My '93 L Build

[ThisVelologist]

Great advice! Thanks.

[TominMO]

Great job! What are your plans for the interior?

[ThisVelologist]

Thanks! I need new seats. So either I can find a donor Festy or do an Aspire/Escort/Tracer/MX-3 seat swap. On down the road I might consider some grey plastidip for the rear plastic panels and a manual seat belt swap. Window gears need greased. But Other than that I am pretty content with the simplicity of the interior.

[ThisVelologist]

I've been busy with work and social activities recently, but I've still been able to tinker with my Festiva a little bit. A recent trip to the local pull-a-part got me a nice pair of Escort GT seats, Expedition hood strut studs, and a few other goodies.
I mated the Expedition studs with some gas hood struts I ordered from Amazon, by far the easiest and most convenient upgrade I've done so far:

I pulled out the old seats and began building the new Escort/Festiva hybrid seats. I've only had time to get one built and installed so far but the other will be in soon. I've had a few friends ride in the back with no seat in front of them and I say, "I bet you feel like a third-world diplomat." Anyway, here's the pics:



I replaced my faded and yellowed Ford logo with a pristine Mazda badge I found in an '89 626:

And finally, I installed the exhaust manifold down-tube pie that bolokid was kind enough to send me and it made my Festy a heck of a lot quieter. I had a pretty nasty crack in the elbow of the old one. This one has extra shrouding on the outside than the old one did. Is it because its from a GL or something?

Soon to come: upper and lower grill block, valve cover gasket, rally lights, and a few other sundries.

[ThisVelologist]

The new pipe:

[Victor Lang]

Great work! Continued success!

[Axlander9289]

I was in town helping my brother sort a few things out on his car this week (ignition timing, valve cover gasket, wiring up fog lights, and a new thermostat, and I thought I'd post this here to prove that we are indeed brothers. It's on the FF.com Facebook page as well. Los Festivas Hermanos!

[Advancedynamix]

Great work on the seats! I will be doing the hood strut mod on my current project, which ironically is the only Festiva I've owned with a good hood support hold. Lol

[ThisVelologist]

Hey thanks man! Yeah, I don't know what I would do without them now!

[mikeyjd]

Great work so far!

[ThisVelologist]

JANUARY 2015 FESTIVA OF THE MONTH UPDATE
First of all, allow me again to thank you all for the support and honor of my FOTM win only months after joing the forum. I swear your compliments make my Festiva run better. LOTS of work has been done since the last update and it feels like a completely different car than that faded-pink loud-exhaust-leaking bearing-seized brakeless seat-torn car I bought back in October.
While my brother, Axlander9288 master mechanic was home for the holidays we did a lot of work. He advanced the timing for me which made a world of difference. More power, more torque, the clutch grabs better and everything. We also finally replaced that leaky valve cover gasket and got a good look inside the cam--it was pretty healthy!

Then we set to wiring up the Hella lights and replacing the headlight brackets with the old ones from his Festiva:

Axlander at work:

We wired the lights to work on their own switch independent of the headlights with this switch I got from Amazon. I fits pretty well in the delete hole. The lights themselves are mounted to a piece of angle iron I bolted to the bumper cover, the wires run through the bumper. They shake a little bit but it doesn't really bother me:

I also added an '88-'89 grill I got from eBay, partially because I like the look better and also because it looks like our grandfather's first Festiva. Here's what the new front end looks like:

At night:

As far as interior goes, I finally got my other EGT seat installed as well as GL shift knob and boot that Axlander had lying around that much better fits the GL console:


We also installed a new thermostat (with some dificulties I won't go into haha) and it seems to be reaching it's temperature better and hopefully will finally break this sub-par MPG streak I've been on. I also added a lower grill block that I think will help too. I'm very pleased with how my Festiva runs and looks now and happy to have all my projects finally crossed off the list. It's really the delightful little car I've wanted and it feels so good to have done most of it myself (with help from my dear brother and my Festiva brothers). Next I might be looking at getting a replacement alternator as mine has started to whine at any tension. Thanks again, friends. Happy Festivin' in 2015!

[gergorian]

Looking very good!

[Axlander9289]

I'm glad to have been of assistance, and it was great finally getting to meet your Festiva, but did you have to snap a picture of my bald spot?