Ford Fiesta 1.6S Ownership Review


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New Borbet's and Yoko's in

Again, after a very long silence from my side, (blame my laziness and erratic job shifts) I've finally managed to pen down it. Long post alert!

Changed the rear number plate light to LED, Thanks to @devlle_56 as always.

Before:

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After:

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Ever since I got the car, I've always had the itch to upgrade the alloys and make the stance perfect but without compromising much on the power output. Bigger wheels was never in my mind, and 16" wheels were even harder to fin in 108 PCD. I personally had a thing towards single PCD alloys and all 108 PCD alloys were a combination of 100/108 PCD. That kept me chained so long, until a close friend of mine decided to sell his beloved Ford Figo which were running on Borbet LV4's on a beautiful anthracite shade. Say no more and they are mine now[:D]

Bought a set of new 205-55-15 tires, as they were not having 205-50-15's which were my favorite. Had to settle down with the 55 section tires, else I would have to wait another 2 weeks which was too long for me at that moment.

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That perfect stance feel!

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Soon after this, another close friend of mine acquired another 1.6s from Bangalore and he moved down to Trivandrum, which means Photo session's[lol]

We drove down to Perumanthura aka Muthalapozhi to click some picture of both beauties. New Borbet's and Yoko's were looking beefier as ever!

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Another meetup with my 1.6 boys !

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Sandwiching done right!

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Had a quick drive to Kulathupuzha along with few other 1.6s. It was super fun! I really have to make some frequent visit's to Ponmudi it seems !

Less pictures means more fun on the road!

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Some pampering done right:

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Garage mates!

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Later, a very talented friend of mine, Rohil from Trivandrum called up and asked whether he can have the car for a photo shoot. The answer is always an YES and believed me I was stunned to see the output.

Wallpaper material alert:[cheers]

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Nice to see your 1.6S. I hope this is a petrol. Please advise on the power and torque numbers and the average mileage you get in city and on highways with AC.
 
Thread Starter #155
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How much did it cost Vishnu bro ?
I would like to keep it confidential as it gives me more peace [:D]

@vishnu vichu forget all the dents and all the scratches, this is a nice little monster and a nice car to own.
Have many lakhs of miles with with car bro!
Thank you!



Continuation..

I took the car to Kollam and swapped the wheels back to stock so that I don't spoil my Borbet's. The car was being took to the garage and the painter guy promised me that he can get it done in 3 weeks, although I know that it is not going to be happening.[lol]

All parts along with the skirts, spoiler , tail lamps, head lamps was removed from the car.
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..including beading's all around the car as well.
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It was getting dark and we pushed the rest of the things to next day, which followed removing the gum and muck all around. It indeed was a tiresome process removing the gum from a 10 year old cars panels. It's been sticked together for so long and settled down pretty well.
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Scraping off was the only time viable option as we can cover this up since we're anyway painting the whole car.
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Removing gum ended up in removing paint itself!
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Leveling
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After the basic leveling, the car went in for a dent pulling, where all the dent were pulled out and leveled.
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Started leveling with putty, Level :1[lol]
Roof had pretty bad dents.
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Bonnet's fair share!
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Brace Yourselves! This is going to get real interesting.
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This is the only place where we find the rust. Other than this there were no traces. *touch-wood*
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One of the many layers of leveling it went through.
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This is why I asked you to brace yourselves. That guy had OCD regarding leveling and that guy just spend around 20 days just to get this thing properly aligned.
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More putty than paint, All layer of putty were properly scraped off later on this process so that it doesn't add up so much weight.
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Finally I can click some picture in peace! [cheers]
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This was how it looked after all the leveling process.
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Two of my babies in a single pic!
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The never ending leveling!
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It is at this moment, we found out that this area had a rust issue and they did a shoddy job with putty to cover this up. Stripped off everything and re done!
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Cutting off the stock paint. This looked somehow cool, the matte effect!
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One last leveling! This is the main garage guy indeed, Some excellent work experience shown right there!
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Masking up for the paint job. Pretty Impressive masking job.
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Color matching.
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One of the n number of layers painted!
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7 layers of paint + 3 layers of clear coat!

