Confession: I bought a Geo Metro....

[crusher773]

BigElCat,
My wife saw that little XFI over there and sent me pics. I never did go look at it I was afraid where the rust is it'd be a lost cause. You are right though the XFI is pretty sought after. Do you have any idea who it is I see in Louisburg every once in a while in the silver Festy?

[Pu241]

BigElCat,
Hit the Ecomodder.com sit, one of the guy's, I want to say John Mullet (or something like that), did a write up on the reconstruction of his rusted out lower control arms.
Many pics etc. Since you weld, you might be able to fab up the fix one piece at a time while you drive it.
BTW, Festiva CV axle replacement should take more than 30 min each.
It will take you longer to refill the tranny than swap the axles.

[Bert]

I had a chance for a 97 Suzuki Swift (Geo Metro) 5 years ago. This one was 'little old lady who had died' owned and had 28K on it and looked new from 30 feet back. However underneath, as one of the previous posters mentioned, the control arms were barely attached and all the brake lines were rotted away. I got the heck out of there. Mazda or Kia specs for body steel must have been way better than Suzuki's. Only cars I can think of that were worse were during the 3-4 years that the Russians tried flogging Lladas in Canada and those cars came completely apart during their second winter.

[BigElCat]

Your responses weren't as harsh as I was anticipating...perhaps there is a way to hide my Xfi posts from Geneva and Oren :p

I'll respond in reverse order:

To PU 241;

I think I'll replace the Festiva axles before I spend any money on the Xfi $150.00 should cover that and they'll work with any swap I'm thinking about. I read the Mullet guy's stuff about the frame horn repair, I need to do that on the driver's side. The previous owner did a repair on the passenger side.

To Crusher 773;

You probably didn't miss out on a good deal. I had to give $1300.00. The hood is rumpled up and the windshield busted because the previous owner drove it unlatched. He was advertising on Graigslist and had 2 other buyers on the hook. The young man is pretty honest, the car has been in his family since new. It looks to be well maintained. The silver Festiva doesn't make it to Paola. We have about 10 running here, 2 of them are in excellent shape. The best one is white, with aftermarket spoke alloys. I've never met the owner.

To Safety Guy:

I read the frame horn rust problem is due to "laminated thin gauge stampings"...I don't know if this is true, from what I can see, it looks like ordinary sheet metal.

To SuperDaveGulvak:

"Bought it for the rims" might work as an excuse, except I have the super cool Mercury Capri 14" alloys on Festus I'll be putting my leftover 12" tires on the Xfi. Hand me downs may be too good for this step child, we'll see how it behaves

To everybody:

I'm not too sure about the Xfi. The roof line is about 4" lower than the Festiva, I have to do the Fosbury Flop just to get in! I've hit my right ear twice on the aircraft style door opening. It doesn't like downshifting into 2nd. This one has super dark window tint which I find annoying. Maybe it'll grow on me...if not...I won't hesitate to bad mouth it at FF.COM

I'll throw some pics on here soon...one day weekends suck.

[BigElCat]

Mazda or Kia specs for body steel must have been way better than Suzuki's.

I had a '76 Subaru 4x4 wagon that seemed to rust much worse than my '77 Toyota Celica.

I know Asia uses a lot of recycled steel. I'm curious about how steel is sorted, graded, and kept 'pure' when they throw it in the melting pot. I bet there's a lot of variation between batches.

[BigElCat]

Here's the pics. The Metro roofline is a good 8" lower the the Festiva's.

[ericsmith32]

You have got taste in vehicles.. well except the Metro. Looks like your F150 needs some love. I'm hoping to get mine running next year if the kids allow it. Expensive little buggers.