Forget aluminum for your skid plate. Down here (I'm in Southern AZ too), the grit is so brutal it will slowly grind away an aluminum plate even if you aren't bashing it. HPDE is your best bet. It's inherently slippery nature will give you more lifespan. Downside is that they have to be fairly thick but the upside is that you can work the material with woodworking tools so DIY fab is pretty easy. Just be sure to look at what the europeans are doing for their plate layout (they do more rally than we do) to ensure your coverage is adequate. Also, don't forget to backfill the space between your pans (oil and trans) and plate(s) with foam. Otherwise, a rock will get wedged between the pan and skidplate and the first thwap will drive it into your pan. After that, encase your front to rear lines behind the front tires in some U channel to protect them from getting abraided away by the grit flying off the tires. Then, mix up jbweld, thin it, and paint the underside behind your front tires. This will keep the flying grit from eating away your chassis. You can make some epoxy fiberglass panels (or more thin hdpe) for the same purpose. Don't bother beefing up the control arms. Consider them sacrificial. Coat with thinned JB weld and guide air (containing grit) away but otherwise accept that rally eats parts. Parsing down your wiring is always a good idea because you eliminate potential issues later. That said, it's a pain in rear. Just using P clips is far easier, keeps everything secure, and tidies it up too. There's lots of tips to help you with the build but you're still pretty early in it so don't want to overwhelm ya. - Down here is nice because no rust but when driving fast offroad you have to deal with the flying sandpaper trying to attack everything. Which reminds me ... A roof scoop is a must. Keeps the air pressure in the cabin high which helps keep out the dust we have so much of down here. Anyways, that's enough info for now. I could write about this stuff all day, haha.
There's soft rubber bushings on the shifter base where it bolts to the floor. Take those busings out and replace them with washers and that will give it more feel. A poly dogbone motor mount helps shift feel too.
@@justinlenart3187 Yep, I just never wanted to hate on a small guy by saying use washers. I bought the steeda shifter years ago, now that I understand how short throws work I see it's easy to mod the stock one with a little steel and tack welds for dirt cheap. I don't have a welder to try...
Def poly dogbone the stock mount is pretty crappy and the aftermarket ones are all total shit at least the Ford OEM mount holds together...it just isn’t still enough and causes the shift cables to flex.
Delete everything possible that can catch fire inside the car. Fireproof everything else. Prepare for the worst and you can sleep easier. It’s great to follow a build all the way! Best of luck with everything!
This was the Sarah - n - Cleaned episode. You cleaned places that probably haven't seen the light of day since it was at the factory. Good work as usual.
Campbell Enterprises in Gilbert AZ can fab skidplates for sure. They custom build off road racing trucks and jeeps so they really know skidplates and cage work!
Hi Sarah, I ran an RS Civic in the seventies and eighties it was g quick and successfull club car as I developed it. Basically safety first, seats cage and harnesses. Then rally gear, extinguisher/s, trip meter, and lights. if your brakes are good now is the time for auto tests and rally school so you can learn throttle control, the most important first skill. And never leave your hand on the gear lever, both hands on the wheel as often as possible. At auto tests and rally school you will learn to perform proper handbrake turns, ones that keep you moving, front end throws to reverse direction quickly, and the MIGHTY Scandanivian Flick. A couple of events then upgrade the suspension and brakes, making sure you use a peddle box with adjustable brake bias. Now find out where the old dear is cracking up and strengthen her up, go for a mid range engine and out you go again until you are mashing the throttle peddle into th floor and using bad language! Certainly check out lower gear box ratios l had a four speed overdrive box, std Honda, made into a direct top box, much better. It was straight cut gears though, stronger but bad chicken loud. Don’ be tempted to go for horse power too early, by all means get extractors and a well mounted exhaust. But work on your skills first. You may need to remove the console for a hydraulic handbrake. Cheers Sweetie and good luck, you’ love it and hate it too. Rally cars are fickle lovers.😀
You could wrap the wire in a black wire loom. The car is looking better and better! I love your facial expressions when you say something and then not sure what to say next. Keeps me glued to the channel and I learn stuff as well. My daughters like watching your channel as well.
Some people are using plastic instead of aluminum for skid plates. The plastic flexes and goes back into shape. It also slides over high rocks better than aluminum. The best advantage is that you can work with it yourself.
With the SVT's Getrag MT285 being a dual layshaft design, there isn't much you can do about changing the gearing. Swapping to a regular Focus MTX75 5 speed is possible, final drive would be slightly shorter, but I doubt any gain would be worth the work/expense. Just keep him spinning fast, if it feels like it's falling off a little at the top end, might just be due for a little tune up(or the IMRC isn't doing it's job fully?). If you don't know what a dual layshaft is, look it up, it's a pretty cool design that lets you bang gears easier, almost like a backwards DCT.
Cheap but effective setup is a Phantom Grip Diff conversion and 4.75 FD ratio (MFactory or similar) in the MTX-75 for Rallycross and possibly stage rally. Just checked Phantom Grip and they don't list anything for the MT285 so the best bet with this gearbox would be keeping the current ratios and getting a pate type diff but I can only find an ATB type diff.
@@charleswa Yeah, the MTX75 is a more conventional unit, and the ring gear can be swapped. The MT285 effectively has 2 final drive ratios, really, it's a neat design. The diff could be swapped for a limited slip of your choice, but without way too much work, the ratios are what they are. I'm thinking the IMRC might be to blame here, that engine shouldn't be struggling to breath up top, although Sarah does live pretty close to the sky.
I should have said the gearing is as short as it is going to get, it can be made taller with Mini internals, but I don't think staying in 1st the whole time is going to be much fun.
