Are Festivas generally, almost invisible cars?

[bobstad]

I was just thinking of when I first saw my car, June of '99 in the parking lot of a small to medium size shopping center in Eureka, CA where people commonly placed cars with "for sale" signs looking for buyers.

I'd never noticed a Festiva before then. Which completely captivated me, reminding me for some reason of those little 1950's Citroen 2CV trucks with the back seat folded up; showing lots of turquoise tin, while looking generally utilitarian and economical yet also stylish.

I'm the sort of person with an eye for cars, able within certain time spans, to identify the year and make of many different types of automobiles, even trucks. And have always kept an eye out for anything unusual, interesting or attractive.

Thus, I still am sort of amazed I never noticed any Festivas before then? Maybe I did and just thought some sort of a Chevy Metro? I think there was one model a little more boxy looking than the others?

[freshtiva]

I think they are invisible, the way people are always pulling out in front of me. I added an air horn so they can at least hear me if they cant see me.

[bobstad]

I have noticed that the turquoise/aqua color is one that can be hidden at a quick glance, since too like the sky.

I really found this out luckily one day at an intersection, when but for a good habit of always looking twice, I'd of pulled out in front of a VW Rabbit I hadn't seen; simply for that car's light blue color. I was amazed I'd not even seen the car the first time I looked, also many years ago so any age related maladies now at sixty wouldn't of been an influence then.

I've noticed lighter colored cars since then too, will have a similar actual invisibility at a quick glance in certain situations. Could be your problem. Just get lots of stickers!!!!!

[snq]

A "respect my festy bat" helps with people not seeing you, I have a t-ball bat right now but I used to use a piece of 750mcm copper about 2feet long.
every time I see a festiva I yell FESTIVA to the point where all my friends started yelling it with me

[bobstad]

I don't give a toot?

I think they are invisible, the way people are always pulling out in front of me. I added an air horn so they can at least hear me if they cant see me.

Hey, I want to keep the normal horn; but, have a "Tarzan yell horn" from the J. C. Whitney catalogue I got buying some other things there, on a whim. Looks like they don't sell those anymore.

Now bolted to the front bumper for years I've never hooked up to a button; even though I got one especially for a car horn awhile back at a grocery/variety store here for two dollars, that sells all sorts of strange things at discounted prices. How do I hook that up?

I'd of probably figured this out a long time ago, except testing the horn for a young niece who was intrigued to hear the thing, the sound was so anemic I haven't been motivated since then; except for lately trying to fool myself that the connection we got with a couple wires off the battery might've been flakey. I had to use extra wiring to make the connection, just twisted to the two wires which come out of the back of the horn.

Which looks sort of official like, in the grill section I've removed the plastic insert from; sitting there on top the bumper. Like a small public address horn, or maybe some sort of a siren.

For $20 I guess I got what I paid for; though you can imagine the expectations anyone given to pouring over J. C. Whitney catalogues since their youth, might have. I still think about getting their "wolf whistle" which has been a perennial fantasy since the mid 1960s; always with a great lascivious drawing, a much more hip canine than Wiley Coyote. And cheap, too.

When I had the '66 VW "square-back" I lived out of most of the dozen years we were together from '82-'94, I found that the "start" button from laundromat dryers were exactly the same as an expensive horn button sold at electronics stores; so had been collecting those or trying to, in order to have a whole battery of car horns on the front bumper I could play like a keyboard instrument.

Except that I found typically that old electric car horns from wrecking yard cars, almost invariably were rusted and inoperative if they'd been sitting long; and usually didn't offer enough variation in pitch to be too interesting anyway. The electrical connectors on that car were an earlier era's design too, which made them a lot easier to fool around with than what the Festiva has. At least as expert as I've gotten to date.

[bobstad]

I've also planned on putting the second horn button where they normally are on most cars; right in the center of the steering wheel. I wonder if that is feasible?

[bobstad]

ya snooze ya loose; and glad about that too!

every time I see a festiva I yell FESTIVA to the point where all my friends started yelling it with me

I quit smoking pot; and found that I don't have any friends any more. Really a bummer, to have to make those sort of choices; when you realize the ramifications.

