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Finally made and installed the fill in piece for the lower part of the front bumper - which was not as easy or straight forward as it seemed it would be!
1. It ended up having a weirdo shape and cut-outs in it for various suspension part. Lots of trial and error to get it right.
2. Even when it was first cut out and looked like it should fit just fine, it did not...Turned out that it had to be cut to just slightly bigger (about 3/4") than the "hole" that it was filling in, or else it distorted (actually flatten out) the curves on the lower section of the plastic bumper when the two were fasten together.
3. Once the two pieces were joined, the entire bumper was not lined up correctly with the fasteners I had installed earlier to hold it in place. To solve that problem I had to cut off the 2 brackets that I had made to secure the lower front edge of the bumper and replace them with a single piece of threaded rod that was welded to the front of the battery holder.
4. Even with the new threaded rod things still were not correct (better, but not what I really wanted). I needed to be able to adjust the bumper side to side to get everything correct, so I ended up "slotting" the holes where the fasteners went so I could move it around. That worked!
I haven't made the upper fill in pieces yet, but I have done mock ups in cardboard and they will be easy to do and install
I had to move the fuel filter inboard and upward to get the hoses to install easily which required making an "offset" plate.
Fuel pump went on easily as did the stock Festiva radiator overflow/expansion tank.
The emergency battery shut-off switch bracket worked well. If you use one similar to this on your car, the mounting hole needs to have a small tab left in the hole to prevent the entire switch from "spinning" when you tighten down the nut.
1. It ended up having a weirdo shape and cut-outs in it for various suspension part. Lots of trial and error to get it right.
2. Even when it was first cut out and looked like it should fit just fine, it did not...Turned out that it had to be cut to just slightly bigger (about 3/4") than the "hole" that it was filling in, or else it distorted (actually flatten out) the curves on the lower section of the plastic bumper when the two were fasten together.
3. Once the two pieces were joined, the entire bumper was not lined up correctly with the fasteners I had installed earlier to hold it in place. To solve that problem I had to cut off the 2 brackets that I had made to secure the lower front edge of the bumper and replace them with a single piece of threaded rod that was welded to the front of the battery holder.
4. Even with the new threaded rod things still were not correct (better, but not what I really wanted). I needed to be able to adjust the bumper side to side to get everything correct, so I ended up "slotting" the holes where the fasteners went so I could move it around. That worked!
I haven't made the upper fill in pieces yet, but I have done mock ups in cardboard and they will be easy to do and install
I had to move the fuel filter inboard and upward to get the hoses to install easily which required making an "offset" plate.
Fuel pump went on easily as did the stock Festiva radiator overflow/expansion tank.
The emergency battery shut-off switch bracket worked well. If you use one similar to this on your car, the mounting hole needs to have a small tab left in the hole to prevent the entire switch from "spinning" when you tighten down the nut.
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