@@BobPegram Yeah, Torsen has options for both gearboxes, as do other manufacturers like Quaife, same design concept, but generally built with a more performance oriented design, tougher. I am personally a big fan of helical differentials in most circumstances, however they do have a downside of being somewhat fragile with regard to large changes in wheel torque, such as spinning a wheel off the ground under load and then the wheel touching down with full traction, it puts a significant load on the spur gears, and can damage them. In a rally situation, this will happen, and with a light car that isn't putting out a ton of power, it would probably hold up fine, but potential for failure is there, the spur gears are for speed differences, not designed to transfer torque. For driving where lifting wheels is common(rally, off-roading) and overall traction is low(dirt) mechanical locking is ideal. Wavetrac has a setup that combines a helical differential with a locking plate, which would be the best option here, if price isn't considered. Realistically, for Sarah's use case, a disk type LSD would easily get the job done, and price point is half that of a Torsen, and a third of a Quaife or a Wavetrac. Disc type LSDs have their downsides too, but when the whole road is made of dirt, limiting most of the slip goes a long way.
Have you looked into which Rally Group you want to compete in?? They have different rules and specs, the why's and wherefores, what parts you have to keep which parts you have to ditch, relocating fuel cells, one piece fuel lines, fire extinguisher systems, dashboards, door cards, glass, noise levels, weight limits. choose your class or group and build to their standards or rules.
First thing I thought of as well. Nice post and you're correct there are some pretty stringent rules for Rallying concerning safety measures. She should reach out to one of the Rally RUclipsrs for advice like Team Oneil Rally School.
Glad you're bringing it to a healthy baseline before you move on to the upgrades! As people said before, please check the regulations of the racing classes you want to enter before you get rid of the interior pieces, since some classes require a certain level of original state to be maintained.
@@SarahnTuned been there, done that. What usually happens is you end up with a car that is forced to run in a class where it's not competitive which can be pretty discouraging. My advice would be to find a class you like, then build to it.
I had a triumph spitfire and the wiring was a mess . I got it because the wiring burnt the car up. Anyway ,the junkyard couldn't believe I wanted the wire loom and gave me as much as I wanted free . They said it just junk they have to clean up and get rid of. Looks super clean all wrapped . They also gave me door seal rubbers i needed no charge and thanked me for cleaning there yard up. Yugo door rubbers fit the spitfire perfect saved me a couple hundred bucks.
Fun! A lighter and zippier car! The advantages of massive deletes. Add skid plates to lower your center of gravity and protect your underthings. My wife and I planned for some time to move to Tucson but I don't know anyone local to you. I'm eager to see any progress you can make. It's always a delight to watch you work!
I think that the black corrugated wire-loom would be fine. It can be dressed up nicely to body-panel slots with zip ties so its not flopping around and still provides abrasion resistance from the times when you will need to be climbing over the wires and do not want to snag anything. I really do not know how much wiring you can end up deleting. Other than the inside dome lights what you have pretty much needs to stay there if you are going to have turn signals, marker lights and brake lights. You already stripped out the airbag wiring from the seats... you may need to consider disconnecting the seatbelt tensioners that are in the reels... Those are pyrotechnic charges (the usual safety suggestions apply, just as if you were working with aircraft pyrotechnics) that tension the seatbelts in an accident and yank the driver and passenger back in to their seats and make a very loud BANG when they are set off. Consider removing the steering wheel airbag and the one behind the passenger dash panel. If you are rallying you do not want bags going off.
Buy a roll of wire sleeve they use it for building pc towers it looks way cleaner than loom. It looks like nylon fabric mesh it comes in black and other colors if you wanna go that route. Look it up on amazon under wiring sleeve
Pointless to mess with tensioners, just delete. Next seatbelts are more likely 5 or 6 point connected to rollcage. A bit talk about convert to rally car here: ruclips.net/video/jFD71lhWrjE/видео.html
The short shifter linkage was the best thing I installed on my '83 944. Made the car so much more fun! When I worked in auto upholstery, we would just throw a milk crate in the car to drive it in and out of the shop while the seat was out. :)
I have a '99 SVT Ford Contour, I did the same thing when I first got it. Got rid of that long shifter and that stupid reverse lockout thing and got a B&M short shifter. Made a big difference in feel, I loved it.
Had a European Ford Escort Mk3, only small engine, but they were only light cars, no airbags, ABS, aircon, all that stuff that just adds weight. It was so chuckable in the corners, not the fastest of the line, or great top speed, but so much fun to drive, plus easy to work on, you didn't need a computing degree to work things out.
I’m so glad you picked one of these up. I’ve owned five (currently own two) and these are the most fun you can have for the price and contrary to popular belief they are fairly reliable.
I wrap all my wiring in sport-hockey tape, comes in black or white and helps add wear resistance where the wire might rub up against edges potentially causing electrical shorts.
MR2! MR2! Also if you draw up the plates with some cardboard, you can get them waterjet or plasma cut out and make your own skid plates! I would probably just remake the radiator lower mount out of some box tubing and plate where the oil pan and maybe transmission are, but I wouldn't want to plate up the control arms. You want them to bend and break rather than the chassis. Also, a little spoolie boi would help the little race car with some motivation!
There are two plastic retaining clips on top of the Getrag transmission that adjust the shift cables. It will involve removing the air box to access them. Before attempting to remove the air-box make sure to spray WD-40 on the rubber insulators or you may risk breaking the lower nubs on the airbox. You pull the air box straight up after disconnecting everything. There is a very helpful how-to on focaljet or focusfantics There was a TSB on the clutch and dualmass flywheel that required updated components to be used so there are two different versions of SVT Clutch/Flywheel combos that were used so you have to be careful when ordering a replacement clutch. Also, the Ford Getrag shifts the best with the Genuine Ford XT-M5-QS Full Synthetic Manual Transmission Fluid. Get the ATF out of there ASAP if you can. 17 years of ownership on my 02 SVT.
I suspect in your youth you used to watch Sesame Street as i just love your references to the Count when you take bolts out, love your humour always puts a smile on my face and brightens my day, thanks for all the hard work Sarah xx
The aluminum box mounted right behind the shifter is the AIR BAG CONTROL MODULE, if you were to disconnect the wires from it then all the airbags will be disfunctional as your not gonna want them going off while your racing and you'll be able to leave the steering wheel airbag in place as a cushion by doing that....😎
I welded a bottom end bracket to hold the motor solid in an 95 Saturn DOHC motor. It hooks the tires well but definitely did nuked the transmission case as I made it to my job. Have fun and be safe.
