Little Festiva on the Prairies..

[drddan]

It was ugly and a brutal thing to do....

:shock: :protest:

[Festiva_tunner]

That lock made me cringe there was a full lockset for sale the other day including the ignition I have pics of mine when I did the swap if you want to see

Other than that I think you got a good deal she should turn out nice once you get some time to work on her

[darrenryall]

That lock made me cringe there was a full lockset for sale the other day including the ignition I have pics of mine when I did the swap if you want to see

yes please, I'd love to see some pics.

And that lock made me cringe as well.. but it was either that, or drive the car into the city and leave it unlocked. Given the options of spending a few bucks and punching a few holes that I'll need to fill once I can get a key that works.. or living with myself when someone steals the car for a joyride and then kills a mom and kid in an intersection.. I choose the one I can live with and repair. :p

Other than that I think you got a good deal she should turn out nice once you get some time to work on her

I'm also thinking more and more that I got a fantastic deal.. and I just need to meet up with someone who knows a lot more about Festivas than I do.. once I can figure out the engine issue with it, it's going to be a fantastic car.

Already, it's more than paid for itself in the gas savings, the figure below is accurate based off my current gas bills (converted to US$ and MPG instead of CDN loonies and L/100km).

Just spent a bit of time on the car tonight with some rubbing compound, waiting for daytime now to get some pics. But from what I could tell in the dark.. it's going to be smokin' in the morning.

Surging and power drops happened again yesterday, but I tried opening the cardboard up a bit more to give it a bit more airflow. Today was warmer, no issues. On the plus side though yesterday.. I had zombie fog on the way to work. (Ooooooooooo)

And today, I took my dog out for a drive, she had a great time. Festivas are great for dogs.. lots of glass to look through to see gophers and sheep and cows.. all the things that a dog loves to see. An awesome time was had by all..

[wybnrml]

I wish I had your Sport Interior.

[freshtiva]

You dont need a key, sorry for the static in the vid.

[darrenryall]

I wish I had your Sport Interior.

I'll definitely be happier once I can get the grease out of the front seats though.. Spray Nine and carpet cleaner are helping.. but I'm looking at several treatments yet. When you're working on a car, don't sit in the car with greasy overalls, or the next guy to get the car (someone like me) has to try and clean it. :p

That, and I need a new headliner yet. The door panels are cleaning right up though..

Once everything is cleaned up, I'll gladly take any shots that anyone wants so they can see how it's all put together so they can retrofit their layouts.

[darrenryall]

You dont need a key, sorry for the static in the vid.

That'd make an interesting discussion with the security guards that drive the lot after 430..

"I'ma... using a Slim Jim on my car because.. I don't have a key?"

Would love to see someone using the blank Ford key.. need to swing by a place to pick one up when I can..

[darrenryall]

Went to edit the last post, and just had it expire during the edit..

Btw, ran my car stats and converted them all to Canuck stats so that you can see where I'm at right now.. even with the engine troubles I'm having..

* Lifetime Fuel Economy 8.01 L/100km
* 90-day Fuel Economy 8.01 L/100km
* 3-tank Fuel Economy 6.55 L/100km
* EPA Rating (% over): 8.4 L/100km (4.89286%)
* Total fills: 5
* Average cost per gallon: $4.19
* Average cost per fill: $29.86
* Average cost per km: $0.22530816
* Total litres used: 134.798514
* Total kilometers traveled: 1683.21289
* Total cost: $149.22
* Total saved: 6.5866165 litres
* Total saved: $7.29
* Average tank distance (kms): 336.642578

and in US Imperial.. (which I still use internally because this is what I learned when I was a young gaffer):

* Lifetime Fuel Economy (miles/gallon): 29.37
* 90-day Fuel Economy (miles/gallon): 29.37
* 3-tank Fuel Economy (miles/gallon)): 35.91
* EPA Rating (% over): 28 (4.89286%)
* Total fills: 5
* Average cost per gallon: $4.19
* Average cost per fill: $29.86
* Average cost per mile: $0.14
* Total gallons used: 35.61
* Total miles traveled: 1045.9
* Total cost: $149.22
* Total saved: 1.74 gallons
* Total saved: $7.29
* Average tank distance (miles): 209.18

One of the best reasons to have a Festiva is right there guys.. even with the engine problems, the Festiva let me extend my gas budget by about three times.

