custom lift

[Micro Mudder]

im jealious but ill post a fue pictures tonight of my previous off road trips

[Bert]

You don't need big heavy mudders on an ultra light FWD car. Heck, I used to go to all the 4wd hangouts in my 89 Golf with snow tires when I was in high school, passed Jeeps and Chevy's left and right the whole way up (never a toyota though, lol). This was in Maine, so the terrain was not for the weak of heart. I figure that a B3 hooked to a G-series would equal an almost indestructible trail rig. And if that doesn't do it then a sportage engine hooked to a probe turbo box surely would tug a festy through hell and back with some serious rubber. ITP has us handled, with plenty of lightweight but aggressive offroad tires that can be purchased for a fraction on the price of any size swamper tsl. Bang for buck, the Festy even has the offroad world under control.

Thank you! I ran my 3 on the tree 2WD V8 68 short box Chev C10 further up a sand pit hill than all the guys with trail bikes and balloon-tired dunebuggies 32 years ago. I had 300 lb of beer in a cooler in the back (I was the beverage transport for that expedition) and 7 inch wide x 16" rim then-novel Michelin radial XC4s on the drive wheels. Made me, and all of us, rethink the whole idea of trying to look good (man those Michelins were ugly skinny!) and still go places.

[Micro Mudder]

I never needed to move the rear axle back to prevent the wheels from rubbing cuz the arch it makes keeps the wheels from hitting the front of the rear finders

[Movin]

Mine didn't quite hit but I wanted to center the wheel in the wheel well better...and home made spacers are free!

[Micro Mudder]

Yea mine misses about a 1/4 inch but till be fine and with your 26 inch tires what's your clearance under your car? And how much does it reduce your mpgs shouldn't be to much

[Advancedynamix]

After some light offroading in my capri (not rough enough to rub anywhere, but definitely rough enough to where i had to chose my line wisely or I would have rubbed and possibly high centered) I had so much fun that I've decided to convert my white 89 Festiva to an ATF (All Terrain Festiva). I'll probably build a long travel front end and adapt everything to utilize BG chassis or 626/probe stuff. The back will probably be handled like Movin has done, with some beam spacers/positioners. I have to focus on building Tweaks new engine first, but when she's back on the track then I'll start on the trail rig.
There was a Festiva at the Salvage yard last weekend that had a lift kit on it. I think it was just because they were running 14" alloys and they needed to lift it to clear the tires. It was just home built shackles under the rear shocks, nothing pretty, but it seemed to have held up.

[sasquatch]

the reason I bought my tracker is cause I didn't wanna go through all this just to go offroading lol... a factory sidekick/tracker can do way more than a lifted festiva... not trying to put the festiva down, its just your trying to make a FWD off road machine... TO ME it dosnt make much sense...

[Prafeston]

the reason I bought my tracker is cause I didn't wanna go through all this just to go offroading lol... a factory sidekick/tracker can do way more than a lifted festiva... not trying to put the festiva down, its just your trying to make a FWD off road machine... TO ME it dosnt make much sense...

I'm with you there! If you want something tiny for offroading then the Tracker/Samurai/Sidekick seems more the way to go. They might cost a bit more than a beat up old Festiva...but they should handle the offroad capabilities a lot better.

[Movin]

the reason I bought my tracker is cause I didn't wanna go through all this just to go offroading lol... a factory sidekick/tracker can do way more than a lifted festiva... not trying to put the festiva down, its just your trying to make a FWD off road machine... TO ME it dosnt make much sense...

Shoot, I have other machines but they do not get the job done!! The justy is not comfortable. To tight for a big guy. The Bronco II 4.0 limited slip eddie bauer...inflata seats..okay but not worthy because of mileage in the desert. Big chevy, swampers, ect. dual tanks, 2 day limit before gas station. Suburban 2wd..no, other cars, VR-4, T-bird, Eagle vista AWD, Subby 2.5 DOHC awd, worlds ugliest vw street legal glass buggy, and my old ford courier with the mustang gt drivetrain. The comparison to the festiva camping and off roading without returning to a service station cannot be compared, the festy is a realm all by itself. Factor in the incredible reliability and utility..I have 6 lots of fenced storage to keep rigs I am not using.

None of them have a bunch of friends like this to fab, convert and haywire a car to stay on the road! Yes, I have a shop and can handle normal repairs but conversions, substitutions, and home grown repairs are not part of what makes my living and you guys with your expertise in these areas make festivas rock!! I enjoy others interests in rally, closed course and 1/4 mile, slammed, ground effects and high mpg's...Look at that list of rigs and tell me where another group exists that can share such a wide variety interests!!?
Yes, there are other kinds of vehicles that can do something better but the festy does so many things well that so far it comes out to be NUMBER 1 !!! yeah, rock on little car!

[Movin]

Yea mine misses about a 1/4 inch but till be fine and with your 26 inch tires what's your clearance under your car? And how much does it reduce your mpgs shouldn't be to much

I don't have the street legal UTV tires yet and no discernible change in mileage with off hiway ATV tires. I have not measured the clearance or even have pics of it offroading yet with the atv tires, i just got my new cam-cell phone lol. I used my game cam to take snowmobile race pics and that worked so maybe I can rig that. Nobody around here does this so I have no one along to snap pics!!!

[drddan]

Sheesh, if I was there, we'd be out runnin' the hills and dales, and I would snap some pics of your Festy off roadin' for sure!!!!!

[Advancedynamix]

To me Off-road FWD makes perfect sense, and the festiva may be the best choice for a cheap off-road rig, so long as you're not trying to rock crawl, but then again, most crawlers have so much custom fab that they could have started out as a shopping cart and the results would be the same. Lol.

[Micro Mudder]

Getting my cv shaft tomorrow but how long does it take to swap out cuz I work at noon and if I start the swap I need to make sure I have enough time so what's the easiest way to tackle this swap real quick?

[Micro Mudder]

Sheesh, if I was there, we'd be out runnin' the hills and dales, and I would snap some pics of your Festy off roadin' for sure!!!!!

Shoot if I lived closer ide take movin's festy on after I'm done with my build but a 1500 mile trip is a lot of gas I would probably have to fill my gastank 3 times to get there! btw would there be an advantage to have a bigger gas tank or will the gas go bad before your able to use it all?????

[Movin]

Shoot, leave room for tweaks and adjustments time wise, its not like you have a stock festy anymore! I am hopin for a little fun time this weekend . The snow is almost gone and fire season started last week down the canyon..shovel and extinguisher required with anything with a motor. Oh, axe too. I carry anyway but hope we don't get locked out. It would be so cool to have a group of us hitting the fun trails, climbs, canyons doing some desert bbq, fishing..heck I just put in for some awesome Elk hunts and one deer hunt...and only one off roading festy nut!