For the aluminum skid plate, if you can’t find a place, make a template and take it to the nearest metal yeah, they usually have a brake/bender. It ll take a couple trips..
Most of the noise comes from the floor. So some sound deadening spray or fire proof material would help make it quiet. Wrap-on plastic tubing and color coded zip ties for the wires. Paint stripper for the adhesive on the floor, careful with that! Still need the rules to pass tech and safety. Nice job so far. Keep up the good work.
Call me crazy, but I love how conscientious you are about scrubbing everything clean, re-greasing, etc., before putting it back together again. The way it should be. :)
Steve from Tasca and Alex the Machinist both offer some minor upgraded shifter components that would be right at home on this car to tighten up the shift performance. There is a plastic piece on the transmission that gets rounded and actually the metal piece that holds it tends to get damaged too. Alex makes some metal bushings that replace the 4 rubber inserts on the shifter base as well. You can find these guys on the Focal Jet facebook page!
For your question thou with skid plates. Do a 3 piece flat bottom. That will give you bumper to bumper protection. I'm sure if you get ahold of crown concepts here in town they will help you out or point you in the right direction to who can
If you can route all the cables you need to the passengers side, you could have them go down 1 conduit to the back, and secure the heck out of it so you dont have to worry about it moving while you rally, and remove anything near you while your driving it, giving you less things that might fall on you or in your face, lots of them can probably be deleted. And this might sound ghetto, but it has worked for me when i had to remove a interior in my old supra, i taped a hose from my shopvac to a scraper, and ran a heat gun in front of it, as things were pealed up by the scraper, they immediately were sucked into the shopvac
I Love how meticulous you are with your builds and how much you are able to share on camera one of the most pleasant personalities around Please more Mr2 that's how I got to your channel but I watch anything and I like every single video ;) thank you for all the hard work!
Had an '03 SVT Focus with the European package. Great lil pocket rocket. The low end was crap, but it sure did like the higher rpm's. I added the Steeda shifter as well as long as a Borla exhaust, a AEM cold air intake, and H&R race springs. Even took mine off road in the Yuma desert for some fun. Even have a video of it on here lol. Best of luck with you and your build with Sir Codsworth
Find out the rules for the class of ralley your wanting to go do that's the 1st thing. Lifting the car even a inch with coil overs an a taller side wall tire would go a long ways. O being a fwd puting a hand break to lock up the rear tires apart from the e break will make rotaion easyr. Good luck.. love your vids.. keep up the good work.
You’re a joy to watch, so enthusiastic for the job & damn good with your hands too. Clean and lubed up is always a nice place to be. Couldn’t help thinking rude things about two hands on the stiff shaft..... Whether Mr Dos, Teeter Tot or an ordinary vlog day, your next video is eagerly awaited. You lovely obsessive weirdo
The only thing you can do to it is remove the counter weight of the shifter. Maybe you could replace shifter bushings. I don't remember reading about them whwn I had the car. You need to get a tune to be able to completely turn off the traction control. You can't turn it off completely with the button when it's stock.
There's 2 pins mounted to the trans where the 2 pins cross gets worn out you can add metal with a welder and grind it down to fit easiest place to see it is from the top nearest the firewall also make sure your vvt and Imrc are working properly it's basically Ford's version of VTEC you should hear the engine noise change around 5krpm
Strip out all of the wires you don't need.. also I wouldn't worry too much about tubing etc but wrap the whole loom in good wrap/tape. Also might as well remove all your sound deadening and get the battery in the boot 👍
Dry ice on the black sound deadner & use a chisel & hammer. It will come out easy. Don't use heat. It's tar. It will just get stickier. Using dry ice will freeze it & make it brittle.
At least you got a metal shifter base. I busted mine (non-SVT) because it was all plastic, and had to replace it with the metal one (shipped from the UK).
I would say get rid of all the factory cables and tuck a homemade harness inside the body panels a couple of tactically places holes and some grommets would make it clean easy to diagnose you can use safer wires my opinion ......but the most important is do whatever the heck seems the most fun to you!
Had a short shifter of unknown origin in my CRX. I hated it, until I replaced the linkage bushings with poly ones. Worked great after that. Great video as usual Sarah!
Great choice on the shifter. Steeda makes quality stuff. We haven't seen or heard Teeter Tot in ages, so that one is due for an update. Keep up the great work. Love your channel.
Yay! I like that car; and you've done so much really cool stuff to it, it would be nice to see it again. Wow, if you keep 'em all, you'll have cars for every purpose.
Ballistic Fabrication is in Tucson. They do all kinds of aluminum & steel custom fabrication. They have all the sweet machines. Wrap the wire runs with Tesa Tape.
Their are shifter mounting plate aluminium bushings to replace the stock. rubber bushings. Also replacement bushings for under the hood. Check in with Steve Powell on Facebook for any Ford replacement parts like the bushings under the hood for the transmission. Steeds likely has those aluminum shifter plate bushings. I'm not sure if your intake manifold crossover is working properly. I didn't hear that VTEC-like changeover in the exhaust note at 3500-4000 rpm.
I would actually make some aluminum or zinc coated tin plates to cover all those openings in the tub,and then use some wire loom and some of that rubber or vinyl sash stuff they use under the edge of a garage door to go along the floor edge where it meets the inner quarter panels to clean it up and quiet it down......
