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And the winner for September's FOTM goes to...............
David88!!!! Congratulations on a well deserved win!!
Here is his entry again
David88!!!! Congratulations on a well deserved win!!
Here is his entry again
Originally posted by David88
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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.
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.
lol jk, nice job man, I love the paint
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