AquaMutt build thread...

[Safety Guy]

I've been working on my '91L the past several weeks, on and off. Now, it should be "mostly on." I have to get AquaMutt on the road and earning her keep!

I bought her in Delaware County. She was sitting in a field in this CL photo:



And indeed when I arrived to look at her she was still there, looking so forlorn and lonely that I HAD to buy her. For $500. Drove her home, and she would pull to the left when accelerating and back to the right when I let off the gas!

She had a few more problems. Hit in the rear:



Nasty interior:



Another major problem was the fuel return line. The "mechanic" who "repaired" her ziptied a rubber hose to the old rotten hard line underneath for the fuel return line! You can see it hanging here:



Along with the rusted out quarters ahead of the rear wheels. The right side was worse. Again, note the hanging rubber fuel line!:



More...

[htchbck]

I'm guessing that you already figured out that it was your passenger side swaybar-to-LCA bushing that was causing the left pull on accel, right pull after letting off gas?

[Safety Guy]

I named her "Muttstiva II" after my beloved but nonrunning '89L, Muttstiva, who was my first Festiva bought back in 1997. Here she is in my yard a few months back, looking kinda forlorn herself:



My plan was to use as many of Mutt's parts as I could so she could "live on" in her successor. One goal is to have Aqua look as much like Mutt as possible, with the blue right side door, blue grille and VW alloy wheels, and of course, the tie-dye seat covers! Here are the two together:



Looking through the original to the new:



After scoring a rust free red hatch off a '92GL Sport that some guy was parting out, I put it on Aqua to better keep the rain out. I also began preparing poor Muttstiva for her recycling role. Here she is after her last bath:



And after the sad operation had reached its temporary conclusion:



I hope to turn Mutt into a trailer prototype some day. Not perfect, just for practice so my next try will be better.

Enough sadness! Onto Aqua's story of redemption!"

[Safety Guy]

Yep, htchbck, I found out how rotted those bushings were when I took Aqua apart! Also, the rear transaxle mount was way soft compared to the new one I bought.

Back to the story!:

Aqua is what Ford called "surf blue." I think she will look nice with Mutt's dark blue accents, body repair and artistic flourishes. Just like old Muttstiva.

My first job was to repair the old corroding hard lines under the car. I figured take everything off and do all at once. Like this!:



I already posted about how my Dad and I turned her over onto a pad to do this:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31402&highlight=aqua

Go there for more pics.

I finally replaced all the hard lines with new tubing. The two fuel lines were 5/16", the vapor line was 1/4" and the brake lines were 3/16". Brake lines were easier to work with, while the fuel lines were a real pain! But I think I did okay, ASS-uming the NAPA "compression" fittings will actually work without leakage. If not, I'll replace them as necessary.

(One note about the rubber line "repair" for the fuel return...it wasn't even rated for FI! Just regular rubber hose!)

After turning her back onto her bottom, I next am tackling the body rot. Here is a pic of the left side after I cut and pounded out some of the bad stuff:



And the other side:



I used spray on "rust converter" and undercoating to get this job done. And "done" is the operative word, since I'm not shooting for perfect body repair or even "nice." Just "workable," as in "so the slush don't hit me in the back of my head while driving in winter" done.

Here are two patches I had cut for the original Mutt long ago for her repair, but the body shop said they were too small and cut some others:



Yep, they're still too small, but better than nothing! I'm glad I kept them all these years.

I also cut some skin off Mutt:



And the patch slid into the larger hole on the right side like this:



After riveting and undercoat:

[Safety Guy]

Along the way, I had to deal with taking off the inner tie rods so I can put on new ones. I was advised here to just turn them off, and I did. The little pins are less than a quarter inch long and push up when you turn the rods out. Here's a pic of the little pin:



I'll replace it when I install the new rod. Here is the right side inner tie rod out:



Another body problem were some holes in the driver's side floor:



I don't have a pic of the patch yet, but it was from my old saved side pieces, which had too much metal over the rear fender, providing me with plenty of sheet metal for more little patches like the little one I put over another hole in the left rocker panel. Pics to come...

