W4RKRY's '91 Build

[w4rkry]

This is my first Festiva!
A little background on the purchase can be found here:Just bought my first Festiva

So I'm starting this thread to document the condition I recieved the car in and to keep track of all the changes I make.

THE BAD

The car currently has a bunch of little problems. First, it pulls to the left on acceleration/right on decel. I read up on it and have decided to swap in new moog sway bar to LCA bushings. They should arrive tomorrow so I will be updating this when the time comes.

Anything from the ground up to 10 inches is super rusted. All my brake lines/body panels/hubs/frame. The PO covered the bottom of the body with truck bed liner but didn't actually remove the rust first, just sprayed over it. Not much I can do about that.

The PO replaced the front pads and rotors, and the drive shafts.

The rear brake assembly has been removed from the hub. All rear brake lines have been snipped and the parking brake is therefore not functional. I am considering the aspire swap to fix this.
The parking brake lever does not stay down, so the light is always on in the dash.

The dome light doesnt work. I still need to trouble shoot that one.

The seats are torn up, will be swapping those eventually.

The windows love to come off the tracks.

The shifter is super loose, I will be doing those bushings sometime, maybe even a short shifter.

Owner before the PO was a heavy smoker, there are a couple burns on the carpet. The headliner and seatbelt rail covers are super tan from smoke.

PO covered the interior rear panels in bedliner (WHY??)'

PO put in broken fog lights, used wayy to much wire. THe switch was duct taped to the steering column and he spliced power from the cigarette lighter.

Front windshield is craked

Exhaust is held on with garbage flex-pipe

Tailgate latch is broken, must be opened from the inside by fiddling with the mechanism

THE GOOD

The gauges all work

The headlights/tailights/markers all work

The dash is not cracked

The carpets are in good shape

Came with spare tire & jack & wrench

The engine and trans are working perfectly

The PO just put on a brand new tint job (You can see where his priorities were)

Wipers work

Has a long Cherry Bomb glasspack muffler

THE BUILD & FIXES

So the first thing I had to do was put in a radio. Some of you may think that rear brakes or suspension is important, but the exhaust drone would have driven me insane. I got a nice pioneer head unit with bluetooth and kicker 4" in the stock front location. I skipped the rear speakers. I then removed the rear seats and put 2 12" kicker subs and amp in the back. The sub box kept sliding around so I made up some brackets to hold it down. These go into the holes where the rear seatbelts were mounted (See Pics).

So far this is all I done. If there are any parts of the car you all would like information/pics on before I change them, let me know!
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[w4rkry]

I will be keeping a running Imgur Gallery folder with Festiva pics for anyone that is interested.
Festiva Album

[Team Lightning]

Depending on your wheels upgrade in the future, I'd go ahead with the Aspire swap. Use the aspire master cylinder and booster. They really help on the brake system.

[TominMO]

Put up a list of parts you want to purchase from people who are coming to the Carlyle meet, come to the meet, buy parts. I'll toss in free shifter bushings.

[w4rkry]

Put up a list of parts you want to purchase from people who are coming to the Carlyle meet, come to the meet, buy parts. I'll toss in free shifter bushings.

Post them in the Carlyle meet thread?

[TominMO]

Post them in the Carlyle meet thread?

That's probably the best place, since it is specific info for people going to the meet.

[w4rkry]

That's probably the best place, since it is specific info for people going to the meet.

Ok, will do. Thanks for the free bushings!

[Advancedynamix]

Not only do these cars not require much power to be fast, they don't require much sub to be bumped. That thing must be like an earthquake inside with those 12's. Haha. I had the gain turned all the way down on babe's 800w alpine class D sub amp and single 10" sub. It was hard to think with the sub past 5. Haha

[w4rkry]

Yea, it is incredibly intense, and I have the gain at 3/11

[blake4591]

Just a note on the Aspire trailing arm, if you put it on the car and don't do anything to the front suspension it will make the car want to rotate if you lift throttle in a corner. This can be good or bad based on your driving style and goals with the car. I drove my car for about a month with just the trailing arm swap and could feel a difference. I would recommend the aspire front sway bar if you want the car to feel closer to stock (but it is not best performance option) or going to stiffer front springs like the cut Rio springs which will reduce the off throttle rotation but not eliminate it. Overall though it sounds like a good project, best of luck with getting this car all sorted out.

[w4rkry]

UPDATE

OK time for a long, sad update!

I was driving around 2 weeks ago on friday when the car started to wiggle a bit. I ignored it and kept driving. Suddenly it got really bad and i pulled over. I opened up my rear drivers center cap and found my bearing had turned into a nice metal paste with the grease. It had completely exploded. I limp it to school and have my dad pick me up. I towed it back home later that night. When I opened it up, I found my spindle threads were completely stripped off and the bearing race had welded itself to the spindle.
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After a long battle to get the spindle off the rusty brake backing, I decide i would go to the junkyard and just torch off the entire rear assemblies off the cars. When I got there, I found a terrible sight: all the Festivas had this exact thing done to them already!! WHO IS TAKING ALL THESE SPINDLES???
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So, I decided that I would look for other items, like a dome light with map lights and maybe a new console from an Escort or other Mazda. I ended up finding tons of the map lights (even one in blue plastic) and a pretty nice shift knob from a Mazda sedan. I put both these in the car, bought some red LEDs, and began hunting for another spindle. (MSG me if any of you would like me to get one of those map lights for you!)
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to be continued.....

[drddan]

This is an install thread for the Escort console I put in. The Mazda Protégé console is almost the same console, but has an added flip top storage area towards the rear of it and slide in/out cup holders in the front. I think 90 - 94 Protégé?

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...le-swap-How-To

[w4rkry]

Yes drddan, I have read your article before, very nice write up. It what I was planning on doing, unfortunately I didn't find any consoles on my first trip.

[w4rkry]

Ok well many things have happened over the past month or so so i will try to get everything written down.

First things first, we pick up back at the spindle story. I found a guy on craigslist who had a bunch of spare Festiva parts, said he could give me a spindle for $35. He lived about 1.5 hrs away so I began the journey in my mom's car. So I get there and he has the spindle. He said it was a little more beat up than He thought it was and gave it to me for free. It was a little worn and the threads had a flat spot. I take it home anyway and go to install it with some Duralast bearings. I get it put on, bearings in, greased, and go out for a test drive. 15 miles later --BOOM-- the bearing explodes. Again. So i limp it back home, very pissed.

A few days later I get on the forum and start looking for spindle that's actually worth my time. I went to rockauto and got some Timken bearings. I bought a nice looking spindle off the forums for $35 shipped. Finally get it put together. My dad kicks my front tires to check the air pressure. I start to back out of the garage, and as I hit the brakes CLUNK. Now really angry, I try backing up and braking again. CLUNK.
Now very irritated, I asked my dad to backup and hit the brakes while i watch so I can see what is going on. He does and when he hits the brakes, the axle stopped but the body kept going for another few inches. WTF?! I think. I take off the front tire, and see that my control arm bushings are gone. Not worn, GONE.
I wil post pics of the old vs new In the next post, as well as my failed spindle, which got so hot it blued the metal. TO BE CONTINUED

[Flyin4stroke]

How tight are you putting the nut on the outside of the spindle? I've never had 1 completely fail and have drove with bad bearings for thousands of miles. Each rear tire only holds a little over 300 lbs.