New project car: 1999 Ford Escort ZX2

[Kaido]

Here she is:

http://i.imgur.com/H0WsLmF.jpg

Picked her up last night. She'll be my new wheels for commuting to work. Per my other thread, it needs a little TLC, but nothing too bad. It's a 5-speed 130hp 2.0L DOHC Zetec (Zetec yo!). 12.8 gallons tank, regular gas, 4.25L (4.5 quarts) of 5W30 per the manual. 150k on the clock. Clutch is still good & had an oil change last month. Fun little go-kart of a car!

First task is to fix it up into running condition. I've got 30 days to get it pass emissions (failed it last month apparently). Definitely needs new tires, looks like it's the 14" ones. One in the rear has a slow leak & needs to be filled up every couple of days. Got some work done yesterday:

* New speed sensor
* Fixed broken odometer
* Fixed broken speedometer
* Fixed dash light
* One new outer tie rod end
* Alignment

Next on the list:

* Replace all 4 tires
* New spark plugs (picked some up today)
* Fuel system service
* Pass emissions
* Fix stalling problem

Biggest issue is the stalling problem. If the spark plugs don't do it (or the speed, I'll check the EGR, IAC, MAF, etc. until I figure out what's wrong with it. No idling problems, hangs at a normal 1K with the A/C on, and always starts right back up after it stalls. Maybe it was just the speed sensor, who knows? Separately, the car still has some vibration even after the alignment (especially in the shifter), but I've read that's pretty common on these older 4-cylinder engines due to the way they're mounted and whatnot.

Interior is clean, exterior paint is mostly good. The spoiler's paint is pretty bad and there's some scratches, but nothing too horrific. Biggest minor issue is that the weatherstripping is getting pretty ratty. The worst of it is on the driver's side door, lower part of the window - it has some kind of bend in the middle, which is causing half of that metal strip to pop up, not to mention the rotten weatherstrippping:

http://i.imgur.com/D5SYaID.jpg

Suggestions welcome - not sure if they sell replacement weatherstripping kits or what. Probably see if I can bang out the bend in the metal as well & get that piece shoved back in place. This is more of a semi-project car, partly because I don't have a garage at the moment (rental, just a parking space out in the open) and partly because this is my first project car to fix up a bit. Fortunately it's not in too horrible condition, just older is all. The only other minor project I can think of right now is that the A/C doesn't blow very cold. I think the car came with one of those Sub-Zero A/C booster bottles as a to-do item, so I'll look into that next.

Haven't had a 5-speed in about 8 years :thumbsup:

 

[Kaido]

I'm debating fixing her up a little bit nicer as well. First thing would be new shoes. OEM sizes are 14" & 15", so I'd probably go with the slightly larger size to fill in the wheel well better. There's some nice 10-spoke silver ones here for under $300:

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/Whee...ainted&wheelFinish=Silver+Painted&showRear=no

I never really liked the multi-spoke style like the one below, but it might work on this car, especially with the silver lip: (black, silver, and gold available)

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/Whee...lse&filterNew=All&filterWeight=All&sort=Brand

I like to paint, but I don't really have a place to do it right now. I've done a few projects with vinyl wrap over the past year and was thinking about that, but I don't want a solution that's going to fall apart quite so quickly. Then I came across Alsa Corp's paint wrap (they make awesome paint if you're not familiar with the brand). Same idea as a heat-shrink vinyl wrap, expect it comes in a paint that you can spray or roll on. Sort of a cross between Plasti-dip & vinyl wrap - best of both worlds since it doesn't peel off your paint if you remove it later, but can last for years if you want to keep it on for awhile. They have standard finishes as well as metallics: (plus matte if you're into that)

http://www.alsacorp.com/paint_wrap/paint_wrap.html

http://www.alsacorp.com/metallic_paint_wraps/metallic_paint_wraps.html

Cost is $199 a gallon, and you'd need 2 gallons to cover a small car, so it'd basically be a $400 faux-paintjob. They say it handles key scratches & car washes pretty well, so that's good news. You can also tint it with their candy concentrates and finish it with clearcoat, so you can make it look really good. No bubbles like vinyl & doesn't require a spray booth - do it outside on a nice day. So that might be a fun project on a warm day.

