Moses Build thread

[Dragonhealer]

Is the 150 lb spring for the front? Or rear?

[ryanprins13]

Is the 150 lb spring for the front? Or rear?

Rear, the rio springs are 175. I think ideally i would want 150 all the way around but im not seeing another car with 150 pound front springs that fit a festiva.

[ryanprins13]

Need a new festiva...

So I put my trailer away for the winter so I can finish it in the summer and started on my car. I ordered a whole bunch of parts off rockauto, continued with my planning and started to work on the car. I took it to a car wash, carefully washed it underneath and in the engine bay, took it to work and let it sit in the shop over the weekend and then blew everything dry. I then took the interior panels and carpet out. Then I discovered something really bad.... The drivers floor pan had rotted out from the inside. From underneath I could see a small hole that I planned to patch because it didnt look bad. But from all the snow melting from my boots and manure from working on the farm and salt in the winter and so on the floor pan rotted real bad inside. a few pokes dropped a lot of metal out. I could have made a fibreglass floor pan and welded some supports but the rest of the car is in bad shape too. I went to remove the drivers seatbelt to replace it as mine is frayed and i couldnt remove the bolt. It just crunched and twisted a bit. These were the other problems:

- before I bought it the car had been in a bad front end collision and then rolled onto its side. It was a pretty hacked repair. Nothing lines up in the front
-front frame rail crushed in from that accident and cracked in several spots around the tie rod hole.
-upper rad support area real messed up
-floor pan rusty
-rear axle bolt points rusty. Not bad but not full strength anymore.
-brake lines rusty
-2 electrical fires inside car and 1 on transmission, bad wiring, alternator wire has a bad connection, alt quit twice and came back on.
-rockers and wheel wells very rusty
-'frame rails' completely flat, floorboards pushed up everywhere from rocks when off-roading.
-gas tank all dented, volume reduced by 6-8 litres.
-bad paint, its all faded and discoloured. broken bumpers from being rear-ended and running over a fallen down tree.
- wrecked hood and roof from 20ft high scaffolding crushing my car. the bodyfiller has since cracked.
-broken bolt front transmission crossmember
-leaks by passengers feet in heavy rain

I have what you may call a very, very strong emotional connection to that car, but I think I have to find a new one for this trip. That was a very hard desicion to make, but probably the right thing to do. I have done everything in this car, and really wanted to do this trip but I don't think its wise.
So I drove it home and parked it. That was sad. 9 years, 6 1/2 months I have driven it save for 2 winters. 463,787km on it now (288k miles) and i put 244,447km on it since i bought it (152k miles).
So I decided I have to find a new festiva. Have not found anything yet. I want something pretty rust free and preferrably in Alberta. I'm willing to buy something from out of province or country but it has to pass a pretty strict inspection here. I want to use whatever car I buy for this cross Canada trip in 2018, then I have further plans. When I bought my festiva my brother and i planned to build a trailer and tour the northwest territories, Yukon and Alaska in the winter with it. We badly wanted to but it never happened. I still have that itch. There are 2 roads heading north of the arctic circle. One in Alaska going to a pipeline in Prudhoe bay and one in the Yukon going to inuvik. The road to prudehoe bay is supposed to be super rough and a real tire eater plus there is only a pipeline to see once you get there. The road to inuvik is also a tire eater but supposed to be much nicer than the Alaskan one. 3-4 spares for the car and 3 for the trailer sound sufficient for it. inuvik is a town with some history and late this year or early next year the road from there to Tuktoyaktuk is supposed to open. It looks like a cool place ntoo. So our cross Canada trip with my foamie is in 2018, then if that goes ok in 2019 I want to do a run with it up to Tuktoyaktuk in the middle of summer during the summer solstice when its light 24/7. If thats all cool and fun I want to spend a year and a halfish building up the festiva and modifying the trailer specifically for cold and snow and do the same run in the winter. so probably October 2020 or more likely may 2021. That way there is a bit of light and its only -20-30c, not -70c and dark 24/7 like in December-February.

