# Chassis Detailing



## MartinST

I thought I start a thread covering my ongoing progress detailing the chassis of my ST24.

I've owned the car for 7 years and ever since entering the concours at Fordfair in 2008, I've had the bug for cleaning the parts other people don't even think about.

The car was given a underside cleanup 2 years ago and at the time I did the best job that time and money allowed. having only a set of axle stands and the desire to slide around the floor on my back I did a 70% effective detail of the car.

Last year prior to Fordfair my engine decided to let a piston ring go so I took the decission to carry out a engine conversion and forfit the show season.

Knowing I wanted to complete the chassis detail to a higher level than previous, i spent the time painting the engine and powdercoating all the subframe and suspension components.

With the front end now with a uprated engine and looking clean I have decided to finally complete the underside in preparation for the 2010 shows.

The engine area is now complete:










The underside as it was upto a few weeks back.










Although it was clean it was never quite how I wanted it. The ceramic coated y-pipe from america were already flaking after 5 months and 200 miles use, the Ford CAT has always look horrible, the stainless exhaust was never built for show and never cleaned up 100%, the blue uprated wishbones didn't match and finally the fuel tank cover was polished aluminium, which was taking me hours of work to maintain before shows and deteriorated very quickly.

So a few weeks back the car went up on stands and off came the wishbones, exhaust, fuel tank cover/tank and stainless y-pipe.










Wishbones and fuel tank cover went off to the powdercoaters, while the underside was repainted and all the arches redone.




























Once this was complete the parts had been returned



















So on with the fitting




























The y-pipe is current off being cermachromed and a new 'show' exhaust is being built for me and due next week. I'm also have a stainless high flow cat made so hopefully the exhaust train will look great when finished.

While the y-pipe is off I've touched up the underside of the engine










So now its just a case of waiting for the postman before I can progress.

I'll keep the tread updated as I get some parcels


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## ant_s

looks very tidy, would love to get mine done, maybe something to do later in the year when everything is sorted, keep us updated mate!


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## alexf

awesome, I find chassis detailing to be very rewarding now and though my car is covered in about a foots worth of underseal, I've always had dreams of making it look like that /\


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## Fr3n2y

Very nice, just bought a karcher and gave the underside a quick blast, pretty amazed already so will definitely be getting under there to clean things up properly, it'll never be as clean as that though, nice work..


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## jimmy_b_84

that is some amazing work!!!!


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## gb270

Very very nice mate


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## ChrisJD

Looking great under there. Worth all the hard work.

Chris.


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## Mini 360

very nice! Plan on doing stuff like this to mine whilst the cars in bits anyways. Just tip it on its side on a matress haha!


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## olliecampbell

Nice, how did you attack it? I presume you took bits off as you have a photo of the lower chassis arms?


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## MartinST

olliecampbell said:


> Nice, how did you attack it? I presume you took bits off as you have a photo of the lower chassis arms?


You can paint parts in situ, but generally the finish is never a good and quite awkward to do.

I decided to remove as many parts as possible, remove all bushes etc and get items powdercoated for longevity. Its a bit more time consuming but if your doing all the work its worth replacing all bushes bolts etc.


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## puckacostello

:O soo cleaaaan


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## MartinST

Part 1 of 3 arrive in the post today. Cat back twin exhaust. Hopefully the stainless cat and cermachromed y-pipe are not far behind.


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## MartinST

Exhaust is now fitted while I wait for the new CAT. Quite happy as it gives me more to polish now :thumb:


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## tamandlee

subscribed!!! Looking good sir, looking good!!


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## G51 NAV

My hat is fully off to all you people into underside and chassis detailing. I lack will to clean and polish an inaccessible part of the car which will get messed up pretty much every time you drive it. I think I'd be prepared to do it once and once only, then when I'd done it I'd put the car in a museum!

Top work.


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## TwrsilkcutV8

*Superb!*

This is a first class job!You sure have worked hard on this,i hope you win somthing,excellent totally professional!


