Voting for February FOTM Winner

[Damkid]

The 2 entries for February are from:

tb8983 and ejp2fast

Here's tb8983's entry

I guess i'll enter mine wanted to get a few more things done but oh well. About 2 years ago I bought my 6th festiva a 92 festiva l. I had a good idea on what I wanted to do to it because of my brother's festiva that had been turbo swap and with the aspire suspension/brake swap done to it. Well two years later i have a festiva that is close but still needs some more work. Since I have bought it I have done interior/exterior, and handling upgrades to the car. It all started with alittle body and paint work. I had to fix the fender and fixed a couple of paint spots and dents resulting in the painting of the bottum of the car black Then put a set of festiva gl alloy wheels on it. After that it was onto exterior/interior mods such as the tach cluster and cargo cover, cargo light and the power mirrors. Just recently it got a full center console with full shift boot Lx seat with the ajustable head rest and split fold rear seats and a rear hatch that was the same color with a rear wiper. It also got a hurst short shifter. Then after all of that I had to make it handle better. So it was a phone call to fms and had the lower springs and kyb's on the way. I got lucky and found the entire aspire brake swap from a guy in vancover, wa for 80 bucks. After a couple of weeks and getting new bearing pressed in and various brake parts it was time for it all to go on the car. It was put on using the high durometer bushings front and rear with a aspire front sway bar and a front strut tower brace. Future plans include an engine swap can't make up my mind on which one. Of all my festiva's this one is by far the best one I have had and I don't have any plans on getting rid of this one.

http://rides.webshots.com/album/560088594rjiGlv?start=0

This is the link to all of my pics. First picture is before and second picture is now

[IMG][/IMG]

[Damkid]

And ejp2fast's entry:

Here is my story:
Back in July of 2007 I was looking for an economical car for commuting and with gas prices on the rise. I noticed this little red car on our road by our house that hadn’t moved in about 7 months. One tire was flat, body had a ding or too but in overall nice condition. Hmmm..its a Ford Festiva, I thought. I wonder if this little car runs or not or how much work it needs. So I decided to go up to the door and ask this guy whats the scoop on the car, what he’d get rid of it for. Well, we talked a while and he said that It had overheated, but it still ran. So he went and got the key, and put it in and it fired right up! But it ran rough. He said that he was called the JY and they’d take $100, so he said I’ll sell it to you for $150. Of course in my mind I am jumping for joy, but said I’d think about it. Plus it had a clear title. That’s when I did some research on these “ford Festiva’s” and found this site. So I go back to the guy and say, well, I’ll take it for $100. He said, hmmm “OK”. It’s a 1991 Red GL automatic with 62,000 on the dash, but the speedometer didn’t work and the title had mileage exempt.
So I give him a $100 bill and push the car home, with my wife steering it (only about 800 feet)
Here is the car when it comes home:

I know I need to tear into the head to see what is up..So that’s what I do first. Just the head gasket and upper seals kit, timing belt and water pump. Start it again, and it still runs rough. So I drive it for 3 months running very rough and finally one day it just won’t start. So I let it sit for a while and then tear into it again when I have time (ends up being a burnt exhaust valve #3). Heres a pic:

I do all the valves and rings and lower bearings, this is January of 2008 now. Plus a minor port and polish job on the head.
Before:

After:


Put it all together and whamoo! Runs like a champ! So the speedometer doesn’t work, so that was up next on the things to do and it ended up being the cable.. got one of those at a JY. By the way this initially came with a nice radio (manual turn tuner and cassette deck) and the interior was in great shape! Here is a picture of the interior:


Heres the ’93 RX-7 steering wheel off ebay for $30, plus the Sunpro II tach install:

So by now I am looking for something else to do to the car (See FDD thread) and want to do the 5spd manual transmission swap. I keep my eye open for a 5spd in a JY, and find one for $100 bucks (all related parts included) on ½ off day at the JY in August. See thread for swap:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18598

Then I got a CD deck from a guy at work for free as the face clip had broke- a little JB weld fix and spring delete fixed that:

Then I also found some 13” wheels at the JY off of a 1981 Mazda GLC. Tires were bad, but stuck new 165/70/13’s on there (stock tires for the GLC were 175/70/13) but that was a little much for the Festiva.


So here is what the future holds for the Festy. I’d like to do a BP or B6T engine swap, when I get my shop done, and maybe redo the ‘purple’ tint job. Plus maybe a round headlight conversion. I got some Swift GT seats from a JY for CHEAP and they'll be going in within the next little bit. Writeup will follow. The Festiva Lives On!

[Gary Busey]

edited by admin

[SIBladerunner]

well congrats. i'm hopin to enter the B6tiva soon, we'll c though