Bought my first Festiva

[dabird]

I have a soft spot for small, simple economy me cars and quirky cars in general. I've always like Festivas but really got the itch to buy one over the last few weeks. I wasn't actively out looking for one but I happened to stumble across one in the parking lot of an apartment complex one town over from where I live. I noticed a small piece of paper taped in the driver side window. For Sale and phone number. Turned out to be a 1988 5 speed from California. The guy towed it here to Indiana in 2004. The car is 99% rust free. The underside is about as clean as a car can get. The body has a few dents and dings and the paint on the hood and roof is pretty much gone but overall it's not to bad. The interior is solid other than a torn door panel around the window crank. The asking price was $250 so i expected to have to tow it home but after talking to the owner it turns out it was drivable it just has an insane amount of blow by. He had rigged up a hose for the breather on the valve cover to an empty oil bottle to catch all the oil it spitting out. I drove it home this afternoon and it smoked like crazy but actually drove pretty well all things considered. My plan right now is to park it in the garage until i come across a good used engine. I'm not really looking to many modifications. I tend to like my vehicles stock. I'll probably do a few sensible upgrades and I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions to ask. I'm looking forward to pick your brains. If anyone has a tan drivers side door panel let me know. Here is a pic of the cars best side before i picked it up

[MJD]

Great !!


Hey Da Bird -- Great welcome to you here ! Guys are pretty helpful, and I bet someone has a matching door panel for ya. Parts you can find here from others...and a little bit of care you can paint the car outer body yourself. If it is an original color, I bet you would like to go back to that. I too have 2 original Festivas because I like them stock. Just something to get around in our rural area, not much speed demons here...but look out for the big pickups, ha !
Best of luck to you in getting yours in better shape...they are worth it, I dont care what others say........except at the gas station when they see I only get 4 or 5 gallons for the next few weeks .....
Welcome to this great site !

MJD

[eurotiva]

Great deal, and welcome to the best site on the internet.

Good first post too. We like pics.

[kartracer46]

Congrats on the purchase and welcome here to the board. You need a tan LX door panel. That was a saweet find. Curious to see how many of the LX options are on it. Maybe you can post more interior pics soon.

[neanderpaul]

Great deal, and welcome to the best site on the internet.

Good first post too. We like pics.

X2 on all points!

[dabird]

Congrats on the purchase and welcome here to the board. You need a tan LX door panel. That was a saweet find. Curious to see how many of the LX options are on it. Maybe you can post more interior pics soon.

The interior is filthy right now after i get it cleaned up I'll post more photos. What options should I be looking for?

[neanderpaul]

88-89 LX's can have the following options.
Rear wiper, rear defrost, rear cargo light, tilt steering, factory tach cluster with trip, passenger underseat tray, power mirrors, AC

other options from other years..
factory spoiler, fog lights, power steering,

What else am I missing guys?

[dabird]

Just went out and took a look the car has:
Rear wiper, rear defrost, rear cargo light, tilt steering, factory tach cluster with trip and power mirrors. It doesn't have AC or the under seat tray. also the hatch is locked and the key doesn't seem to do anything on the hatch lock. In fact i can't even really get it in the lock. Is there a way to unlock from the inside?

[neanderpaul]

Sort of. You have to pull off the interior panel. it is attached with the common upholstery fasteners. Use a tool and be gentle. That panel is a chip board and fragile.

[htchbck]

Paul is right about taking off the door panel, however, it sounds like its just the lock cylinder thats messed up. If you're lucky you may be able to avoid removing the panel just to get the hatch open. If you look on the inside in the middle at the very bottom of the hatch there should be a little metal tab sticking out from the latch mechanism. If you can move (I can't remember the exact direction you have to push it) that it may unlock the trunk for you. Depends on which part of the locking/latching mechanism is messed up. In order to actually fix whats wrong inside you will still need to remove the panel, but if that unlocks it at least then it saves you the trouble of sitting in the trunk cramped while you work on it Also, I've seen PB or liquid wrench work wonders on stuck lock cylinders before.

[Safety Guy]

Welcome! Nice LX! Great price!!

Push down on the little tab at the bottom of your hatch interior. All the way down should unlock the hatch, unless it's really messed up.

Karl

[neanderpaul]

Enlighten us Karl! More info.

[Safety Guy]

Okay, I'll take a pic.

Or three...

This is the lever right above the tip of the scraper:


Although the camera angle changed a bit, you can see I have pushed the lever down in this pic:


And here is the open hatch, showing the latch mechanism and lever:


On Aqua (my blue '91L shown here), I have to push down and get out and try to open my hatch. Then I get back in, push the lever down again, and the hatch will open. Something ain't right and some day I'll fix it. Could be just needs more grease, but something probably needs adjusting. In other words, yours may work differently too. It should only take one push down to unlock your hatch.

Karl

[kumalaba]

nice ride great price does it have rear cargo cover?

[htchbck]

Thanks Karl for clarifying what I was trying to say with pics!