A few years back I bought a BMW Z3 with a tick over 70,000 on it. Shifting the manual trans was very stiff and I thought I could be looking at new synchros but I swapped out the factory original gearbox lube for Royal Purple synthetic and BINGO! Within just a few miles the tranny really loosened up and by the time I put about 100 more miles on it the tranny shifted as smoothly as a new one. Maybe Codsworth could benefit from a change in the gear lube, too. ;-)
Dont know if you want to run the car in some competition or just track it. If your going for competition, you can normaly get a set of specs (Rulebook)that will apply to all cars in a chosen series. Like a fuel cell. Making a firewall. Put the fuel lines , and break lines inside the car. Firesupressor system and battery cut switches that can be accsessed outside the car. And not least the rollcage. if it has to be approved by some governing body. Like FIA. This is a lot of money, and its a shame to trow alot of cash into this project if you dont reach your goal of using it. Semi decent coilovers and brakes are enough to brake any project. Here in europe the safty rules are pretty strict, but with good reason. Be safe
@@SarahnTuned That's a good comment - For sure you'll get sponsors - wish you all the best with your racing. I'm new to you and not a car dude (I like Bikes) I used to race. Oh and you're Hot not weird ; )
@@SarahnTuned Yes, i see i cold shortend that comment a whole lot :) What i more or less ment, was finding a series that can get you rallying at a budget. And go from there. Just so you dont blow money where its not needed. Been doing rallycross in europe for seven years, know all to well about the sponsors :) Seen every episode, looking forward to more Focus stuff
Happy you put the seat back in for a rip. x2 Heads MR2os, Tails Teeter Tot. Don't put grease on your toaster strudel. Wash your hands before you smoke.
Cardboard. Make you some templates to put into cad... mark bends and holes with a sharpoe. Then you can go to a place with a waterjet or fiber optic cutting and then they cut it for you. Alternatively, make a template and make 1in grid lines on it and might be able to see if my buddy can do it. Impulse fabrication out of Indiana is his fab business.
Once you have done an full engine service Think you could get it remapped but not sure how far you should go with stock internals maybe wait for the exhaust system. Go great Sarah 😎😎😎😎😎😎 The stuck gunk - soak some paper towel with an Apc keep wetting and leave over night should come off. Maybe something on the TT
Nice video - I like your Milwaukee. Oooh and so many innuendos. Thank you for explaining the short shifter. It made sense after you installed the spacer.
A lower gear Ratio will definitely make the car quicker Wire loom Use the easiest way to tidy up whirring However Flexible plastic tubing Looks much nicer But it's harder to work with Or you can get really crafty and run the wiring inside the roll cage
That interior looks better with all the stinky skunge 🤢 removed! 👍 Removing redundant wires adds lightness, because racecar! Can you run lexan windows to save even more weight? Def think the TT needs some Sarah love next.
Really any offroad shop should be able to build you skid plates. When I lived in Phoenix, I dealt with RPM Fab in Chandler for armor on my 4Runner. They do Toyota and Jeep, but I suspect they wouldn't turn away a custom job.
Change motor and trans mounts to poly. If possible , Dyno the car now and then after any mods. I do recall that even the factory exhaust was even optimized for better performance and when swapped for aftermarket you lose power. Also, clutch cost is a beast ……..
Under car is tricky if it were me I would wait until the exhaust and suspension is done before getting skid plates made. Finding a place to engineer it all at the same time might be tricky unless you go to a 4WD off road shop. The combo of lift and metal fab isn't common. Also the under radiator protection should probably tie into the front primary bumper that's under the front plastic clip. That is probably also made from plastic so a slightly more attachment friendly unit will be needed? The best bet would be take off the front clip and have a look. At the same time don't forget to put some decent attachments for a tow hook. Gearing {on the cheap} could also be tricky, have a look in a manual for these {or look it up on a forum ?} for another model/engine variant or year that uses the same drive train and check the gearing. Normally it goes a couple of ways the sports versions will get a shorter diff gear as well as the manuals but sometimes the smallest engine variant will still use the same gearbox and differential variant with shorter gears. Failing that just another wheel/tire combo with a smaller rolling diameter. That will get it off the mark a bit quicker. Cheers
That is a cute little hatch back. I love hatch backs. My partner and I own a Veloster Turbo in Elite White. You should come to Cali and give it the beans!
Forget aluminum for your skid plate. Down here (I'm in Southern AZ too), the grit is so brutal it will slowly grind away an aluminum plate even if you aren't bashing it. HPDE is your best bet. It's inherently slippery nature will give you more lifespan. Downside is that they have to be fairly thick but the upside is that you can work the material with woodworking tools so DIY fab is pretty easy. Just be sure to look at what the europeans are doing for their plate layout (they do more rally than we do) to ensure your coverage is adequate. Also, don't forget to backfill the space between your pans (oil and trans) and plate(s) with foam. Otherwise, a rock will get wedged between the pan and skidplate and the first thwap will drive it into your pan. After that, encase your front to rear lines behind the front tires in some U channel to protect them from getting abraided away by the grit flying off the tires. Then, mix up jbweld, thin it, and paint the underside behind your front tires. This will keep the flying grit from eating away your chassis. You can make some epoxy fiberglass panels (or more thin hdpe) for the same purpose. Don't bother beefing up the control arms. Consider them sacrificial. Coat with thinned JB weld and guide air (containing grit) away but otherwise accept that rally eats parts. Parsing down your wiring is always a good idea because you eliminate potential issues later. That said, it's a pain in rear. Just using P clips is far easier, keeps everything secure, and tidies it up too. There's lots of tips to help you with the build but you're still pretty early in it so don't want to overwhelm ya. - Down here is nice because no rust but when driving fast offroad you have to deal with the flying sandpaper trying to attack everything. Which reminds me ... A roof scoop is a must. Keeps the air pressure in the cabin high which helps keep out the dust we have so much of down here. Anyways, that's enough info for now. I could write about this stuff all day, haha.
There's soft rubber bushings on the shifter base where it bolts to the floor. Take those busings out and replace them with washers and that will give it more feel. A poly dogbone motor mount helps shift feel too.
Liquid Snakes Alex the machinist on Facebook makes solid aluminum bushings for the base and for the shifter cables, makes the shifter super tight
@@justinlenart3187 Yep, I just never wanted to hate on a small guy by saying use washers. I bought the steeda shifter years ago, now that I understand how short throws work I see it's easy to mod the stock one with a little steel and tack welds for dirt cheap. I don't have a welder to try...
