MK3 RS Sedan - "ON3 OFF"

[Nev Bertwistle]

While working on the MK2 AWD sedan I saw on the SS Tuning website a picture of a MK3 ST Sedan they built, complete with their flares and that Subaru STi rear wing. I loved it and thought how cool it would be to build one. Then in 2016 Ford released the MK3 RS and immediately I knew what the next build would be. In July 2018 I bought what was then only the second stat write-off RS to go to auction, a late 2017 with only 2500km that was hit in the rear. It was practically a brand new car. About 6 months later I found an early LW Ambiante sedan with some front end damage but was perfect for what I needed. The two sat for 2 years while I finished the MK2 then in early 2021 work started in earnest. By then I had purchased a set of early SS Tuning flares locally so had most of the parts needed to complete the build.

Like the MK2 post, I'll start with the finished car then add some build photos after.

After nearly 18 months I finished the car in June 2022, fully mod plated and legal. It turned out so much better than I had expected and made its debut at the 2022 All Ford Day in July. I had some professional photos done by Chris Lee of Bings Garage and posted a few online on various Facebook pages and also sent some to SS Tuning (who loved it). Somewhere along the line the photos were picked up by a freelance journalist XXXXX in the UK who approached me in Dec 22 to do a feature article in Fast Ford magazine. The end result was a 6 page feature in the May 2023 edition of Fast Ford. It was a real bucket list moment for me to build something that was worthy of a magazine feature, something I'd always wanted to do.

Here's some photos of the finished car, courtesy of Chris Lee at Bing's Garage plus a link to download the Fast Ford article.

[Nev Bertwistle]

Going back to the beginning and what started it all, the purchase of a 2017 stat right off with only 2500km. It was basically a brand new car with major LH rear end damage and a perfect donor for my project.

About 6 months later I found a LW sedan shell with minor front end damage. It was perfect for what I needed.

[Nev Bertwistle]

One of the major hurdles was the rear floor section. The RS has no spare wheel well plus extra strengthening plates. The ones that ran on top of the rails you could buy, along with the lions feet in each corner. But the main central cross support bracket was welded to the floor section and that only came as the complete floor from Ford. So that's what I ordered.

RS floor section in an RS shell, showing the strengthening plates.

The sedan floor is quite different with the obvious inclusion of a wheel well. This would have to go.

I bought a whole new rear floor section from Ford, which continues forward to the section under the rear seat. It would be a lot of work to unpick all of that so I made the decision to cut the new section along a line at the start of the rear seat.

This is the rear floor section cut out and the new section sitting underneath yet to be cut to size.

Once it was all welded in, resealed and painted, the floor looked like it had always been there. Very happy with the result.

[Nev Bertwistle]

Once the rear floor was complete it was time to start on the outside. To keep the rear as per MK3.5 (update to LZ) I bought an LZ bootlid from a wrecker in SA and new LZ tail lights from Ford. I also purchased an LZ sedan rear bumper for use down the track. I was lucky in that Ford got lazy with the sedan LW-LZ and did't create a new rear quarter sheet metal, rather made the tail light narrower and took up the additional space with the rear bar. The underlying mounting brackets were different but the whole LW-LZ upgrade was all bolt on parts.

I knew I was going to go the same path as SS Tuning's ST sedan with the Subaru STi rear spoiler so bought an aftermarket one to try to make it fit the sedan. While not to everyone's taste I loved it so it had to be. The width was almost perfect but the curvature of the feet was way off so I spent many weeks modifying them with bodyfiller to get them just right.

Modifying the feet to get them to match the curvature of the bootlid.

Completed side wings.

[Nev Bertwistle]

My one condition of using the STi rear spoiler was that it had to have the RS logo's in it, so I bought an aftermarket MK3 RS spoiler just so I could cut the logo's out and plastic weld them into the STi side pieces.

Destroyed the side wings...

RS Logo removed

Welded into place

Ready for primer

[Nev Bertwistle]

Next job to tackle was the flares. I managed to find a set of SS Tuning (https://ss-tuning.com/focus_c) early MK3 RS flares here in Oz so had purchased them prior to starting the project. As I wanted to use the extra width provided by the flares it would mean cutting the guards. I test fitted the flares to the car and while they were very good in general, they weren't perfect, so each one was finessed until it was just right.

Cut RH rear guard, which was welded bodyfilled to give a smooth result.

Test fitting rear flare

After cutting the guard this left a gap left between inner guard and flare.

I couldn't leave it like this so added fiberglass to the inside of the flare so the guard liner would sit in it and stop dirt getting trapped up between the guard and the flare. In the floowing post you can see what I mean with the front flare.

[Nev Bertwistle]

Here is the front flare test fitted, then showing the extra fiberglass I added to the inside.

Test fitting

Extra fiberglass added to the inside

The other little mod I did was to make the larger flare sections bolt on. However to do this the nut side had to be bonded to the flare as when you placed these on you had to slide the flare up into place (because of the extra inner section) which meant the bolt comes from inside the guard. You can see the three nuts in the pic above. The rears have two nuts bonded to the inside of the flare.

In order to get the flare sitting as flat as possible to the guard, each one was carefully sanded to remove high spots. Still some work to go on this one.

[Nev Bertwistle]

There are lots of sections to the complete kit and each piece was test fitted and modded until the fit was perfect. Sometimes it needed a little extra work to get it there aswas the case with the front flare to guard to little bar section.

Front flare doesn't quite line up to the guard

Added bodyfiller to make it perfect

Fitted with front bar section. Looks good!

Over a number of months I gradually made my way around the car and had everything fitting as best I could get it.

[Nev Bertwistle]

I get lots of questions about the rear bar, and in short it's a combination of an RS and sedan bar. I can't lay claim to the work or idea, as I found a guy in Russia who had done it and posted quite a detailed account on a Russian forum then had Dennis from Southside Plastics do the work. Dennis is a genius at plastic bumper repairs and the work he did on this was exceptional. You can't tell where it's been cut and welded and the fit on the car was perfect.

Completed RS sedan rear bar

What it looks like on the inside

Fitted to the car

One problem with buying a flare kit for an RS was that the little rear bar section is made for a hatch, not a sedan. The shape and contour wasn't right so this was another mod job to make something that looked like it would fit (RS on left, modded sedan on right).

After a few weeks we ended up with this. I shortened the rear spear as it curved around to much to match the hatch bumper, plus cut 12mm off the top to get the lines with the bar to align. That affected the curvature of the wheel arch so had to change the last 50mm on the curve at the bottom to match that of the guard. In the end I got there and I think it looks ok.

[Nev Bertwistle]

After months of work, the car was finally ready to go to paint at the end of 2021. I use TSX Auto Styling at Nerang for all my paintwork, and Dylan did not disappoint with this job. There is appox. 8L of Nitrous Blue colour and 11L of clear on this thing and I couldn't believe how good it looked the day I picked it up. The finish off the gun was incredible.

Off to get painted

And this is what I got back

Plus all the extra body parts