Paper Throwing Festy

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So I figure it's time to start a build thread. This thread, today, will remain lame and no good or awesome pictures, just information.



I picked up a 1993 Ford Festiva L 5 speed for $700 with 126k on the clock a few weeks ago. Brought her home, new cap, rotor, plugs, and wires. Nice difference. Tank leaked and was pretty nasty outside so I replaced it with a Spectra unit from RockAuto, as well as the strainer.



Got a Motorcraft fuel filter as well. Car runs very well at this point. New alternator belt, battled some electrical woes and whoas.

Then it was time for some HID's. 4500k 35w kit from DDM (yes I know reflector housing blah blah. only night driving I do is when delivering papers at 2AM so I don't care and I can see house numbers now!)





Decided it was time to deal with the alignment issue I have (tires getting chewed up, shakes at speed) and I was dreading finding 12" tires. Thankfully, this website showed me the light of the Kia Rio front swap and the Aspire rear. A trip to the junk yard got me everything I needed plus some Aspire seats, for less than $400! Cool, 4x100, now I need wheels. Hit up a local buddy who knows everyone selling anything and I found some Miata Daisy wheels for $100. Cool! They need cleaned up, cool, my buddy has a blasting cabinet. $40 and I dropped them off to pick them up in the few days. Sweet, now I need tires so I ordered some Sumitomo HTR A/S P01's in 185/60/r14 from Tires-Easy for $242.08 shipped.

So at this point, I'm waiting on the yard to pull my parts to pick up on Monday, should have my wheels around then so I can get them painted in time for it to cure before the tires get here. Going to have the wheels roadforce balanced. I'm excited to make this thing handle like a go kart. Once I get all this proper, it'll be time to figure out what motor swap I want to do (the B8 seems like a good idea... N/A and good mileage)

I'll be posting pics when I do the actual swap. I still need to order lower control arms and stabilizer bushings for the Festiva, Rio brake hoses, and maybe a few small things here and there. I'll post a pic of what caused my alignment issues too haha.

[DriverOne]

Re: Paper Throwing Festy

Awesome! Just make sure you get the e-brake cable and that passenger rubber hose!

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Oh boy, this is why you pull your own parts...

Long story short, the dumb bastard cut the cable as it went into the bracket (sheathing) so now I have to find an assembly elsewhere. The cables still have that black coating and the cable looks nearly brand new... I hate people! AND I had to go grab stuff they forgot and whatnot. Such a hassle. Should get the blasted wheels back tomorrow as well as getting the tires soon. Had the fuel pump go out last night (JUST had it out to do the tank, should have known better and replaced it then!) so that will set me back on buying everything else for a week or two. Ordered the Moog stabilizer bar bushings on Amazon tonight (along with some Met-RX Colossal 100 Apple Pie bars, om nom nom)

OH they cut all the rubber hoses too even though I requested them to be left intact... yay. Oh well, thank goodness for RockAuto. Ordering Moog control arms, tie rod ends (Rio), brake hoses front and rear (Rio/Aspire), and probably other odds and ends. May buy the fluid and filter to change oil and transaxle tomorrow as well.

Overall I was upset about the cable but oh well, going to see if the dealer can get an Aspire cable (doubt it) or find another one in a yard and yank it myself!

[Festevil3]

I love the 3 on the side od the door!

Three for Dale :highly_amused:

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Dude it's hillarious the reactions I get from people...

So today I had this belt give me trouble again, to the point where my HID's flickered and turned off and my stereo kicked off. Almost made it home before it died on me. COOL.

So I wire brushed the rubber off the pulleys and hosed them with brake clean, warranty swapped the belt, and it's charging fine (charged battery and had it tested, tested good multiple times).

However, now I'm having an issue. At idle, car is fine. Car stumbles a bit off idle to part throttle but it maintains speed. However, if I go WOT, the car falls on its face. HARD. To the point where if I'm at like 2k RPM in 2nd, the car barely increases speed. I know it's not a powerhouse but I know what it was doing before this started.

Going to pick up some new NGK V Powers tonight and put those in (gapped properly) and my Autolite wires tomorrow after work and see if that helps any. If not, I'll let AZ warranty my coil and replace the ICM as well. If neither of those two things fix it, I'm going to have to start testing sensors (VAF, TPS)

[bravekozak]

That suspension needs either a mobile high pressure steam clean or a dry ice blast.
I urethaned my gas tank before I installed it. I recommend not leaving it uncoated.

[TheresGabe]

Wait... You installed HID's, and did axles swaps, and it still has the 3 on the door? That wouldn't have made it to my driveway with a 3 (or any other number on the door). Looks like you have a good DD for cheap!

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Agreed and the 3 is amusing so I'm leaving it. Lol I'm selling my 02 Yamaha r1 soon and buying something newer so until then I'm not going to be spending much more money lol

[Huli]

Re: Paper Throwing Festy

Awesome! Just make sure you get the e-brake cable and that passenger rubber hose!

I had to get both rubber hoses as neither fit!

[Huli]

Re: Paper Throwing Festy

If WOT is an issue, your throttle position sensor is probably out of adjustment. Check the Haynes for super easy test/adjustment.

My entire intake and fuel management was incorrectly adjusted by the shop the previous owner used.

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I will check to see if that's good. If its good I will check to see if it jumped timing. A bad sensor makes more sense than mechanical.

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Idle is perfect so no way is it a full tooth on the timing belt. It's a bum sensor SOMEWHERE. My leads for my DMM are junk, off to the place of purchase to see if they sell them!

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Just an update, got the car back to running properly and returned some of the $$$$ parts I didn't need!

Need to balance these wheels and tires, order Tie Rod ends and brake hoses from AutoZone, wheel studs (Dorman press-in) from Advanced Auto, and I just ordered the entire E-Brake Assembly off a Ford Aspire for $50 since the yard cut the cable from my beam I got!

So I pretty much have $100 of purchasing to go, cut the springs on the Rio struts and the bump stop shaving, and I'm ready to have some 14x5.5 Miata Daisy wheels in black with new tires and an overall newer suspension setup. May also purchase new rear struts and mounts since the donor Aspire was clean but higher mileage.


The yard I got the beam from will sell me the BP out of an Escort GT for $250 and the car is low mileage (120k or so) so I may go for that although a B8 swap may be more up my alley (N/A, decent enough power to be fun but reliable)

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Car is running mint now. Now that all my odds and ends for powertrain are covered (except maybe a clutch replacement when it comes due), it's time.

Time to make this car handle and do it well!

Rio struts and springs made a nice difference. Time for the whole package.

Moog inner and outer tie rods, moog control arms and stabilizer bushings, kyb gr2 rear struts with monroe mounts and moog bump stops, new pads, rotors, and calipers up front. New shoes and hardware in rear on the Aspire beam. Miata Daisy 14x5.5 wheels with Sumitomo HTR A/S P01 tires in 185/60/r14 format. So far, everything is torn apart. Hard to motivate to work given that the weather is getting nice and I just bought myself a Ducati. Oh well, time to go get dirty and finish this thing while waiting on rubber for the bike! And pictures will come.

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So the rear springs are cut a half coil to level the car out (need something stiffer, bad) and the fronts are a lil more than 1.5 coils on each side with the Rio springs. Rear Aspire swap is finished. Wondering if I mixed up the soft hoses as the driver side one seems to be not quite long enough (bought new aspire hoses). Oh well, e brake works perfectly. I need to reset the bearing preload though. Such a pain in the butt. Oh well, it's worth it in the end. Going to have to cut the studs down to fit under these center caps though. Not a huge deal, doesn't need spacers thanks to the KYB GR2's in back!