The FFE Sport Appearance Package!

[TexaCali]

Nissan showed us electric cars can be mass produced at a reasonable cost. Tesla proved they could be sporty (and if you don't think that is sporty or expensive enough, there is always the Rimac Concept One at a cool $1M). But what about sporty for the rest of us? The ICE Focus has some very sporty versions (the "ST" and "RS" models, not to mention the pure rally cars) - but the electric version looks somewhat pedestrian - until now.......

This is still a work in progress and I have a few more tweaks in the works, but so far I have:

1. Removed the leaf & road emblem
2. Blacked out the badges
3. Blacked out the front grill
4. Blacked out the chrome trim at the window base
5. Replaced the wheels with something more sporty (and lighter)
6 Tinted the windows

 

[TexaCali]

 

[TexaCali]

Mods still to come:

1. Blackout headlights (like the ST)
2. Blackout "Focus" badge
3. Install ST spoiler


With the exception of the O.Z. wheels, all of these mods are available from the factory in other Focus trim levels, but not the electric version. Fortunately they are relatively easy to DIY, but it sure would have been nice if I could have just picked it up this way from Ford.

Now maybe in a few years there will be easy ways to actually improve performance - improved aerodynamics, more power to the wheels, or the holly grail - a drop in battery that uses half the space and gives 2x the range for a fraction of the cost! Hey, one can dream right?

 

[EVA]

Wow, very nicely done. Those are some outstanding changes. Sweet wheel choice. That rear quarter view is so nice.

Are you thinking about blacking out the tail lights? I seem to remember seeing a foil job somebody did on Focus Fanatics. It looked really hot on a black car, not sure that works so well with yours though.

 

[WattsUp]

Nice looking mods.

Can somebody explain what "blacked out" means technically? Is it paint? Is it some kind of film? If the latter, how is this film applied to something as tiny and intricate as the emblems? Did you do the blacking out yourself?

 

[TexaCali]

Nice looking mods.

Can somebody explain what "blacked out" means technically? Is it paint? Is it some kind of film? If the latter, how is this film applied to something as tiny and intricate as the emblems? Did you do the blacking out yourself?

Thanks! And yes, I did all of the black painting myself. The paint I used is called "Plasti Dip" and it is a spray on plastic like film. If you look on Youtube you will find people actually paint entire cars with this stuff (even expensive cars like Ferrari's! :shock: ). The nice thing about Plasti Dip is you can just peal it off with no damage to the paint! This also means over spray is easy to clean up (vs a ruined paint job)! Oh, and it is only about $5 a can at your local home improvement store. Plasti Dip is also very durable, surviving high pressure washers and of course easy and cheap to re-do or touch up if needed.

As far as the emblems, they were done in place on the car. Plenty of videos on Youtube showing how to "Plasti Dip" car emblems. Surprisingly easy - and what you see here is the first time I ever tried this stuff.

All that said, I image at some point I may pull the emblems and trim off the car, sand them, and give them a proper paint job. But not wanting to invest the time and money just yet, and not knowing if I was going to like the results, this was a quick, cheap, and easy way to do it, and even the guy who tinted my windows thought it was factory!

 

[TexaCali]

Wow, very nicely done. Those are some outstanding changes. Sweet wheel choice. That rear quarter view is so nice.

Are you thinking about blacking out the tail lights? I seem to remember seeing a foil job somebody did on Focus Fanatics. It looked really hot on a black car, not sure that works so well with yours though.

Thanks! Not sure how dark tail lights would look on this color. With a black or even a white car they would look stunning, but I haven't really considered them for my car. What I am planning is to paint the inside of the headlights black. The idea would be to replicate what comes stock on the ST models. Or I guess I could just replace my headlights with the ST ones, but painting mine would be a lot cheaper.

 

[jmueller065]

Interesting: You're making it an even more "stealthy" EV as it looks more like an ICE Focus than an FFE.

Really like the wheels and the blacked out "grille".

(Not a big fan of chrome, had a really nice Ranger once that was all black and orange--color was called "Autum Orange". It looked a lot like this one: http://gtcarlot.com/colors/car/30816332.html )

 

[v_traveller]

As far as the emblems, they were done in place on the car. Plenty of videos on Youtube showing how to "Plasti Dip" car emblems. Surprisingly easy - and what you see here is the first time I ever tried this stuff.

Impressive! The whole car is beautifully done, but those emblems.... wow. I like the way the green "E" pops out because of the contrast.

 

[WattsUp]

As far as the emblems, they were done in place on the car. Plenty of videos on Youtube showing how to "Plasti Dip" car emblems. Surprisingly easy - and what you see here is the first time I ever tried this stuff.

Thanks for the info.

So, leaving the emblems on the car, you had to mask off the areas in between all the letters? :shock:

How come you removed the "leaf/road "logos?

 

[TexaCali]

As far as the emblems, they were done in place on the car. Plenty of videos on Youtube showing how to "Plasti Dip" car emblems. Surprisingly easy - and what you see here is the first time I ever tried this stuff.

Thanks for the info.

So, leaving the emblems on the car, you had to mask off the areas in between all the letters? :shock:

How come you removed the "leaf/road "logos?