Def poly dogbone the stock mount is pretty crappy and the aftermarket ones are all total shit at least the Ford OEM mount holds together...it just isn’t still enough and causes the shift cables to flex.
Delete everything possible that can catch fire inside the car. Fireproof everything else. Prepare for the worst and you can sleep easier. It’s great to follow a build all the way! Best of luck with everything!
This was the Sarah - n - Cleaned episode. You cleaned places that probably haven't seen the light of day since it was at the factory. Good work as usual.
Campbell Enterprises in Gilbert AZ can fab skidplates for sure. They custom build off road racing trucks and jeeps so they really know skidplates and cage work!
came for the focus, stayed for the color matching. the little mk1 that could. keep it up
Hi Sarah, I ran an RS Civic in the seventies and eighties it was g quick and successfull club car as I developed it. Basically safety first, seats cage and harnesses. Then rally gear, extinguisher/s, trip meter, and lights. if your brakes are good now is the time for auto tests and rally school so you can learn throttle control, the most important first skill. And never leave your hand on the gear lever, both hands on the wheel as often as possible. At auto tests and rally school you will learn to perform proper handbrake turns, ones that keep you moving, front end throws to reverse direction quickly, and the MIGHTY Scandanivian Flick. A couple of events then upgrade the suspension and brakes, making sure you use a peddle box with adjustable brake bias. Now find out where the old dear is cracking up and strengthen her up, go for a mid range engine and out you go again until you are mashing the throttle peddle into th floor and using bad language! Certainly check out lower gear box ratios l had a four speed overdrive box, std Honda, made into a direct top box, much better. It was straight cut gears though, stronger but bad chicken loud. Don’ be tempted to go for horse power too early, by all means get extractors and a well mounted exhaust. But work on your skills first. You may need to remove the console for a hydraulic handbrake. Cheers Sweetie and good luck, you’ love it and hate it too. Rally cars are fickle lovers.😀
.
Run the brake and fuel lines inside the car. Less chance of them being pulled off or damaged that way
I love the way your CDO, (alphabetical, like it's supposed to be!), causes you to clean every little part of the car you touch.
1:05 car guy heaven. Lovely lady pulling apart a car and getting work done!
Get the engine and trans where you want it, before you think about changing gears, remember tire Diameter can change the gear ratio. Good starter Car!
Driving skills are needed before and gear changing . more HP or anything ells .
Sure, but shorter gearing is good for a lot of amateur rallies and doesn't exactly change the skill dynamics dramatically.
You could wrap the wire in a black wire loom. The car is looking better and better! I love your facial expressions when you say something and then not sure what to say next. Keeps me glued to the channel and I learn stuff as well. My daughters like watching your channel as well.
Some people are using plastic instead of aluminum for skid plates. The plastic flexes and goes back into shape. It also slides over high rocks better than aluminum. The best advantage is that you can work with it yourself.
With the SVT's Getrag MT285 being a dual layshaft design, there isn't much you can do about changing the gearing. Swapping to a regular Focus MTX75 5 speed is possible, final drive would be slightly shorter, but I doubt any gain would be worth the work/expense.
Just keep him spinning fast, if it feels like it's falling off a little at the top end, might just be due for a little tune up(or the IMRC isn't doing it's job fully?). If you don't know what a dual layshaft is, look it up, it's a pretty cool design that lets you bang gears easier, almost like a backwards DCT.
Cheap but effective setup is a Phantom Grip Diff conversion and 4.75 FD ratio (MFactory or similar) in the MTX-75 for Rallycross and possibly stage rally. Just checked Phantom Grip and they don't list anything for the MT285 so the best bet with this gearbox would be keeping the current ratios and getting a pate type diff but I can only find an ATB type diff.
@@charleswa Yeah, the MTX75 is a more conventional unit, and the ring gear can be swapped.
The MT285 effectively has 2 final drive ratios, really, it's a neat design. The diff could be swapped for a limited slip of your choice, but without way too much work, the ratios are what they are.
I'm thinking the IMRC might be to blame here, that engine shouldn't be struggling to breath up top, although Sarah does live pretty close to the sky.
I should have said the gearing is as short as it is going to get, it can be made taller with Mini internals, but I don't think staying in 1st the whole time is going to be much fun.
@@BobPegram Yeah, Torsen has options for both gearboxes, as do other manufacturers like Quaife, same design concept, but generally built with a more performance oriented design, tougher.
I am personally a big fan of helical differentials in most circumstances, however they do have a downside of being somewhat fragile with regard to large changes in wheel torque, such as spinning a wheel off the ground under load and then the wheel touching down with full traction, it puts a significant load on the spur gears, and can damage them. In a rally situation, this will happen, and with a light car that isn't putting out a ton of power, it would probably hold up fine, but potential for failure is there, the spur gears are for speed differences, not designed to transfer torque.
For driving where lifting wheels is common(rally, off-roading) and overall traction is low(dirt) mechanical locking is ideal. Wavetrac has a setup that combines a helical differential with a locking plate, which would be the best option here, if price isn't considered. Realistically, for Sarah's use case, a disk type LSD would easily get the job done, and price point is half that of a Torsen, and a third of a Quaife or a Wavetrac. Disc type LSDs have their downsides too, but when the whole road is made of dirt, limiting most of the slip goes a long way.
Have you looked into which Rally Group you want to compete in?? They have different rules and specs, the why's and wherefores, what parts you have to keep which parts you have to ditch, relocating fuel cells, one piece fuel lines, fire extinguisher systems, dashboards, door cards, glass, noise levels, weight limits. choose your class or group and build to their standards or rules.
First thing I thought of as well. Nice post and you're correct there are some pretty stringent rules for Rallying concerning safety measures. She should reach out to one of the Rally RUclipsrs for advice like Team Oneil Rally School.
Glad you're bringing it to a healthy baseline before you move on to the upgrades!
As people said before, please check the regulations of the racing classes you want to enter before you get rid of the interior pieces, since some classes require a certain level of original state to be maintained.
lennier1 I’m doing both, building it for me first and seeing what class that will align with.
