Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Intro thread for Steve... (pics first, then long story)

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Intro thread for Steve... (pics first, then long story)

    First, some pics:






    While walking about in the junkyard local to me (Rubin's... Right up the road.), I happened to spot a blue gem in the mud and muck. After a couple quick glances en passant, while checking for parts for my Golf (Herbie) or any neat little trinkets my 2 year old might find amusing, I finally decided to go see what it was that kept stealing my attention from the task at hand.

    Buried behind a few other cars, one having a wheel-ectomy, and still on the home-built stand made for the purpose, one laying on it's side, obviously undergoing some embarrassing colonic surgery, and another, mangled soul, too far gone to repair, but still a feasible organ donor... I found what it was, the beauty which captured my gaze and held it, which kept my focus from the tasks for which I had come... It was Blue, and quite pristine for it's age, as though cared for by a nostalgic owner from a time when cars were priced possessions, a time long past... Not a spot of rust, under or exposed. As though it had been put through the pisces of spring maintenance, then, for some oddreason, given up on, as though worthless. As though the meticulous owner had simply... Moved on?!

    Could it be, that someone would do such injustices to a car as beautiful as this 1992 Festiva?

    The answer was yes, because here it sit, a marvel unto mine eyes. I MUST - nay, I WILL own it.

    After speaking with the proprietor a few times, and convincing him that injustice had been done, and would be furthered if he refused me this purchase, he agreed to sell me the car - with no title, of course, for $100 and a junk 1990 Ford Explorer. GREAT!

    I call my father, to make the arrangements to trade him my Subaru for the Explorer... And he says NO! What?!? Seriously?!...

    What will I do now? How will I make any sort of deal with this man, who was hardly willing to sell me the car in the first place? _le sigh_...going to lose this one...

    So, reluctantly, I call the proprietor back to explain that I cannot make this deal, and inquire about a straight cash deal, again, no title, just a receipt and a little help in the form of information (previous owner).

    He thinks on it, and comes back with an offer of $500 cash and carry. I required that I would think on it and call him v back shortly. I waited, deliberated, thought, hummed and hee-hawed for awhile... 2 weeks, or close to it. Today, I had a good opportunity to go back and inspect the car again before making a final decision... After speaking with Larry shortly, I went out back to crawl under the car, give it a once, twice, thrice over, and browse more... After seeing that someone had cut the carpet, and removed the emergency brake handle/cable assembly from the car, I had made my final decision: I wasn't paying $500 unless they were willing to do me a favor.

    While browsing, I had noticed a set of 155/80R13 tires, almost brand new, on a Metro. Two have dry cracks, but all hold air. I would love to have them. If they'll put those tires and rims in the trunk, inflate the tires that are on the Festiva currently, and put a battery back in it, I'll pay the $500 for the car.

    I went back inside, gave up the details, and explained about the parts missing since last time, and Larry didn't even question it... He just sent a guy out to pull the wheels and tires for me. Pix of my new Festiva wil come as soon as I pay for it!

  • #2
    Great find! Looks pretty clean, the factory alloys are great! Hopefully you won't have any trouble getting it tagged, insured and on the road... fingers crossed for ya
    No festiva for me ATM...

    Comment


    • #3
      Yup, gotta find a friend in Maine, or make the trip myself.

      It's older than 94, so they'll register it without a title, and the owner doesn't need to live in Maine to get a registration, just need to show up in person. Once it's registered, drive on the Maine reg for the year, then switch it over to Pa and get a title with it.

      I did that once in you're state for an 85 CRX Si... Just told Pa that I bought it from Ga, and it wasnt registered currently. Couple extra papers and a bill of sale, good to go. Lol.
      Last edited by Christ; 05-19-2011, 12:30 PM.

      Comment


      • #4
        Sweet deal man. Very nice to see this car saved! How many vehicles do you own? Herbie? Really? lol :p

        Comment


        • #5
          I own:
          '95 Subaru Legacy L, of which I am not a big fan.
          '86 Volkswagen Golf D, daily driver (Herbie... The license pate number is HRB ####, and its a Volkswagen... It works.)
          '92 Ford Festiva (Steve... FeSTEVEa) Enlisted personnel, awaiting active duty assignment or retraining.
          '01 Saturn L200 (Sadie) Wifes car, daily driver.

          As well as several projects in varying states of apartness.

          I drove Steve home to my father's house today. Amazing, the gas had been in the tank since October, and with a couple key cycles to prime the pump, bang! Started right up!

          Left the fluids circulate for a min while he idled away, tapping like crazy from a few rockers in need of adjusting*, then started checking around under the hood to make sure everything was good to go before departing. Mileage - 097500.0 or so... Yep, less than 100k on this '92 LX.

          SO, on the drive home, some issues that need attention arose:
          Valves tapping
          Clunk in front end on rough surfaces. Not bad, but there.
          Bearings, at least left rear, are howling a bit. Might need grease, probably need replaced.
          Rear right side of head has a plate siliconed/bolted in place of something... What goes there?
          Yellow/red wire behind engine, above oil filter broken. What is it?
          Pressure from oil cap hole, but no smoke from tail pipe.***
          Strong engine with great torque.
          Very good transmission, firm shifts, holds gear exceptionally well.
          Very low/non existent idle.
          Brakes - oh, the brakes... Man do those things get the job done, or what?
          12" Tires - prone to understeer.

          Now, here's why I put an asterisk next to a few things:
          The head is silver.
          There's new sealant everywhere.
          The tapping and low idle/stalling when put in gear.
          The new head gasket.
          Clean oil, coolant.