I don't know if I'll do anything to the exhaust. I don't race at all, but it might be nice to have something a little better-sounding like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qZ6c1HpJYlM#t=21s

And apparently the '97 version had a 0 to 60 time of 7.8 seconds:

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/coupes/112_9708_1997_ford_escort_zx2/viewall.html

I really miss having a sunroof, but the cost to install one would probably be about what the car's market value is haha. Sort of like the paint - might be fun, but it's an additional cost on a nearly 15-year-old car. I did find a body kit that I like. The styling on this particular one is a bit over-the-top, but you get the idea:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/384750/1999-ford-zx2/page-7/

The full kit is $360:

http://www.andysautosport.com/ford/1998_2003_escort_zx2/exterior/body_kits/aas/andy00067793.html

Still haven't found a spoiler that I like. Wouldn't want anything like the Fast & the Furious, just something to dress it up a bit more if I went the faux-painting route and added some rims.

 

[manimal]

nice little DD! Dont just stop at an oil change. How does the coolant look? Does the car drive straight after the alignment?


Dont worry too much about aesthetics till you have all your mechanicals straightened out. Get some tires on there stat!

 

[Kaido]

The stock speakers aren't bad, but it only has a cassette tape player (I'm using an adapter for my iPhone) and it tends to get distorted at highway-loudness levels. Crutchfield doesn't have a kit for this car, so I'll have to piecemeal it out. Amazon has a cheapo $35 dash kit:

http://www.amazon.com/Stereo-Install...dp/B000KL0LJ4/

Alpine has a nice Digital Media Receiver (stereo receiver minus the CD player for $99 that includes both Bluetooth calling & Bluetooth audio streaming:

http://www.amazon.com/UTE-42BT-Alpin.../dp/B00BWZEILY

I'd most likely leave the stock speakers alone, but might add a sub. I've been wanting to build an Autotuba for awhile now:

http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/autotuba.html

Another project I have in mind is a combination Dashcam/Blindspot system. Ali Express has some 4-channel automotive DVR's that record to SD cards and have GPS; here's one for $320:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/DHL-...SD-Card-Car-Mobile-DVR-with-3G/866356631.html

Blind-spot cameras on DX.com for $18 a pop:

http://dx.com/p/e366-compact-vehicl...0507?rt=1&p=0&m=0&r=3&k=1&t=1&s=39044&u=50507

And wide-angle bumper cams for $21 each:

http://dx.com/p/e305-wide-angle-mini-vehicle-rear-sight-waterproof-video-camera-dc-12v-ntsc-80566

So basically wrapping up 3 ideas:

1. Record video: ~360 degrees (front cam, back cam, 2 side mirror cams)
2. Reverse cam: (in reverse) Reverse cam, plus a bumper cam on the left & right bumpers, so you can see a 180-degree field of view. Everyone around here owns giant SUV's and it's always a hassle backing a small car out in a parking lot, so being able to see both the left & right sides as you back out, instead of just a wide-angle back-view camera, would be awesome. Regular cams for left & right, and then a cam with IR lights for seeing in reverse at night.
3. Drive cam: (in drive) Basically mount a camera under each side-view mirror to show the blind spots like some of the new cars have.

There's a lot of ways to get the monitors into the car. You can do an in-dash one, like a nice 7", you can do a small 3" or 4" one just mounted to the dashboard, and they even have in-mirror LCD screens for the rearview mirror. DX.com has a nice 4.3" TFT for $29:

http://dx.com/p/4-3-tft-lcd-monitor-for-car-vehicle-960-x-468-dc-12v-116245

So that would give you a hassle-free 4-camera DVR (automatic, shockproof, plus solid-state recording on SD cards), a great reverse-view system, and a really nice blind-spot system for around $550. Again, one of those things that makes you question the worth of the car, so this would be more of a science experiment type of thing, hehe.

 

[Kaido]

nice little DD! Dont just stop at an oil change. How does the coolant look? Does the car drive straight after the alignment?