[freshtiva]

Mmmm must be an automatic. 40+ MPG is common with a five speed.

[ericsmith32]

* Lifetime Fuel Economy (miles/gallon): 29.37
* 90-day Fuel Economy (miles/gallon): 29.37
* 3-tank Fuel Economy (miles/gallon)): 35.91
* EPA Rating (% over): 28 (4.89286%)
* Total fills: 5
* Average cost per gallon: $4.19
* Average cost per fill: $29.86
* Average cost per mile: $0.14
* Total gallons used: 35.61
* Total miles traveled: 1045.9
* Total cost: $149.22
* Total saved: 1.74 gallons
* Total saved: $7.29
* Average tank distance (miles): 209.18

That's dead-on with my auto... except the gas prices. The Festiva fillup runs $20.. with premuim. Takes twice that to fillup the Escape so the Festiva gets driven a bit more.

[darrenryall]

Yup, it's currently an auto, although it was a manual originally and I have the manual tranny here. Think that all I'm missing is the pedal.

As for the cost to fill.. gas up here in Canuck-ustan is 90.9 cents per litre, and a gallon is 3.79 litres. Soooo, 90.9 cents * 3.79 = CDN$3.45 per gallon (1 US gallon = 3.78541178 litres). I originally converted all this to Imperial gallons which is 4.6 litres per gallon (the old Canadian standard), so those figures in metric will be off. :p

And 90.9 isn't too bad right now up here for gas prices, even though I live in a province that produces it and ships it big time (so we should be looking at 64.5/$2.45 or so for gas prices).

So... i was going to add pictures from today. Did a before and after set of shots. Did half the car last night with cleaner and rubbing compound, and left the other half untouched. Came out to take a shot, and here's where we are.. before and after finishing the car (pre-wax).

[darrenryall]

Latest development over the weekend..

Lovely week last week, to and fro and back to work and home. No major problems other than a low tire (that I filled). On the weekend, had some guests over, and they brought a kid. (dum dum DAH). Well, the kid and my kid were playing together and they spotted the Festiva and decided to pretend to drive. (suspenseful music). Well, they managed to turn the ignition all the way back to "Lock" which it's never done for me.. and this morning, I (of course) can't get the ignition unlocked to start and drive the car to work. Because naturally, the car that sold me the car gave me two wrong keys. Managed to get the passenger side lock out and am going to call some locksmiths locally over lunch,, maybe I'll luck out and get a working key to drive home with and get the car going for morning...

The worst thing about weekends.. things have two days to conspire against you rather than just overnight.. :p

So today I'm at work in the wrong Ford..

[freshtiva]

Did you wiggle on the steering wheel while trying to turn the key ?

[darrenryall]

Did you wiggle on the steering wheel while trying to turn the key ?

You bet.. wiggled, shook, and entirely went down a path towards destroying any pride that I had at that point. All to no avail.

On the plus side, $25.20 later in Canuck bux, I have a key to try out tonight that gave the locksmith his WTF moment of early afternoon. He couldn't figure out why the code was calling for a Mazda key.

I had to go down the sordid Festiva history involving Kia, Ford, and Mazda. Don't think he still believes me, but I'm to give him a call if the key works.

[darrenryall]

And....

SUCCESS.

The key turned in the ignition and the car started. Had a time getting the ignition key out of the lock though.. didn't know that you had to push on the lock cylinder to get it to release the key!

So, I now can unlock my doors like regular peoples, and start the car even with the column locking. Good times!

Tomorrow morning, it's off to my nearby hardware store to get a duplicate key cut.