The resurection of my 89L!

[91_festy_Gl]

Well here we go. This is my 89L. Me and my brother pretty much stripped this car for many years building other festivas but since my 91 gave up on me I have no other festiva but this one. This thing has sat at the junkyard since 98 I believe it was. Currently it has some surface rust but nothing sand paper can't take care of. It has a few dings in the passengers side that I will be getting out but for now I got to clean her up alittle so the resto can begin. Here is some pictures of the condition the festy sits in right now.




I will be updating this thread regularly as I progress on rebuilding this whole festiva.

[Safety Guy]

Yay!! This is what I wish I coulda done with Muttstiva, but she was all rusted out at the seams and more.

You have a nice base here to work with and this should be an informative thread.

Karl

[91_festy_Gl]

I will try to keep detail on every little thing I do to it! Once it cools down outside im going to finish taking the rear interior out and see if I might be able to knock those dents out. I have a perfect panel I can cut out and weld in but if I can get by with knocking the dents out, I can probably hide it with alittle bondo or something. Its going to be a fun/slow build.

[Damkid]

this should be quite the project, i'll be keeping an eye on it thats for sure

[91_festy_Gl]

I installed the headlights today but I think im going to take them back off and paint the headlight bracket. Their a tad rusty and look like crap. I grab some pictures while im out.

[91_festy_Gl]

Well went out and tried to get alittle something done on my festy. I installed the headlights but though they looked like crapola so I went ahead and primered the brackets and painted only two because I ran out of black. Here is some pictures:



Back of headlights just primered:



I got to finish them up tomorrow when I get some more paint.

I also was messing around trying to knock/pop those passengers side dents out. You can see where I tried. Not sure if I have failed yet but the dents that are more folded I think im going to have to cut them out and replace the panel, anyways here are two more pics:




What do you guys recommend? try to knock the dents out and then bondo, or weld in a new panel then bondo. im really not sure how I want to go about this so I am asking you guys.

[91mcnasty]

You have too bond it either way, so working with what you have their might be a little easier then using patch panels. I have absolutely no body experience thou.

[FestYboy]

a doly set will help wonders!!!

[91_festy_Gl]

Think im going to weld in a whole new panel. Knocking those dents out is a PITA let alone trying to get the shape of the quarter back. With a new panel I could just weld it in, grind down the weld smooth, then bondo. I think that route would have a better outcome. Well anyways thats all I got done today. Im not in a real hurry. I want to do this festiva up right! Once I deside to start cutting into it Ill do a DIY that way people can see how easy it is to replace panels if they havent done it before.

[89newb]

I. Wish my 89L would just run

[91_festy_Gl]

That's why I love this project. There won't be anything that I haven't touched and I'll know exactly everything about my car.

[91_festy_Gl]

Well I replaced the main dented body panel. I will have pictures shortly!

[91_festy_Gl]

I was going to do a DIY body panel replacement but I figured not to many people dare to try this so I am not going to. Well after getting the guts up to cut into my baby this is what come of it:

The dented piece:


The hole left from the dented piece:


Basically what I did was cut around the dented part of the panel with a angle grinder and a cutting blade. Once I got the piece cut out I went over to fester and traced the exact piece on fester. I didnt get a picture of my traced line but here is the panel I cut from my old 91:


I kinda made a mistake by flipping the piece that I needed to trace around which made the measurements off alittle bit. Not much of a big deal its just something I will remember next time I do this. Anyways here is the piece once it was trimmed and tack welded in:




My main goal on this was trying to keep the body line exactly straight which I accomplished. It was hard to tack weld super thin metal in like this even with a low voltage wire fed welder. All I need to do now is go back and grind the spot welds down even and apply some body filler. In this case most people would use just plain bondo. Im actually going to wait and use fiber-bondo. Fiber-bondo is more less fiber glass filler. It fills like bondo but wont crack under heat or vibration. BTW I didn't do the spot welding my brother did. I cant weld at all really.

[91_festy_Gl]

I went back out after taking these pictures and grinded the welds down smooth and primered the area. I also sanded down alittle on the surface rust behind this spot. Once I get this done I think I'm going to go ahead and try to install all the glass. That will keep the weather out until I can deside what to do on the interior. I think I will be going black with the interior.

[TominMO]

Very nice project! Personally I wouldn't have bothered to do the welding (even if I knew how!) since a strong breeze will dent those panels again....but maybe you are going for a super-clean car? Anyway I'm impressed with anyone who actually can weld. Closest I've come is soldering lol.