For now, here she is:



And on the left, before undercoating so you can see my rivet work (and that smaller patch over the smaller hole):



Just for the record, here are some "firsts" for me:

-the furthest I've ever taken a car apart!
-first time for inner tie rod removal
-first time for tipping a car on its side
-first time for real "custom body work"

My plan is for a decent, but basic rebuild with a B6 swap and Mutt's Aspire suspension and brakes, with Kia Rio front struts & old cut Aspire springs. My hope is that Aqua will last another couple of years, and be a good DD through the salt and slush of winter driving so Twinstiva (now at just under 93K miles and almost rust free!) doesn't have to any more.

Sub 90K mile B6 awaits in my garage:



My Dad and I pulled it from PnP about three or four years ago. I did get the spark plugs out and turned the engine the other day, so there is hope it'll run okay!

More in the next day or so as I get the chance to update this!

I should also thank all of you here at Fordfestiva.com for all your help, knowledge, encouragement, etc. From Mutt's first suspension swap, through Lux's B6 ATX swap, and now this project, I have been inspired and aided by all of your collective efforts!!

Karl

[schads]

Lots of good stuff keep it coming.

[JPT]

My first job was to repair the old corroding hard lines under the car. I figured take everything off and do all at once. Like this!:

Any body damage afterwards?

[Safety Guy]

Nope. No damage at all. Set her down all by myself, too!

I did roll the right side window down so she wouldn't be resting on glass. The rear side window was not against the padding so that wasn't a problem.

Karl

[Safety Guy]

I did some more work today, after a not too bad morning at the PnP. Picked up a right Aspire knuckle (shoulda gone yesterday so I coulda had the left side too!), two manual Aspire calipers with decent pads, Festiva B3 bypass pipe and t-stat housing for my B6 swap, and various hoses for windshield washer and wire wrapping experimentation!

After a celebratory meal from the White Castle, I finished the rivet work on Aqua by patching a thin strip under the left side rear rocker panel to close it up. I then removed those boards from the back bumper mounts and began sanding and painting operations.

I undercoated the sides of the gas tank, which appears to be a newish replacement. (I'll undercoat the bottom after installation.)

Here's the back end after applying "rust reformer":



Here's the front end after sanding and putting on either rust reformer (black) or grey primer (followed in some cases with blue spray paint):



In other words, I'm getting "artistic." Which is much of the point of having a Muttstiva! I can do as I please, any way I wish. Spots? Why yes! Layer colors over one another with the first one as a "halo" effect? Why not? How about stripes, plaids, stencils, or maybe a big cute swimming mermaid on the hood? Ha! Just wait!!

I also took care of the stripped left front crossmember bolt by putting in a long bolt and nut (grade eight) with washers:



Another view:



Torque for the crossmember bolts is 47 to 60 lbs. foot, but I only did about 32 lbs. foot on this one since the horizontal cross piece top was caving in and I didn't want to squash it like a bug. I hope that's enough. (If anyone thinks this will be a problem TELL ME!)

The last thing I did was to fill the rear rocker areas where my patches were with "Great Stuff" foam. Here's a pic of the right side:



And here is a pic of the taillight to body gap I'll have to fix in my crunched left rear corner:



Time to get creative.

One more pic, looking a bit more organized before I quit for the night:



Tomorrow I hope to pick up the thick craft foam for the taillight gaskets. I have a mostly intact stock gasket to trace for size.

Gas tank and suspension install should be early this week, along with mounting four nice used 175/70-13s on Mutt's 13 X 5.5" VW alloys when I get my valve stem and accessory order!

Karl

[eurotiva]

Nice work, and good pics.

I have the same "thru bolt" holding the front of my cross member and it's holding fine. I put a large washer on the top portion to prevent the "caving effect".

I'm also very rough on my car.

