Aaron's Festiva Build Thread

[Aaronbrook37]

Freshly washed engine bay. Decided to de-paint the over-VC pipe for kicks to give it some contrast... it's a good look! Love this bay.

Working slowly on the emblem/decal shave.

[Aaronbrook37]

Also fabricated a 10AWG grounding/earthing kit just to supplement the OEM grounds. Helped with speaker volume, electronics functioning, and overall idle steadiness. I've done this mod in about 3-4 cars now with a great deal of success. If you can work a socket ratchet and strip/crimp wires, you too can make one. Google is a great resource for making one of these.


Materials Required:

1. Spool of 8-10AWG Wire (Black is optimal.) Found at Home Depot (Canada).
2. Automatic Wire Strippers
3. Wire Cutters and Crimper Tool
4. Electical Tape (if you want to secure/hide your terminals.
5. Ring Terminals (not shown above)


Here's a sample of just how easy this is to do. I made 4 or 5 different connections in series around the engine bay.


A few more and the overall look of the car. It's still a temporary mod... I may remove it if needs be for easier access to the engine or cleaner looks.

[Aaronbrook37]

A eraser wheel makes quick work out of removing decals.. Nice car by the way :thumbright:

Uggh I was too lazy to wait for one... I should have done it, I should have done it. Hahaha. Thanks by the way! Ride of the month submission coming by the end of the year once it gets up to my liking. Honda VX wheels on the way!

[Aaronbrook37]

In for a fender gooping thread i want to do this to a couple of cars of mine.

Sounds good! Here's a quick one. I used this product and some brushes, all of which was bought at Home Depot as you can tell:

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/black-knight-all-season-roof-repair/901761

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/brush-4-pack-poly-w-wood-handle/967904

1. Remove the wheels you wish to perform the work on, and throw a plastic bag over your brake assembly to prevent dripping. Easiest to put all four up on jack stands or cinder blocks and do a tire rotation while you're at it, which is what I did.

2. Pressure wash (hose is fine) the wheel well and after it dries (manually or with help from you), lay down some newspaper or thick cardboard you can dispose of underneath the vehicle and get some good lighting and level ground if possible.

3. Ensure you wear gloves. It'll take serious solvents to get this junk off your skin, but it's no great issue with something potent in a spray can. Grab your brushes from the packaging and insert them into the goopy goodness to build up a thick coat on the brush which you can operate on top of.

4. Minding the drips, begin to spread the goop from top to bottom. A good tip is to ensure you do vertical parts separately and thoroughly to prevent drips. Rears are easier than the fronts of course because there's less stuff going on.

4. Get a nice single thick coat on there and spread it around literally everything you can see short of any bolts you may want to access. On the fronts, be mindful of the tie rods and control arms as well of course. Take your sweet time and don't rush it.

5. Try to wait patiently for it to at least dry a little bit and continue spreading the excess or any potential drips. You want to do this before mounting your pretty tires back on the car of course, but a little drip here and there is no great inconvenience at all.

6. Test on the highway with the vents off, windows closed, and radio off while in fifth gear. Report back success in any thread you wish! Similar stuff can be done on the undercarriage and spare tire well if you like.

[Festiva_Fred]

A eraser wheel makes quick work out of removing decals.. Nice car by the way :thumbright:

[festyfreak39]

Finally someone using t bolt clamps, one of my fav festy engine bays so far.

[festyfreak39]

In for a fender gooping thread i want to do this to a couple of cars of mine.

[Aaronbrook37]

So a few new updates. I've removed my side decal most of the way... still a ton of wet sanding and a few more coats to go, but it's finally gone. The emblems and decals are gone as well... so there's only one Ford emblem left on the entire car which is wonderful. Also new is a vented hood because of how much stop and go traffic I do. This mod is experimental because my hood is rusting out from underneath and will eventually need replacement, so why not give this a spin, right? Finally, I've roof patch coated my wheel wells to reduce noise from the corners of the car and isolate the engine noise in the front and the sound audio noise in the rear. Should make a nice improvement on the highway!




If anyone wants a write-up on any of these mods, let me know and I'll whip something together for you! The wheel arch mod is really quite simple... a matter of slabbing on the goop all over the place. The hood venting is basically a jig saw, a dremel, and some chicken wire mesh. Removing the decal was the most labour intensive... adhesive remover, heat gun, scraping knifes, and purple clean.

[sasquatch]

dang, my shop feels empty i kind of miss having that festiva in there...

oooo well, i guess ill have to fill the hole in my heart/shop with a vw diesel powered sidekick

im glad you having fun with it

[Aaronbrook37]

Aaron, that looks awesome. Have you driven it yet?

I have, Charlie! Put about 150/90 on her so far and just loving it. Having a few minor issues in the repair forum you can check out, but it always puts a smile on my face. My girlfriend describes boost as "airplane noises" which makes me really laugh and super happy.

[Advancedynamix]

Aaron, that looks awesome. Have you driven it yet?

For folks that aren't quite sure to make of this line I seem to recall seeing unmistakable pictures of your spotless white car with the discrete twin cam at last year's Festy Madness and yet I have noticed your home turf is Arizona.
A successful two way cross-country run in a highly modified Festiva is testament to methodical and thorough work by it's owner.
One day I hope to have the time, and a reliable enough Festy, to make this journey too.

Two weeks after I fired the engine for the first time, lol. Needed a good test drive. But, Ian drove further than me and had 5 people crammed in his Festiva!

[Aaronbrook37]

[fastivaca]

I'm thinking about driving up to convoy with Aaron/Mike when they drive to Madness and we can stop at your place and then all convoy to madness together. Now that would be an adventure! two white festivas and two red.

I like that idea even though I'd have the slowest Festiva in the pack Perhaps Festyfreak39 could drop down from Edmonton and join us.

Maybe next year. :thumbup:

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

[DriverOne]

Bert, it would be great to meet you in person.

[Bert]

Yeah, I couldn't imagine anyone driving from the west side all the way to the east side. They would have to be insane, or foolish. :p

For folks that aren't quite sure to make of this line I seem to recall seeing unmistakable pictures of your spotless white car with the discrete twin cam at last year's Festy Madness and yet I have noticed your home turf is Arizona.
A successful two way cross-country run in a highly modified Festiva is testament to methodical and thorough work by it's owner.
One day I hope to have the time, and a reliable enough Festy, to make this journey too.