Surf Blue '90 L Plus

[theastronaut]

I found this Festiva on facebook marketplace when I was on my way back from Insanity and sent the owner a message saying I was interested, but it sold before I made it home and could go check it out. Two months later it popped up again so I called and ended up buying it. I've had it about a week now and have started cleaning it up.

It's a Surf Blue '90 L Plus, automatic with A/C and 135K miles. One of my favorite colors after seeing Brian's "Afina" at Insanity. It has a lot of small dings and paint chips, the upper radiator support is slightly pushed in on the passenger side, and the interior was pretty nasty. I'm planning on checking with a paintless dent repair guy to see about getting the dents straightend out. Under the hood needs a lot of cleaning too. My mom has been wanting a smaller car that gets better mileage I'll get it cleaned up make sure it's reliable before handing it over.












It came with a lot of the original paperwork from when it was bought new.











The interior is in pretty good shape overall but needed a thorough cleaning so I pulled it out last night and pressure washed the seats and carpet today.













After two rounds of pre-soaking with Purple Power and pressure washing.

[theastronaut]

The first purchase for the car was a NOS L Plus hatch decal I found on eBay. I'll send it to Will (w4rkry) so he can copy and reproduce them.

[Zman86]

Great colour!


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[Team Lightning]

Great find John!!

[Dex~]

I'll have to try that on the grey GL interior on my parts car before I swap it over.

It's physically in great shape but man is it dirty!

[theastronaut]

Thanks guys!


I pulled all of the interior out to clean and redye the side panels. The tail light gaskets were leaking so I pulled those, cleaned up the housings, and made new gasket out of leftover butyl sealer.











The rear quarter panel trims were in rough shape. I sanded off the dried/chalky plastic with a DA, then lightly shot them with Duplicolor rattle can truck bed liner to add a slight texture. Finished up with a trim dye in the correct color. The spare tire well has a small amount of surface rust from the tire wearing the paint off. I'll strip and coat those areas with epoxy primer and add a couple layers of sound deadener before reinstalling the interior.








I bought brighter Phillips Vision Plus headlight bulbs as well as parts to tune it up and fix the rusted exhaust.

[firebush357]

Was there something wrong with the old Camshaft?

[theastronaut]

Was there something wrong with the old Camshaft?

That's a NOS FMS street/strip I found locally yesterday! It's going in the white '89.

[firebush357]

WOW!!! Congrats on the sweet find

[Doug Brown]

https://eastnc.craigslist.org/pts/d/fiberglass-vw-front-end/6561630525.html

Saw the VW in your garage - here is a fiberglass front end for $75!!! Might be of interest to you.

[theastronaut]

WOW!!! Congrats on the sweet find

I was shocked to find one locally!

https://eastnc.craigslist.org/pts/d/...561630525.html

Saw the VW in your garage - here is a fiberglass front end for $75!!! Might be of interest to you.

Thanks, the only ones I have now are too original to cut up for something like that. Would be great for a drag car project though.

[theastronaut]

I ordered sway bar to frame bushings and three sets of glass run channels from Fourgreen, those came in Monday. Got the bushings swapped, the new exhaust in, added sound deadener, and have prepped and dyed a few more interior panels and small parts. Also ordered a new windshield, the one in it is cracked and has a ton of wiper marks and pitting.















I pressure washed and scrubbed the engine compartment last night to get it a bit cleaner before I change the valve cover gasket.









Also started scrubbing the bumpers to prep them for SEM dye.

[theastronaut]

Started reassembling the interior last night. I painted the seat brackets black, dyed the step plates and seat belt trim, and cleaned the vinyl section of the seat. Also painted the heads of the screws/bolts.









Also cleaned the seat belts and dyed them to match.

[theastronaut]

I soaked the seat belts in diluted Purple Power a couple times then rinsed them thoroughly. You can see how nasty they were by the amount of dirt in the bucket!










The dye I'm using on the trim panels, made by SM Arnold. The darker color isn't an exact match but it's fairly close without spending a lot for custom mixed SEM dye.

[1990new]

Looking good!! You are bringing this one to Madness this year aren't you? Can't wait to see it in person.

I drove Rosie to madness the past two years but she will belong to someone else by the end of August so I will be driving Nellie this year.