My old car...I sure miss her...

[YNOT]

I posted this on my favorite Ford Focus forum but thought, why not post it here as well and share it with you all. Unfortunately I no longer have the car...I just was posting this and reminescing about the good ol` days. Sold her last year for a new `06 Mercury Mariner.

Anyway, here`s a little walk down memory lane...

My `01 Malibu Blue ZX3...dropped on 2.5" SC Racing springs 3 days after purchasing it. 17x7.5" Gun Metal Motegi MR12`s on 205/40 Sumitomos gave it just the look I was after. I had so many plans for this car at this point...I was obsessed with it...



Next up I added the Kaminari lip, Fiber Images hood, tinted glass and an injen cold air intake among many other small things...





She was gettin` there but it was time to take it to the next level, so now came a custom paint job designed and sprayed by myself, with help from my father and over 60 hours of prep, paint, wet-sanding, and buffing...what a long weekend it was, but boy was it worth it when it was over.

With that, here were a few of the many steps in the painting process...

Car is prepped, scuffed and ready for the gray paint...



Here I am sprayin` the gray...



Here I was using the template I created to mask off the black stripe...



Here she is, ready for the black paint...



And the finished product awaiting the clearcoat...



Here it was prior to the pinstriping...this was fresh out of the paint booth...um...I mean `garage`...



And here`s a little collage of the final car after the custom paintwork/pinstriping and upgraded H&R Cup Kit suspension...



I sure enjoy thumbin` through my hundreds of photos every now and then, reliving the great memories. Some days I kick myself for sellin` it, but that`s just how it goes...you can`t keep every car you own, right?

Now she`s gone and I`ve moved on to bigger and better things...I guess you could say.

Thanks for looking...I hope you enjoyed the shots, I know this car gave me a great sense of pride and much joy during the 5 years that I owned it.

Oh...and here`s the new ride that I replaced her with...





Hope you enjoy the `history` of my ZX3.

[audiboy]

It looks like you were bit by the mod bug pretty hard with that Focus. It looks like it came out pretty well, especially for doing all of that yourself. Any big plans for your new ride?

[Troy@Protekt]

Sweet, nice job Tony.

You replaced a great looking easy to clean car, with a big black SUV

Oh well atleast I don`t have to take care of it.


Troy

[Pockets]

That looked awsome . And the rims on the merc are crazy . They are deffinatly something to be looked at, over and over and over and over and over.....................................again and again.

P.S.-I think you could tell that i love rims Lol