Dont worry too much about aesthetics till you have all your mechanicals straightened out. Get some tires on there stat!

Yup drives straight, just has some vibration. Just drove it to work 20 miles without issue. Had it looked over by a mechanic and the only other thing is cleaning out the fuel system for $90 or so. Tires will go on this month for sure. The big issue I want to kill is the stalling issue, and then see about making the A/C a bit colder (it blows just enough to keep you from sweating, haha). I'm just barely starting to dip my toes into car stuff, so all of this is very new to me. I've leased all of my cars for the past 10 years or so, but I have the urge to tinker now!

My brother had this before me, but he was pretty lax on maintenance as this was his beater. I sold him my '01 Volvo S80 I got in April, since he has a mega-commute for his current work project (like 800+ miles a week) and needed a more reliable automatic, and I really wanted something to fool around with, so it worked out well for both of us. I had been eyeballing electric cars, but short of the Tesla nothing really worked for me, so this is a good stopgap for now.

I'm not really sure what my plans are. It will basically be driven 50 miles a day, 6 days a week, for however long I want to keep it. So the mechanical stuff is first up. I'd really like to mess around with that Alsa liquid wrap at some point since I haven't used it before and it looks awesome to work with. A body kit would be fun to compliment that, but strictly for aesthetic purposes only and I wouldn't want it to look too riced out or anything. So after getting the stalling issue taken care of & some new tires on it, I'll probably do the head unit & subwoofer so that my iPhone will interface better & I'll have a semi-decent sound system for driving to work with.

 

[phucheneh]

It's not that expensive to paint a car. Just a time sink.

And you don't need a paint booth. Or even a garage. I know lots of old-school dudes that have painted project cars outside, and they turned out okay. Certainly better than Maaco or Earl Scheib, at least. Although I think this was easier before base/clear systems, as you didn't have to worry as much about trash in your paint- you could always wetsand ('color sand') it out. Whereas with a two stage urethane, my understanding is that you really shouldn't dick with the basecoat...let it flash, spray the clear. You can then sand the clear, if desired. But any dirt, bugs, ect that are trapped between the base and clear are pretty much permanent, AFAIK.

You can improvise a booth with any kind of structure that you can cover with plastic sheeting. I'm doing some parts outside right now, And I'm just using one of those ~12'x12' pop-up tents like you'd see at an outdoor swap meet or something. Enclose with sheeting, duct in a fan for intake, cut a hole for exhaust, cover both with pollen filters (like the kind for household A/C).

For paint, everything is pretty affordable except basecoat, which can vary widely. I'm shooting a factory metallic blue pearl that's like $200 a freakin' quart. You can get a gallon of a simple solid color and/or cheaper line of paint for less, though. And you won't need a gallon...more like two quarts, cut 1:1 with reducer to make a gallon of sprayable paint.

Which just leaves equipment. Disposable respirators are cheap. I'm using a ~$160 HF air compressor and a $50 gun. For a whole car, you'd want a bigger compressor, though. Seen lots of good results with cheap guns; also terrible stuff painted with good guns.

Some people will say you need an expensive filtration system. I'm not so sure...again, seen good results from very basic setups. I've got a 50ft hose hooked by my compressor, coiled up in the garage, going to a $25 filter/water seperator, going to another 50ft hose than attaches to my gun, which has a $5 disposable filter attached. I think it'll work.

 

[phucheneh]

Oh god, now stereos. I'm gonna resist the urge to scrutinize all that stuff and tell you how a True Boss would set that stereo up. That shit is 100% in my wheelhouse (...painting, not-so-much, I'm very much in a learning phase there).

Get some better front speakers. The stock ones in 90's Fords were terribad. For really good results, components + amp.

And subs are just not hard. That 'autotuba' thing is overthinking. In a small car like an Escort, a single cheap 10 or 12 with maybe 300w of power will probably give you all the bass you want, and sound fine doing it. It just has to be set up correctly. I've heard $50 Kicker subs sound better than $500 JL's, simply because of things like box design, proper phasing (reversing the polarity of the wires...yes, something that simple can be huge), properly set crossovers, and one of the most important thing, no goddamn bass boost bullshit. Which is not to say you need audiophile-grade flat frequency response...you can still have lots of bass, if you want. There are just good ways and bad ways to increase bass response, and throwing in a giant akward peak at an undesirable frequency ('bass boost') is not it.

