2007 sel awd on st suspension coils

 

Everyone this is charlotte. This is my 2007 sel awd fusion, full black interior, moon roof and heated seats, basically the whole package, its started as a dailydriver just cause i wanted something realible and good in the snow, after the 2 year extended warranty was up i decided id like to mod a little so i did a muffler and resenator delete

Sounded amazing btw, after that i was bored with all the stupid chrome this thing had so i decided to paint it, color is graphite mica metallic an oem mazda color

I liked it cause it wasnt your generic" oh lets plasti dip my grill bro" say what you want about plasti dip its not a mod bro lol, well now came time to lower it, and with the help of troy walls i purchased some tien s tech springs

I drove like this for about a month before i decided i wasnt low enough, so with a pricey purchase but worth every damn penny i bought coilovers ( st suspension) to be exact

Unfortunately i didnt take any pics, but if you hand tools and a spring compressor its a 4-6 hours job depending on upkeep with you car

Now its lowered >:), the back sat to high for me so i took the rear hieght adjusters outand the car sat perfectly

First car show( it was a classic car show but i snuck in) surprisingly all the older folk absolutely loved and and told me what a great look it had 

This is my buddy bill he is a 6'2" black guy with dreads to his ass but he drives this dope ass bagged a4, he was pretty mad that my static fusion sat the samehieght with his bags completely down lol 

A couple new cosmetic upgrades such as a type ds lip and debadging of the rear and im pretty happy with her

Started getting noticed by local photographer that fell in love with it, everyday that goes buy i get a head turn or a compliment on how original i am or how awesome the car looks, im happy i spent the money on her and made her what she is today,

Plans for the future, wheels, go lower, 3d carbon roof spoiler, flush mount 3rd brake light spoiler, intake, tune, 3rd cat delete with 2 vibrant black series 2 mufflers, interior upgrades(for my taste)(maybe some leather and suede recaros), and any other things that come to mind

For  ryan rhoades

To lift this car because jack is to tall, simply drive car onto 2x8 stacked offset 2 high and jack it up 

How TO: 1st Gen 06-09 Clock - AeroForce Interceptor Guage

In this How TO: I'm going show you how to turn your clock, into a gauge pod specifically for the AeroForce Interceptor Gauge. <Click the link if you don't know what Aeroforce Interceptor Gauge is... FORD CNF in case you want one, the green is close to our factory interior lighting so that is what I went with.

 
Bare, with me on this, because I decided to do the How TO: after the fact, so not everything is going to be visual but i'll explain it the best I can...

First off I had this vision to change the clock from day one... I know some people think its classy to have an analog clock... Me I'd rather keep things simple... actually I have no idea how to read a analog clock... J/K.

First off you'll need to remove the trim piece from around the radio... If you start at the bottom and pull up and out it should pop loose then work your way up the edges until you get to the top where you will need to pull straight out. There are three connectors on the back, on the left and right one pull the red tab out and push in on the tab to release those, the clock one I think just has a tab you push in to release it.

Now you'll need to remove your info button and hazard buttons. There are clips you push together should pop out the front. The radio should have two screws one on each side.

Now looking at the back you will notice a very small ledge on the ring where the clock was... you will need to remove most of that little ledge in order for the 52mm gauge to fit in. We used a Drum Sander like this.

Be sure to take your time, you don't want to take off too much so test fit the gauge until the gauge will firmly move in and out of the opening. 

Now you'll want to prep the area buy blowing off any excess dust from sanding, maybe wipe the front and back off with alcohol. Then you will need a piece of tape to go across the front of the two holes below the gauge holes where the old + and - for the clock where.

Now get some JB Kwik and from the back fill each hole and smooth it off... we used a toothpick to pock a small hole through the front of the tap to try and avoid bubbles. Let sit for approximately 1 hour.

After and hour we pulled the tap and it looked pretty good but wasn't quite built up enough so we built it up more.

Note I had this extra trim piece I had purchased from a wrecked fusion online so I would have my original clock and trim if/when ever I decide to sell the car, I can remove this setup to return it to stock. So the jb weld you see up top was fixing some small nicks and scratch's from the wrecked piece. We let this dry around 2 hours because the next step would be sanding.

We used a sanding bit on a drimel to remove the larger part of the bulk on top to make it easier to sand. I don't remember the grits we used, but I think we stopped somewhere around the 1000 grit mark after 400-800 to reduce the mass and smooth it down.

Now I opted to use a thick vinyl that would cover up some of the scratches and imperfections in the wrecked trim piece I got from ebay... so after sanding everything down, we covered the piece with Gloss Black 3m 1080 air release vinyl. You could also use paint if you wanted too, but this paint matched the factory gloss black perfectly.

After you lay the vinyl on top you'll have to cut out the holes for the button, the gauge and the radio... I recommend cutting a x near the corners so that it will fold in easier and cut off any excess.

Now the bracket that secures the gauge to the trim piece needs to be slightly modified in order to be used... So we had to grind down the piece 3-5mm.