[Safety Guy]

Thanks Greg. Due to the angle of the top of that thin sheet metal, I would have liked to have made a matching angled steel bar with hole maybe 1/8" thick which could have distributed the force across more of the thinness. But a couple of large washers had to do.
As I was tightening the last bit I could hear it creaking. The other bolt is fine, however and I don't anticipate any problems. Not that I'd use Aqua for a BPT swap!

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Well today I went to my parents' for breakfast, so with that and reading the Sunday paper plus goofing off (one of my specialties!), I didn't do a lot.

But I did do some!

Here's a pic from before b-fast of the patch on my driver's side floor:



And then I climbed up on my backyard table and snapped another shot:



In the afternoon I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics and bought two 9 X 12" sheets of black craft foam to make taillight gaskets. I thought their ad in the paper said they were on sale for 40% off, but the saleslady said they weren't on sale. Still, I got some kind of discount. The price was marked $1.49 each, but I paid only $1.12 each. I have no idea how they figured that, but if I had known, I would have bought a few more! Harbor Freight was right next door and I bought a slide hammer kit for bodywork.

What I did today:

-I straightened out the left rear taillight sheet metal with the slide hammer, mallet and round file. Got it much better so I can seal it up!
-I cut out four taillight gaskets (each sheet can make two) from the craft foam.
-I adjusted the hatch latch for smoother engagement.
-Sprayed the dirt, dust and cobwebs off my smoothies for installation tomorrow.
-Picked Muttstiva's rear Aspire axle off the ground and put it on the table to work on it. Used PB Blaster to loosen the wheel cylinders and brake lines, which I'll replace. Loosened one drum, which was frozen still.
-Began looking for the parts I'll need in the garage. I found a few, but I need to do more organizing.

More pics tomorrow!

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Yesterday I think I did the last of the bodywork. Got the left taillight settled in the body and tightened up. No gaps now, but I still need to do one more leak test:



Outside:



I'll run that ribbed on the left and a smoothie on the right. 'Cause I can!

Here are Mutt's old struts and cut Aspire springs. These were from my very first swap onto Muttstiva in spring, 2002:



I have two pair of Monroe Sensa-Trac Aspire rear struts on order, taking advantage of the "buy 3 get one free" sale. (I'll be using Mutt's cut Aspire front springs on my 2002 Kia Rio front struts.)

My first Aspire rear axle (off of Muttstiva) on my back porch, getting rehabbed:



I did the right drum today, installing a new wheel cylinder and reusing everything else. I'll put the same on the left drum and add new brake lines.

I hope to get the whole brake system together and tested by this weekend. I have some questions about it in this thread here:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32028

If all goes well, the gas tank will get installed this weekend and probably the rest of the front end minus the engine/transaxle. Or maybe, plus the engine/transaxle?

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Well I'm still behind, but I've got the gas tank and rear axle back on!

A few days ago I got my tire changing goodies delivered:



So the next day I got to work:



And after practicing mounting one 12" baldy on a Festy alloy, my VW 13 X 5.5" alloys got dressed up in some nice junkyard find 175/70s:



I bought a bubble balancer from Harbor Freight so I need to balance them next. These nice, but cheap tires will be my "experiment" to see how the home balancing act goes. No way would I risk it with a new set of Proxes! (Actually, I just got two new Nankang 165/70-12s put on Twinstiva's front, along with an alignment.) Let me say this: My HF tire changer ($40 with coupon) has more than paid for itself since I've removed over 16 tires from rims and mounted these four! I'm hoping the bubble balancer will do the same.

I also did some work on the car a few days ago. In addition to more body work, I examined my new hardlines up front, tweaked their routes with plastic spacers and corrugated tubing. Here's a pic before I began that:



Note that the only line not run through the crossmember "tunnel" was the 1/4" vapor line.

Here I've finished up putting on the new inner tie rods and boots and brand new rear transaxle mount:



Next post will be what I accomplished today...

[Pu241]

Got your rear Aspire beam loaded in the car, ready for delivery.
Best if you don't have your back seat in and you'll want some old blankets to keep the beam from rubbing the interior and catch some of the dust and dirt.