Actually no. That is what is so cool about Plasti Dip. I masked a square area around the entire logo then pealed off the paint on the car door after it dried, just leaving the paint on the emblem. The film breaks clean at the small gap between the emblem and the car door. Go on youtube and search for something like "plasti dip car emblem" and you will find plenty of videos showing the process.

Regarding the leaf/road logos - I removed them because they didn't really fit the look I was going for, and I couldn't find a way to make them work with my "color scheme". Car emblems are just double stick tape/glued in place. Easy to remove (heat gun and fishing line) and easy to re-apply should you decide.

 

[WattsUp]

I masked a square area around the entire logo then pealed off the paint on the car door after it dried, just leaving the paint on the emblem. The film breaks clean at the small gap between the emblem and the car door.

That's pretty cool... I had no idea.

Did you have to mask off the grill precisely, or no? Or, you just sprayed it and then "peeled off the excess" around it, and the film broke at the outline of the grill?

You know... looking at your car with the other blacked-out elements, I'm wondering what the spoiler would look blacked out, as well as the "bar" above the license plate (with the Ford logo) on the hatch?

 

[TexaCali]

Did you have to mask off the grill precisely, or no? Or, you just sprayed it and then "peeled off the excess" around it, and the film broke at the outline of the grill?

Yep - just peel off the excess! Low stress painting. And overspray wipes off with a micro fiber towel!

You know... looking at your car with the other blacked-out elements, I'm wondering what the spoiler would look blacked out, as well as the "bar" above the license plate (with the Ford logo) on the hatch?

I actually considered the "bar" above the license plate but obviously haven't tried it yet. The spoiler is an interesting idea and I haven't thought of that. My wife just ordered the ST rear spoiler as a birthday present (along with some green caliper paint :mrgreen: ) so I'm going to have to paint the new spoiler anyway. I had Just assumed it would be silver, but black could be very interesting and I could do it myself. The body shop told me $250 to match the paint and spray the spoiler.

Update: found this image of a Shelby ST with the bar and spoiler painted black. Hummm.........

 

[WattsUp]

Btw, what level of window tint did you get?

I was thinking about getting my FFE tinted, but haven't done it yet. From my understanding, regular "untinted" automotive window glass already has a VLT (Visible Light Transmission) of about 70%. Usually, this intrinsic tint is greenish (and this is the case with the FFE, which you can see if you view a piece of white paper half though the glass and half directly). Additional tint has a multiplying effect on the overall VLT. So, for example, applying 80% tint to auto glass with an intrinsic 70% tint, the overall tint will be about 50%. (0.70 * 0.80 = 0.56)

Around 50% overall was what I was thinking of going with on my FFE. I don't want it too dark and I also wanted to go "all around", including the front doors (even though I know that is skirting the law since CA requires at least 70% VLT on the front door windows).

 

[TexaCali]

I went with what my guy called "factory tint" which he referred to as 20% (I assume that means it lets 20% of the light through). This is supposedly the same as what you see from the factory on SUV's and minivans. My Ford Excursion has factory tinted windows and I've been quite happy with those (enough to keep the temps down, but not too dark so as to cause issues at night). I left the front windows stock.

Interesting that the stock glass is already 70% - didn't think about that, but it makes sense and I have noticed the slight color shift through auto glass.

 

[Zurc]

Well, how about fattening up those rear tires. Put a custom scoop on the hood, shinny gold color and shaped like a lightning bolt long and low to the hood. The sides definitely need something. the Shelby comes close with the checkers on the bottom but surely there must be a paint scheme that could put some life into those doors. And the front end, my gosh, the front end, What to do? What to do? something long and pointy might help but truly, I don't think there's much hope up there. It looks like someone had something but sanded it all off and forgot to refinish the shape. And what about that lower rear end. Again .. what to do... :?

Just kidding, Looks cool Tex.

Zurc.

 

[TexaCali]

:lol: My wife keeps asking when I'm going to put those neon lights under the car and a giant sub woofer :lol: , but a huge hood scoop would be hysterical.

Back to reality - I decided not to paint the black stripe on the rear and to leave the spoiler body color. The new spoiler is at the painters now. Spoiler, calipers, and finish the badges then the cosmetic work will be done. If anyone ever develops mods to get better acceleration and or range out of the car then I'll likely do those and some suspension mods (ST rear suspension?). Otherwise the only additional changes likely will be little aerodynamic experiments (like cleaning up the underbelly).

 

[WattsUp]

:lol: My wife keeps asking when I'm going to put those neon lights under the car

Well, they wouldn't be neons... of course you'd use efficient LEDs.

But, a soft green glow coming from underneath would be pretty sweet.

In fact... the glow could switch to red as you accelerate and back to green as you regenerate.

----

Addendum: And pulsating blue while you charge.

 

[jmueller065]

ST rear suspension?

It would likely sag at the rear since the FFE has something like an extra 800lbs back there than the ST does.

 

[Entourage]

Great job on the upgrades - very tasteful and a great way to still have fun with your car. I just bought mine last night and already removed the dealer sticker, dealer license plate, and rear hatch focus emblem. I agreee on the road leaf emblem and will remove them tonight. Keep the pics and upgrades coming!