Now put the bracket on the back and screw it down.

On your Aeroforce gauge you will need to remove the jumper pin from the back, if you don't the gauge will never shut off as the odb2 port powers it and that's a constant 12v. The gauge comes with a extra 3 pin with 3 wires hanging off of it... the red one is the only important one. we braided it to keep the wires contained.

Now its time to wire the car. The right harness that you unplugged from hazards is the harness your going to tap into... your looking for a purple and green wire... I've already done all the testing for you using a 12v light so the gauge will come on when the car powers and shut off when the car turns off... and nothing else seems to be affected.

we opted to use vampire clips to make this connection as it was a more temporary solution if I ever decide to return it back to stock. 

You'll need to crimp the connector onto the 3pin red wire.

We zip tied the other wires to the sides of the connector so they would stay out of the way.

Now you need to run the odb2 wire down to the odb2 port, we used a coat hanger to do this and it made life a lot easier. Go ahead and plug it into your odb2 port.

Now you will need to test everything.

Assuming all is good you can pop everything back in and start playing with the settings. 

 

A special thanks goes out to Allen Payne, my best friend, who has helped me do lots of things to my car since 2006.

If you have any questions you can find me on facebook at fusion nation.
-Ryan

My Fusion

A Leap of Faith

           As most of you know I started fusion nation through Instagram.  It was just something I wanted to do for fun and maybe grow the fusion community a little bit.  Little did I know it was going to blow up pretty damn quick.
            I made the account back in December 2012 thinking this should be fun! In first week or so I started going through all the hashtags for Fordfusion which at the time were about 6000 pictures with that tag.. (About 10k now) manually liked each picture hoping for followers to come.  Wouldn't you know it, it was working quite well and I had around 100 followers within about 1 weeks time.  Granted about half were people I knew or were from FFC but I was still pumped about gaining followers.  I even had a couple people who made accounts jusy to follow my page (Brandon Loche) being one of them. 

       After the first two months a had around 460 followers and had already gained a partial sponsorship from (Francis Fiel) for my retro fit headlights which turned out pretty sick i might add.. around Feburary I was in talks with Troy Walls bout marketing for him on my page we had come to an agreement that I market his products whenever he had got something he wants or up and I get parts at cost which isn't a bad deal considering markup on some of the more higher priced items.. Starting fusion nation for me two partial sponsorships within my first three months.  Any way I'll have to continue this later since I'm at work typing this

The Verdict Is In

Picking up where I left off, I officially made it out of Columbus at 7:25am, missing my original connection flight at 8:20am out of Chicago. 

I got moved onto the 1000am flight out of Chicago, that's where I sit as I write this, can you say suspenseful? It's been quite the journey just to get to get to this point. All I can say is I'm less than hour than I finally have my car back in my possession and I can't say how excited I am to see the results.

Update: 12:20pm Sunday, I've had the car in my possession for a little less than 24 hours, but I can tell you, this is how the car should have ran from the factory.  When you hit the gas, it'll spin the tires, but not excessively (unless you want to do that).  The car is much more defined when merging on the freeway, it moves through the RPM band smoothly and you can tell the difference in the tune compared to stock especially when entering freeways and passing other vehicles. 

I drove the car home from Detroit to Columbus going 75-80 with faster speeds reached and my MPG meter read 30+ the whole way, I never had it read higher than 28, even though when I hand calculated it would be 31+.  My initial thought is this tune couldn't have hurt the gas mileage and if anything it actually helped it.  More miles need to be put on the car to determine this precisely though. 

If you want to add 20hp, 50tq and feel the difference, getting the tuner is necessity.  This isn't going to make your car mind blowing fast, but yes you will feel a BIG difference.  If I had to explain it so anyone could understand, I'd make the comparison: Imagine a person breathing through a straw and then not having to anymore and breathing in air regularly.  That's the difference this tune will make for your car. 
I'm very happy with the product and I don't see why anyone else who purchases the tuner would feel otherwise.

I'd like to thank, Livernois Motorsports for their effort going into the tune (you can pre-order the tuner here: http://www.livernoismotorsports.com/products/2013-Fusion-2.0-EcoBoost-MYCALIBR8OR-Tuning-Device.html). 

They will treat you right and they will answer any questions you have.  Talk to Brandon at Livernois and he'll get you all set up. 

Also, would like to thank Troy Walls (visit cd3performance.com if you need any performance other parts for your Fusion) for picking me up from the airport so this whole thing could happen. 

All and all it's been quite the ride, but worth it in the end. Who knows what's next?

Thanks for reading the three part series for all those that did. 

Livernois Experience Part 2 of 3

I decided to leave work a little early that day and headed North. Nothing really worth noting happened on the drive up, I got there around 5:30pm and since I fly standby on American Airlines I was at the Detroit Airport with more than enough time to spare.

Then, that's where things started to go downhill...

Let me back up, this post isn't car related at all other than the fact that I dropped my car off and now I was attempting to head home.

