You know it's a good day when...

[goodwolf]

...you get a new festiva.

Just got my first Festiva a few minutes ago. The guy that had it brought it to my house and sold it to me for $350 and a ride home. I feel pretty good about this. Needs some body work and some love under the hood but overall it seems quite good. It's a '93 GL with 170k miles on it. Let me know what you all think about it. I have been reading on here for the last few days and have about 1,000,000,000 questions. My goal for the car is to first make it reliable then get into some suspension to make it fun to drive after that I'm not sure where I'll go with this one.

a little about myself: My first car , in 1997, was a ford escort ('84) then shortly there after I got an Escort GT ('91) which I drove / lived in for a few months while I explored the country. I have had a few Volvos ('91 240 DL's) and Jeep YJ some vans ('77 Plymouth Voyager and '00 Ram Van) along with some other mistakes. My most recent project has been a Civic hatchback ('86) that has gotten a motor swap and a very nice suspension upgrade along with a set of Sparco seats and some other goodies (1700lbs + 155hp = fun for me). I have a real soft spot for underpowered econo cars that are just fun to drive and fairly easy and inexpensive to repair. Luckily for me the girlfriend thinks a trip to the junkyard is an acceptable date and doesn't mind riding around in the cars during their project phase. Festiva's have looked interesting to me for some and this one just popped up on CL so I figured it was time for something new and different.

[blindcornbread]

Welcome to the site. Glad to have another member. You should add your city and state to your user identity in case there are other members around you.

[lanemeyer14]

Looks like you have a great car to start with. Good luck on pulling that dent on the passenger side!

[milehighbear]

Welcome to the site. I myself just bought a 93GL about two months ago and am going to fix it up too. I already had a 93L and just love these little cars. Dont worry, you dont have to do much to these little cars to have fun in them. There are a lot of guys here on the site that have a lot of experience and expertise with these cars. If you have questions, go to the search button and put in what your working on like suspension, or transmission and it should take you to a lot of threads guys have already posted on the subject. Good luck with the car and again, welcome. Put your city and state with your identity like blindcornbread mentioned.

[gothguydante]

okay well you need to get another escort GT engine and swap it in... then thats what's gona make you fall in love with this car 10 times more.. that a pretty nice ride other then the dents can't wait to see what you do with it... location location location.. get some interior pics up also i bet it looks mint or close to it considering how well the outside looks - dents..

[batstiva]

Welcome to the addiction. Nice find. Around here, if you can snag a Festiva for 350.00, it ain't gonna be drivable.

[JPT]

The addiction seems to be spreading. Lots of new members lately.

Welcome to the site.

[Sparky]

That car looks like a fine starting point...good find! I'd echo the above comments about learning things here. Tons of great info!

[festivaWES]

Welcome and congrats on the purchase!

[packrat427]

Welcome to the site !!

You will find everything here that you need !!

[eurotiva]

Welcome and good to see another FL. member here. PM me if you need anything.

[Festiva_tunner]

those dents are easily removed - remove the fender and that can be tapped out - and you can go through the inside to push out the one on the passenger side

[chrisofna]

Sweet, a St. Pete guy, a little closer than most people on here!

Welcome!

[pyrothehitman]

nice ride...there is a guy up here that does paintless dent removal.(PDR).maybe u can find one down there....but it doesnt look that bad...it only has 1 crown....its harder to remove multiple crowns....u can probably do it yourself...but if youve never done PDR b4 then chances are that you will get it close but still need alittle body filler...anyways gl

[goodwolf]

Wow! Thanks everyone for the encouragement. The dents don't seem to bad and I've done some body repairs before. I've got a slide hammer and stuff but will try to get behind them first. My first goal is to sort out the mechanicals then worry about the cosmetics. None of my cars have ever looked better than they drove. It's leaking oil all around the valve cover so I ordered a gasket for that and replaced the pcv (probably didn't need it but for $2 why not). The oil and other fluids will be changed tomorrow then I think it just needs driven to figure what else is wrong. I know the front end has a shake to it and the alignment is off pretty bad. I'm thinking the shake is from a bad/imbalanced wheel. Suspension feels better than I thought it would and the gearing seems pretty decent in the transmission. I only took it around the block but it seems like this is gonna be fun. I must say I'm quite impressed by how friendly and helpful everyone seems to be on here. Other forums I frequent usually don't take all to kindly to the new guy. I'm glad to have found this place and already feel very much at home.

Tomorrow is junkyard day for me and I ll be sure to post up any good finds. If any Tampa Bay guys are on here I'm always up for junkyard adventures and work from home so my schedule is always open. PM me and we'll make a day of it. If anyone near me has some 13 or 14" rims that will fit my Festy let me know too. The 12's are a little scary to me.

-the good wolf