          I think this engine was rebuilt. The pressure in the crank case seems like the result of unseated rings. Does this sound right? This engine/car is just WAY TOO TIGHT for an untouched 100k, and the clean head and new head gasket kinda give it away, as well as the full exhaust system.

          All those things said, there are a few things that are going to be changed, and a few things likely to be changed, as well.
          Last edited by Christ; 05-20-2011, 10:38 AM.

          Comment


          • #6
            good looking 92, does he run or do you know yet?
            Andrew Walker

            Current Daily Driver:
            89 Nissan D21 SE V6 5 speed 4x4
            Projects in the works:
            84 Mercedes Benz 300D(T)(Baby) currently awaiting transmission transplant/ full on restoration

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Christ View Post
              HRB ####
              Fluke? Okay, I forgive! heh I'm just teasin

              Originally posted by Christ View Post
              FeSTEVEa
              I never even thought of that.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by thered56 View Post
                Fluke? Okay, I forgive! heh I'm just teasin



                I never even thought of that.
                I had a 2000 Caravan named Cara
                1996 Ford F150 - Gerald (Ford)

                They all get names that match something about them.

                Check last post for edits.

                Comment


                • #9
                  The plate on the head is a block off for a mechanical fuel pump on a carbed car.

                  Red with yellow I believe goes to oil pressure switch.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Congrats, great find. And with A/C no less!
                    90 Festy (Larry)--B6M (Matt D. modified B6 head), header, 5-speed, Capri XR2 front brakes, many other little mods
                    09 Kia Rondo--a Festy on steroids!

                    You can avoid reality, but you can't avoid the consequences of avoiding reality--Ayn Rand

                    Disaster preparedness

                    Tragedy and Hope.....Infowars.com.....The Drudge Report.....Founding Fathers.info

                    Think for yourself.....question all authority.....re-evaluate everything you think you know. Red-pill yourself!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      dude, you're in PA? where!?
                      Trees aren't kind to me...

                      currently: 2 88Ls (Scrappy and Jersey), 88LX, 90L(Pepe), 91L, 91GL (Skippy) 93 GL Sport (the Mighty Favakk), 94 (Bruce) & 95 Aspire SEs, 97 Aspire (The Joker),
                      94 Justy 4WD, 87 Fiero GT, plus 2 parts cars. That's my fleet.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Northeastern PA, Specifically Gillett (16925) Bradford County.

                        I never saw this post back in May, cuz that was about the time I lost my last trailer and had to do a bunch of quick moving about.

                        Steve's registered, had the engine swapped out and runs fairly well, and is now for sale.

                        Basically lost interest with so many other projects to look at, and needing to buy a house.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Steve's FS thread

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Steve's on the road, as many of you know, and some quick mods are in the works to get rid of extra weight and power loss from unnecessary additions, as well as to clean up the engine bay slightly.

                            I'll be pulling my radiator since I sold it, and installing a manual radiator with an external trans cooler, which means I'll be removing the overflow container and replacing it with a "hidden" version as well.

                            I've already broken apart a brake booster to get the core piece I needed for the manual brake swap, so as soon as I can afford to potentially have a day of down time and get the adapter plate made, I'll be doing that.

                            Manual brake mod thread here.

                            Since I'll be swapping out the radiator, I won't be putting the fan back in immediately. My intention is to test it and see if my driving style fits driving fanless. It does kick on at times while I'm driving, but the gauge never gets high enough to really need it to kick on, and I never let the engine idle for any length of time. Plus, we all know the B3's don't make much heat as it is, so I'm thinking I'll be fine. I'll be keeping the fan in the car for awhile, just in case I end up needing it, until I'm reasonably comfortable that I won't. As well, I'll be blocking the entire opening in the rad support area so that most or all of the available air has to go through the radiator, helping with the fan elimination.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Pics:



                              Bad pic of the Katana's oil cooler removed and hoses cut. There was grease on my phone's camera lens. The banjo hose on the right, I used. The way the cooler is installed, is exactly flipped top to bottom from how it's pictured. I put the banjo fitting in a vise and bent the tube so that it came out next to the cooler at a downward attitude. On the left (pictured), I used one of the hoses from the engine side (of the Katana), heated it up with MAPP, bent it down toward the cooler, and bent it in so it goes around the engine side of the radiator and the hose goes across there, under the trans pan to the hook up. I can take a pic of that routing if anyone can't picture it.



                              That's where it ends up, with the "nubs" on the bottom of the cooler resting in the "rim" of the bottom of the radiator. The bolt locations on the cooler, I stuck a ziptie through them, through the fins of the radiator, back through about an inch higher, and zipped it together so each zip tie is holding on about 15 fins.

                              I ended up taking the banjo fittings from both the motor and the cooler, bending two of them, and running new fluid rubber lines down to the trans lines under the pan. If I were going to leave it like that (not swap to manual) I'd switch to large brake line and get the proper fittings instead of using the banjos.

                              With the radiator installed, there's just enough clearance on the driver's side for the hose to fit through the gap without rubbing anywhere, and with the grille reinstalled, you can't even tell there's a cooler there.

                              I'm not putting the fan back in, either.

                              The cooler added 1pt capacity.

                              The location will not work if you have AC installed. You'll have to mount it either in front of the AC condenser, or behind the radiator. The hose routing should remain basically the same, but I didn't want the hot air from the radiator trying to cool the trans fluid, which is why I chose to mount it where I did.
                              Last edited by Christ; 05-01-2012, 08:23 PM.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X