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Many moons ago, when I was single and really didn't give a rats ass about trying to impress anyone, I set out to find the worst/funniest winter beater so I could take my turbo'd Nissan 240 off the road.
Searching the local classifieds turned up lots of odd, terrible vehicles, but I fell in love with an automatic 1990 Ford Festiva that had been living beside a chicken barn for three years, and boy did it show/smell like it.
It doubled as a pickup truck on many occasions
Eventually I got tired of the white/rust/bondo, and bought ten cans of rocker guard
Anyways, I drove this thing for a year and a half until it succumbed to frame rust, and I sold it to a friend for $200, who patched up the body, drove it for a couple months then sold it. It was a terribly crappy car, but It was dead reliable and I've missed it since...
Now, fast forward to 2015. I now own a house with a ten car shop and share it with a lovely woman who is even more into cars than I am. After our anniversary weekend in Toronto, we returned home. I was told there would be a surprise for me at home, as it had arrived in the mail. As soon as we arrived, I was told to cover my eyes and was lead into the shop, where this was waiting, licensed, insured and ready to drive!
To say I was blown away was an understatement! Now I know not many people would be excited to receive an '89 Festiva, but I certainly was. The car came with quite the story. Purchased by an employee of a Ford dealership on May 1st, 1990 (my birthday is May 1st), it is a one owner car. Four speed, under coated every year, never winter driven. Aside from a bunch of dents and some very minor surface rust, it is rust free, quite rare for these.
The lady who owned it put 235,000km on it in 23years, at which point she purchased a car with air conditioning and put the Festiva into storage for her granddaughter, who was promised the car at a young age. 2015 was the year her granddaughter received her drivers license, but her mother deemed the car too unsafe and would not allow her to have the car. Heartbroken, the grandparents put the car up for sale. This is where my girlfriend comes in. A friend found the car on kijiji back in October and told her about it. She contacted the sellers and arranged to look at it. Apparently they were getting offers for double their asking price and from as far away as Boston, but after hearing my story and the fact that we were close enough for them to still see the car, they decided to sell to my girlfriend and not accept the higher offers.
Here's some pics after its first wash
Now for the future. The plan is to
Leave the body bone stock. It's going to be going in for a full body dent removal/surface rust repair/possible paint in the spring. I am undecided on swapping the engine to a Mazda B6t 1.6L turbo, a naturally aspirated Mazda DOHC 1.8L BP engine, or leave it stock. 13" Wheels/coil overs/suspension bushings are on the short list. The plan is to create a zippy stock looking car that's fun to throw around in the twisties.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Searching the local classifieds turned up lots of odd, terrible vehicles, but I fell in love with an automatic 1990 Ford Festiva that had been living beside a chicken barn for three years, and boy did it show/smell like it.
It doubled as a pickup truck on many occasions
Eventually I got tired of the white/rust/bondo, and bought ten cans of rocker guard
Anyways, I drove this thing for a year and a half until it succumbed to frame rust, and I sold it to a friend for $200, who patched up the body, drove it for a couple months then sold it. It was a terribly crappy car, but It was dead reliable and I've missed it since...
Now, fast forward to 2015. I now own a house with a ten car shop and share it with a lovely woman who is even more into cars than I am. After our anniversary weekend in Toronto, we returned home. I was told there would be a surprise for me at home, as it had arrived in the mail. As soon as we arrived, I was told to cover my eyes and was lead into the shop, where this was waiting, licensed, insured and ready to drive!
To say I was blown away was an understatement! Now I know not many people would be excited to receive an '89 Festiva, but I certainly was. The car came with quite the story. Purchased by an employee of a Ford dealership on May 1st, 1990 (my birthday is May 1st), it is a one owner car. Four speed, under coated every year, never winter driven. Aside from a bunch of dents and some very minor surface rust, it is rust free, quite rare for these.
The lady who owned it put 235,000km on it in 23years, at which point she purchased a car with air conditioning and put the Festiva into storage for her granddaughter, who was promised the car at a young age. 2015 was the year her granddaughter received her drivers license, but her mother deemed the car too unsafe and would not allow her to have the car. Heartbroken, the grandparents put the car up for sale. This is where my girlfriend comes in. A friend found the car on kijiji back in October and told her about it. She contacted the sellers and arranged to look at it. Apparently they were getting offers for double their asking price and from as far away as Boston, but after hearing my story and the fact that we were close enough for them to still see the car, they decided to sell to my girlfriend and not accept the higher offers.
Here's some pics after its first wash
Now for the future. The plan is to
Leave the body bone stock. It's going to be going in for a full body dent removal/surface rust repair/possible paint in the spring. I am undecided on swapping the engine to a Mazda B6t 1.6L turbo, a naturally aspirated Mazda DOHC 1.8L BP engine, or leave it stock. 13" Wheels/coil overs/suspension bushings are on the short list. The plan is to create a zippy stock looking car that's fun to throw around in the twisties.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
also i like doing things once/right the first time. 
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