Sapphire Britstiva 2.0, breathing some life back into a Festiva

[Britstiva]

As you all know, I picked up Penny's 93 Festiva last week. (It was actually her husband's car, Charlie, who loved it and owned it since new.) There had been an accident and he finally decided to part with the car. This is where you'll be able to follow the progress of Sapphire Britstiva 2.0.

August 8, 2010:

I took the damaged parts off today to see what I had to work with. Not too bad, not too good.. but do-able.

Before parts removal


This is what was underneath




Parts needed:
Passenger side: headlight assembly,trim strip under headlight, corner light, signal light in bumper, fender.
front bumper, maybe the metal bumper underneath... (what do you guys think? Replace it or would it hurt to leave it alone?)
Driver side fender

I went ahead and took off the driver side fender too while I had it tore apart.
before:


after: (That's Jiminy Cricket and Sam.1956 in the pic)


And so... the work begins!

Thanks to littlebluecar and her hubby, jiminy cricket for their help today! In return, we finally made jiminy's partridge-family-look-alike-fourtone-Aspire look more like a car again! The car had been wrecked, so it had a blue hood, grill and fender, black front bumper, and burgundy gas lid. The car itself is red. So we did some work today to even things out! Now he's just two-tone, red n black.

[Smedley]

Looks like you made a good start in figuring out what you need to repair the car. Sorry I didn't get back in time to come up Sunday.

"Jiminy Cricket" ? Where did that come from?

[Britstiva]

Looks like you made a good start in figuring out what you need to repair the car. Sorry I didn't get back in time to come up Sunday.

"Jiminy Cricket" ? Where did that come from?

Littlebluecar (angela) and me always get told to behave when we are talking and around LBC's hubby (dan)....

So we nicknamed him Jiminy Cricket! LOL

[Britstiva]

Kartracer took his day today to help me get Sapphire back on the road! (can't thank him enough for all his hard work and donor parts!!!)

The repair!

Before:


After:



And with some television magic! Tada! Just need to put the grill back on, and replace the front bumper and we're ready to move onto the other repairs.



And this pic isn't so great... but it does show Jiminy Cricket's two-tone Aspire!

[Ephet]

Awesome job! Another Festiva restored.

[kartracer46]

It was nothing at all, and I got some therapy time out of the deal. Glad to see it will be ready to come to FM4. How many more do I need to build to get the count to 100+? lol

[kumalaba]

^

another one saved from the scrapper! great job!

[Britstiva]

Kartracer evaluated the damage and decided it would be best if the damaged part of the front apron was cut off so that the side could be fixed.









Then the donor part was trimmed and prepped for installation.



Then some test fitting...



Then kartracer began welding it into place





Then the finished product!



We sprayed some rubber undercoat over the weld to protect the bare metal



And the reassembly began!



Finished!!

[gestiva]

^thats awesome work! glad you got it fixed!

[littlebluecar]

Where did you get those awesome photos? They look kind of like the ones on this YouTube video of some Festiva surgeon at work:p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_3Odjgjxoc

[Britstiva]

Sapphire Britstiva back together!

Here it is folks! Sapphire Britstiva back together!

I completed the reassembly today. I also degreased the engine so I could figure out where all the oil is coming from. So far, it looks it will definitely need a valve cover gasket.

Also on the repair list for today was fixing the seatbelts and gas guage.... easy one. Blown fuse and voila!

I then took 1 1/2 containers of cleaning wipes and wiped down the interior. Still needs more scrubbin though.

I'm just so happy the seatbelts were an easy fix!
Before

After


Things that were done to get it here:
Removed both front fenders and replaced.
Removed front bumper assembly and replaced.
Replaced smashed headlight, trim under light and corner marker
Replaced corner of front apron and straightened side arm

Next on the agenda:

Remove the assembled fenders, sand and prime.

[Smedley]

Good to see her going back together, Jeremy.

[yelo festiva]

Looking good

Jeremy, great job! Car looks good, and pictures are outstanding!

[Britstiva]

More work today... Had to remove both of the fenders, sand, prime and paint them. I used a blue metallic rustoleum rattle can paint for the blue. It's not exact, but atleast it's all "blue" now instead of 3 diff colors.

[sam.1956]

Proof, that Jeremy has been dyed-in-the-wool, born-again Festiva Mad! LOL! Nice work!