Well, it's almost time to get started on my winter project. It's a 2003 Ford Escort Zx2 that I bought a year or two ago from a buddy at school. It's a semi-low miles (72,000 miles) car that has never been driven in winter and doesn't have any rust. He just put a turbo on the car, and was driving it for the first time when the wiring harness near the fuse box shorted out and caught the car on fire. He gave up on the project and I bought it from him. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I've now made up my mind. I'm going to be fixing it up and using it as a daily driver. I'm planning on tearing apart my wrecked s/r and using it as a parts car for the '03. I'll be replacing the entire wiring harness, pulling the motor cleaning up the engine bay, stripping the damaged areas to bare metal and then I'll be painting it. Going to be tons of work, but I think it should be worth it when it's finished. I still gotta find an '03 bumper cover.... Also, plans might change mid build.
I'm going to remove and sell the turbo kit, and run it naturally aspirated.
As for mods, here is what I already have:
2.5" mandrel bent stainless exhaust from trubendz exhaust. I'm not sure if I'll be keeping the borla pro xs muffler or if I'll be getting a magnaflow muffler instead. Depends on how the car sounds. (I like my cars to sound a certain way.)
Iceman cold air intake.
S/R ecu.
B&M short throw shifter.
A 21mm rear sway bar
S/R rear disc brake system
A set of miata 15" wheels from a '99 miata, and I'll be cleaning them up and using them.
A set of mx3 gs seats.
svt focus 4-2-1 header. (still undecided about using this. I can't afford a tune right now, so I might just sell this and use the money on other parts for the car.)
Custom mods I plan on doing:
Lightly tint the tail lights and turn signals. (I’m not going to black them out. Just going to darken them up a little bit.)
Keman intake mod
Polishing the miata rims to a mirror finish and then clear coating them.
basic port and polish of my cylinder head, as well as shaving it down a little for some extra compression.
Parts I want to get as I can afford them:
Lowering springs. (Most likely M2 springs. Cheap in price, but they are made by Megan, so they should have decent quality. Not as good as H&R or Eibachs, but better than dropzones.)
Energy Suspension poly bushing kit (Bought)
Hella 500ff driving lights
Depo black housing headlights
Black indiglo gauges
A ‘Powder’ underdrive pulley
Aluminum flywheel
A Centerforce dual friction clutch
A 2 stage intake manifold from a SVT focus.
ZXtuner/Web Cams ‘Hi-Rev’ camshafts
Dyno tuning.
Braided brake hoses.
JPM strut brace
Tokico Blue struts
15” Enkei RPF1 wheels with their awesome SBC finish.
Pictures of the car:
I'm going to remove and sell the turbo kit, and run it naturally aspirated.
As for mods, here is what I already have:
2.5" mandrel bent stainless exhaust from trubendz exhaust. I'm not sure if I'll be keeping the borla pro xs muffler or if I'll be getting a magnaflow muffler instead. Depends on how the car sounds. (I like my cars to sound a certain way.)
Iceman cold air intake.
S/R ecu.
B&M short throw shifter.
A 21mm rear sway bar
S/R rear disc brake system
A set of miata 15" wheels from a '99 miata, and I'll be cleaning them up and using them.
A set of mx3 gs seats.
svt focus 4-2-1 header. (still undecided about using this. I can't afford a tune right now, so I might just sell this and use the money on other parts for the car.)
Custom mods I plan on doing:
Lightly tint the tail lights and turn signals. (I’m not going to black them out. Just going to darken them up a little bit.)
Keman intake mod
Polishing the miata rims to a mirror finish and then clear coating them.
basic port and polish of my cylinder head, as well as shaving it down a little for some extra compression.
Parts I want to get as I can afford them:
Lowering springs. (Most likely M2 springs. Cheap in price, but they are made by Megan, so they should have decent quality. Not as good as H&R or Eibachs, but better than dropzones.)
Energy Suspension poly bushing kit (Bought)
Hella 500ff driving lights
Depo black housing headlights
Black indiglo gauges
A ‘Powder’ underdrive pulley
Aluminum flywheel
A Centerforce dual friction clutch
A 2 stage intake manifold from a SVT focus.
ZXtuner/Web Cams ‘Hi-Rev’ camshafts
Dyno tuning.
Braided brake hoses.
JPM strut brace
Tokico Blue struts
15” Enkei RPF1 wheels with their awesome SBC finish.
Pictures of the car:
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