FestiVWa 2.0 Aba Project

[wwwdotgov]

That too. Lol.
This car is really coming along. Did you get a chance to check the sway bar mounts for squareness against the control arm mounts?
This is a great engine choice, I'm excited to see how it performs. These engines are known to get rediculous mileage when swapped into light cars.

I measured and it came up a little off from the control arm bolt to the swaybar bracket bolt underneath the frame (red line). Maybe 3/16"th off. The other three points i took measurements from it came up square.
IMG_0667_kindlephoto-357041118.jpg

[dliverance]

So you have to stick with stock height? That's a bit of a bummer but I guess it's good for the sleeper look.

[Dragonhealer]

Following this with great interest, nice work too!

[wwwdotgov]

So you have to stick with stock height? That's a bit of a bummer but I guess it's good for the sleeper look.

Ya, kinda sucks but..there's alot of festivas on here rolling at stock height, and they still look good, so that gives me hope. And if I go rear turbo, I may need that extra ground clearance for piping.

[Advancedynamix]

I measured and it came up a little off from the control arm bolt to the swaybar bracket bolt underneath the frame (red line). Maybe 3/16"th off. The other three points i took measurements from it came up square.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]20383[/ATTACH]

You'll also want to check the distance back straight from the sway bar bolt to control arm bolt. 3/16 is not horrible. You could probably tug that out with stuff at home. You want those points you be as square and even as possible. The relation between the sway bar mount and the control arm mount is critical in how the car tracks under load. You can compensate for 1/8th of an inch by stacking an extra washer on the short side of the sway bar to control arm bushing. Anything more than 1/8 should be corrected by chassis straightening. If the car is square and true, you can run 0 toe and it'll be stable. If the chassis is bent at all, it'll wander.

[likeJIF]

This is great, I am following this build, keep up the good work.

[wwwdotgov]

Tonight I bought 3 Miata rims off of Craigslist for $40. They only weigh 11.5 lbs each which I love. Tomorrow I have a few places I'm going to look for the 4th rim. Worse case scenario, ebay has them.

[dliverance]

I've always loved those. Make sure the seller on ebay knows for sure what they're selling or has a good picture of the back because they mistake the hollow spokes often.

Edit: Here's a hollow spoke for a reasonable price. Some elbow grease will be needed though.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1990-05-Mazda-Miata-semi-hollow-spoke-wheel-4-/291733441490?hash=item43ecab0bd2:g:Pu0AAOSwgApXCRkV&vxp=mtr

[wwwdotgov]

I think the ones I bought are solid spoke according to miata website pics and clockwise markings on the front side.

https://www.miata.net/garage/mx5wheels/index.html

[dliverance]

Looks like the one I posted is solid as well

[wwwdotgov]

Update 01/08/2017:

It's been cold up here in Washington State the last few weeks. I had some seam sealing, primering, and painting that needed to get done, so I bought a propane heater because my little electric heater couldn't keep up.
Painted my Aspire rear end that I hung from the ceiling. Then the next few days I kept knocking my head on it. :gritteeth: Little mini concussions. Also painted the fender braces, tow hooks, sway bar brackets, etc..
A radiator shop welded on my 90' outlet. The 14" Perma-Cool electric radiator fan arrived. I'm relieved that there's enough room for it and everything clears. Made a little bracket for the upper radiator mount. Need to buy some rubber spacers. My original hood clasp assembly won't fit anymore because of the radiator. I'm going to look in the wrecking yard for possible smaller alternatives. It needs to have the cable enter from the passenger side too. I might loose the cable and rig up a manual release. Otherwise, I will have to use hood pins.

I bolted up my old suspension, put on my old 12" tires, and added some simulated weight to see where my ground clearance was at. Looks like I might have 4 3/4" oil pan clearance if I leave it at stock height. I might be able to get away with lowering it 1" inch. Don't know yet what the minimum oil pan clearance I should run. Thoughts???

I did some more frame measuring, and as suggested by Advancedynamix, added a washer between the sway bar/control arm. The driver side was the short side and the extra washer helped things measure out much better.

Next weekend I'm visiting my brother in Scottsdale, AZ for a mini vacation. While down there I might stop by Mike's Place (MiataMecca) to buy the 4th Miata wheel I need. Also, will be visiting Barrett-Jackson which should be fun. It'll just be for the preview as the actual auction is later I believe.

