on the passenger side.)  I think this is just down to a bit of flash left from the moulding so I might take them out and see to that.  Also they sort of looked like they are ever so slightly greyer than the original piano black ones while I was fitting them, but actually they looked fine after I had come away and looked again.

 

Even not wired in, they break up the swathe of black across the car's chin nicely I think.  Can't wait to get them working!

For the price, I can definitely recommend these DRLs, though it would have been nicer if the wiring from the box was longer for the driver's side to make siting the box easier.

Hi bud, which fuses did you order please 👍🏼

[kpg]

Excellent writeup for the sills mate. Very clear, well done. If I didn't have the stock non illuminated ones I'd be going for those.

 

As for the wrap I used 3M Gloss Black with Air Release. Any wrap should do as it's a small enough area but I'll get you a link in about 2 mins :)

 

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 EDIT: Here's the link, use the drop down menu for choosing the right size: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F181826927977

 

 

 

 

[Phil21185]

1 hour ago, MjCarr said:

Hi bud, which fuses did you order please 👍🏼

Hi mate. The fuse tap came with the fuses but 5amp will be plenty. You need mini ones though not the standard size.

[Phil21185]

58 minutes ago, kpg said:

Excellent writeup for the sills mate. Very clear, well done. If I didn't have the stock non illuminated ones I'd be going for those.

 

As for the wrap I used 3M Gloss Black with Air Release. Any wrap should do as it's a small enough area but I'll get you a link in about 2 mins :)

 

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 EDIT: Here's the link, use the drop down menu for choosing the right size: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F181826927977

 

 

 

 

Cheers Keifer.

I didn't have plates already but I had some sort of silver trim in the fronts. I just stuck these on top...

 

Edit: just realised this is for the gloss black. Do you have a link for the ice blue you used?

 

Nevermind, I've found this:

200801892626

[kpg]

Sorry for some reason I thought you meant black . My mistake.

In that case any vinyl will do, I used non-wrap stuff that was laying around the office just. Non-wrap is harder to work with but can still do the job.

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[Phil21185]

Thanks the stuff I've linked to is a light blue carbon fibre effect one. 

Not sure on the carbon but it might look ok...