Letitreign's never too late build thread!

[letitreign]

My ownership of the Fiesta was largely coincidental. A friend of my mine had just finished school and as a gift to himself he bought a golf R. For years we had discussed buying fun cars, but being broke students didnt allow that. When I saw how happy he was with his new ride, I knew I needed something like that in my life.
So I began looking at cars, mostly half seriously though. At the time, I had one month left on my work contract with no assurance of a renewal. This put a pretty serious restriction on my budget. I wanted something that wasnt necessarily as fast as the Golf R, but something quick enough that my buddy wouldnt be waiting for me. My initial thoughts were the Civic SI, Focus ST and the Subaru WRX.
A couple of weeks went by and I hadnt really settled on anything, nor was I seriously considering actually buying anything, it was more of a "if I was to buy a car, it would be a ______". A couple buddies and I went a mountain biking trip to Kicking Horse for the day and we started discussing cars. Turns out, one them actually happened to work at a Ford dealership. I told him I like the Focus and all he could do is shake his head and swear that the Fiesta was better. A few days later I stopped by and test drove both. I left with no doubt in my mind which car was right for me. Bought the car in August of 2016, couldn't be happier with it!

I never expected to make a build thread, and to be honest its a little late to start one now but fuck it. I haven't documented every install... as it turns out though, I have more pictures of my progress than I thought, so here goes:

Installed
Shadow Tint 3M, Tint
Cobb Accessport
Cobb Rear Motor Mount
Cobb Exhaust Hangers
Depo Racing Intercooler
Dep Racing Charge Pipes
CP-E Nexus Cat Back Exhaust
CP-E '16 Intake
PLM Down Pipe
Damond Oil Catch Can
Denso ITV22
PumaSpeed x47
TurboSmart IWG-75
GFB DV+
Whoosh Motorsports 2016 Intake Fix
Triple R Front Splitter
CFM Symposer Delete
Velossa Tech Big Mouth
Velossa Tech Wing Riser kit
Lamin-X kit
Back up cam fix
MR119 Motegi wheels, courtesy of [MENTION=1015]shouldbeasy[/MENTION] wrapped in Falken Azenis RT-615k+
Tuned by Alex @ Stratified
Custom Amp & Sub

Took me forever to make a decision on a lot of these purchases. Thankfully I had lots of help from guys like [MENTION=4339]WeTheNorth[/MENTION] and [MENTION=5976]ron@whoosh[/MENTION]!

Soon to be installed
MeisterR Coilovers

Future Projects
Front lip plasti-dip

 

[letitreign]

When I first brought her home:

Fresh after a wash, trying to keep that factory shine!

Waiting for me outside work, how sweet of her hah

A few months in, the modding began! I started with the "Cobb Stage 1 kit":

The parts began to arrive:

Intercooler install:

Last wash and wax before the cold:

With winter around the corner, the steelies w/ studded winters were swapped:

Late night fun in the snow:

Spring around the corner, it was time for more goodies! CP-E Nexus exhaust and PLM downpipe:

 

[letitreign]

Finally, with some warm weather and my tax return showing up, I went big; Velossa Tech Big Mouth, Whoosh Intake Fix, Denso Plugs, Cobb Hangers, X-47 with GFB DV+ and Turbo smart actuator, CP-E Intake:

C-PE Intake installed:

X-47 Install, shout out to [MENTION=1015]shouldbeasy[/MENTION] for showing me how its done (I think we did it in ~ 3.5 hours?) as well as lending me his shop space, tools etc. We managed not to strip, break, cross thread or smash anything which is a break from the norm for me:

Not being completely satisfied with the look of my car, I decided the intercooler stood out too much. The entire vehicle is black/orange, so why not keep with the theme...

Before:

After:

There are a lot of debates out there about the effect of painting an intercooler black. Regardless of which side of the fence youre on, I opted to take the safe route and only paint just slightly more than I had to. I also used products that were designed for this sort of thing, with very light coats.

Given that I am in Canada, whatever effect this paint will or wont have will be negligible.

 

[letitreign]

While I had the bumper off, I figured why not do the other front end work (Velossa Tech big mouth, TRC splitter):

Everything installed, as she sits today:

Tuning Progress:
The base tune I received from Stratified was quite conservative, capping the boost to 21 PSI. I think this is more or less a system check for them to makes sure everything is sound before they begin the real tuning.
91 Octane, 3400 feet of elevation:
Revision 2:

Revision 3:

Further revisions coming, as well as a 94 Octane tune.

Dont take these values as absolute truths as my car weight is an estimate. Im more interested in the gains seen between revisions and fuel types.

 

[WeTheNorth]

Looking good Stud!

 

[Vanilla2]

Nice work buddy

 

[DangerMouse]

Excellent build, thanks for sharing.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Really nice, SOLID build!

Not sure if you knew this, but there IS a heat disapating black coating available for ICs, but yes, it IS somewhat co$tly, and might entail the car being down for a week.

As you've said, up in the northland, it is not so critical, IF you were in south Tejas or surrounds, it becomes more critical.

Any plans for a summer wheel/tire upgrade at all?

 

[letitreign]

Thanks man! I had heard about the coating but my understanding was that I'd have to send my intercooler away, which as you said can get costly. As far as wheels go, I'm in the process of buying a set of Motegi MR119s. Given that there's still a good amount of tread left on my Michelin Sport AS3's, I'll likely use them as my summer rubber until they need replacing. The OEM rims will become my winter wheels, and the steelies will probably go up for sale!

 

[ron@whoosh]

very nice man!

 

[J2FoRS]

Great build bud, I love seeing other Canadians doing big stuff. Too bad you're out west would love to see some of these northern cars in person.

 

[shouldbeasy]

Love this mandarin orange - just needs some underglow... ha!!

I think [MENTION=5751]letitreign[/MENTION] has caught the 'mod' bug.

 

[skidro87]

Hey are you two running the same tuner as well?

 

[shouldbeasy]

Hey are you two running the same tuner as well?

Yep - Stratified Automotive.

 

[letitreign]

Yepp same tuner, [MENTION=1015]shouldbeasy[/MENTION] is mad though cause my car is so much faster....

 

[letitreign]

Had a chance to drain the oil catch can after ~3000km:

Also installed the Velossa tech wing riser kit

When I first got the kit I was unsure about the color match but after installing it its actually a very good color match.

Ordered a paint chip repair kit and an obd2 bluetooth connector along with the back-up camera.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Had a chance to drain the oil catch can after ~3000km:

Mmmm, mocha!

Is it still fairly cold up there, or do you do mostly very short trips on this OCC drain?

 

[letitreign]

It's pretty warm now, in the 70s in the middle of the day. That catch can content is from the winter as well though. There was a pretty strong smell of gasoline, kind of surprising....

 

[shouldbeasy]

It's pretty warm now, in the 70s in the middle of the day. That catch can content is from the winter as well though. There was a pretty strong smell of gasoline, kind of surprising....

Is normal...

 

[letitreign]

Finally some updates! Managed to install the wing riser kit, as well as fit a freshly powder-coated set of Motegi MR119s wrapped in a set of Falken Azenis RT 615k+

I've also ordered the back up camera and gathered any materials that will be required for the install (thanks [MENTION=2253]CanadianGuy[/MENTION]). Another piece on the way is a Lamin-X kit for the Fiesta ST, excited to get that. Perhaps the best news of all though, is the fact that the car no longer spits out any soot. Turns out, quality full synthetic oil makes a world of difference! Who would have thought that oil is an important fluid....