Voting For July FOTM

[Damkid]

This month we have 4 entries, and they are from.....

eurotiva
91blufestiva
blkfordsedan
resuwrecked

Here are the entries again starting with eurotiva's

Well Here goes.............................................. ..


Red....................................White...... ......................................and Blue





I'd like to enter my car euro, with the help of casper and styfir(Steve)'s car. He stopped by for some a/c work and I asked if I could do a little "4th of July" photo shoot.

So far this year upgrades have included.....
-BP swap.
-Bigger turbo. (t3/t3)
-G trans swap.
-Underseat tray.
-Dash clock.
-Capri brakes
-Aspire sway bar.
-Pacesetter shifter
-Act 6 puck clutch


so far I've put about 3k miles on this setup. Best run has been a 13.333 @ 103.7 mph. It was 92* the day I ran that.

Thanks to this site for all the info needed and hanks to everyone who has helped or sold/given me parts.

Enjoy................................











That's steve


VVVVVVVVVV

[Damkid]

91blufestiva's entry

Well this is no where near as good looking as eurotiva's car, but I thought hey, what the heck? This is my first time entering the contest, so it might be kind of lame lol.

So this is the story.
When I was 15, my dad and I went to an auction, the owner of everything passed away, so all of his stuff was for sale by his kids. We intentionally went there for old tractors to either buy and sell or buy and keep. Well before this, I have been looking for either a festiva or a metro because of the gas mileage, more so much a festiva because i was a ford man. We went to the auction, and I ended up seeing the car there and I talked my dad into buying it. It was filthy and needed exhaust, but I loved the car. My dad got the smart idea to put everything that he bought on the auction, like all the small stupid little misc. items into the car, the car was packed, so that made it even dirtier lol. Once we got it home, i took a good garbage bag and some cleaning supplies and cleaned the entire car out. This guy I'm guessing died from a heart attack lol, because there where TONS of salt packets in the car. Plus a bunch of change lol, so we got some money back. Once I had the car cleaned out, we drove it for quite a while, being very proud of it, and putting new exhuast on it, but somehow we forgot to put a cat back on it? we just put extra pipe on lol. We were very impressed with the 50mpgs that it was getting for us, and we loved driving it, we drove it everywhere me and my dad. But one day my uncle (who isnt very good at stick) tried driving it, and he thought he could shift it without using the clutch, badd idea.. So the tranny started to growl and whine, then one day it wouldn't work at all. The car sat for a while, while we tried to find a tranny for it. We found a tranny for it, then we attempted to put it in, well we didnt get very far, then my dad got sidetracked by other things and kinda just let it sit for a while because i didnt know what all needed to be done.. and wasnt very good at mechanics. Well up to about 2-3 months ago, I actually tried working on the car, and noticed it wouldn't take much to get going. Needed new LCA's and a driver's side tie rod and end. Once I got that done, I hooked up the axles and filled the tranny with fluid. The next day I had a kid weld in a tray for the battery because the frame rail was so rusty that the hole for the bolt was gone. Then i noticed there was a puddle underneath the car. went under there and it was tranny fluid, so i started to worry about what it was. I looked around for a little bit, and I noticed it was the axle seal. So off to the parts store I went, and luckily they had it on hand, so I replaced it quick with help from a buddy. Put her all back together and never leaked again to this day . Then I had to fix the brakes because it would keep leaking fluid and would pull to the right when you put your foot on the brake. I bled all the brakes numerous times and nothing got better. Finally I just replaced the master cylinder, which did it! and made much better brakes! So at about this time the car was about ready to go, but it needed a new tire and rim because there was a bent one on it at the time. I got that done and the car was ready to go again! Well, to be honest, the car still needs a speedometer cable and the master cylinder bleed once more, but everything else is done lol. anyway! onto pics!!

[Damkid]

blkfordsedan's entry

Since it's blue, I guess I'll give it a shot...

I bought my '93L about 10 years ago. It had 34,000 original miles and I paid $2150 cash. I purchased it from Auto Kraft in Lincoln, NE, who had bought it as a wreck with mild front end damage back in '95. Anyone familiar with Auto Kraft knows of their reputation for classic Mustang restoration and for building some of the best modified and show quality cars in the nation. They were most famous for their "short wheelbase" 2-seater Thunderbirds and Mark VIII's in the early '90s. Here's a link to their website:

http://www.autokraftnebraska.com/

The story I was told by Doug, the owner of Auto Kraft, was that he had been buying all the low mileage wrecked Festivas he could find. Doug is good friends with Bill Smith, owner of an original SHOgun and also the owner of the original tooling & molds used to make the SHOgun. Doug had worked on Mr. Smith's SHOgun several times and was considering making a few of his own. My car, it seems, was intended to be one of them. Doug, however, was impressed by the nice condition of my car and decided it was "too good" to cut up. After sitting in his shop for several years, he finally restored it to original condition and used it as a "parts runner" for a short time before putting it up for sale.