 

[Kaido]

It's not that expensive to paint a car. Just a time sink.

And you don't need a paint booth. Or even a garage. I know lots of old-school dudes that have painted project cars outside, and they turned out okay. Certainly better than Maaco or Earl Scheib, at least. Although I think this was easier before base/clear systems, as you didn't have to worry as much about trash in your paint- you could always wetsand ('color sand') it out. Whereas with a two stage urethane, my understanding is that you really shouldn't dick with the basecoat...let it flash, spray the clear. You can then sand the clear, if desired. But any dirt, bugs, ect that are trapped between the base and clear are pretty much permanent, AFAIK.

You can improvise a booth with any kind of structure that you can cover with plastic sheeting. I'm doing some parts outside right now, And I'm just using one of those ~12'x12' pop-up tents like you'd see at an outdoor swap meet or something. Enclose with sheeting, duct in a fan for intake, cut a hole for exhaust, cover both with pollen filters (like the kind for household A/C).

For paint, everything is pretty affordable except basecoat, which can vary widely. I'm shooting a factory metallic blue pearl that's like $200 a freakin' quart. You can get a gallon of a simple solid color and/or cheaper line of paint for less, though. And you won't need a gallon...more like two quarts, cut 1:1 with reducer to make a gallon of sprayable paint.

Which just leaves equipment. Disposable respirators are cheap. I'm using a ~$160 HF air compressor and a $50 gun. For a whole car, you'd want a bigger compressor, though. Seen lots of good results with cheap guns; also terrible stuff painted with good guns.

Some people will say you need an expensive filtration system. I'm not so sure...again, seen good results from very basic setups. I've got a 50ft hose hooked by my compressor, coiled up in the garage, going to a $25 filter/water seperator, going to another 50ft hose than attaches to my gun, which has a $5 disposable filter attached. I think it'll work.

Yeah, for sure. I still have all my airbrush stuff. But I'm also super uptight about my paintjobs and like to do a million coats of clear and whatnot and I don't really think I want to invest that much time into painting this car, since it'll probably be headed to the junkyard when I'm done with it haha.

I just came across the Alsa goop recently, apparently it's been out for a year or so and I hadn't heard of it. Paint it up in a day, throw some clear on there, boom, done. Sounds pretty interesting! I've had surprisingly good results with vinyl wrap on some past projects, so this definitely looks interesting. And if I don't like it, I can just peel it off. Granted it costs about double what the cheap vinyl costs, but it's a lot better than what I'd probably end up spending on paint once all is said & done. Check out their video on it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwsZIBNFVbk

I think I'd either go metallic red or black with clearcoat. Yellow looks surprisingly good on this car, but I'm not a yellow kind of guy. Blue is definitely not bad either, and I might give stripes a shot. My buddy has been wanting some black stripes on his truck, so I might use his as the guinea pig.

 

[phucheneh]

The paint really doesn't look that bad. Could you get away with not painting the fenders, quarters, and doors? Just respraying the front bumper, hood, and roof (the typical faded, dented, scratched areas) would greatly simplify things.

 

[Kaido]

now stereos. I'm gonna resist the urge to scrutinize all that stuff and tell you how a True Boss would set that stereo up. That shit is 100% in my wheelhouse (...painting, not-so-much, I'm very much in a learning phase there).

Get some better front speakers. The stock ones in 90's Fords were terribad. For really good results, components + amp.

And subs are just not hard. That 'autotuba' thing is overthinking. In a small car like an Escort, a single cheap 10 or 12 with maybe 300w of power will probably give you all the bass you want, and sound fine doing it. It just has to be set up correctly. I've heard $50 Kicker subs sound better than $500 JL's, simply because of things like box design, proper phasing (reversing the polarity of the wires...yes, something that simple can be huge), properly set crossovers, and one of the most important thing, no bass boost. Which is not to say you need audiophile-grade flat frequency response...you can still have lots of bass, if you want. There are just good ways and bad ways to increase bass response, and throwing in a giant akward peak at an undesirable frequency ('bass boost') is not it.

