I am finally part of the club! 1.5 years of searching later

[Mercilesslee]

Hey guys I picked up my festiva from winchester over the weekend! Here is a picture of me gassing it up before its 5 hour drive home:

http://imgur.com/a/B2VSv

I paid 600$ in the end for my 1991 LX auto but when I got it home and on the lift I noticed some problems This is where I need your help. I was looking at pricing out parts that it will need to pass its safety inspection and have a few questions. So far the list is:

- All around new pads, shoes and rotors
- All around wheel bearings (possibly entire hub assembly)
- ebrake cable (the ebrake was zip tied to a control arm because it snapped in half lol)
- Rust issues, possibly looking for new doors
- How expensive is it to cut away rust and patch it? Some of the rust underneath is a little worrying but it passed an inspection less than a year ago
- new brake lines (the old ones are pretty corroded)
- Mirrors are shaking a lot and I'm not sure how to get inside them to tighten it up
- the car shakes a little bit over 110km/h might have something to do with the shot bearings though. the tires had weights so must have been balanced at some point.

OK so that is a list of problems so far lol but I really want to get this car on the road as a DD and take care of it. Any information or links to threads you could give me regarding these issues would be a huge help.

It's not all bad though here is a list of features in the festiva that I like so far

- It made the 5 hour trip home in an ice/snow storm didn't give me one problem at all (thinking of naming it Thomas aka the little engine that could hahaha)
- no leaks
- very low km motor
- POWER MIRRORS!
- Mint condition LX seat with tray, only one small tear in the drivers seat but the passenger is awesome
- speedo light with dimmer
- split rear seats
- ELECTRIC/AUTOMATIC START excellent for the winter months
- came with 9 tires. 4 winters, 4 summers and a spare (all of them fit in the car, with 3 people at one point lol so much space)
- interior was in good shape once i cleaned out all the garbage. (previous owner was a huge slob)

More pictures are coming don't worry! I should have documented the trip more for you guys but in the commotion and stress of picking it up and the bad weather I didn't get a chance. I will put it back on the lift sometime and get all the detailed exterior/ interior pictures within the next couple of weeks. Right now it is at a friends who is a mechanic he is going to look it over and see what he thinks of the issues. Anyways that's all for now any help steering me in the right direction with those problems and prices would be amazing.

PS Sorry I didn't set up a visit @Bert the weather was bad and I was in a time constraint. Would have loved to get you to look it over and meet one of the members, but you can tell me what you think after I get a tonne more pictures.

[RhodeStiva]

very nice and low miles.

[TheresGabe]

Do NOT forget to add lower control arms to your list. Most of this stuff can be found relatively easy at Autozone. If not they can get it in in a few days. Congrats on your purchase!

[georgeb]

Congrats on finding a rare electric start model!

[Prafeston]

Glad you finally went and picked this thing up. I was wondering if you had done it or note. I remember your thread asking for help...whether you should purchase it or not. I'm still a little worried about the rust issues, but it sounds like you were able to get them down on the price a bit. Hope you get it going as a DD in no time! Good luck!

[Mercilesslee]

thanks prafeston. yeah finally got it, it was quite the ordeal lol. forgot to mention it also has rear wipers and defrost. I also hope that the rust isn't that bad. The actual frame seemed alright to me like it could last a couple years but maybe i'll be on the look out for a body to swap everything into. 600$ was probably too much for the car but wanted to get one pretty badly and they are rare up here.

[Charlie1717]

thanks prafeston. yeah finally got it, it was quite the ordeal lol. forgot to mention it also has rear wipers and defrost. I also hope that the rust isn't that bad. The actual frame seemed alright to me like it could last a couple years but maybe i'll be on the look out for a body to swap everything into. 600$ was probably too much for the car but wanted to get one pretty badly and they are rare up here.

$600 is not bad. Especially if it isn't completely rusted out. Around here rusted out ones are listed close to $1000.

A note on the Lower Control arms... be careful some auto stores try to charge like 100 bucks and it should NOT be that high. Check Rockauto.com and ebay has some decent ones as well.

[Prafeston]

The Festiva is a Unibody...so I don't think you can just drop a new body on a good frame.

600 isn't bad. There is a guy locally that has a car he said was running when it was parked like 2 years ago, but it's rusting out and he's wanting 600 for it...not even running. It's also a carbed '88...though it is an LX with all the cool features...except for rear wiper.

[CrookedHalos]

Too bad you don't live where I'm at.. $60 got my inspection sticker and my Festiva didn't even have to be there.. *cough* >.>

[Team Lightning]

If you have time to wait, try rockauto.com for your parts. Most of the time they are cheaper than Autozone/Advanced auto parts.

[zoom zoom]

That's an awesome deal, electric start and an extra set of good tires to boot! Power mirrors, did those come stock? It sounds like someone put some love in it.

Instead of messing with the Festiva front hubs try to track down the aspire or kia knuckles and get the first half of the aspire swap done Haha..

[Bert]

I'll be junking a red 92 auto this summer after Damkid scavenges the roof liner out of it. Everything works and it still runs fine but once you get a taste of 5 speeds the poor old 'self-shifter' kinda fell by the wayside.

[Bert]

I have a collection of Festy hubs and brake parts (cheap to a good home, I'm thinking) and this spring will probably be making up another Aspire-swapped car which will then generate another pile of brake parts and a rear frame. I will have extra e-brakes but they are currently installed on cars that run (including the auto)and the one complete Aspire e-brake I have is not yet surplus to my needs. Something tells me the 'certificate of mechanical fitness' that the previous owner had was somehow fudged seeing as that car only changed hands a year previous and maybe 10,000 kilometers.

[Studebaker]

Now is the best time to do the aspire swap. All those worn parts can be replaced with aspire parts. Plus the larger tires load up the engine at higher speeds. Allowing you to go faster with out over winding the engine.

David

[Bert]

Now is the best time to do the aspire swap. All those worn parts can be replaced with aspire parts. Plus the larger tires load up the engine at higher speeds. Allowing you to go faster with out over winding the engine. David

I have never noticed any appreciable loss of performance from going to more common and slightly larger tires but I must say the Aspire-swap components sure have made service and longevity of brakes 100% better. Plus now I no longer have to scope around for 3rd rate (there are no 1st rate), and largely discontinued, wheelbarrow and golf cart tires.