Accepting Entries For January FOTM

[MrReece1997]

All of your Festiva's are awesome

[TheresGabe]

@MrReece1997 Did you remove some plastic out of the back bumper to make it a tighter to the body fit? I was actually looking at my back bumper, and thinking about it just the other day...

[Twistiva]

OK, I'll give it a try - although mine is definitely still a work in progress!

It is a 1990 Festiva L 5-spd.

I bought it from a guy in my town for $850. He said he had put in a new clutch and that the car was towed behind a motor home for most of it's 163,xxx mile life. It had a couple of pretty new tires, a multi-shades of blue spray can paint job, a cracked windshield, non-functional AC, radiator fan that was always on, towing brackets and wiring to be towed, and a large part of the gray interior and been repainted gray with a paint brush.

Not your basic concours car!!! But I bought it so I could carry stuff for our sailboat back and forth from home, my workshop and the marina at an inexpensive price. We also have a Jeep Cherokee and it would get 21-mpg doing the marina run, so the Festiva's mpg appealled to me.

In the first 10-days that I drove it I found that at 54-mph the tires hopped all over the place and shocks were marshmellows. The brakes were spongey and the radio didn't work. My wife hated the car.....

I bought a set of KYB 2G struts off E-Bay and was getting ready to put them on when the oil pump failed and toasted the engine. Who ever heard of an oil pump failing on a Festiva?????

So it sat in front of the house for 7-months while I decided what to do. Finally I started looking for an engine and found one on Craig's list up in the Norfolk area (185 miles away) that had been rebuilt about a year ago for $150. Off we went and the motor came home in the back of the Cherokee.

I ended up stripping the engine down and finding that what he said he had replaced he actually had! I did replace the cylinder head with a fully rebuilt one and added a new clutch disc and pressure plate - and really cleaned the engine interior and painted the exterior of it. Swapped out the engines, fired it up and the new engine ran on 3 cylinders.....

Major depression followed and the car sat for another two months while I - again - decided what to do. Eventually I put up an ad for $250 and some guy said he would come and get it - and never did. So - what the hell - might as well go all in...

Check all the plugs and wiring - OK. Bought a brand new shiney compression tester and found that my cylinder pressures were 183/185/185/185. Fiddled around somemore and found that it was cylinder #2 that was dead. Shortening up the story it turns out that one of the brand new fuel injectors was defective and it got replaced.

Now the engine ran on all 4 but the front axles and bearings made tons of noise. So all new axles, bearings, seals and brake discs. The car ran and got 38.6-mpg. Not the 40+ I had hoped for, but not bad. I didn't want to deal with the 12" tires so found a set of 13" Geo steel rims and bought 155x65x13 tires for it. With the new tires, the mileage went up to 40.9-mpg and I could now safely break the 54 mile and hour barrier!

So since I was going to use the Festiva more as a truck than a car, I went into a "lightening" mode. I removed the entire AC system, the radio, all the speakers, the entire rear seat, the rear seat belts and the steel towing brackets. Pounds lighter, the car seemed to be much happier.

I found a brand new pair of Hella 500 fog lights in the shop that I had bought for the Cherokee years ago, painted the front grill and put them on the car. And at the moment, that is where I am at with the car. Eventually it will become Dark Hunter Green one spray can at a time.....

[ATTACH=CONFIG]11070[/ATTACH]:[ATTACH=CONFIG]11069[/ATTACH]

Hey Doug -

So after removing all that weight, what MPG are you getting now?

42? 43?

Welcome to the group. :thumbs_up:

[MrReece1997]

Yes me and my dad did

[jawbraeka]

Re-entrying again for this year!

A lot of things happened this year 2012 for my one and only Pride/Festiva and one of the Philippine's pride(for me) Pride w/ pride, presenting again, Ernstkia.

I just joined the FF community I think just this 2012 or last few months of 2011. I can really say my car is an all around performer, from aesthetics to performance. Not a perfect car but tried everything from races,carshows, and trips and I'm proud of how I built it. It's my model also to my pride/festiva body kits w/c is the Ernst Pride Kits.Anyway, here is my ride's updated infos and 2012 event pictures:

Enginebay:
*Mazda B6 DOHC modified into Carb Type from EFI
*Black Powder-coated Paint Valve Cover
*12R Toyota Carb w/ modified manifold in black powder-coated finish
*K&N Air Filter
*NGK HTW
*MSD Blaster 2 Ignition Coil
*Mitsuba Electric Fuel Pump
*Evercool 2-Rows Copper Radiator
*Mazda 75Amps Alternator

Exhaust:
* 2" Exhaust Pipes all-the-way, Mandrel Bent
*16" Resonator
*Blitz Nur Spec Muffler

Suspension:
*KYB Fluid Shocks
*Festiva Japan Lowering Springs

Wheels:
*15"x 7" Hartge Mags(JDM)
*185/45 Nankang Ultra NS-2 Tires
*Stud Converted

Exterior:
*Authentic Japan Spec Ford Festiva GT-X Bumpers(Front & Rear)
*Chin and Sideskirts(Ernst Pride Kits)
*OEM Cibie Brand Yellow Driving Lamps
*Mazda 323 Gen. 1 Manual Retract Sidemirror
*Ford Festiva Headlamps,Grille,Corner Lights and Bumper Lenses
*FOrd Festiva Smooth Tailights
*Aftermarket Upper Spoiler w/ 3rd Brakelight LED
*OEM Lower Smooth Spoiler(Rubber, Orig)
*Ford fenderlights
*Bosch Rear Foglight
*Bosch Aero(Banana) Type Wiper Blades
*Rear Wiper
*OEM Third Brakelight
*OEM Door Guards
*OEM Window Visors

Interior:
*14.5" Nardi Torino Steering Wheel
*Festiva Red-lit Racing Gauge,Silver Faced
*5" Autometer Ultimate Playback Tachometer
*2" Autometer Air/ Fuel Meter Ratio
*Short Shift(Quick Shift)
*Recaro Enjoy Semi-bucket seats
*Modified rear center console(center armrest)
*Leather Seatcovers at back
*OEM Cargo Cover
*Mazda 323 Gen. 1 Domelight
*RV-Inno Crossbar w/ bike rack and wind fairings
*Raybrig Search light

ICE(In-Car Entertainment)
*Pioneer 5150 Head Unit
*2 pcs. 6.5" Team Lightning Lab Separates


Present look w/ all the latest upgrades/add-ons...









From being FF.com April 2012 FOTM Winner...





Magazine shoots...









Carshows...









Race events...









Magwheel changings(15s)...






Travel...










Cargroup...

ernst, can you please add an over-the-top engine shot as i love looking at that motor.. man you'll have my vote.