Ah, a speaker guy! Bass boost? Hah! You'll appreciate my latest home theater project:

http://i.imgur.com/j0qXg2Q.jpg

I have funny ideas about sound though. I like good sound, but I am definitely not an audiophile. Especially in this car, where there's a lot of road noise with the engine and whatnot. I'm curious to see how well the Bluetooth system will pick up in the car, actually. Normally I'd just go with like a Jawbone noise assassin headset or something, but I really want to try a head unit with it built-in, and for the same price as a nice BT headset, why not.

I have yet to come across a set of components that I really like. I prefer full-range sound if I can get it, or just regular coaxial speakers. I may or may not upgrade the stock speakers. They are definitely not bad; I'll see how they sound once I put the head unit & subwoofer in. I mostly listen to podcasts because I sit in traffic a lot (sometimes up to 2 hours despite the short-ish commute), although I do use MOG & the radio daily too.

I'm really interested to try the Autotuba because I've listened to some horn subs & liked the sound output. Plus it's a funky design & looks like a bit of a challenge to build, so it's just something out of the norm to try. I definitely won't be putting in any dynamat or quietcar stuff into this ride, so I'm not overly concerned with premium sound quality as much as just acceptable sound.

I'm just tossing around ideas right now. Once I get the mechanics fixed I may just leave it at that - a basic DD to drive until it dies. It'd be easy to dump money into it, but it's barely at what I'd even call a "good" level of condition, so meh. Some fun, lower-cost projects like the Alsa paint wrap & a $35 horn sub is just about in the right vein of what I have in mind :biggrin:

 

[spaceman]

hit that with some rubbing compound and see how she looks

 

[Kaido]

The paint really doesn't look that bad. Could you get away with not painting the fenders, quarters, and doors? Just respraying the front bumper, hood, and roof (the typical faded, dented, scratched areas) would greatly simplify things.

Yeah, but I don't really care about the paint is the issue. I could happily drive it as-is right now because I don't really mind. The main reason for painting it would be to try out the Alsa stuff because it looks pretty neat. I guess if I really wanted to trick it out, I could do a nice body kit, a full-on paintjob, and some really nice rims, but then I'd still have a 130-horsepower 14-year-old Ford ZX2 in fair condition underneath

 

[Kaido]

hit that with some rubbing compound and see how she looks

With some touch-up paint in a couple areas it'd probably look great...the weather is nice outside...

 

[Kaido]

Any ideas on what to do about the weatherstripping? Do they make replacement kits?

As far as I know, it doesn't have any leaks. It just looks terrible.

 

[phucheneh]

Yeah, I'm a bit of a car audio snob and am happy to give input on that stuff. You're right in that it's a terrible environment, and generally not worthy of the money that some people put into it. I will repeat: it's all in the setup. I have messed with some really cheap stuff and gotten very acceptable sound that I would probably equate to a high-quality factory system...like in a newer BMW, Volvo, Infiniti, or other cars with (IMO) pretty good sound...not a GM or Toyota (both typically make terrible stereos, it would seem) with a Bose 'upgrade' or something.

If you think the speakers are adequate, try just a HU upgrade, if needed (something with some decent basic EQing and crossover options), and a small sub in a sealed box. I can't say I really 'get' the idea of a 'horn sub,' and would just recommend something basic and efficient in a small sealed box with a reasonable amount of power.

These are a great deal. I believe it's nearly if not entirely identical to an ID12:
http://www.woofersetc.com/p-8143-re...bwoofer-dual-4-ohm-oem-by-image-dynamics.aspx

Grab a monoblock from any semi-reputable brand that puts out 300-400w @ 2 ohms. Another 100 bucks, maybe. Kenwood, Pioneer, Alpine, Kicker, ect will all do the job. There are some decent lesser-known brands, too. Basically, just avoid the utter crap like Pyle, Lanzar, et al.

edit: I checked, that Tidal sub has identical T/S specs to an ID12. $80 is freaking stealing it. I don't hesitate to recommend ID12's, which go for about twice the street price.