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## VIPER

Looking superb that mate!! Just been viewing this over on Passionford actually.

Where did you get the bolts & nuts from for things like suspension mounting etc.? (High Tensile zinc plated from your local hardware shop or elsewhere)?

Cheers

(btw. for everyone else - I'm still 'on holiday' from DW as far as staff things go, so don't be PM'ing with any requests as I won't be here to answer them ).


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## MartinST

Viper said:


> Looking superb that mate!! Just been viewing this over on Passionford actually.
> 
> Where did you get the bolts & nuts from for things like suspension mounting etc.? (High Tensile zinc plated from your local hardware shop or elsewhere)?
> 
> Cheers
> 
> (btw. for everyone else - I'm still 'on holiday' from DW as far as staff things go, so don't be PM'ing with any requests as I won't be here to answer them ).


All suspension bolts were new from Fords. Not the cheapest option but I wanted it right.


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## VIPER

Thanks bud :thumb: Will have to pay mine a visit then. What sort of price are we talking here roughly? (you can PM me if you want with this ) Well you can once you get to 10 posts :thumb:


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## MartinST

I might have to spam my own thread to get the 10 posts :lol:

It appears you have chosen not to receive messages, shame there is not a similar feature for ignoring my wife


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## VIPER

Oops  :lol: Yeah, sorry, that's my fault - I'd forgot I'd turned them off when I started my month's break to avoid people PM'ing me with moderating and admin requests that they'd get no answer to when I wasn't here).

Now back on so you can PM me mate


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## J-FTO

Wow, that is superb!


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## Mirror Finish Details

You could eat your dinner off that, well if it was the other way up.

Looks great, true dedication.


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## MHTexPete

totally awesome


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## bjarvis2785

that engine bay is beautiful!
Well done that man!


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## steadyeddy

top stuff!


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## MartinST

Nearly finished, Y-pipe is back from the coater. Its a Ceramic coating that has a chrome look to it.


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## jspeed2

Superb work there mate love to have the dedication, subscribed :thumb:


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## MartinST

Well managed to get it all together in time for Modified National last weekend.

Yes it did rain, and yes it was depressing driving in it, but nothing a few hours of crawling under the car at the show couldn't solve.


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## olliecampbell

Amazing, more pictures please


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## MartinST




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## kenny-c

WOW! Awesome dedication


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## TurbochargedJJ

good god that's clean!!


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## jj06

what stand was this on at mod nats?


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## DF1

WOW!! amazing:thumb: 
I am speechless on how clean it is just awesome.
Well Done!


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## MartinST

jj06 said:


> what stand was this on at mod nats?


Unlimited Styling, tried for top 25, but don't think a mondeo is quite the look they we're after :lol:


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## gazzi123

Damn that car is looking gorjus mate - MASSIVE PAT ON THE BACK
wish i had your knowledge and dedication to do that.
any chance of more pictures of the car itself/engine bay etc?
Cheers TOP JOB!!


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## FlawlessDetailing

Ford themselves should commend you on that mate.

Amazing job. :thumb:


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## rsdan1984

great work there! i did a similar undercar detail a few month back - hard work but definately worth it!


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## whitesnake

Very nice!


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## Jed

that looks amazing, problem is, it makes me realise what a lot of work I have to do with mine! I've only just started cleaning it, and it needs repainting and a lot of parts replacing, but this is inspiring stuff. :thumb:


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## centenary

Oh me giddlies! You could eat your dinner off that!

Beep, beep :driver:


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## ZonixX

today, when painting my calipers gold, I was looking at all the grime and dust on my chassis and was thinking, what would it be like - having all the suspension stuff etc. totally cleaned - well, I have found the answer in this thread  ..this definitely is the MOST INSANE cleaning procedure ever done on a Mondeo  keep up the good work, this is a great inspiration


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## martyp

Wow, thank you for posting this.

I just logged in for the first time in ages and spotted your thread. This is going to be my mission for the next two years, I can't say in words how great your car looks, its just outstanding! :thumb:


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