new (2 me) festy report plus does anybody ever..........................

[loknlode]

clean your car out?


just bought the one the guy in columbia had for $1200 (I'll attempt
pics later) and it was as dirty as they come inside and out. I could
see that it was pretty nice under the crud.


mechanicly it runs fine with 130k miles. well it runs fine now - the cat
was so clogged it would cut off at idle half the time and the mileage was
27.5 mpg before getting it fixed this am. whatcha wanna bet it gets better
mpg's? lol. anyway the muffin man ran 2" pipe from the ex. manifold flange
aii the way out the back and x-ed the cat and resonator. sounds good now and
I could tell a big difference right away. got that done for $100 including the new muffler.

my only complaint now is that it has the sloppyest shifter I've ever felt.
can't tell the dif between it being in nuetral or in gear!!! oh well, I got used to
it rather quickly.

I'll have a new mileage report in a couple days.

but back to original ? it took me 4 hours to clean out the interior!!
I don't ever let my car go past where a rag, a bucket of rinse water, some
409 and 20 minutes won't do the job, including armor all. 10-15 minutes on
the vac and I'm done. I promise you I spent 1+ hours on the vac alone.

do you guys wash/clean out your cars fairly often? 3-4 times a year at least?
I try to give mine a coat of wax twice a year.

or, are you the type that waits till "stuff" falls out when you open the door and
then AND ONLY THEN take the leaf blower and blow em out?

[TominMO]

If you only do the rear shifter bushings, you will see a real improvement. Cheap and easy fix. Bushings from Kia are under $3 each; to do front and rear, you need four. I also like to tighten up the non-serviceable joint with a zip-tie or a paper clip, to take out a little slack there too, but that's the least necessary.

[old yellow]

Ya... just had my car fixed saturday, and wow he did a good job.... no amount of buffing and waxing could make it look like painting it does.... he will still buff and wax it next weekend....

[1990new]

Sound like you are on the way to getting ready to run that really clean Festiva another couple hundred thousand.

My method to get the carpet, floor and upholstery really clean is to remove everything, including the carpet pad. (I also put in new carpet padding if it's musty)
It's much easier to clean the seats when they are out of the car. Some people even cut the hog rings and remove the covers and wash them in the washing machine.
My way to clean the carpet is to hang it up, beat it and vacuum well, give it a good spraying with a garden hose, then mix up a solution
of 1/2 cup of liquid laundry detergent, 2 ounces of bleach, and two gallons of water. I put it in a garden sprayer and then spray it all over the carpet, us a soft bristle brush on the bad spots, rinse and repeat until it's thoroughly clean, then let it drip and air dry (need a sunny day for that, which we may finally get by Wednesday). While the interior is stripped, you can give the floor and plastic interior parts a good cleaning and then a good coating of armor all on all the plastic. You can also clean and lubricate the hand brake parts easily while everything is out.

I wax mine once a year, and generally keep them clean all the time. (Then of course I'm retired and have the time.)

To really get the gear shifter stable you also need to replace the stabilizer bar bushing where it attaches to the transmission.
I have a supply of both (plus the bottom boot) that I ordered from Fourgreen. I'll let you have enough to do the job at the fourgreen
price + 10% plus shipping.

Nylon bushings cost .48 each so .48 x 4 = 1.92 + .19 = 2.11
Rubber bushing cost 1.42 so 1.42 x 1 = 1.48 + .15 = 1.63
Shifter bottom boot 3.90 so 3.90 x 1 = 3.90 + .40 = 4.30.

Total comes to 8.04 + 3.22 postage = 11.26.

How does this deal sound.

[200KGPGTP]

I've noticed this trend with Festivas anyways. Every Festiva I've bought was just an absolute WRECK inside. The first one's interior wasn't even salvageable, I threw it all away. It was that bad.

[sc72]

Hey Buck did you find another Festiva yet.

[old yellow]

it was lucky of me to find our second Festiva that clean and with such low miles.... the second owner aid he did so much work cleaning the car just to get it looking like new since it sat for at least ten years and it was over taken by anamals... we are the 3rd owner of the festiva and it has about 50,xxx miles on it....

[dalebwilson]

The first one I bought was spotless and was cleaned using 1990's method above. The 2nd one I just purchased a few months ago was so dirty I didn't want to sit in it. Incidentally, the dirty one turned out to be the better car.

[200KGPGTP]

Hey Buck did you find another Festiva yet.

Working on getting one currently. Teal 93 5 speed with 305,000 miles. Just have to wait for him to find the title

[jaketlong11]

I cleaned mine 2 mounths ago and going to clean it on the 10th for ohiostevia

[bolokid]

I've noticed this trend with Festivas anyways. Every Festiva I've bought was just an absolute WRECK inside. The first one's interior wasn't even salvageable, I threw it all away. It was that bad.

The interior of our first Festiva was totally trashed when we purchased it. It came complete with ashes, beer cans, cigarette butts and personal items. My son and I now have a step by step procedure for each Festiva we purchase. We first remove the seats and carpet and scrub them with Tide and water then hang up the carpet and rinse it with the pressure washer, most of the time there is a noticeable change in color. Then using Purple Power we clean the inside of the car. While the seats and carpet are drying we make a trip to Lowe's, buy 4 rolls of duct insulation and use it as sound proofing on the floor, spare tire area, inside the doors and in back of the panel pieces. It usually takes 1-2 days for the carpet to dry, if we notice grease stains that did not come out of the carpet we cover them up with carpet/vinyl spray paint. Once back together we stand back and admire another fine job.

[harpon]

This one was pretty clean when I got it a month ago. Florida has some nice ones now and then, many out on the countryside, if anyone could come and get them. Here in Jacksonville, cars get pretty beat up for their year. This one only has 75,000 on the odometer, and looks like it may even be for real. The guy who told me it was his fathers who hadn't driven it much-

The motor was a bit tacky- like it had never been cleaned- supposedly had a recent new clutch and timing belt/water pump- but the grime made me wonder about that

The underside though is simply pristine- no rust at all.

[loknlode]

cl ads 059.jpg


got it cleaned up and wheels painted.