Yum Yum
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This is where I was shocked to see his experience in painting.The feel of this freshly painted panels was so good.
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Tadah !!
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Took it to Ford to get everything back and they charged me a whopping 3K for that! [frustration]
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Restoring her back to her glory days. It was at this very moment, I just fell in love with this thing, how beautiful it looked!

I know this is the longest post I've ever created, and those people who've successfully came through, you guys are just awesome!

This was such a dream come true moment for me!
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Looks like a head smashing car.
Man!!! Looks better than what it would have looked when it would have rolled out of the factory!!
If you don't mind would you tell us that what was the approx. cost of painting???
 
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Why you didn't give at Melaranoor - Raghu Mesthri's Paint shop ?
( I damn say its the perfect one in workmanship ), as you haven't mentioned the cost , I really say that mesthri's rate is pretty much moderate.
 

deville_56

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Why you didn't give at Melaranoor - Raghu Mesthri's Paint shop ?
( I damn say its the perfect one in workmanship ), as you haven't mentioned the cost , I really say that mesthri's rate is pretty much moderate.
He is more 'push' than work. Vishnu himself had not so good experience with him before. I got a Honda City recently painted there and outcome wasn't so great. He knows things, but most of the times does shabby job.
 
Thread Starter #163
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Brilliant! Trilliant! Quadraliant Job on full restoration of the beast. No words can define your passion & love for this classic!
Thank you for your kind words, It really matters! [:)]

The car came out really good.[cheers]
Indeed man. Even I was dazzled seeing the output. Touch-wood

Looks like a head smashing car.
Man!!! Looks better than what it would have looked when it would have rolled out of the factory!!
If you don't mind would you tell us that what was the approx. cost of painting???
It costed me around 60k for the paint job as @VISHNUCARCRAZY also asked about it.

Why you didn't give at Melaranoor - Raghu Mesthri's Paint shop ?
( I damn say its the perfect one in workmanship ), as you haven't mentioned the cost , I really say that mesthri's rate is pretty much moderate.
I had once took my amaze there. I must say at least 4 years back and indeed Yes, he did a goo job back then for a small touch up. An year back I took my friend's Ecosport and he did a pathetic shoddy job and more over we reached around 6 pm to pickup the car and we were using our phone's flashlight to make sure it indeed is done properly. He was arrogant to us about the way we checked the car and said he's been in this line of work for past n years and all. Guess what happened, the clear coat recently started to peel off from the work he did. I must say he's pathetic with customer interaction as well. Man you're paying him what he ask and then why can't we even check the quality of work delivere? Just totally disappointed.

My initial plans was to take Fiesta to him, but this uneasy experience not only made me hate him, I never recommends him to any of my friends.
 
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Oh , sad to hear that you had a bad experience at him , maybe its coz my dad knows him well for years , he shows same courtesy to us.

I had painted quite a number of vehicles under him , A Verna - Roof blackened (Its always parked under sun , still it retains the black coat shine as it was painted , as it was painted using ,if i remember correctly Dupont's Higher grade paint with 2 clear coats )
As the ride is my friend's am not posting its image.

My swift's running board was dented , and it was mended as well as painted , in addition to that there was a dent in door top (Area between window pane and roof)- due to coconut impact , and it was also did along with this , which came around 5k, which I found to be reasonable as I had asked couple of other painters.The running board , has a finish (The rough surface feel , to avoid stone chips, he recreated same manually, which all other painters whom I contacted didn't assure same)

I saw a fortuner , blue shade , it was superbly done.

One thing I can really say is , he charges based on the car you own [lol][roll]

Private message me if you want clarifications regarding paint shops , as I had browsed quite a lot , including asking with you guys in forum , only some are genuine in workmanship (even though some charge a bit premium , like Raghu mesthiri).

Where a paint shop can cheat you is : 1. Quality of work ( Excess Putty use , the finish may look best when taking after work , but within months , the mark reappears , as putty always absorbs moisture from paint applied above)
2.Dents should always be fixed wither by Pulling up with Plunger like tool (They say a different name , I forgot), easy alternative what some do is , cut that portion out , fill or mask with Putty)
3. Paint quality ( A particular brand of paint itself has different qualities )- Customer can be confused with brand name , but the paint guy may use lower grade of same.
 

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