I think i will start a thread in the picture subforum thats kinda like an obituary/celabration of life for my festiva. Ive done a lot with it.

When i bought it in may 7, 2007. so shiny!





Sitting out my front window all sad now waiting for parts to be transferred to whatever i buy.


the rust:

[TominMO]

Can you weld in a patch to fix the rust issue? Is that the only place that is rusty? Not along the sides of the car?

[bravekozak]

Forget about a patch.
You need some spot weld bits + this:

Panel Assembly, Front Floor

$138 from Four Green.

[ryanprins13]

Can you weld in a patch to fix the rust issue? Is that the only place that is rusty? Not along the sides of the car?

There isnt much to weld to, plus the other problems would still be present after i spend all that time. The underside of the car isnt very rusty. But outward of the pinch welds is. So rockers and wheel wells are bad.

Forget about a patch.
You need some spot weld bits + this:

Panel Assembly, Front Floor

$138 from Four Green.

Wow, i could never figure out that site before, thanks for the link! I spent over an hour on there. So, to make my car great again:

Only $1500-2k depending on shipping, cut the front frame rail off my parts car and weld it on this one, weld for a week straight, paint the entire car inside, outside and underneath, replace all my wiring... ya. Im not so sure...
Thanks a lot for the link though, i found a bunch of other stuff i need on there as you can see

Ill try tomorrow to take a couple photos of the other problems. I had to rewire a whole bunch of stuff quickly last winter after my second wiring fire, not sure i trust something else in that mass of melted wires to not short. I have a wiring harness, but its all so much work. The floor pan was kind of the last straw.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[ryanprins13]

So this is the crack in the frame rail. On the other side theres bigger cracks. Where the arrow is theres a dent and crack just off the picture.


Frame rail is pretty flat and the fuel and brake lines have been hooked a few times.

Where the seam sealer under the rocker is is holes. Filled with sprayfoam and seam sealed overtoo. Very rusty around the wheel well. This is the side the car was rolled onto.


Not so great this side either.

On the rocker panel thats like a foot and a half of sprayfoam covered with seam sealer.





Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[TominMO]

I'm guessing you'll still keep it as an around-town car as long as it can be driven safely. Or will it become a parts car if you can find a (relatively) rust-free one?

[ryanprins13]

I was going to keep it for around town but had already taken insurance off and registered and insured my 'back up' car. I was parking it to work on it for the winter. It didnt make sense to undo all that and then buy a festiva with a wrecked motor in a month and have to park it again anyway.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[Advancedynamix]

Come down to AZ and get a car down here. You can get a rust free shell for less than just those patch panels. There's a guy in Mesa with 6 of them.

After washing my Festiva out inside with a pressure washer, I noticed something interesting. The water leaks right out of the seams that run along the bottom of the car on both sides. It especially comes out right behind the front wheel. Your floor rot is right in the area that is vulnerable to outside moisture, dirt and salt getting in from the front wheels kicking up muddy slush. Furthermore, I don't think they did a good job at rust protecting the metal inside those sills. If you pop the caps off and look in, it's just the thin black primer layer inside there, which is burned through when they spot weld the panels together. That's why these cars rot from inside out. That's why a car can appear "solid" and be a rust bucket. I have an 89L from Virginia that was sold to me as "rust free" and it's got major floor and sill rot issues. None of my AZ cars are rusted in those areas, but there is lots of dirt and dust that has collected over the years (which is why I was power washing Pedro's insides.)
My idea, for rust free shells that are going to rust belt areas, was to pour a thinned sealant in the sills and let it run throughout the unprotected areas and seal the lower seams to protect this area from salt and moisture. If the factory had done this, these cars would have lasted much longer in the wet areas of the world.

[ryanprins13]

Come down to AZ and get a car down here. You can get a rust free shell for less than just those patch panels. There's a guy in Mesa with 6 of them.

