Voting For December FOTM

[Damkid]

This month we have 2 entries for FOTM and they are from


Oren09 and Freshtiva with his car "Frankenstiva"

Here are the entries again starting with Oren09

Pictures can be found here:

http://s1004.photobucket.com/albums/af163/oren09/Festy/

There's not a whole lot to my story.
My truck's rear axle failed and I had the option to fix/replace the axle or to get a fuel effecient car. I had seen a Festiva in a junkyard a few days before and I chose the Festiva.
I paid $650 (overpriced...) and drove it home. I went a little over 10 miles at speeds no greater than 50MPH. The engine ran like hell and would not idle. At one point the speed dropped to 30 and the temp gauge shot up. I pulled over but decided to keep going. Got it home and poked all around trying to figure out what was wrong with it.
Pulled off the head and discovered the number one piston was sitting at the bottom and wouldn't move. Pulled the oil pan and found a broken piston rod.
I replaced the engine- that was my first ever engine removal and installation. I don't reallly ever want to do it again.
Since then, I had a cylinder head rebuilt to fix leaky valve seals and did a head gasket at the same time, and now everything runs great. The engine is now around 190K and my Festiva is about 69K.
I have done some work such as brake pads and shoes, fluid changes, etc.
-buffed and polished the paint and continue to wax it regularly.
-painted the bumpers, grille, and sidetrim black (wide w/ pinstripe from junkyard car)
-applied pinstripe all around.
-installed 88-89 power mirrors w/ switch
-aftermarket tach
-installed antenna, radio, 4x 4" speakers, and 10" subwoofer
-underhood light


There's really not much else..

[Damkid]

And now Freshtiva's entry

Frankenstiva

I bought Frankenstiva three years ago this month. I had seen a public auction flyer with numerous festivas listed. I attended the auction in hopes of buying several of the festies but the owner who was selling the rest of his estate bulked when it came time to auction off the festivas. He closed the doors and hoods on the cars and motioned the auctioneer to move on. I completely understood but had waited at the auction for six hours to bid on the cars. I lodged my complaints with the owners son and mentioned that I had wasted most of my day waiting for the cars to sell only to find they weren’t going to sell them after all. The son sympathized and said one of the festivas was his and he would sell it for $100 dollars. Not wanting to come home empty handed, I agreed. Unfortunately the car was in bad shape. The car had caught on fire during a fuel filter change damaging most of the engine bay, hood, front bumper, cowling, wind shield, etc. On top of that the hatch had been left ajar and mice had set up full occupancy in the car. It was a 93 GL with factory A/C, the only positive. Pictures below show the car the day I purchased it.





Lovely !!!





Fire damage and the owners attempt to splice in another wire harness to repair it. Oh brother !!




The car reeked, almost unbearable. The engine bay burned, what had I got into ? I’ll omit the details of the build as you can see the progress in the threads below. It was pretty much a ground up rebuild. I swapped in a nice low mileage B6 and did an aspire brake swap. Also did an auto to five speed swap. Again all details are in the build thread but here is a short list of things that have been done.

Dash off wire harness swap added B6 ECU and B6 VAF
Purchased B6 SOHC with 72,000 on it from Smittys Auto salvage in Axtell Ks
Purchased five speed tranny from Onebadkia
Purchased complete aspire swap
Purchased four 13 x5 inch steelies of off a Mazda protégé with the 4 x 100 bolt pattern
Pulled old motor and auto tranny.
Removed everything from the fire wall and sanded, primed and repainted to cover fire damage.
Replaced all burned components. ( Brake booster, master cylinder, battery tray, coil, battery, splash shields, radiator, wiper caps, grill, hood, radiator mounts , hoses, wire harness, assorted clips, steering rack boots., steering knuckle boot, distributor, wiper motor vacuum lines etc, etc, etc….
Replaced items on b6 ( timing belt, plugs, wires, disty, water pump oxygen sensor etc changed oil and filter plus new air filter, new thermostat.
Paint valve cover
Swapped out 323 coolant line for the festiva lines, thermostat housing as well.
Swapped out 323 A/C brackets and motor mounts for festiva stuff
Installed new tranny mount
Fabbed down pipe for 323 exhaust manifold
Fabbed air intake to keep the VAF and battery in original places.
Rewired some of the injector harness.
Complete disassemble and rebuild of front hubs ( Quality inner and outer bearings, races and seals, new rotors, new pads, brake lube caliper bushings on aspire knuckles. Sanded painted backing plates and calipers.
New front and rear struts and new rear dust covers
Rebuilt rack and pinion ( new inner and outer tie rod ends, new boots. Repacked with grease
New FMS control arms/ ball joints and stabilizer bushings.
Complete rebuild on rear brakes, new rear wheel bearing and seals., new shoes. Painted torsion beams and backing plates. New wheel cylinders. New master cylinder, new brake lines.
Gutted interior, steam cleaned carpets and seats. Used live enzymes to dissolve uric acids. Multiple cleaning from bare metal up. Reinstalled interior. Repainted all the interior panels and trim.
Rebuilt spare tire cover.
Purchased a 4 x 100 spare donut
Replace cracked windshield done by my good buddy festivawes.
Converted a/c to 134a
New clutch set
added manual pedal assy plus clutch cable and shifter linkage for the auto to manual swap
Purchased four Sumitomos HTR 200 185/60R/13 spun balance and mounted
Four wheel computer alignment. (from Tire Plus)
Flushed coolant system several times
Added options ( so far, more to come ) Clock wiring, tilt steering column, tach cluster, full five speed console. Rear cargo light, and hatch switch.
Replaces tranny output seals
New half shafts (not rebuilds)
Switched to cartridge type main fuses
Etc, etc, etc. Many things I’ve forgotten or missed, or too numerous to list. If I found something that could be or needed repaired or replaced on this car, it was done, there was no skimping. I tried my best for a quality build. I have over $3000 invested in this car now.

Build links below
http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20364&highlight=engine+swap+build +thread

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18898&highlight=wire+harness+swap

It's been two and a half years since I got the car back on the road. It turned out great and no longer stinks. It's really one of my favorite festys now and I enjoy driving it. It is a great freeway car ! It has “summer only” tires so I drive it during fair weather. It been trouble free since the rebuild and gets about the same gas mileage as a stock festiva. Ive said before that this package should have been a factory option. Thank for your consideration as December FOTM. The pictures below show the car after the build.



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Ocean front in Iowa ??



Posing at the Supermodels house during the “cruise in the corn meet “.