Well I'm back finally... sort of

[htchbck]

My apologies to all who have tried to PM me for the past 6 months or so. I've been taking something of a break from a lot of things, including spending large amounts of time on the net.

Anyway, the reason I kind of dropped off from here in the first place is because my little red LX that used to leak oil was blown up by a buddy who borrowed it for a week and didn't refill the oil like I asked (even had a 5qt jug of Castrol GTX behind the seat for him). Slung a rod Anyway, I haven't had any Festivas since then, but I did miss this place, just never seemed to find time to make it on here. Plus my car collection seems to keep evolving, so I'm constantly jumping from one forum to the next with each new Craigslist find.

Bottom line is that this place still feels like home to me when it comes to forums. I guess cause I've spent so much time on here over the past 5 years and gotten to know some of the great people here pretty well. And I'm not completely out of the Mazda scene either, still have one of my 3 MX-6s and now a RWD B6D car as well (but its not a festiva, its a miata ). So I'll be back around, probably hanging out in the mechanical sections more than anything. I'd also like to relinquish my duties as Mod of the interior/exterior forum and allow someone to take that up who has more time available to devote to the site.

So yeah, Festiva or not, I'm back to the site and I hope to contribute as much as I can and maybe, just maybe, find my next festiva

[Pu241]

Well, glad to have you back!

Any chance that you saved the festy that threw a rod, those of us in the rust belt could use the rust free shell.

As far a Mod duties go, the council will convene an sort that out!

[htchbck]

Glad to be back! And no, the shell is not going to be saved unfortunately. I still have it waiting to find time between driving the miata and riding the bike to pull the aspire swap off of it. Someone was going to buy the whole car for parts but never came up with the cash. But just because its currently in GA and has been for 5 years doesn't help the fact that it was originally an Michigan car, so its definitely NOT rust free. In fact after I started pulling some parts I realized the pass rear upper spring perch is nearly rusted through! But I'll have another one someday I'm sure, not going to get another carbed one though, it was that car's downfall since I never felt like taking off the road long enought to completely do the wiring swap for a BP. I can do a BP in half a day now, but the wiring I definitely couldn't. So it limped along at 35MPG of gas and 35MPG of oil (exageration, but I did have to put in a quart every fillup) until it finally blew up on one of the only days it snowed here last winter lol.

[Pu241]

Well, save what you can from her before sending her to recycle.

Hey, any chance you can help Bebandit with this mission:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30317

[htchbck]

Just saw the thread myself, already PMd her, maybe I can put some of my freshly pulled parts off the red car to good use Beats having to pack them and ship them all over the country anyway!

[Damkid]

Welcome back!!

[batstiva]

Welcome Back!! It seems to me from reading several threads on here, the loaning out of Festivas and Aspires needs to stop. The cars don't seem to have much luck coming back to the owners in one piece.:p

Sorry to hear about your car. This would be the car you had at FM3, correct?

[htchbck]

yep, that was the one... the stinky oil burning one haha! Wasn't it you that was riding behind me and had to pass me because the smell was too much? lol. I didn't really think it would be a problem to loan it to the guy since he had been using my MX-6 for a couple of months and had been checking the oil in it meticulously (burned about a quart and a half per tank at the time). But for whatever reason he didn't take care of the poor festy. Less than a pint came out when I drained it. I think there was more metal shavings in there than oil lol.

[batstiva]

yep, that was the one... the stinky oil burning one haha! Wasn't it you that was riding behind me and had to pass me because the smell was too much? lol. I didn't really think it would be a problem to loan it to the guy since he had been using my MX-6 for a couple of months and had been checking the oil in it meticulously (burned about a quart and a half per tank at the time). But for whatever reason he didn't take care of the poor festy. Less than a pint came out when I drained it. I think there was more metal shavings in there than oil lol.

Yeah, I believe that was me. That car was stupidly awesome. It looked like it should have died long ago, and yet it still kept chugging along. Can't say too much about the smell tho, my 89 was kind of putting out a permanent oil slick at OSX. Kept the tailgaters at bay, tho.

[htchbck]

It looked like it should have died long ago, and yet it still kept chugging along.

Yeah, it was an interesting specimen to say the least The guy that had it before the lady I bought it from had sprayed it flat black, and she meticulously went over it with acetone and steel wool and sandpaper back to the original red. I am truly amazed that she only cut through the paint to the primer in one spot on the hood, and even then not all the way to the metal. She must have spent hours and hours on it. On the passenger side door the black was all gone but she managed to leave the original clearcoat. Then there was the mysterious (possibly dealer added) "GT" stripes graphics package... it certainly had lots of character, plus it still ran even though evil squirrels had eaten tons of vac lines and other stuff under the hood while it sat waiting for me to buy it... lol!

[neanderpaul]

Sorry I missed this thread Joseph. Great to see you!

[Festiva_tunner]

Good to see you back can't tell you how many times I've explained the white cluster protege spedo swap LOL since you were gone.