Accepting Entries For September FOTM

[Damkid]

Post away!!

[pimpstiva1]

hey guys, i guess i'll give this a try. I bought my car in 2003 when i was 16 years old. I was my first car and i needed some work. I paid $500 for my car i was going to fix and the parts car that came with it. During highschool i drove the crap out of it and it was pretty much the joke of the school cause it was so small. I didn't care, i loved it. After i graduated highschool i drove the car for anouther year or two and then parked it in the back yard. I would start it once a year and drive it around the field and that was it. 5 years after, i got the car back out and gave it a new paint job and it went right through a safety and e-test yet again. I am still currently driving this car as a daily driver and i love every bit of it.
heres how it looked when i got it...



This is how it looks today...






Hope everyone likes my car. thank you.
If i need to supply more info let me know.
1990 ford festiva lx
stock 1.3 litre
195/50r15's on nissan rims

[Damkid]

I'm going to let this thread go a bit longer before i start the voting so maybe there will be another entry to vote against :lol:

[pimpstiva1]

come on guys. we gotta have someone else to be in here with me.

[Flyin4stroke]

I know who I'm voting for!

[alpaccino]

I think I’m going to give it a shot; here goes my love hate story.....
Most of the persons here on this site and I have similar stories, my father (The Human wrecker ) bought this car from his friend in 1995 and at that time i hated it seen that i was just going into high school. I could only drive automatic at the time and was taking intensive lessons from my father who would shift the living hell out of it, so by the time i started to drive it i had already overcome the fear of revving too hard causing engine blown etc. Now it was when I started to rally drive it when I realized that it was out classing most cars in its class as well as other classes where my love for it develops, but for my father his love apparently died long time. He offered me the car in 2009 and I gladly take it from him even not knowing the current condition of it. Trust me when I saw it if it wasn’t for the love I had i would have either burn it or give it over to the scrap metal guys, honestly speaking I don’t want to be attached to any other car like this. There was no engine, it was left for rotten near the sea, no seats not to mention the rust damage. Not knowing what to do with the “shell” I began searching online for an engine that could fit on the gearbox then I came across this forum. So I bought the B5 DOHC (that which is only what I could get in Jamaica I would like to get the b6t), bring it to the mechanics and they were ranting saying that I wasted my money and the engine WILL NOT FIT in that small car, but seeing it in your guys own I insisted, the idiots even put the engine in lean



causing the axle to keep falling out, and then I discovered that the forth gear synchromesh was also damage causing it to pop back in neutral and so had to retake it out, now the car was way much faster now.
I now was facing a new problem still where the body of the car was literally falling apart,





Then I even had to rebuild the running board



break lines was shot so I just get them steel braided as an upgrade


change the steering column installed tilt one, combo switch, heater and evaporator core





Then I was at the race meet when someone took a pic of my car and post it on Facebook


Now i have finished the restoration phase and now planning to turbo the car, management decisions as well as the appropriate shocks to use with a coil-overs i am trying to address, i will be posting the interior pics tomorrow just was filling the slot tonight but I have learnt alot from this forum thanks all....

[David88]

Well I have never gone for Festy of the month before so I will try it. I never seem to have as many pictures as I'd like though. I tend to just get busy and forget to take them. I am doing this on behalf of my daughter Faith. She has a 1990 Festiva L Plus. The car has an automatic and factory A/C. She will be leaving for college tomorrow so I have been fixing and tweaking things on the car so it is in tip top shape. She will be about 4 hours from home in Aurora, Illinois.

Here is the the history. I picked this car up in '07 for $700. It had 98K in it then. It had been sitting for about two years. I had to bring a battery and a belt to hear it run. It fired right up and ran good even with that crappy old gas. I actually limped it home through the countryside roads 30 miles with weak brakes.



I bled the brakes and I drove it for a while. I then realized it had a rust hole in the gas tank. I replaced that with a new one from ebay.





I used spray bomb bedliner coating to do the tank.





That project was a bigger ordeal than I imagined. It needed all new fuel lines as they were rusty too. Then the brake lines. All of them. So i did the rubber lines as well. The rear brake drums were so rusty they were breaking apart. So new wheel cylinders drums and bearings in back. Drove it some more and then the exhaust fell apart. Dealt with that.


Some used but good parts I had in stock.



Drove some more. Actually Faith had turned 16 and was drive to school for a year. The car then developed another issue. The starter would grind and fail to start on occasion. This got more frequent. I had the starter tested and it was good. It turned out to be the ring gear teeth were chewed up. I nearly gave up and parted it out. We bought faith a 97 Geo Prizm one owner 114k. She really liked that car. Then the fate of the Festy was in the balance. Fast forward one month. Well, Faith had an accident in the Geo. She was not hurt but the car was totaled.

Soooo...... Dealt with that flexplate under the gun. Not fun! Faith was clear. She said "BUT, I NEED A CAR!" On the bright side I was able to find a good flexplate at a salvage two hours away on the shelf for $35.


The tranny came out and new flexplete went on.


So the Festy has done well for her to date. Faith noticed her car was noticeably harder to steer than her Moms LX. A check of the ball joints found the problem. They were extremely worn. So this year I put in new ball joints. While I was at it I also replaced the rack boots, outer CV boots, outer tie rods ends and a set of Monroe struts in front.

After all this I thought it deserved a respectable paint job so I went to work. Some rust at the rear wheel wells and a wrinkly fender were in need of the most attention.
A rear wiper upgrade was added.







I'd had the paint since before Faith was born! It was for a project that never got done so time to bust out the old spray gun.







I blackened the bumpers and added hub caps and put on some door edge guards. We took these pics today. She leave for college tomorrow.







Faith likes it. I added power mirrors (thanks Ian) and put in a nice modern stereo for her. She puts gas in, it gets her around and she doesn't have to worry or even think about it. What more could she ask for? Its even school colors now! Good luck Faith. You'll do well. I'm proud of you.






None of this would have ever happened in it weren't for FF.com. Thanks to all.

[Damkid]

Voting has begun

[newcomb]

i gave 800 for mine im 16 pulled bunch of stuff to lose weight to help ole festy out on speed fabbed up a short shifter