Old Blue - New Tricks

[william]

Looking forward to seeing your new build progress , good luck on your move. Hope it all works out for you, hang in there it will get better!

[sketchman]

Huh. Been years now. Sad, but Blue will live again. He sleeps in WV still. Life is insane sometimes. I swear it's like there can only be so much negativity to go around, but somehow I'm a magnet for it.

Updates coming "soon"ish. I've actually done quite a bit to it, but then we got screwed out of our new apt, moved to Mexico for a bit, my job didn't work out there, and now we are going to force a move to NY in spite of having nowhere to actually go. I know, it's nuts. But trust me, it's less nuts than any other option, and we have tried enough.

Guess I'll also have to start a new build thread. I've missed you guys. See you soon.

[sketchman]

Got these installed today.



Next up is moar lowz, fender pullz, and 13" 0 offsetz. All with zzzzzz for extra street cred. lol

EDIT: Also found out my low pedal was just a missing brake show friction material on 1 shoe. Weird. The other 3 were perfect, though I did replace them all. And the wheel cylinders were fine too. It's like it just only moved 1 shoe on that side.

Anyway, pedal is fine now. No MC swap for me. Stock is fine. Hand brake works again too. Lovesome.

[bhearts]

Oh, I forgot something I wanted to put in there.

Just in one corner there are 3 different cars' worth of parts. Rio, Escort, and Miata. God I love Festivas. lol

What is one man's trash is a festiva owners upgrade. Lol

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[sketchman]

Oh, I forgot something I wanted to put in there.

Just in one corner there are 3 different cars' worth of parts. Rio, Escort, and Miata. God I love Festivas. lol

[sketchman]

Finally some more progress. New drilled rotors, rebuilt calipers, and pads. Yummy.

They stop great. I braked from 60 and was surprised how hard they bit even during initial bed in. Needs a fatter M/C though. Takes too much pedal. Got an Aspire unit ready to go in on another occasion.

[sketchman]

Ahh that explains it. Didn't realize they were aftermarket. I had to drill out the screw holes to make them work at all, and the angles are kinda annoying. Had to bend the tabs on the driver's fender to get the light to line up mostly right.

[Advancedynamix]

If you search eBay Australia, they are pretty common. They are all aftermarket though and the quality isn't the best.

[sketchman]

I caught the set on eBay. They pop up every now and then, but AFAIK they didn't ever come in the US, so they are rare-ish.

[red90festyonair]

Where did you get the corner lights.... I like the look.

[sketchman]

Clear corners and new shift knob from twistedshifterz. If you go to their eBay shop you get free shipping. The quality is top notch, and shipping was quick.

I plan to cut up another shifter and splice it with mine to get the stock height but with no transition. Just fat rod all the way up to the ball. Looks weird to me with the skinny stock rod and that big ball on top.

The blue should go well with the WRX blue paint when I can ever get to it.

[sketchman]

DIY short shifter. I started to just cut and weld the bottom and shorten the top like Gomez's Howto shows, but instead I did a whole new bottom T piece. The whole bottom end is now 1/2" EMT conduit, and is a full 1" longer than stock. The top I just cut off all but 2 thread from the ball threads for about 1" reduction. This keeps you from having to weld that end and closes up the skinny to fat transition which I wanted to hide as much of as possible.

So 1" shorter on top, 1" longer on the bottom, and the bottom is solid metal. No bushings at all. Just plenty of anti-seize. Feels good, but I would do 2" on the bottom if I ever get the urge again. It's not a short enough throw for me just yet.

Pics.




This shows from 3rd to 4th. Still kinda long throw IMO.


Here shows how much room you have to work with. Plenty for 1" more on the bottom without hitting the stock exhaust.

[Advancedynamix]

I would dearly like to meet the man who was in charge of laying out the Festiva seat to body bolts and their respective boss locations and heights and give him a swift kick in the pants. Why, just why?

Amen brother.

[sketchman]

Thanks.

[scitzz]

Nice build man that rally blue gunna look great feel like all your photos are labeled for dum dums lol with the paint marker.

You can thank Eurotiva for that.

lol Yeah, I tell people I think the PO got bored and drunk and all he had was a marker.

Nice looking build! I have dreamed of ways to put a battery down there, and you figured it out! Huzzah!

When I did my HG the first time, I used a paint pen to number and arrow all my connections. That was back in 99. I referred to them for at least a couple years, then really just didn't need them anymore.

I think I could reassemble a Festiva from a pile of bolts and nuts at this point.