After washing my Festiva out inside with a pressure washer, I noticed something interesting. The water leaks right out of the seams that run along the bottom of the car on both sides. It especially comes out right behind the front wheel. Your floor rot is right in the area that is vulnerable to outside moisture, dirt and salt getting in from the front wheels kicking up muddy slush. Furthermore, I don't think they did a good job at rust protecting the metal inside those sills. If you pop the caps off and look in, it's just the thin black primer layer inside there, which is burned through when they spot weld the panels together. That's why these cars rot from inside out. That's why a car can appear "solid" and be a rust bucket. I have an 89L from Virginia that was sold to me as "rust free" and it's got major floor and sill rot issues. None of my AZ cars are rusted in those areas, but there is lots of dirt and dust that has collected over the years (which is why I was power washing Pedro's insides.)
My idea, for rust free shells that are going to rust belt areas, was to pour a thinned sealant in the sills and let it run throughout the unprotected areas and seal the lower seams to protect this area from salt and moisture. If the factory had done this, these cars would have lasted much longer in the wet areas of the world.

I wish. This was quite unexpected as well as last minute. I do not have a passport yet and would not be able to get one on time. Best i could do is meet someone at the boarder. There is one thats kinda ok just south of the boarder but for too much money for what it is and would need to pass an inspection. It looks and sounds iffy on that.

Thanks for those tips on where to seal. You do mean the pinch weld right? Or the seam where the floor pan meets the inner sill?
I worked in autobody for quite a while and its unbelievable how much they skimp on paint on inner panels. Ive seen many 5-6 year old vehicles rusting badly inside doors or around welds. All it would take is more paint (60% of the problem) or seam sealer like you mentioned or wax oil after assembly. It would be so simple. What type of sealent were you thinking of?
We did a lot of paint recall work on nissans. It takes a lot for a paint recall to happen and its pretty sick the mistakes they make.
When i get another festiva here hopefully soon i will wash it and dry it out well, install my sound deadner and then seam seal and spray everything i can with rust preventative oil.
If your making a trip up to motanna anytime soon you could bring one with you and id buy it



Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[william]

I would get some 3m cavity wax and 360 wand. There's rubber plugs in the inner rear wheel well that will give access to the inner rocker and the reinfoment that the rear bean mounts to.
This should be repeated annually for best results. .
Manufacturers don't pur anything in there because if cars lasted longer we wouldn't buy new lol and it's a easy place to cut cost that doesn't show that there cheap in out.

[ryanprins13]

I would get some 3m cavity wax and 360 wand. There's rubber plugs in the inner rear wheel well that will give access to the inner rocker and the reinfoment that the rear bean mounts to.
This should be repeated annually for best results. .
Manufacturers don't pur anything in there because if cars lasted longer we wouldn't buy new lol and it's a easy place to cut cost that doesn't show that there cheap in out.

Theres a place that sells autobody stuff nearby, ill see if they have any and what it costs. I asked about a product called wax oil a while back and was shocked by how much they wanted for oily wax/waxy oil...

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[william]

It's like 15 a can on autobody tool mart. That wond kits about the same.
I would also get some arisol gun cleaner to clean out the wond after use.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[ryanprins13]

Picked up some new wheels last week saterday. The car is pretty clean but far from perfect. A bunch of small dents but the only body rust i see is a small spot on the drivers rear wheel well. I will soak that in oil. 180k km, so just over 100,000 miles. Its been towed behind an RV though, so the rear axle has more and its rock chipped on the front. Guy i bought it from was weird. He had it 6 months and put probably $700-800 into it. He paid $400 for new 12in tires, paid someone to change the timing belt and install bigger speakers in the rear. He has sprayed rock gaurd over all his vehicles including this one. The engine bay is clean, interior is all painted black and armoralled... hope to bring it inside tomorrow and look underneath better. Its too cold to do that outside. It has new exhaust from the cat back at least. Engine seemed to have lots more power than my red festiva and it had heat! The speakers are awesome cost me $1500. A bit high but the guy didnt want to sell it at all, his wife hated it and made him sell it so i didnt try to talk his price down. I think im happy enough with it. Needs a windshield. My red one had 465,000km, this one has 180 and everything is way tighter and crisper. Steering is awesome, shifter is better, brakes feel way better...


Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk