My Build Thread

[kellen302]

Went to PnP with a friend on Friday, followed by visits to a couple of fly by night used tire shops (cash only, very burl man guarding the door) only found two mediocre 12" tires so I passed them up. There was an 88 LX with a clean interior that had a split rear seat and a tach cluster, along with the cargo light latch. But it had a tan interior, the cluster was yellow, and it had been nailed in the back and the latch was bent and inaccessible due to the hatch being taco'd. Swing and a miss.

[Twistiva]

Went to PnP with a friend on Friday, followed by visits to a couple of fly by night used tire shops (cash only, very burl man guarding the door) only found two mediocre 12" tires so I passed them up. There was an 88 LX with a clean interior that had a split rear seat and a tach cluster, along with the cargo light latch. But it had a tan interior, the cluster was yellow, and it had been nailed in the back and the latch was bent and inaccessible due to the hatch being taco'd. Swing and a miss.

Man!, I'd kill for a Festy with good brown interior near me. violin

[kellen302]

All of the rear plastics were buggered because of the collision, but the rest was alright. I'd go back to get em if the prices weren't exorbitant and the ferry wasn't in the way. (Ahhh the life of an islander ready to go to college)

[kellen302]

This circlip will burn in Hades with Satan and his other circlip henchmen. Got a slide-hammer on it today and still couldn't get it out. Since this is no longer on a strict timeline thanks to our lovely school district and I finally have a job, I put out a hit on ClubProtege to have somebody here in the PNW come and get it out (for a fee of course) or trade for a Gseries with no axles in it. I just want to move past this step and progress with the swap. The offer is open to anybody on here too, but I know there are precious few of us in the North West. If worse comes to worst I'll call up a transmission shop and see if they can get it out without bankrupting me. (Major problem is no transmission shops on the Island.)

[zoom zoom]

haha that sucks.. hopefully somebody can get that buger out for you!!

[kellen302]

Good news, I ordered the tool of magic, OTC part # 7140. 40$ from Summit. Got a quote on some stereo work a week ago. $80 to get a Power Bass 8" powered sub put in the back (looks sort of like a Bazooka Tube) 150watts RMS, they quoted me $200 for it, I found it online for about $130. They quoted $90 for the install of a set of Power Bass 6.5" components, (Woofers in the doors, tweeters in the factory dash grilles) Found the speakers online for about $100. I would get the work done, but Prom is in two weeks and my parents want me to go... I would much rather put money in my car than go to an over-rated dance. My tires came in the other day, 4 Sunny 165/70-13 for $168.75 shipped. (They were on sale for $30.06 apiece) My friend is at PnP today and is gonna check for some Geo Metro rims. (I have to work instead of an exciting off island excursion.)
The axle smasher should be here on May 1st. Work will commence.

[Basement_Modder]

I hear you 100% on the prom thing. Thankfully my girlfriend didn't want to go either so we're just skipping it.

And doing stereo work yourself is REALLY easy. Especially in a little festiva. Don't get sucked into shelling out money for installs that might not even be as clean or professional as something you would do at home.

[DriverOne]

The issue with prom is that there are teachers there. The way I see it, most kids that want to get together on that evening probably won't stay at the dance anyway. I say, bouncers only, and have a damn good time! Prom is as old as church anyway.

[kellen302]

It's being held in an old Hall on the island, that at some point has been a church, and is around 100 years old...

[kellen302]

Got some new wheels at PnP. 13inch steelies off of an old Mustang II. I'll have to get these nasty old tires off (had to slash them anyway so they wouldn't try to charge me for them, don't think 195/70-13 Mud n' Snows will fit real well.) And I got my 165/70-13's waiting here to get put on. Any suggestions on the color for the wheels? I was thinking white or silver spray paint after a clean up with a wire wheel.

[kellen302]

So the center bore on the 'stang wheels is larger than the hubs on the Festy. I was planning just to stick with the stock wheel bolts (the new wheels have conical holes too). Do I need to convert to studs and/or get hub-centric rings or whatever they are to take up the extra gap?

[kellen302]

Fun fact, Mustang II's have a 4x4.25 bolt pattern, after painting, mounting and balancing all the tires and rims to put them on my festy... 28$ of pick n pull rims out the door. But I found a guy who has some Metro rims he'll let go for $40. Now I have a set of painted steelies with a strange bolt pattern, once I get the new rims I'll see what I can let these go for on CL.

[DriverOne]

Kellen, I would get hubcentric rings if you can. The more stable the wheel, the better.

[kellen302]

Yea, the Mustang II wheels won't work (see above for bolt pattern conflict) I got some Geo Metro steelies for 40$ on Sunday along with some pretty worn 155/80-13s that I'll keep for spares and swap them out for the 165/70-13s that I bought online and are currently on the Mustang rims.

Late Edit: BEST DAY EVER!!! I got the accursed axle out with the magic axle tool, OTC #7140 it cost $38.95 on the Summit website, I tapped it in (note it will feel like it is too small to go around the diff pin, just tap it some more and it stretches around it) Then I smacked it with the back end of a splitting maul (8lb head I think) and it popped on out, also note that the slot in the tool is a little short to punch the axle out, but it is long enough to defeat the clip. just pull out once it has reached the limit for the tool.

[kellen302]

Alrighty, so the weather is starting to improve and I'll be able to get out working on the swap once school is over (won't have to get the festy out every day).
I've been staring and measuring the BP, and the Festy. Trying to get the mounts as best worked out as I can to limit the downtime of the festy. Has anyone ever stuck the G25MR front mount (the part that bolts to the trans. on a Protege or EGT) on the stock festy rubber donut that mounts to the crossmember? or would this move the transmission too far over to the passenger side? This was my question for Euro, but he isn't active right now.
I can also do the thing with the angle iron on the festy rubber donut to use as a front mount, and I'm trying to figure out roughly the distance in height between the through bolt for the rubber part and the bolts that mount to the transmission case. In other words, the distance that determines how high the exhaust side of the engine/trans. will sit.
Any more dimensions that folks have access to would be appreciated (Trying to limit the downtime of the festy as much as possible, and I'm not picky if the engine isn't dead nuts level)

Thanks Heaps guys