Thrifty McGassaver, This is your Life!
Just thought I'd throw together a brief, all encompasing post about the cosmetic and mechanical changes that I'd done to my car over the three years I've had it...
When I first bought the car for $1500: https://img180.imageshack.us/img180/1156/img2858m.jpg Dirty Winter Mode https://img25.imageshack.us/img25/2663/img2857h.jpg Dented Driver's Door (hard to see but it's there) https://img169.imageshack.us/img169/7590/img2856y.jpg Driver's side Rear https://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5857/img2855m.jpg Dinged up tailgate https://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9045/img2854d.jpg Passenger Rear https://img246.imageshack.us/img246/371/img2851u.jpg Passenger Front fender https://img242.imageshack.us/img242/2038/img2852g.jpg Whole Passenger side https://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9895/img2853i.jpg Closeup of the passenger door I then swapped over parts from the 95 Si that I owned for just one week before I got this car. I swapped the tailgate, passenger door, passenger fender, and hood. I later had rear quarter patch panels installed and painted the entire car Dark blue. Then I went through a few phases with the exterior: Denji Projectors, clear side lights and a modified grill insert from a 03-05 Eclipse: https://thelic.org/users/tomo/frontgrill.jpg Installed a block heater: https://thelic.org/users/tomo/blockheater.jpg https://thelic.org/users/tomo/blockheater1.jpg Installed WeatherTech Window Visors and Spoon style mirrors: https://thelic.org/users/tomo/209608776325.jpg Experimented and made a Kammback for the car: https://thelic.org/users/tomo/KammProfile.jpg https://thelic.org/users/tomo/KammRear.jpg It later came off for some redesigning. Picked up some rare optional CRX HF wheels to rock for winter use (painted them bronze because the OEM white was covered with rust from the brake system) https://thelic.org/users/tomo/OEMoptHFWheel.jpg Made some side skirts and picked up some Enkei Conpe-8 rims for summer: https://thelic.org/users/tomo/SideSkirt.jpg https://img43.imageshack.us/img43/749...ftyside.th.jpg Picked up some OEM fog lights, and OEM front lip, made a belly pan, and found some TYC one piece headlights: https://thelic.org/users/tomo/VXFront.jpg https://thelic.org/users/tomo/VXFront2.jpg Put a Spoon style front lip on and polished the paint and re-cleared the hood: https://img190.imageshack.us/img190/1...tyfront.th.jpg https://img185.imageshack.us/img185/6...yfront1.th.jpg Swapped in a freshly rebuilt D15Z1 (stock VX) motor at 380,000miles: https://img2.imageshack.us/img2/7816/thriftyengine.jpg Then I made a more aerodynamic front bumper for winter with a couple different versions of front air dams: https://img151.imageshack.us/img151/9318/aerofront.jpg https://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4207/aeroleft.jpg https://img33.imageshack.us/img33/6583/aeroright.jpg https://img2.imageshack.us/img2/5150/vxairdamday.jpg https://img268.imageshack.us/img268/7356/winterlip1.jpg So after three years, this is as it sits. I'm making one more version of a front air dam when the material arrives this week. Then it's just driving it through the winter and counting the days until spring when I can work on it again. Now you know a little more about the work I've put into my VX. Any questions and comments are welcomed as long as they're positive. :) |
First off, love the car, it looks like when you found it, that it was on the verge of going away forever. How did it run with the header? I have been debating on putting one on my Focus, it has a factory tube shorty header, but the collector is a left-right design and has a squish area, I worry about loosing my squish area and loosing my torque since its an automatic.
Its great that you put 55 MPG on the back. Also, how do you put such big pictures on your thread, I only managed to get a small picture on one of my articles on vegetable oil candles and I had to use a link to attach it, something I'm missing. Computer literacy test: Is the computer on? O.K. I got that part. |
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I wouldn't recommend swapping out the header on your Focus unless it's a cost issue to repair something. The factory system would be best for it. Quote:
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https://allofftopic.com/showthread.php?t=269 |
what has helped thrifty the most for gas mileage?
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Adjusting my driving habit has helped the most actually
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Just a little update:
I installed my HID lights into those TYC one piece projector headlights and have been super happy with the results. Light output has almost doubled (1500 lumens with halogen, 3200 lumens HID) and light coverage is way better. I've gotten high beamed a couple times with the halogens even though they were aimed right. They did have a horrible hot spot in them. Now with the HIDs in there, I have not gotten beamed once. The light is much more evenly spread on the road. I also have the final version of my rubber lip on my car (will get pics today). It looks just like the green one posted above but is black, lol. The next project that I'm tackling is a full exterior LED conversion. I am in the process of making the boards to place inside the rear tail lights. The running/brake lights will consist of 240 red/orange Lumiled LEDs and the turn signals will consist of ~160 Amber Lumiled LEDs. Total wattage for this setup will draw only 48Watts while braking, that's less than half of what the stock incandescent light system draws. Along with the 40W reduction from the HID system I'm dropping just over 120W from my electrical system, for a whopping .16HP increase, lol. I'll be taking pictures of the whole process this time around so others can see and hopefully be inspired. |
thats is beautifull. i wish i can get mine to look that nice and clean one day
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I would love to have a car like this!
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Thanks to some inspiration from Daox, I installed my external plug for my block heater last night so I don't have to pop open the hood on my car anymore.
You can also see the black rubber version of the front air dam that I am currently using. https://www.thelic.org/users/tomo/Heaterplug.jpg |
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