Frito Festiva--Ben's '93 GL (LX Clone) Build Thread

[ThisVelologist]

When it came to abandon ship on my last Festiva, my dear brother, Axlander98, had already found me a replacement. It was a '93 GL--white (my favorite Festiva color) with A/C, cargo cover, map pockets, rear wiper & defrost, spoiler, tach cluster, and a recent manual swap with only 118k on the clock. I couldn't say no. Alex bought it, a week later lil-red delivered it to Billings, MT. I bought a flight for six weeks later and waited in gleeful anticipation as the pictures rolled in:

And there we have it--a clean white GL with all the rare options one could want. In the meantime I procured some 4x114.3 6" Enkei 92's. I then developed this photoshop rendering of my plans for the exterior of the car:

[ThisVelologist]

In the mean time, Alex set about making the car ready for the 25 hour drive. That entailed replacing the rear brakes and rear bearings, timing belt, and other mechanical necessaries. I flew out, met the car and was absolutely impressed with it's mechanical condition. It drove like a brand new car compared to my last Festiva. The exterior was a little rougher than I expected but present an exciting challenge for me--I like making them look good. We had a good deal of fun driving the Festivas around and taking pictures:



Before I left, we swapped some 88-89 smoothie tail lights in to begin the trend I was starting with it's overall design. Sadly it came time to part. Alex saw me into Sheridan, Wyoming and I continued on my way:

I stopped in Casper, Wyoming to meet up with Brian (lil-red), the former owner, who had done so much to un-knowingly build my dream Festiva:

And then stayed in Denver for the night, encountering some (what I think is) impressive street parking:

And then I set about driving the rest of the way back to Kentucky, getting 38.9 MPG's and just having a blast all the way home:

[ThisVelologist]

Frito made it back to Kentucky without incident--well almost. The plug wire connecting the distributor to the coil pack jumped out an hour away from home. A quick call to my brother and the problem was remedied. As soon as I got Frito home, the projects began. First order of business was a good wash:

Then I set about Plastidipping the bumpers and side trim. I went with half of the bumpers to give it a nice Mazda 121/ Euro look:


And then came mounting the Hella 500 driving lights from my last Festiva. Last time I bolted a length of angle iron through the bumper cover. It was flimsy, but it worked. This time I drilled straight through the bumper support and mounted them with 6" inch carriage bolts and adding a 88-89 grille that I prepared earlier:




From there I wired up a Escort Wagon cargo light with an extra ajar switch and strung the hatch cover:


Then I set about mounting studs and hub-centric rings for the Enkeis:


With this whole black and white motif going, it was time to remove the decrepit navy blue pinstripe. I did so with rubbing alcohol and a straight razor:



Once that was done the look really started to come together. It looked like the dream car I had rendered in photoshop weeks ago. I was falling deeply in love:


I then put in the LX front seats from my last Festiva and replaced the ripped and knotted passenger shoulder belt with a pristine one:

And, most recently did the horizontal wiper parking mod with an Escort Wagon wiper motor gear:

I'm over the moon with Frito--a mechanically sound and great looking Festiva already in under two weeks of ownership, I'm stoked for what is next--stay tuned!

[bhearts]

Sweet ride, Frito, like the corn chip?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[ThisVelologist]

Thanks! The car was dubbed Frtio by my brother after Frito Pandejo from the film "Idiocracy". The car received its name after my brother found a bag of Frito's in the car whilst cleaning it out. In the film, Luke Wilson drives a white Festiva GL during a monster truck rally for "community service":

[Fecomatter]

Ben I would would really hate for you to swap a b8 into this. It's so mechanically sound.

[Eaglefreek]

Enjoyed the write up and looks like a great car. In the future if you ever need to remove pinstiping, go to your local auto paint store and get a decal eraser wheel. You stick it in a drill and it takes the pinstripe or any decals off fast without any damage as long as the car was painted correctly.

[Advancedynamix]

Thanks for posting this up Ben. What an awesome car, and great story to kick it off! I'm looking forward to some festiva camping, parked next to Frito.

[Axlander9289]

Who's this Axlander98 guy?

[skeeters_keeper]

Hi Frito!

come visit sometime!

[ThisVelologist]

Haha. All of your screen names kind of run together for me.

[ThisVelologist]

We most definitely will!

[bravekozak]

I like the photos. All of them.
You need to order this knob.

[avitsefdrof]

Cool story.....tell me about the rims and tires.....I like the look. Thanks.

[ThisVelologist]

Cool story.....tell me about the rims and tires.....I like the look. Thanks.

They are Enkei 92's 13x6 in the stock bolt pattern--pretty rare. Tires are 175/70. They're +15 offset with tall tires so they rub in hard cornering but otherwise are an excellent improvement.