Project: Blu

Introducing Project: Blu

So as the months have worn on I’ve been daily driving the Escape. All is well. It’s been extremely reliable and very useful to have around the farm. Although we haven’t gotten heavy snowfall to truly test it out, it’s been a great winter vehicle. It even gets decent fuel economy for what it is. Needless to say I’m happy with it.

With all that said; there’s a small problem. Unfortunately when I was sideswiped last year, the vehicle was totaled out. Which means I get a “branded salvage title” on the vehicle. All this means is it’s been wrecked, and it cannot be ed or insured until the title is transferred to “rebuilt”. All that requires is: a police inspection, a couple page form, time, and a little money. It’s not a big deal, and I plan on doing it.

Additionally I’ve missed driving a stick. With my annual trip to Tail of the Dragon coming up this spring, an Escape that has insurance running out in April that I can’t renew, and an urge to drive stick again; I decided I needed another car.

The market

Now it’s no secret that the new and used car markets are a mess. Everything is suddenly worth more now than it was a few years ago. With that said, I had extremely good luck with the Escape’s price. I was hoping to pull off a similar feat again. I wanted to pull another rabbit out of the used car market’s hat. So I set off.

After looking for a few days I compiled a list of vehicles that were within budget. These cars are what I personally liked, and they were available at the time. Some honorable mentions on that list were: Ford Mustang, Toyota MR2, Pontiac Fiero, Mazda Miata, Volkswagen Jetta, Toyota Celica, Dodge Neon, Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Cavalier, Ford Escort, Ford Crown Victoria, and Toyota Supra.

I began to narrow in on what I wanted. My top 3 included a Pontiac Fiero, a Ford Mustang, and a Chevrolet Camaro. Other contenders were dismissed due to repair costs, title issues, or being too hard to find.

Then something popped up in my recommended listings. Something I’d initially looked for, but initially ruled out because of pricing. I DM’d the seller and got all the info for it. After some negotiations; it was mine. Project: Blu an 02 Ford Focus SVT 3dr in Sonic blue.

Picking it up

One of the reasons the Focus was so cheap was it couldn’t run for long. Like most Focus’s of this generation, the thermostat housing had failed, so it leaked coolant profusely. So I got in the Expedition, I rented a U-Haul Auto Transport trailer, and I headed north.

Well over an hour later I arrived at his house. After doing a visual inspection on it, starting it up to hear it run, and driving it a very short distance; I handed over the money.

Before I get into pricing, I want to give you a rundown on what I knew about the car at this point. I knew it was a A 2002 Ford Focus SVT 3dr in Sonic blue, I knew the vehicle had a rebuilt title, I knew it ran, I knew about the thermostat failure, I knew about the no power steering, I knew only one door opened, and I knew the sunroof leaked. That was pretty much it. I paid the seller $2000 cash for it and loaded it up on the trailer.

Now you might say that I overpaid and honestly I was hoping for $1800 max, but it was too good to up. After strapping it down I headed south back towards home. After about 15 miles I pulled over to check my straps and take some pictures of it:

After about an hour of driving I was very close to home. That’s when one of the straps came loose on the Focus. Luckily the car didn’t budge and I was able to pull over before it got the chance to. Apparently the ratcheting mechanism on the tie down was broken or worn out so over time it’d come loose. That on top of the fact that the Focus doesn’t have a working handbrake made for a sketchy situation. After resecuring the Focus I made it home without issue.

Plans

So initially I wanted to do a full Mk1 Focus RS conversion, but that isn’t possible at the moment. Aftermarket Mk1 bumpers are junk, and oem RS bumpers and fenders are thousands of dollars if you can even find them. So I will be retaining the SVT front bumper, fenders, etc. however I still plan on adding some Focus RS parts that I can get. Additionally I’d like to do a lot suspension wise. For now though, I need to take care of the mechanical and bodywork problems first.

Cleaning and such

After getting it unloaded and parked I decided it was long overdue for some cleaning. I used some bottled interior detail wipes which almost instantly turned black. I will do a full detail on it once it’s up and running in a few months but for now this will do. I also ripped out all the aftermarket sub and speaker wiring. The sub wiring in particular was a complete fire hazard being ran through the door jamb and across the carpet with exposed copper at the end. I also managed to get the enger door open which was a huge relief.

Thermostats and such

Immediately after I got done with cleaning; I hopped online to find a solution to my thermostat issue. It turns out the oem part for these is junk and they all leak. Great. Fortunately the Ford Contour has an identical housing except for one main difference. You see, on a Focus housing there’s a plug on the bottom that slides in place with an o-ring and a clip. The o-ring disintegrates causing a massive leak. On the Contours however it's threaded metal and allows you to put a brass plug in. This is recognized as the proper and only fix for the issue. The part #’s for all the parts I used are: Motorcraft RH-76, Motorcraft RH-42, Motorcraft RT1150, and Motorcraft DY-1156.

Once that was taken care of I moved onto wiring. Unfortunately the gentleman I bought it from didn’t understand automotive electrical. I had to rewire almost 10 connections that were held on with wire nuts, replace a missing ground wire, and repair a burnt wire that’d touched the exhaust. Once that was done I moved onto the power steering. Unfortunately it didn't work. The guy swears it has a new pump and it just needed fluid. I figured he was lying, considering the pump isn’t visibly new, but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Long story short it has a massive leak on one of the power steering lines. I’ll hopefully figure out why soon.

Engine

Now with all that said it was still a performance vehicle with 178k miles on it. I decided I wanted to pop the oil fill cap off and much to my surprise… It looks brand new. I’m not sure if the entire engine has been rebuilt/replaced but the head has at a minimum; at some point. Absolutely fantastic news, and it made that $2000 price tag seem like an absolute steal. Afterwards I took it for a test drive and let it idle to ensure the new housing wasn’t leaking. It didn’t.

Thank you yet again for reading through another monster blog post! I’m sure there’s a few typos as always, but this has taken a long time to write up so cut me a lil slack.

So until next time… Peace :v: