What have you done to your Festiva today!?

[TorqueEffect]

Removed the rear bumper for painting, and since I was taking out the interior plastics to get to the bolts for the bumper, I painted those as well.

All those go back on tomorrow, and will remove and paint the front bumper when I am able to get another can of bumper and trim paint. Then when it is dry enough outside, I am going to mask off and paint the plastic side trim.

[navdoc101]

Installed FMS side skirts. Pics to follow.

[Icedawg]

Decided to crack open the spare manual stock tranny I picked up at Pic n Pull years ago just in case, planning to use it to replace the broken tranny in the new race car. The spare was a bit rusty inside the diff where the axles go, so I thought I would check the bearings. Turns out a syncro, a bearing and a clutch fork in the spare were all broken, while 3 third gear and the drive gear were stripped in the broken tranny. So instead of installing the spare I spent the day building one good one out of these two broken trannies. Goes in tomorrow I hope.

[Twistiva]

Spent about a gazillion hours searching the internet for wheels I want to buy. Found 2 sets I want (1 per Festy) but one of the 2 I'm not sure is being manufactured anymore. About half the places I called said yes and half said no. I can find them on wheel sites but it's Saturday and many of the online tire sites were closed plus the manuafacturer was closed as well.

To make matters worse I could have bought them 6 weeks ago for about $23-33 less a wheel.

Crap.....

[TorqueEffect]

Started removing the rear bumper, and I changed out the o2 sensor with a Denso one and now the exhaust isn't putrid anymore.

Old one was a real bi*ch to get out, after I finally got it out the threads were shot on the manifold, but there was enough thread left to hold the new one in fairly snug.

Not getting a new bung installed, just going ghetto with some exhaust cement or jbweld.
If I ever have to replace the sensor in the future (which I doubt seriously) then I will just pull the manifold and get a junkyard one.

[TorqueEffect]

Painted the grill black with some bumper and trim paint, tried to remove the Ford badge beforehand, but it snapped in half even when using the hole on the back-side. Should have just masked it off.

Saw a couple 3 1/2" long Ford badges that should fit, but the guy wants $10 a piece for em and they are used. May see if he will take $15 for both, the one on my hatch is in pretty poor shape.

[Spike]

Master cylinder blew today. Found out my rear bearings are toasted again. Need a new steering rack. Strut about to rust off. Axle is leaking..

But I got new pads put on lol. Having them put on is what blew the master..

Oy vey, this car is killing me.

Found out I leaked a quart of oil since last oil change - 5k miles ago. Only had a few drips between changes before this..

:violent3::banghead::banghead::banghead:

~Joe

[crazyrog17]

That rearview is awesome.. for you. I'll stick with stock, haha.

Today I got it washed to get the salt off. Then I put 6oz lubegard red into the automatic trans. I hope it's not placebo because I can feel the P-R-N-D shifts are much quicker and smoother. Still have to test cold take-offs to make sure there's no slipping.

I did my research on the stuff... Rave reviews across the internet. The naysayers had a trans without a glimmer of hope. Mine wasn't too bad before, I'm just hoping that this cheap experiment nets better shifts, less trans wear, and ultimately better fuel economy.

[Oren09]

Could be a prime location for a GPS or little CB or something.

[Festevil3]

Twistiva, I worked for two years in the Pennwalt lab on greases (some under contract from ESSO and Shell) and chemical specialties (everything from drain cleaners, cutting oils, rolling fluids to dairy tank cleaners).
I worked 5 years in the Tremco Ltd. R&D lab. B.F. Goodrich, the owner, gave us fantastic deals on tires. The conferences were not bad either.


Festevil, what are your plans for covering the stock mirror hole?
I went with a smaller mirror and you went with a larger one.

I am unsure at the moment, my thoughts were to cut the the stock mirror and just use the factory mount to cover the hole. Any thoughts?

[DriverOne]

Re: What have you done to your Festiva today!?

I'm really surprised you didn't use the stock sun visor mounts. That mirror mount would be a good center support as well...

[bravekozak]

Twistiva, I worked for two years in the Pennwalt lab on greases (some under contract from ESSO and Shell) and chemical specialties (everything from drain cleaners, cutting oils, rolling fluids to dairy tank cleaners).
I worked 5 years in the Tremco Ltd. R&D lab. B.F. Goodrich, the owner, gave us fantastic deals on tires. The conferences were not bad either.


Festevil, what are your plans for covering the stock mirror hole?
I went with a smaller mirror and you went with a larger one.

[Festevil3]

Ha! Ha! I just don't think that rear view mirror is quite big enough! If you were in California facing west that thing's big enough you could see New York city! :highly_amused:

Absolutely no blind spots, it came off a golf cart at the junk yard...lol

[Twistiva]

You could buy a grease gun off the Bay, unscrew the solid neck and substitute a flexible hose. Then you could grease your own without a hoist. Use EP-2 grade grease.

Brave -

Your Festiva knowledge never ceases to impress me! :thumbs_up:

[Twistiva]

Changed my oil and oil filter, plus a brand new OEM Mazda interior dome light I bought about 10 days ago was delivered today.

New dome light: think I'll do the LED mod to it that several others have done. It hasn't worked in probably almost 20 years but the one thing I remember for certain was how pathetically dim it was....