@@SarahnTuned been there, done that. What usually happens is you end up with a car that is forced to run in a class where it's not competitive which can be pretty discouraging. My advice would be to find a class you like, then build to it.
I had a triumph spitfire and the wiring was a mess . I got it because the wiring burnt the car up. Anyway ,the junkyard couldn't believe I wanted the wire loom and gave me as much as I wanted free . They said it just junk they have to clean up and get rid of. Looks super clean all wrapped . They also gave me door seal rubbers i needed no charge and thanked me for cleaning there yard up. Yugo door rubbers fit the spitfire perfect saved me a couple hundred bucks.
Fun! A lighter and zippier car! The advantages of massive deletes.
Add skid plates to lower your center of gravity and protect your underthings.
My wife and I planned for some time to move to Tucson but I don't know anyone local to you.
I'm eager to see any progress you can make. It's always a delight to watch you work!
I think that the black corrugated wire-loom would be fine. It can be dressed up nicely to body-panel slots with zip ties so its not flopping around and still provides abrasion resistance from the times when you will need to be climbing over the wires and do not want to snag anything.
I really do not know how much wiring you can end up deleting. Other than the inside dome lights what you have pretty much needs to stay there if you are going to have turn signals, marker lights and brake lights. You already stripped out the airbag wiring from the seats... you may need to consider disconnecting the seatbelt tensioners that are in the reels... Those are pyrotechnic charges (the usual safety suggestions apply, just as if you were working with aircraft pyrotechnics) that tension the seatbelts in an accident and yank the driver and passenger back in to their seats and make a very loud BANG when they are set off. Consider removing the steering wheel airbag and the one behind the passenger dash panel. If you are rallying you do not want bags going off.
Buy a roll of wire sleeve they use it for building pc towers it looks way cleaner than loom. It looks like nylon fabric mesh it comes in black and other colors if you wanna go that route. Look it up on amazon under wiring sleeve
Pointless to mess with tensioners, just delete. Next seatbelts are more likely 5 or 6 point connected to rollcage.
A bit talk about convert to rally car here: ruclips.net/video/jFD71lhWrjE/видео.html
The short shifter linkage was the best thing I installed on my '83 944. Made the car so much more fun!
When I worked in auto upholstery, we would just throw a milk crate in the car to drive it in and out of the shop while the seat was out. :)
I have a '99 SVT Ford Contour, I did the same thing when I first got it. Got rid of that long shifter and that stupid reverse lockout thing and got a B&M short shifter. Made a big difference in feel, I loved it.
Had a European Ford Escort Mk3, only small engine, but they were only light cars, no airbags, ABS, aircon, all that stuff that just adds weight. It was so chuckable in the corners, not the fastest of the line, or great top speed, but so much fun to drive, plus easy to work on, you didn't need a computing degree to work things out.
Use Dry ice and alcool to freeze the gunk and sound insulation. hit it off
I second this, it’s how I got all of it off my e30. Super easy and then vacuum it up!
The intake runners are stuck in one of the positions definitely get that fixed and it will rev much freer!!
I’m so glad you picked one of these up. I’ve owned five (currently own two) and these are the most fun you can have for the price and contrary to popular belief they are fairly reliable.
I wrap all my wiring in sport-hockey tape, comes in black or white and helps add wear resistance where the wire might rub up against edges potentially causing electrical shorts.
The attention to cleaning as you go is epic
MR2! MR2! Also if you draw up the plates with some cardboard, you can get them waterjet or plasma cut out and make your own skid plates! I would probably just remake the radiator lower mount out of some box tubing and plate where the oil pan and maybe transmission are, but I wouldn't want to plate up the control arms. You want them to bend and break rather than the chassis.
Also, a little spoolie boi would help the little race car with some motivation!
Steeda offers military discounts... so if u ever order from them again.. keep up the great work.. love this project car..
There are two plastic retaining clips on top of the Getrag transmission that adjust the shift cables. It will involve removing the air box to access them. Before attempting to remove the air-box make sure to spray WD-40 on the rubber insulators or you may risk breaking the lower nubs on the airbox. You pull the air box straight up after disconnecting everything.
There is a very helpful how-to on focaljet or focusfantics
There was a TSB on the clutch and dualmass flywheel that required updated components to be used so there are two different versions of SVT Clutch/Flywheel combos that were used so you have to be careful when ordering a replacement clutch.
Also, the Ford Getrag shifts the best with the Genuine Ford XT-M5-QS Full Synthetic Manual Transmission Fluid. Get the ATF out of there ASAP if you can.
17 years of ownership on my 02 SVT.
S doesn’t fix ANYTHING without cleaning every last spot and drop of shmu! I bet her house is spotless.
My two favorite things about Sarah. 1: She always cleans as she goes. B: She pauses for the innuendos.
Damn this is gonna be a fun series to watch. Love little Fords! keep up the good work!
I suspect in your youth you used to watch Sesame Street as i just love your references to the Count when you take bolts out, love your humour always puts a smile on my face and brightens my day, thanks for all the hard work Sarah xx
The aluminum box mounted right behind the shifter is the AIR BAG CONTROL MODULE, if you were to disconnect the wires from it then all the airbags will be disfunctional as your not gonna want them going off while your racing and you'll be able to leave the steering wheel airbag in place as a cushion by doing that....😎
I welded a bottom end bracket to hold the motor solid in an 95 Saturn DOHC motor. It hooks the tires well but definitely did nuked the transmission case as I made it to my job.
Have fun and be safe.
For the aluminum skid plate, if you can’t find a place, make a template and take it to the nearest metal yeah, they usually have a brake/bender. It ll take a couple trips..
Most of the noise comes from the floor. So some sound deadening spray or fire proof material would help make it quiet. Wrap-on plastic tubing and color coded zip ties for the wires. Paint stripper for the adhesive on the floor, careful with that! Still need the rules to pass tech and safety. Nice job so far. Keep up the good work.