Oh, the TSA check-in line. Yes, I got groped and personally scanned for metal. It always seems to happen to me, after I got through their area of antiterrorism, I was off to my gate.

As I'm walking I see a monitor showing my Chicago flight is delayed 30mins, okay that's fine I'm thinking to myself. I decide to eat Ruby Tuesdays since I have some extra time to burn.

After eating a chicken wrap, I go back to my gate with more than enough time to spare and I see their is a huge line at my gate for the plane. I'm happy, they must be boarding! Boy was I wrong.

The later flight into Chicago which was planning to leave an hour after my flight got cancelled, yes cancelled. You don't want to hear that C-Word if you fly standby. Needless to say, I didn't make my originally scheduled flight and the last flight out of Detroit didn't get to Chicago on time for my connection back to Columbus.

Yes, you guessed. I was screwed, dead in the water with no where to go to land back in Columbus to make work the next day. To top it all off, my cell phone battery was dying.

After making a quick call to Troy Walls, letting him know I was stuck in Detroit, he seemed to be more preoccupied with his dinner than my current situation. Yes, I just called you out! Lol. No worries though. I'll just get a rental car drive home.

Yep. It's that easy, go to a rental car place and drive home, except no place had any rentals available. It was a Tuesday! After literally running around for an hour trying to find a rental, I finally was told they had a van I could take. I had no other choice at this point.

So, I ride the bus to the lot. I walk-in and they point to the van I'll be taking. It's a 15 person passenger van! They ring up my preliminary total, $277.00!  Are you kidding me! That's more than a flight.

I tell them I'll have to refigure my plans, so I call some people. By now, my phone is literally out of juice. After 10 minutes of making calls and attempting to convince my GF three hours away to come and get me at 10pm at night. The salesman walks and says we found you a car.

It'll be $50, I can do that. I walk up to it, it's a base, base Kia Soul. Whatever right? It's better than a passenger van. I hop in, I was told the car was on full, wrong. It was on E. I didn't even look til I got out of the airport. I'm glad I did or else I would have ran out of gas.

You better believe, I hot rodded that thing all the way home. My journey home ended at 1am, compared to my 930pm projected landing time back in Columbus, but I made it home. It was a complete mess, but way worth it.

Until the next time I fly! Which is right now, as I write this I'm in the terminal at Columbus Airport.  I hope my flight schedule stays as originally planned, which as of right now isn't that case. Fun times flying standby, but all will be worth it once I get in that Fusion again.

Only a few more hours!

Part 3 of 3 to come soon.

Falling On Some Luck

My Livernois Experience: Tuning my 2.0T 

It started out as any other normal, Tuesday morning.  I woke up at 6:30am, doing my normal routine before heading into work.  I remember the drive into work vividly, I got cut off by a Chevy Impala and as I watched him pass me leading up to the point where he forced himself over, I thought to myself “there’s no point in hitting the gas, the turbo lag will make attempting to speed up useless”.

                 

As being on forums and hearing about tuning solutions and performance parts coming out in the future, I called around to tuning shops in Ohio & Michigan that morning.  After no avail, I gave up on trying to find a local tuner or even a shop drivable to go too since the 2.0T EcoBoost wasn’t supported yet by SCT. 

                 

Looking on the forums, as this is part of my normal routine after getting situated for the day at work, I saw CDC posted about aesthetic components they might offer in the future.  I decided to call them and see if they were planning on offering tuning in the future too.  Granted, you have to remember, I’m at work making these calls.  They were probably the fifth or sixth shop I had called. As I’m talking to these shops, I’m trying to use the least obvious words possible as everyone in the office can hear what I’m saying normally, since my voice tends to carry.  After speaking with CDC, they recommended me to Livernois Motorsports since they had previous success tuning the F150 EcoBoost, Taurus SHO, among other Ford EcoBoost models. 

                 

So, after waiting ten minutes or so, I picked up the phone and dialed Livernois up.  I asked the same question, I had asked all the other tuning shops previously “I have the 2.0T EcoBoost Fusion and I was wondering if you were currently offering tuning software or any tuning support for my vehicle?” 

After being placed on hold, he got back on the phone and told me “No, we don’t support that vehicle at this time”.

I’m thinking to myself “Of course...”  To my surprise, he takes my information down and asks if I’d be interested in being a Beta Tester for the tune when they eventually want to do a trial run.  I make sure to tell him I’m in Columbus, Ohio and not close to Detroit, MI time-wise (it’s roughly a three hour trip), he states that fine so I give my credentials as he asks.  

After I hung up the phone, I’m sitting thinking, as by now you can see I do a lot of that, “It’s all about the waiting game Ray (yes, I refer to myself in third person), be patient, parts will come available soon”.

               

 I go back to working, well sort of actually finally start working after an hour and half of making calls and doing some things in between (mornings are usually slower than afternoons).   In the middle of actually getting something accomplished, my cell phone rings.  It’s Livernois calling about my car and wanting to know if they can have it as a Beta test vehicle, TODAY…

Part 1 of 3, To be Continued…