I used it for daily work transportation (100 highway miles per day) for many years. After 100K trouble free miles, the clutch finally decided to give up. Since I had a company car to drive, I put my Festy in the garage where it sat for several more years. About 2 years ago I purchased my '04 Mustang GT. Rather than rack up a ton of miles on the Mustang, I decided to resurrect the Festy! I pulled the motor & trans and decided to have the transmission rebuilt with new bearings & seals since I had it out. I pulled the head off the engine to have a frozen spark plug extracted and had it re-surfaced and the valves ground. I re-installed everything with a new clutch, P-plate, throwout bearing, new CV axles, new timing belt, water pump and all new belts & hoses. I also installed a good used radiator, exhaust system, instrument cluster with Tach and a passenger side mirror off of a wrecked Festiva that I bought for parts. I also installed 4 new 155/80R-12 tires.

Last fall, I finally had a front wheel bearing go out. This, I decided, was the perfect time to freshen up the suspension and brakes. I had both front hubs rebuilt with new bearings & seals and had the rotors turned. I had the rear drums turned as well and replaced the rear wheel bearings and seals. I re-installed everything with new calipers, brake pads and shoes. I also decided it was a good time to install the new FMS springs I bought off E-bay a couple years ago. Since the struts were Monroe Sensi-trac's and only had about 10K miles on them, I decided to just clean & paint them with gray Epoxy and re-use them with the FMS springs. I also installed new rack & pinion boots on the front, along with new high duro MOOG sway bar bushings and camber adjusting bolts. The tie rod ends, ball joints and LCA bushing were all tight so I re-used them as well. The improvement in handling was incredible and only helped to increase my desire to further modify my Festy! About a month ago, I purchased a set of 13" 323 alloy wheels and almost new 175/50R-13 Sumitomo tires from Arnie. I installed the new wheels, along with an NOS Ford Marchal fog light kit I bought on E-bay and re-dyed the bumper covers with Bondo Restore Black.

Future plans include blacking out the B-pillars and window frames, installing the NOS Festiva silver hocky stick stripes I got from Greene Sales, a Mazda 121 mid-hatch spoiler I got from GroHarlem and some factory KIA Pride mudflaps from E-bay. Unfortunately, a recent bout with Pennzoil Platinum left me with a "clean" engine and a serious problem of substantial blow-by. If a few oil changes with conventional oil and some Restore additive reduce the excessive blow-by, I will once again be happy. If not, then a B6 swap is in the near future. Regardless, I don't plan on giving up on my Festy just quite yet! Thanks for reading!

[Damkid]

resuwrecked's entry

Here is my entry for July FOTM.

I hope I'm not posting too many pictures for this. Its easier for me to tell my story with pics and I have a lot. I'll just post the key ones. I really need to make a thread for this car in the garage forum.

I purchased my car during the summer of 2004. I paid $700 for it but it was pretty clean and only had 97k miles on the stock auto drivetrain. I was driving my first festiva at the time and figured it would be good to have a spare car. Well that car got wrecked so I'm glad I bought this one



I didn't drive festivas for about a year after the accident and when I tagged this one, it wasn't long till I yanked the auto out, dropped in a 5-speed, and turbocharged it.





I only ran this setup for a few months then I pulled the bp/g25 out of the wrecked car and installed it over 2 very cold winter nights in an open shed by myself.




With the bp in I started using the car as my daily driver. I did the all important aspire swap front and rear.



Then the pushbar.



Rear wiper mod.



The intermittent wiper mod is one of my favorites, it makes it so nice to have more than two speeds!



First paint job for the car was flat black. Made it look a little meaner.



That was way too boring, so it was time for camo. I really liked how this one turned out.





In August 2009 my fiance and I took the stiva to North Carolina to explore the mountains. The car did great and the only problem was a high-speed tire blowout. The remaining 250 miles driven home with the spare! Note the change in paint... green/black camo. I liked this one too.





After the trip I started gathering parts to build a turbo setup and by November I was ready for the build.
I built the manifold out of black iron gas pipe fittings.





I ended up not using this ebay turbo due to the amounts of oil blowing out of the compressor housing. Surprise surprise! I'm using a saab t3 instead.



Since I was daily driving the stiva I had to do the build in stages. Here I am using the turbo manifold with a temporary exhaust. I moved my radiator all the way over to the frame rail for turbo clearance. I wanted as much space as possible.



Now I'm turbocharged and having fun in the snow.



Bored with green, time for red!



Bunch of junk in the back, racing seats and 4pt harnesses. I made the shoulder belt bar out of heavy conduit. Temporary until I instal a 6 or 8pt cage. Its much safer than the factory belts.



Florida trip in March 2010. 2900 miles round trip. The car performed like a champ. Driving on the beach in Daytona.









Stopped by Greg's place (eurotiva). I had a great time and got to ride in two sweet stivas!



I started getting bored with camo so it was time for a cleaner paint job.





Since the turbo install I have not done too much more with the car. It has been super reliable and runs great. In the very near future I will be buying MegaSquirt and going for a big jump in hp. I have also been eyeing up some 13" aero wheels, slicks and a better clutch.




It was asked of July's entries to be either red, white or blue, and my car has been neither since it was sporting its factory paint, so here it is now after its new paint.

My 2 year old Carly is pleased to present.............














Orange tach cluster swap and orange hvac controls, AEM tru boost ebc and NGK wideband in left vent (sneaky!)





Thanks for looking everyone!