Call me crazy, but I love how conscientious you are about scrubbing everything clean, re-greasing, etc., before putting it back together again. The way it should be. :)
That shift kit looks killer. When I was young the thing to do was convert 3 on the tree to a floor shifter.
Steve from Tasca and Alex the Machinist both offer some minor upgraded shifter components that would be right at home on this car to tighten up the shift performance. There is a plastic piece on the transmission that gets rounded and actually the metal piece that holds it tends to get damaged too. Alex makes some metal bushings that replace the 4 rubber inserts on the shifter base as well. You can find these guys on the Focal Jet facebook page!
For your question thou with skid plates. Do a 3 piece flat bottom. That will give you bumper to bumper protection. I'm sure if you get ahold of crown concepts here in town they will help you out or point you in the right direction to who can
Also for any tuning needs talk talk talk to archie who's at crown concepts dude is amazing
Your editing is excellent. So is your videography.
Just picked up a ZX3 SVT myself, looking forward to seeing your build. You seem to have the best content for this car so far!
This video is so satisfying to watch. I love cheap car build.
If you can route all the cables you need to the passengers side, you could have them go down 1 conduit to the back, and secure the heck out of it so you dont have to worry about it moving while you rally, and remove anything near you while your driving it, giving you less things that might fall on you or in your face, lots of them can probably be deleted. And this might sound ghetto, but it has worked for me when i had to remove a interior in my old supra, i taped a hose from my shopvac to a scraper, and ran a heat gun in front of it, as things were pealed up by the scraper, they immediately were sucked into the shopvac
How funny. It's nice to see Sarah having fun in a new toy.
I Love how meticulous you are with your builds and how much you are able to share on camera one of the most pleasant personalities around Please more Mr2 that's how I got to your channel but I watch anything and I like every single video ;) thank you for all the hard work!
Had an '03 SVT Focus with the European package. Great lil pocket rocket. The low end was crap, but it sure did like the higher rpm's. I added the Steeda shifter as well as long as a Borla exhaust, a AEM cold air intake, and H&R race springs. Even took mine off road in the Yuma desert for some fun. Even have a video of it on here lol. Best of luck with you and your build with Sir Codsworth
First thing I always do is get a set of rules for the sanction body of what you want to run
An oscillating/multitool is good for remove stuck on stuff and tar pads. You can find plenty of other jobs for it too.
Find out the rules for the class of ralley your wanting to go do that's the 1st thing. Lifting the car even a inch with coil overs an a taller side wall tire would go a long ways. O being a fwd puting a hand break to lock up the rear tires apart from the e break will make rotaion easyr. Good luck.. love your vids.. keep up the good work.
You’re a joy to watch, so enthusiastic for the job & damn good with your hands too. Clean and lubed up is always a nice place to be. Couldn’t help thinking rude things about two hands on the stiff shaft.....
Whether Mr Dos, Teeter Tot or an ordinary vlog day, your next video is eagerly awaited. You lovely obsessive weirdo
The only thing you can do to it is remove the counter weight of the shifter. Maybe you could replace shifter bushings. I don't remember reading about them whwn I had the car. You need to get a tune to be able to completely turn off the traction control. You can't turn it off completely with the button when it's stock.
There's 2 pins mounted to the trans where the 2 pins cross gets worn out you can add metal with a welder and grind it down to fit easiest place to see it is from the top nearest the firewall also make sure your vvt and Imrc are working properly it's basically Ford's version of VTEC you should hear the engine noise change around 5krpm
Strip out all of the wires you don't need.. also I wouldn't worry too much about tubing etc but wrap the whole loom in good wrap/tape. Also might as well remove all your sound deadening and get the battery in the boot 👍
Thanks Sarah. I needed a "cheer-me-up" and THIS is it. Appreciated...
I used to have an 04 SVT Focus & I miss it everyday!
Dry ice on the black sound deadner & use a chisel & hammer. It will come out easy. Don't use heat. It's tar. It will just get stickier. Using dry ice will freeze it & make it brittle.
At least you got a metal shifter base. I busted mine (non-SVT) because it was all plastic, and had to replace it with the metal one (shipped from the UK).
I would say get rid of all the factory cables and tuck a homemade harness inside the body panels a couple of tactically places holes and some grommets would make it clean easy to diagnose you can use safer wires my opinion ......but the most important is do whatever the heck seems the most fun to you!
Had a short shifter of unknown origin in my CRX. I hated it, until I replaced the linkage bushings with poly ones. Worked great after that. Great video as usual Sarah!
I always wanted to know how the heck a short shifter worked and now I do. Thank you!
Makes me miss my old Focus. Kinda want to get an ZX3 again after watching this.
Great choice on the shifter. Steeda makes quality stuff. We haven't seen or heard Teeter Tot in ages, so that one is due for an update. Keep up the great work. Love your channel.
Stephen Moxley He’s still here! I’m not getting rid of it.
Yay! I like that car; and you've done so much really cool stuff to it, it would be nice to see it again. Wow, if you keep 'em all, you'll have cars for every purpose.
Im glad you wore tank top and shorts this time.
Stick a 3.82 axle gear ratio in it like they had in the 2005-2007 Focus ST and I think it will definitely put a smile on your face.
Ballistic Fabrication is in Tucson. They do all kinds of aluminum & steel custom fabrication. They have all the sweet machines.
Wrap the wire runs with Tesa Tape.
offroader5 thanks! I’ve heard of them
I've recently taken to using the cut away from yourself phrase, then promptly cutting towards myself. Only when around other people though.
Super excited about this build! My first car was a zx3 and I’ve always wanted to rally. Godspeed Sarah
It satisfies my inner obsessive-compulsive that you clean everything, even if it will never be seen. Five thumbs up!
Tisha Hayes It’s a 6 out of 10 clean in my standards right now.
@@SarahnTuned Your friend, the pressure washer and foamy bubblegum soap?
Tisha Hayes my water softener needs recharging ☹️
The part at 9:00 with you peaking over the door belt line was hilarious! "hello" . LOL!!
