'88 L Street/Track Build- Coilovers • B6ZE • Weber DCOE's • Widebody • Chopped Top •

[theastronaut]

I guess it's about time I start a build thread for this thing. It's too late to start at the beginning so I'll do a few posts to catch up to where it's at now.

It's a bare-bones '88 L, clock delete and all. Carb'd, four speed, and was all stock with 126k on it when I bought it last July. It's in decent shape overall.

I had blown up the engines in two of my daily drivers so I needed a cheap daily to get me out of our shop van... IMO shop vans are an absolute horrible excuse of an automobile. They suck ALL fun out of the driving experience, hence the need to get into something a bit more enjoyable.

My budget was already tight- had to rebuild two engines, plus I'm saving up to eventually build a shop/apartment. I had been checking Craigslist almost daily with no luck. Nothing on the various Facebook groups I'm on. I was at a local flea market with a few friends and one of them spotted the Festiva behind one of the sellers' tables. They jokingly said, "hey, there's John a car!", thinking that I wouldn't be caught dead in an econobox "Ford". (I'm a Chevy guy, so I still argue that it's technically a Mazda). It had "$800" marked on the windshield- cheap enough, so I checked it out and ended up test driving it. It ran and drove great so I made an offer, we haggled a bit and eventually made a deal. I got the owners phone number and arranged to pick it up the next day.

So I had escaped the horrors of dailying the shop van, but the Festiva was ugly. Really ugly. The bumpers and wheels had been poorly shot with flat black rattle cans, the side trim was faded and stained, and the whole car needed a thorough cleaning.

These pics were after a good wash and a quick respray of the wheels in a less dreary color. Now I wasn't quite as embarrassed to be driving around in a "Ford" econobox... Of course I can't leave anything alone so this was just the start.

[theastronaut]

One of the first things I did was to add a pair of NOS Cibie driving lights behind the grill. I live in a rural area with plenty of critters that like to cross the road. I've never had a car that I felt had adequate lighting from the factory so all have been upgraded with E-code Cibie H4's in the past. That wasn't possible on the Festiva so the driving lights were the next option. I made a couple of 1/8" thick steel "L" brackets and welded them to the inner bumper to mount them. They're wired into a relay that's triggered by the high beam wiring so that they're not on with the low beams. I also built a 12 gauge relay harness for the factory headlights and found a better pair of housings to replace the faded original lights (no pics of these yet). I can now see deer and other road hazards much earlier with plenty of time to brake and avoid them.

[theastronaut]

The next step was to strip the spray-bombed bumpers and properly refinish them. I used lacquer thinner and a red scuff pad to get the old paint off, then masked it out and shot them with paint made specifically for trim and bumpers. The side trim got the same treatment. I had some SEM paint leftover from another project so I used that to paint the red stripe.

[theastronaut]

By this point I had found this forum, I think to find out if shifter bushings were available. Ended up finding a few topics about swapping in a Civic shifter with a shoulder bolt and nylon washers to tighten up the linkage. This was the first mod.

[Advancedynamix]

I've been waiting for this build thread. Your really talented with a can of paint!

[theastronaut]

I've been waiting for this build thread. Your really talented with a can of paint!

Honestly that's one reason I like this car. It's not nice enough to have to keep it spotlessly clean and polished/waxed all the time. Have to do that all day on the cars we restore so it's nice to have a beater that doesn't matter- thrash it and don't worry too much about what it looks like. When I do the fender flares and chop top I'll likely just blend those spots in and spray slightly flattened clear over the whole thing.

[bravekozak]

Astro, it would have been easier to just change to a Mazda 121 euro grille.

[theastronaut]

Astro, it would have been easier to just change to a Mazda 121 euro grille.

That's pretty neat! I'm still new to these things so I didn't know about those. They look like fog lenses though and I wanted more distance so the Cibies are still a good choice.

[theastronaut]

The next step was to get rid of the stock 12's and nosebleed stance. I've had slower cars (36 and 40 hp early VW Bugs) but none with such low levels of grip. I'd previously had an '87 Conquest TSi which handled great, and I've done a little suspension work to my '64 VW so that it's not half bad around corners. This thing would squeal the tires around corners at my normal driving pace, it was pretty pathetic.

The first thing I did was to upgrade to 14x5.5's from an Escort. They're actually steel wheels with a molded plastic face and separate metal trim rings around the lip. It was surprisingly difficult to find a set in good shape, most have cracks in the plastic by now. They're. 4x108 so I used 1" adapters to fit them, which made the wheels stick out about an inch up front. The tires are 165/55 Achilles ATR-K's. The wheels I found cane with the plain painted center caps, it took a little while to find the other version that has a brushed metal face and black background.






To get them to fit I used a hammer and dolly to gradually flatten the fender lip flat, and pulled the opening out as much as I could without distorting the body lines. I also heated the stock springs for a slight drop and slotted the strut mounts to gain a little negative camber. They fit without rubbing but it wasn't sitting as low as I wanted it yet.

[nonamekid]

Astro, it would have been easier to just change to a Mazda 121 euro grille.

Easier to do the install, but could have spent years trying to find one of those grilles. Would love to get my hands on one.

[theastronaut]

I originally just wanted to slam it 5-6" for looks so I started researching my options for dropping it. I ran across Charlie's "Advanced Suspension Mods" thread and decided to go with his Raceland Mk2/KYB Mk1 coilovers since they would offer plenty of drop. Once I got the coilovers on though I became more interested in how it handled since it now had more grip than anything I'd ever owned.

I made a thread for the suspension back when I was planning and building it, so I won't double post all the details here.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?57187-5-6-quot-Drop-with-VW-KYB-s-Converted-to-Coilovers

[theastronaut]

That pretty much catches this up to the car's current condition mechanically. I did buy a rear beam with good parking brake cables from a local forum member to replace the bad original cables. I ended up completely rebuilding the brakes on that beam and swapped the whole assembly out. Was much easier to build it on my "Taco Cart" tool box/work bench than in the car.

[theastronaut]

I've done a little more cosmetically- grandma style floor "rugs" and a Nardi steering wheel for the interior. The clear was badly faded and flaking on the hood so I fixed and primed a couple spots and wetsanded it in preparation for paint. The base coat I bought ended up being way off. I had my first autocross the next day so I shot a couple coats of clear to seal it up until I could get the base tinted to match. The "fake patina" look turned out to be a hit at the autocross, so it may stick around for awhile.




I picked up a Yakima roof rack at a flea market for ten bucks, bought the correct clips on eBay cheap, and shortened the load bars so they looked more proportional to the size of the roof. I'm still looking for a cheap wind deflector. I also swapped the silver painted center caps out for a set with brushed stainless outer rings and black centers.




The woven floor rugs.





And the Nardi wheel

[jhli]

She looks really good.

[Prafeston]

That wheel is sexy!