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If you have been following our posts on our 1988 white Festiva "Steve" we have been trying to get back on the road since the unfortunate accident then failure to run odessey of the motor you will be glad to know we found a replacement car. this is going to be a REAL diamond in the rough and I mean ROUGH! I found it on Craig's List yesterday. 1988 Festiva 'L'. It has a few bumps and bruises and will need some serious work, such as axle shafts, exhaust and interior parts. We bought it for $264.84, literally all the change we had with us. It drives, stops and shifts without difficulty. The radiator is clean and full of green antifreeze with no evidence of leaks. Oil is clean and shows recent changing and only minimal expected leakge. We really don't have any idea just how many miles are on this guy or if ever the engine has been overhauled. I must have had some owrk on it as the valve cover has been off and was painted yellow! The odometer shows 291,000+ miles. Biggest diferences is the trim line L vs LX. The plan now is to get what we can from an another donor car in a local wrecking yard, shift some of the LX trim items for the interior in the new car and fix the things that need fixing.
It is gonna need the brake lights to be checked as it does not have brake lights but all other lights work. As I mentioned, we located a 1993 Festiva in a local wrecking yard and set to stripping it of useable interior parts today. My son finished up the removal as I had to go to work. The "new" arrival has tan interior and is an L trim model. So no intermittent wipers. The driver's door is from an LX but is red and the window has some issues in operation. Passenger door has broken door handles and lock on the inside as well as the passenger mirror being broken. The dash is pretty much a wreck and no radio. The PO had removed the radio as well as the factory harness ... gonna be fun trying to get a replacement. the rear seat had been removed as it was used to haul fire wood as well and had been tossed out. No dome light, no rear view mirror and mis-matched wheels The exhaust leaks llike crazy around the catalytic converter and muffler.
I took my son to the wrecking yard this morning and started to remove the meeded parts. i had to leave before noon to go to work so he returned to finish up. The donor car had been dropped off and as such, had three other engines in the back. Unfortunately none of them was from this car! So my son tells me he was able to get both doors, rear hatch, right side fender and headlight trim, left headlight, complete dash, all interior trim and panels, door covers and head liner along with all the bolts, nuts, screws and covers. We pulled the door scuff plates, door edge trim (gray), antenna, front and rear seats, rear view mirror. We will pull the LX seats out of Steve and transfer the 'L' seats in. The ones in the 'Blue Meanie' are mis-matched and broken down. the driver replacement door is missing the weather strip but I think another scrap car has one. We will de-rust the edges and prime then install the door gasket.
It is gonna be a fun project but as my son has already learned alot about his little "roller skate" he's gonna learn a whole lot more. Glad I bought that Factory Service Manual! He is gonna take pictures of the transformation so be watching for more on the rebuild.
If anyone knows, I would be interested to know the following: Swapping of the transmissions, Steve has a 5 speed while Blue Meanie is a 4 speed. Anything I need to know or do in order to swap the trannies? Is it even worth worrying about? Also the LX has intermittent wipers as the L does not, what would I need to swap out in order to have the intermittent feature? Is there anything I should know about swapping the speedo assembly so that I would have the LX cluster instead of the L cluster, kinda like the tachometer. Ok more to follow and thanks!
It is gonna need the brake lights to be checked as it does not have brake lights but all other lights work. As I mentioned, we located a 1993 Festiva in a local wrecking yard and set to stripping it of useable interior parts today. My son finished up the removal as I had to go to work. The "new" arrival has tan interior and is an L trim model. So no intermittent wipers. The driver's door is from an LX but is red and the window has some issues in operation. Passenger door has broken door handles and lock on the inside as well as the passenger mirror being broken. The dash is pretty much a wreck and no radio. The PO had removed the radio as well as the factory harness ... gonna be fun trying to get a replacement. the rear seat had been removed as it was used to haul fire wood as well and had been tossed out. No dome light, no rear view mirror and mis-matched wheels The exhaust leaks llike crazy around the catalytic converter and muffler.
I took my son to the wrecking yard this morning and started to remove the meeded parts. i had to leave before noon to go to work so he returned to finish up. The donor car had been dropped off and as such, had three other engines in the back. Unfortunately none of them was from this car! So my son tells me he was able to get both doors, rear hatch, right side fender and headlight trim, left headlight, complete dash, all interior trim and panels, door covers and head liner along with all the bolts, nuts, screws and covers. We pulled the door scuff plates, door edge trim (gray), antenna, front and rear seats, rear view mirror. We will pull the LX seats out of Steve and transfer the 'L' seats in. The ones in the 'Blue Meanie' are mis-matched and broken down. the driver replacement door is missing the weather strip but I think another scrap car has one. We will de-rust the edges and prime then install the door gasket.
It is gonna be a fun project but as my son has already learned alot about his little "roller skate" he's gonna learn a whole lot more. Glad I bought that Factory Service Manual! He is gonna take pictures of the transformation so be watching for more on the rebuild.
If anyone knows, I would be interested to know the following: Swapping of the transmissions, Steve has a 5 speed while Blue Meanie is a 4 speed. Anything I need to know or do in order to swap the trannies? Is it even worth worrying about? Also the LX has intermittent wipers as the L does not, what would I need to swap out in order to have the intermittent feature? Is there anything I should know about swapping the speedo assembly so that I would have the LX cluster instead of the L cluster, kinda like the tachometer. Ok more to follow and thanks!
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