Their are shifter mounting plate aluminium bushings to replace the stock. rubber bushings. Also replacement bushings for under the hood. Check in with Steve Powell on Facebook for any Ford replacement parts like the bushings under the hood for the transmission. Steeds likely has those aluminum shifter plate bushings. I'm not sure if your intake manifold crossover is working properly. I didn't hear that VTEC-like changeover in the exhaust note at 3500-4000 rpm.
Check the ends of the shifter linkage that attach to the trans aswell. Could be old worn rubber by now.
This Focus looks like it was *well* used. What a job / project you have taken on. 👍
I can't wait to see her rally, and then have to clean the car once again and again and again :P Love your videos Sarah! :)
Yep color matching wire wraps would be great 👍.
I would actually make some aluminum or zinc coated tin plates to cover all those openings in the tub,and then use some wire loom and some of that rubber or vinyl sash stuff they use under the edge of a garage door to go along the floor edge where it meets the inner quarter panels to clean it up and quiet it down......
A few years back I bought a BMW Z3 with a tick over 70,000 on it. Shifting the manual trans was very stiff and I thought I could be looking at new synchros but I swapped out the factory original gearbox lube for Royal Purple synthetic and BINGO! Within just a few miles the tranny really loosened up and by the time I put about 100 more miles on it the tranny shifted as smoothly as a new one. Maybe Codsworth could benefit from a change in the gear lube, too. ;-)
You gotta get some solid shifter base bushings, they make a huge difference.
Dont know if you want to run the car in some competition or just track it. If your going for competition, you can normaly get a set of specs (Rulebook)that will apply to all cars in a chosen series. Like a fuel cell. Making a firewall. Put the fuel lines , and break lines inside the car. Firesupressor system and battery cut switches that can be accsessed outside the car. And not least the rollcage. if it has to be approved by some governing body. Like FIA. This is a lot of money, and its a shame to trow alot of cash into this project if you dont reach your goal of using it. Semi decent coilovers and brakes are enough to brake any project. Here in europe the safty rules are pretty strict, but with good reason. Be safe
Sigve Jensen I 100% cannot do it without sponsors.
@@SarahnTuned That's a good comment - For sure you'll get sponsors - wish you all the best with your racing.
I'm new to you and not a car dude (I like Bikes) I used to race.
Oh and you're Hot not weird ; )
@@SarahnTuned Yes, i see i cold shortend that comment a whole lot :) What i more or less ment, was finding a series that can get you rallying at a budget. And go from there. Just so you dont blow money where its not needed. Been doing rallycross in europe for seven years, know all to well about the sponsors :) Seen every episode, looking forward to more Focus stuff
Happy you put the seat back in for a rip. x2 Heads MR2os, Tails Teeter Tot.
Don't put grease on your toaster strudel. Wash your hands before you smoke.
Cardboard. Make you some templates to put into cad... mark bends and holes with a sharpoe. Then you can go to a place with a waterjet or fiber optic cutting and then they cut it for you. Alternatively, make a template and make 1in grid lines on it and might be able to see if my buddy can do it. Impulse fabrication out of Indiana is his fab business.
good luck with the SVT !!! have fun !!! we really enjoy taking these adventures with you ! Best wishes always !! - Steven B.
Once you have done an full engine service
Think you could get it remapped but not sure how far you should go with stock internals maybe wait for the exhaust system.
Go great Sarah 😎😎😎😎😎😎
The stuck gunk - soak some paper towel with an Apc keep wetting and leave over night should come off.
Maybe something on the TT
Thanks for the info on the short throw shifter. I've never put one in one of my cars, but now I get it.
Nice video - I like your Milwaukee. Oooh and so many innuendos. Thank you for explaining the short shifter. It made sense after you installed the spacer.
A lower gear Ratio will definitely make the car quicker
Wire loom Use the easiest way to tidy up whirring However Flexible plastic tubing Looks much nicer But it's harder to work with
Or you can get really crafty and run the wiring inside the roll cage
That interior looks better with all the stinky skunge 🤢 removed! 👍 Removing redundant wires adds lightness, because racecar! Can you run lexan windows to save even more weight? Def think the TT needs some Sarah love next.
I’ve used dry ice before Sarah, Usually works pretty well depending on how thick the coating is
I can’t wait to see what you do to the cable management! You are the cable management guru..... 😇
Really any offroad shop should be able to build you skid plates. When I lived in Phoenix, I dealt with RPM Fab in Chandler for armor on my 4Runner. They do Toyota and Jeep, but I suspect they wouldn't turn away a custom job.
Change motor and trans mounts to poly. If possible , Dyno the car now and then after any mods. I do recall that even the factory exhaust was even optimized for better performance and when swapped for aftermarket you lose power. Also, clutch cost is a beast ……..
Wow it’s disturbingly unpleasant under the carpet of an old car! Great video as always gorgeous!
Brings back the memories of my focus st, good luck with the build
They make a world of difference thats for sure
Hi Sarah, you can use dry ice to remove the gunk in the trunk bed.
Under car is tricky if it were me I would wait until the exhaust and suspension is done before getting skid plates made. Finding a place to engineer it all at the same time might be tricky unless you go to a 4WD off road shop. The combo of lift and metal fab isn't common.
Also the under radiator protection should probably tie into the front primary bumper that's under the front plastic clip. That is probably also made from plastic so a slightly more attachment friendly unit will be needed? The best bet would be take off the front clip and have a look. At the same time don't forget to put some decent attachments for a tow hook.
Gearing {on the cheap} could also be tricky, have a look in a manual for these {or look it up on a forum ?} for another model/engine variant or year that uses the same drive train and check the gearing. Normally it goes a couple of ways the sports versions will get a shorter diff gear as well as the manuals but sometimes the smallest engine variant will still use the same gearbox and differential variant with shorter gears. Failing that just another wheel/tire combo with a smaller rolling diameter. That will get it off the mark a bit quicker.
Cheers
That is a cute little hatch back. I love hatch backs. My partner and I own a Veloster Turbo in Elite White. You should come to Cali and give it the beans!
I love the echo in the car with all the interior paneling out, that is too funny