New Guy...Just picked up a 93 Ford Festiva 5sp

[1990new]

I pretty much spent the last 2 days outside cleaning on this thing. Spent Saturday morning detailing the engine bay and waxing the entire car. I spent Sunday morning scrubbing the years worth of brake dust off the wheels. Car is looking presentable now. We also recharged the A/C system with 134 and she's blowing cold air. Hopefully it last

Wow... you got a great deal on that Festiva and you did a great job cleaning it up.
If the AC still had freon and mineral oil in it and you just added the 134a, if you're lucky it could last maybe 2 years max before you have to replace the compressor. Ideally it should be recharged with freon but we know that's next to impossible at this point.
At some point in the future you will have to remove all the components, flush everything out, get a rebuilt compressor, new expansion valve and receiver/drier and recharge with ester oil and 134a (or pag oil and 134a if you get a dry compressor). It's a little work but you really can do it yourself if you invest in an ac manifold set and a vacuum pump. I see that you can get 134a at $4.88 for 12 oz cans at Walmart now.

Even though the rotors are pitted, if they work ok and your wheel bearings are ok, you might experience a little grabbing for a while when you press too firmly but they will smooth out over time. I would just replace the pads for now and see how they do. Pad replacement is very easy to do..but replacing the rotors is a little more difficult and the time to do it is when you need to replace your bearings....and you eventually will have to.

(TominMo posted about brakes and wheels while I was composing I see.. I did what he is talking about with my 89 and it is a great thing to do in the long run. Other than my 89 all my others are bone stock)

[Joeyman]

someone had already converted it over to R134 the fittings for 134 where already on the low and high side lines. All we had to do was buy a can of 134 and fill it back up. I bought the kind that had a sealant in the can. We'll see how it goes. I have 40 bucks in recharging the A/C system.

I've already bought brand new rotors and pads. I have them sitting in the hatch. I got everything from rockauto it was $43 shipped.

Im working on getting my bumpers painted. I looked it over and it seems fairly easy to remove the front bumper

[1990new]

someone had already converted it over to R134 the fittings for 134 where already on the low and high side lines. All we had to do was buy a can of 134 and fill it back up. I bought the kind that had a sealant in the can. We'll see how it goes. I have 40 bucks in recharging the A/C system.

I've already bought brand new rotors and pads. I have them sitting in the hatch. I got everything from rockauto it was $43 shipped.

Im working on getting my bumpers painted. I looked it over and it seems fairly easy to remove the front bumper

I doubt they did a complete conversion, usually they screw on the fittings, put a vacuum on the system and then add 134a. True conversion would be all the steps that I described.

OK on the rotors and pads.. this job will require hub separation so you should definitely put new front bearings and seals in when you get this done (you can do it yourself but it takes patience and some ingenuity) I always get Timken bearings. You need 4 set 11's, plus inner and outer seals for each side (I'm not as picky on the seals).

[Joeyman]

That is absolutely gorgeous!

Another brake suggestion: you can replace just the fronts with Aspire brakes, which have a much saner rotor install design and gives you much better braking. If you are going to upgrade wheels anyway, I'd suggest 14s that are dual-bolt pattern for Festiva (4x114.3) and Aspire (4x100), with V-rated low-profile 165/55-14 tires from www.tires-easy.com. Great upgrades to braking and handling, and no clearance issues. Keep your best 12" tire as a spare, toss the space-saver. If you have a front flat, just move a rear tire to the front and put the spare on the rear; only takes a few extra minutes.

I need to get some interior shots because it came out pretty clean as well. I scrubbed and scrubbed the inside over and over then vacuum cleaned it about 5 different times..lol I ended up putting used floor mat's in the car. They are a darker blue color but that's all I had on hand and will work. I need grey color floor mat's to better match up. Oh well.

[1990new]

Takes a little patience but you can just clip all the hog rings and remove the seat covers, slide out the tiedown wires and toss the covers in the washing machine (no agitator type). You will be amazed at how dirty the water is and then how clean the seats are afterwards. I use zip ties instead of hog rings to replace them.

[TominMO]

Takes a little patience but you can just clip all the hog rings and remove the seat covers, slide out the tiedown wires and toss the covers in the washing machine (no agitator type). You will be amazed at how dirty the water is and then how clean the seats are afterwards. I use zip ties instead of hog rings to replace them.

Better yet, if you still want to keep the Festiva seats so you can have the same patterns front and rear, at least replace the Festiva foam with Aspire foam, esp. the driver's seat.

[muleskinner]

Nice find Joey! My other half has been looking for a Festiva since I got mine (2013), but she's picky. She wants a rust free Festy with A/C and an automatic .... a 5 speed would do too.
Have fun tweaking it the way you want it!

[firebush357]

I would recommend taking pictures of the Brakes before you do them and then as you do them so you know were the little pins clips go when you try to put it back together. Just a warning so you don't freak out, the Front calipers are mad of two pieces that bolt together. Kinda confused me the first time I took it apart.

[Joeyman]

Sunday I had gotten it this far along before I realized I was in over my head..lol

[TominMO]

If the rotors do not seem to be warped, just replace the pads. Sand the rotors with progressively finer sandpaper, ending up with 1500 grit for example, to smooth them out and remove the rust. If you are sticking with stock brakes, then go ahead and get screw-in studs for them instead of lug bolts. Way more convenient.

[william]

Yeah if the bearings are good I would just run them rotors if there not warped. Rotors suck on these cars . Just another reason to swap to aspire breaks.

[1990new]

I'm not a brake expert by any means, but I have put new pads on rotors that looked a lot worse than yours and they did fine for several thousands of miles.
From the wear away to the metal on that outer pad and the grove cut into the rotor, I can see why you would want to replace the rotors as soon as the bearings go bad though. So hang on to the rotors and read up on how to separate the hub from the steering knuckle to replace the bearings, rotor and seals. Pay special attention to the part about the
bearing spacer. Here is a link to my blog that prominently features FestYboys write up on how to do the job with tools you probably have now.
http://festivacentral.blogspot.com/2...acement_7.html

It's been a while since I updated the blog...

[Joeyman]

Took the car on the hiway last night. Seems like the MPH is reading way faster than I'm actually driving.

[firebush357]

Download Torque 2 lite on your phone, it has a dashboard you can setup to show GPS speed then just compare the 2 to see how close the 2 speeds are.

[Joeyman]

I downloaded a Ap that reads MPH and the speedometer is 100% accurate. Guess feels like i'm not really going that fast since i'm in a tiny car think doing 40mph would feel like i'm doing 60...lol not the case



anyways this happened. The brake pedal got very weak on me got home opened the hood to find the reservoir almost empty. Car is leaking brake fluid :-/