Voting For October FOTM

[Damkid]

Sorry for yet another late start on voting, i've been slacking lately :lol: anyways, for this month we have 2 entries for FOTM and they are from

Ford Fester
Prafeston

Here are the entries again starting with For Fester's

OK so heres my entry for this month. I present to you JUNIOR!

Junior gets his nickname from his father which was my first festiva, whose nickname was Towmater. Towmater had a class 4 hitch and was red hence, Towmater, thanks Charlie for the nickname. Towmater is still around but he had serious rust issues and i had to retire him as our figure 8 racecar in my sig pic. Here is a pic of Towmater on the left and Junior the day i got him on the right.



So Towmater was about to retire his road worthy use and I needed a rust free chassis to use for my new DD. Rust free chassis are hard to find in these parts so I did some very hard Craigslist searching and found one for 500 bucks. Drove Towmater 120 miles down to Iowa to inspect a possibly new festiva. I wasnt necessarily looking for a red festiva but found one. It was very rough on all the replaceable body panels which i wasnt too worried about, but it was rust free. Had a transmission issue. I picked Junior up for 350 bucks and Towmater towed him home. Got it home and cleaned it up. Found out i needed alot but someone had already put new tie rod ends and sway bar bushings in. Packed the rear wheel bearings and installed some aspire springs and shocks so i could fit my 15" honda accord wheels. I completely stripped the interior because the previous owner had drilled holes in the dash, also Junior had a custom made cigarette lighter ignition switch so I replaced that with Towmaters, since the doors from Towmater would be installed on Junior. Here Junior is completely stripped inside.







So after stripping junior i started installing the panels and bumpers from Towmater.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/at...6&d=1326476690

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/at...7&d=1326476690

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/at...1&d=1327003065

So after i got Junior up and running with a new transmission and stage 1 clutch i got it out on the road and put some miles on it. Got the exhaust done and finished up some details like the escort center console swap and a rear wing.



Soon after getting the exhaust fixed knew junior would replace Towmater hence the Nickname Junior Since he is Towmater Junior, i had to get a bigger motor in him since thats where Towmater was lacking. So i went to the junkyard and picked up a B8.



pulled out the wimpy b3



Test fitted the B8



Painted and finished up



Another weak point was the brakes so I went to the junkyard and picked some Capri xr2 brakes and cleaned them up rebuilt them and assembled with new aspire lower control arms.



Here he is all cleaned up and ready for a road trip....where to you ask? How about arizona to see Advance Dynamics.



Might as well go up pikes peak since its on the way.





And we met up with Charlie!



On our way back home we found out the B8 that we put in Junior was getting worn out so we decided to put the old B8 in Towmater and rebuild a new B8 for junior so....we got another B8 from the junkyard and tore it down



Cleaned parts and ordered and assembled an overhaul kit.







So after getting the engine about ready we needed to prep the engine bay. I removed all wiring for a wire tuck and removed the brake boost so I could install the Miata brake boost and master cylinder that Advance Dynamics made for me. Primed and painted the engine bay. I decided to got white....BECAUSE RACECAR.





So after the engine bay was ready i worked on tucking and stretching the wiring and then installed the engine and transmission.















Got it running just yesterday..finally. I will see you at madness. Heres some other pictures to enjoy juniors life. his Birthday is 10/15/90 which is my dads 30th birthday.



Junior towing one home...



Junior at the Grand Canyon



With his class 4 hitch installed in the bumper...



some more before pics







pics of the seats





also has advance shifter linkage mod and civic short shifter...so many upgrades it should be an aspire....

Thanks for checking him out, he is my workhorse.

[Damkid]

And Prafeston's entry

Well, it's hard to compare to that, but we can't have it be a gimme for the win! How about an underdog! I've done a few more things since last month.

Day 1 bought it.


Starting to strip the interior to access/clean/repaint. Found a rats nest under the rear seat. (Interior is still waiting to be painted)


Installed two new Wolo horns in the passenger fender well.


Got a roof rack just cause...thought I might be doing the Hotter than Hell 100 this year in TX, but my sister had a baby and that took precedence. One of these days I'd like to put my canoe on top just for laughs!


Drove it to Jefferson City where my GFs dad has a hook up for car audio stuff and I bought four 4in speakers for the stock locations and a new Alpine headunit.




And me parked in front of the Capitol.


Grabbed some goodies from Freshtiva. Split Rear Seat, Escort Console, Rear Speaker Trim, Passenger Door Jamb Sensor, and Mud Flaps.


He also hooked me up with some shiny center caps.


Dome light installed


New Windshield Visor


Picked up quite a few things from a JY run when I was in Kansas City last weekend.


Already got the rear hatch and tach cluster installed.




The rest is still a work in progress!

[Prafeston]

Looks great Fester! Definitely got my vote!

[Bert]

I don't want to vote in these things. I'm enjoying the individuality of each contestant and car and would prefer not the choose. Enthusiasm prevails and both of you have it!
Say Fester; did you have to bash-in the firewall to get the B8 in there, and did you keep the Festy transmission or go the whole 9 yards for bigger clutch and stronger tranny?

[Ford Fester]

Firewall bash yes. Stock trans with spec stage 1 clutch.

[georgeb]

What kind of tow bar do you use?

[Ford Fester]

Wally world special. With custom front mounts.

[WTFestiva]

Both are awesome. I feel like I've still gotta vote Rafe since I've seen it in person. Good work fellas

[Bert]

Question for ya, Ford Fester. Your shot of the car parked next to Paul Bunyan shows really high suspension front and back. Was this after the initial swap to Aspire springs? The reason I ask is there is an Aspire spring swap in my future and I would like to know how much to cut the coils in advance. I do not want to drop the car significantly (slightly lower than Festy stock would be perfect) nor am I interested in making a log jumper out of the car. I put new FMS and supposedly Aspire sport springs (that's what Roger sold them to me as) on last year and I then had to Jerry-build 1/2-5/8 inch spacers into that setup just to keep the some air over the wheels.

[Ford Fester]

i had uncut aspire springs in that picture and that is what i am currently running. I have cut them 2 coils each and i hated it. I will probably never run anything else but uncut aspire springs. I love the way it rides.

[Bert]

i had uncut aspire springs in that picture and that is what i am currently running. I have cut them 2 coils each and i hated it. I will probably never run anything else but uncut aspire springs. I love the way it rides.

Appreciate that bit of advice. I will leave the springs alone when they go in. I'm not a racer anymore and much more enjoy the curb-hopping ability of these cars.
All the best towards FOTM!