Probably won't be any updates for awhile since I can't work on it again for 2 weeks. I must stop procrastinating and get the tranny crossmember sorted out asap.

[wwwdotgov]

Update 02/23/2017:

First off, here's a older picture that I haven't posted yet. This is from the first day that I bought my Festiva last summer. I found my Festiva on Craigslist for $400. The previous owner warned me of the bad wheel bearing and highly recommended that I get it towed home (which I did). Once home I jumped the dead battery and took it for a 15 minute neighborhood test drive. The engine ran great and tranny shifted smooth. Noticed the wheel bearing getting louder so I took it home to began this build.



Fast forward 6 months. The project continues with the original Festiva rear being pulled.



Okay....previous owner wasn't kidding about that bad wheel bearing!!!

VIDEO>>>

VIDEO<<<

Installed the Aspire rear.



In order to save time, I decided to "outsource" the work that the Aspire rear drum assemblies required to a local auto repair shop that my employer uses regularly. They put in new wheel cylinders, brake shoes, hardware, turned the drums, wheel bearings, seals (the works). As slow as I work, it saved me a whole weekend of messing with it. I received a discount so it was definitely worth it.



After seeking advice and guidance from fellow members, building the rear Mk1/kyb coilovers setup seemed like the best choice for rear suspension (Thanks Charlie & Mike). Because of my tire choice and the -45' offset miata rims that I'm using, I could really benefit from the tire/strut clearance that this suspension set-up will give me. Parts came in from Southwest Speed and eBay.



Assembled:



Installed:





I'm about 75% done with the tranny mount & transmission crossmember. The transmission mount bracket is cut out and tacked in. I still have to buy some steel tubing that will run parallel from front-to-back for the underneath crossmember. Wayne Gretzky would feel right at home because there will 2-3 stacked hockey pucks used in the design.





I bought a set of used Toyo Eclipse 175/65/14" tires on rims from craigslist. The tires will eventually be swapped onto the Miata rims. Turns out these steelies have a 54.1mm bore too like my Kia/Aspire hubs. Maybe they came off a kia or Toyota. Either way, they will be good later on for winter rims. Right now they make good rollers.

They are a little taller than stock 155/80/12's but that's ok. The vw tranny is lower geared compared to a Festiva so it won't be bogged down. They are a closer in size to what a Jetta would run. Also, I wanted to fill the fender gaps with more tire. Since I can't lower the car more than maybe 1-2" inches because of oil pan clearance, the taller tire will raise the car slightly. Then, when I slightly lower it I'm not losing too much ground clearance. A high riding, lowered looking car if that makes backward sense. I saw a similar look on another members car here with the same tire size.



I worked more on the shifter mounting area. Did a little welding and cutting for a better fit.
I bought the 4th Miata rim on eBay, so now I have a complete set.
I've ordered lots of odd and ends such as vw swap speedo cable and clutch swap cable. I will be seeing how much modifications to these will be required in the next few weeks.
So, in the coming weeks more work devoted to engine & tranny controls, work on engine pulley routing, radiator hose fitting, engine remote oil filter, engine bay painting, exhaust downpipe modification, & have to pull the trigger on the custom axles with tax refund, etc...etc...

[dliverance]

Great stuff. I cant wait to see the miata wheels mounted. How extensive is the shifter work? Also, good move with the taller tire. Just because it's a sleeper doesn't mean it has to look stock

[sasquatch]

sweet build, cant wait to see more progress

[wwwdotgov]

Great stuff. I cant wait to see the miata wheels mounted. How extensive is the shifter work? Also, good move with the taller tire. Just because it's a sleeper doesn't mean it has to look stock

The shifter work has been mostly straight forward. Just needed to cut a bigger hole, drill 4 holes, and bolt it in. But after cutting the hole I discovered a hump underneath the car that was interfering with the shifter from mounting flush, so I had to move the shifter forward another inch. So now the perfect hole I cut earlier needed to be patched up and welded a little.
It's a cable shift so there's no shift rods to worry about. The 02J vw shifter box mostly is underneath the tunnel. You bring it up from under the car to mount in and luckily the Festiva tunnel had enough room for it. But I do need to cut out a heat shield to protect the shifter box and cables from exhaust heat.