Ford Focus front belly pan
 

Today is the day that my girlfriend's Focus get's it's front belly pan. It will also be getting ducting from the grill to the radiator as well as a partial grill block, I will be taking pictures of the process and will post them later tonight, or tomorrow morning.

ducting is in and the belly pan is on, not permanent yet (i still need to refine it all) but it looks pretty clean and after a test drive around town i didn't notice any unusual changes to the coolant temp, so i think i'm good to go to make it permanent. Pictures will be posted once i get back home (had to drive to her parents house to use a floor jack and stands)

I am eager to see the ducting.

Pictures!!
Pictures!!

Ok, it took a bit to upload and edit the pictures, I had to re-activate my photobucket account then edit out the license plate but here they are.

First we have the big gaping hole under the engine.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...e/IMG_3435.jpg

I noticed this the first time i changed the oil and figured it isn't much better than no front fascia, and had to do something with it.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...e/IMG_3436.jpg

Here's the front view before anything started (including before the oil change).
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...IMG_3437-1.jpg

I started by first blocking the 2 outer openings in the chin grill with coroplast (painted black).
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...IMG_3442-1.jpg

Next I made to 2 baffles (1 on each side) to keep the air from going around the radiator. The first 1 (on the passenger side) was shaped by heating it with a 500W shop light.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...e/IMG_3440.jpg

The second I accidentally cut a little small, but it actually worked because it now braces the drivers side grill block against the back of the grill.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...e/IMG_3441.jpg

Also in the last 2 pictures you can see the lower block that fills under the radiator (which was damaged in winter 09-10).

Here is the belly pan, made from 2 pieces of coroplast held together with a center piece. This was eventually abandoned when the glue I had failed to hold as anticipated. Note the area cut out of the trailing edge to give room for the Catalytic Converter (about a 5 inch clearance all the way around.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...e/IMG_3439.jpg

I didn't take a picture of the bottom piece of the duct, but it just attaches to the 2 sides and the fill piece under the radiator.

Here is the belly pan Duck Taped into place.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...e/IMG_3443.jpg

Front view after the install.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...IMG_3442-1.jpg

And what you can see from a low angle.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...IMG_3445-1.jpg

While doing all of this I discovered what has been making the rattling noises while driving. I had suspected that it was due to a stabilizer bar bushing being worn out, but it ended up being a disconnected stabilizer bar link, which connects the bar to the suspension. This will be getting fixed tomorrow.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a4...e/IMG_3438.jpg

The baffles were a smart touch. I like it.

Wow, very nicely done! Let us know how it holds up.

Looks good, Joe!

good ideas and nice execution.

gorilla glue is good for gluing coroplast. i have never had a glue failure with it.

looking good!


now that you have a nice surface to build on, you may try to add tire dams. i'd say about 5 cm from the tray down and the width of the tires and perhaps part of the suspention as well, also you could extend the front airdam sides (about 2-3 cm) in front of the tires only.

also the next step i took after doing something similar was cover the rest of the engine bay with an aluminum sheet, it turned out the subframe had square holes that where inteded for dirt cheap matal clips that could take a screw... although my car never had an undertray, it did have provisions for one, so perhaps that's worth chekking too.