Searched far and wide for a festiva, ended up with a nice Escort GT.

[expertninja]

I was looking for a festiva for a year, but I bought a nice, bone stock Escort GT today. Strong engine, good clutch, straight body with a few dings and zero rust. Needless to say, I'm a proud papa. I know there's a lot of parts carryover between the festiva and escort gt, and there's a lot of fans of both on here. What should I check out on it first? What parts should I be on the lookout for, what forums should I sign up for, what should I expect to go kaboom on my 800$ ride first?

Promo pic

http://imgur.com/W0dBORr

[bravekozak]

One word. FEOA

[kumalaba]

besides here check club protege.com also post your location, and welcome

[sketchman]

I'm on FEOA too. It's pretty dead most of the time, and lately I have stopped checking it.

[geoacuraisuzu]

I both envy and hate you at the same time...... why cant I get lucky and find an egt? lmao

[expertninja]

Well Maybe I was too quick to buy/didn't inspect it well enough...the jack well is rusted out, and it appears there's already been some rust repair/sheetmetal replacement in the spare tire well before. Now what? I haven't really had much car-fixing experience, and I really don't want to invest in a rust bucket. It appears they did the repair the right way though, cutting out the metal, welding the new metal in, and sealing all the seams. Also, has more of what appears to be sealant around the wheel wells and up into the shock towers, so I have to pull out the interior to check the rear strut mounts and whatever else. Hope it looks good under there or I may have to part this thing out. I added my location, will take some pictures and upload later tonight to see what you guys think as to whether it's worth saving or not.

[expertninja]

Album of pictures, still haven't figured out how to add them into the post, or if I even have the permissions to do so.

http://imgur.com/a/Oop8Y

That explains the clunks I heard, the jack was practically falling on the ground. Whaddya think? I'm going to have to get under the car to check everything else.

[expertninja]

Well, I took out the interior of the back. Pictures coming later tonight. The good news is the strut towers look great, the patch panels appear to be in good shape, the floorpans are also patched in it seems. Looks like I won't be parting it out any time in the near future, sorry guys.