And I read that 'autotuba' page. No. Just no. If nothing else, look at his frequency reponse graph...now clip off the worthless 100hz+ range, and all you can really say is that their design is 'louder.' And believe me, a single ID12 would give you more than enough 'loud.'

 

[Kaido]

I was thinking about getting Automatic for it: ($70 iPhone OBD-II reader)

http://www.automatic.com/

But I think it would be more convenient to get Torque Pro because then I could swap it between cars. DX.com has a 4.3" Android tablet for $45:

http://dx.com/p/jxd-s18-4-3-resisti...ad-tablet-pc-w-tf-wi-fi-g-sensor-black-161536

Plus $25 for a Bluetooth OBD-II reader:

http://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Products-...dp/B005NLQAHS/

Plus $5 for the app puts me at $75 - about the same one as the iPhone one, but I can plug it into any car I want.

 

[Kaido]

Anyone know of some good magic goop for getting stickers off windows? I'll just go in next week with some razor blades and nail polish remover otherwise.

 

[phucheneh]

Razor then Goo-gone if needed. Assuming you're talking about the outside of the window. If it has any of those reverse stickers on the inside...find a sticker you like to cover it on the outside, heh.

 

[spaceman]

Anyone know of some good magic goop for getting stickers off windows? I'll just go in next week with some razor blades and nail polish remover otherwise.

3m adhesive remover

 

[Kaido]

Razor then Goo-gone if needed. Assuming you're talking about the outside of the window. If it has any of those reverse stickers on the inside...find a sticker you like to cover it on the outside, heh.

Yeah, all on the inside windshield haha.

 

[Kaido]

Been a few days since the speed sensor was swapped out to fix the odometer/speedometer. No stalls yet off the highway. Not sure if those would have any relationship with each other or not.

 

[manimal]

Yup drives straight, just has some vibration. Just drove it to work 20 miles without issue. Had it looked over by a mechanic and the only other thing is cleaning out the fuel system for $90 or so. Tires will go on this month for sure. The big issue I want to kill is the stalling issue, and then see about making the A/C a bit colder (it blows just enough to keep you from sweating, haha). I'm just barely starting to dip my toes into car stuff, so all of this is very new to me. I've leased all of my cars for the past 10 years or so, but I have the urge to tinker now!

My brother had this before me, but he was pretty lax on maintenance as this was his beater. I sold him my '01 Volvo S80 I got in April, since he has a mega-commute for his current work project (like 800+ miles a week) and needed a more reliable automatic, and I really wanted something to fool around with, so it worked out well for both of us. I had been eyeballing electric cars, but short of the Tesla nothing really worked for me, so this is a good stopgap for now.

I'm not really sure what my plans are. It will basically be driven 50 miles a day, 6 days a week, for however long I want to keep it. So the mechanical stuff is first up. I'd really like to mess around with that Alsa liquid wrap at some point since I haven't used it before and it looks awesome to work with. A body kit would be fun to compliment that, but strictly for aesthetic purposes only and I wouldn't want it to look too riced out or anything. So after getting the stalling issue taken care of & some new tires on it, I'll probably do the head unit & subwoofer so that my iPhone will interface better & I'll have a semi-decent sound system for driving to work with.

Careful what fuel system cleaner they try to sell you. They could be throwing in some 5 dollar lucas and charging you 50 bucks...

The only fuel injection cleaner that I like to use is the two stage B&G fuel system cleaner. You can buy it on ebay and do it yourself. Buy a five pack they are worth it.


Start by cleaning and eliminating and isolating your issues.

 

[pauldun170]

For the stalling issue, inspect the intake boot for leaks.
Check the rubber hose to the PCV.
Also give the throttle bottle a good cleaning.
Inspect the idle air valve and if its crappy looking, chuck and replace.

 

[Insomniator]

Serious question, isn't this thing a total piece of crap?

 

[Centauri]

Serious question, isn't this thing a total piece of crap?

No...