"Today I will either climb the walls, as an anti-social loner; or else submit to company, of which an alternate species might be preferable."

I even get along pretty good with large carnivorous, nocturnal predators. We generally keep different waking hours.

[getnpsi]

Hm. I had a nextdoor neighbor with an aqua one for years so i noticed them. Regular horns from a much larger vehicle like a 3/4 ton GM truck get the attention of most people because they expect a 'beep' from a little car. Sublte yet so out of place. There's a member on here who rescues caddilac horns from junkyards, I do not remember who.

It might be easier to just swap a steering wheel off another car where the button switch and wiring is there and good to go., A few nice mazda wheel upgrades are on here.

Horns are often mounted in locations where they pick up lots of water and road grime, Ive shaken the trumpet style ones upside down and was amazed they even worked at all with all the stuff inside. You might want to add an automotive relay to get good juice from the battery rather than the long tiny wire that goes around the whole engine compartment to the festiva horn, which has a flaky ground on the bumper as well.

[bobstad]

I always like seeing the occasional young woman, noticing the "SOMNAMBULANCE" in backwards three inch yellow lettering at the top of the windshield; who gets the sexual humor in that.

I went to a weekly peace vigil downtown here Friday afternoons from four till five, a year and a half religiously; just so I could use their "Congress is supine" sign, trolling for smiles from friendly satirical minded sweeties.

[bobstad]

Cattle tracks & storm chickens

There's a member on here who rescues caddilac horns from junkyards, I do not remember who.

I'd forgotten those Caddy horns are so distinctive and great sounding! They probably have their own serial numbers, and are kept track of by the factory; to keep people from using them on other rigs?

[getnpsi]

I dunno about serial numbers, but they are labeled by the note pitch they play! So if you see them on the ground you don't get two of the same one!

[bobstad]

I wonder if Ford did much advertising when they were marketing Festivas?

That would be the era in my life I was stranded in Spokane, from January of '89 to the fall of '94 more or less; and trying to winter sleeping in a '66 VW "square-back" in the Los Padres National Forest near San Luis Opisbo and Santa Barbara before then. I didn't drive much in Spokane; the motor of the VW inside the apartment I rented on the living room floor, as I tried to figure out an oil leak.

I probably didn't glimpse too many periodicals likely to have a Festiva ad, then. Wonder what they looked like? You have to think Ford dropped the ball on that one; such a great car, they never really got off the ground? The 12" wheels and too weak suspension springs, seem about the sole liabilities and another Ford snafu.

Probably when SUVs were really getting popular, and no one gave a damn how much gas they burned; and lots of born-again losers bought into the hype there was no such thing as global warming, while helping elect all sorts of moronic politicians in the pocket of the petroleum/war lobbies.

[bobstad]

slow pitch; like key largo...

I dunno about serial numbers, but they are labeled by the note pitch they play! So if you see them on the ground you don't get two of the same one!

I had a friend in Onion Creek, WA then with forty acres he, his wife and their family lived on, a real hippy-hill billy dogpatch community; so lots of junk cars everywhere to paw through trying to lift things for free, my friend was glad to get rid of anyway. Wish I'd of known that sort of thing then.

Hey, do you mean all horns, GM horns, or just Caddys? There weren't any Cadillacs on his place, naturally. Lots of trashy, big GM heaps like Buicks or Oldsmobiles though. Which seem for whatever reasons to have a long second half, half life; with the poverty stricken.

Where do I find the label telling the pitches, by the way?

[bobstad]

This is the exact horn button I have. [http://www.jcwhitney.com/12-volt-hor...x?filterid=j1]

I don't like the idea of having to put another type of steering wheel on my car; and guess there is probably some sort of an existing passageway for the standard horn wiring.

[getnpsi]

the regular GM horns are not disc shaped like the festiva beep horns, and are the size of a fist. the caddy horns are clearly marked E A D G whatever note they generate.

I've tried multiple searches and not finding the guy...hmph. I even found 2 threads i participated in about horns. the good thing is they are pretty inexpensive even if you don't get a friend's price you can buy several and combine them or put on different ones if you change your mind. Any fullsize car from the 80s or 70s will have a BIG sound, it just won't be that caddy sound we are fond of:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33619&highlight=horns