'88 Funtop - Repair Project and Hopefully New Daily

[Xotyll]

Just picked up my first 121/festiva last week. It's a 1988 funtop in need of some TLC to get in back on the road. The general plan is to give it a much needed tidy up and repair what issues it does have and then to look at improving it's extremely bouncy suspension. Aside from being generally filthy and neglected, the car has a cold starting issue, the fuel gauge doesn't work and the clutch engages really high. There are also a couple of holes in the roof covered with duct tape, I'm guessing the rear spoiler section of the fun top was ripped out by an automatic carwash or something. The engine is a standard carby b3, I think the original b3 was replaced at some point with a slightly newer engine from a festiva (in Aus festivas were sold for several years after the 121.

The paint is pretty faded and the clear coat is peeling on the rear quarter. There's also the odd spot of rust here and there. The front bumper and grille have been damaged in a small accident but other than that it's in reasonable shape having cost $350.

Anyway, here's an album with a couple of pictures. Hopefully the link works.

http://imgur.com/a/WiYQI

[bravekozak]

She's a beauty.

[sc72]

Yes that's a great looking car, congrats.

[reddragon]

First thing that comes to mind is ejector seat mod.

[Xotyll]

Does anyone happen to know if the festiva front bumper is a straight swap or does it require some tweaking to fit? A local wrecker has a festiva front bar and I haven't seen any 121 bumpers around so far.

[bravekozak]

I would presume straight swap. However, it's been a long time since I had my bumper apart. You have to remember the parts tooling and accompanying SPC gauges are all very expensive and were designed for the duration of the car model.

[F3BZ]

yes, any WA festiva that has that bumper will fit. same brackets and steel support. you can just remove the cover pretty easily. couple screws in the fender. couple bolt into brackets. bunch of plastic push pins into reinforcing bar. unplug turn signals. you might want to try and push out that ding before getting another. it might pop back out, some bumper spray and might look acceptable.
looks like it's missing both front and rear finish spoilers. i have both to sell but of course shipping would destroy that. do what you can to save the canvas top. they have repair kits for rips but after 28 yrs. it's usually a lost cause. new Webasto canvas (really it's vinyl) is still available from Germany.

[Xotyll]

Luckily I have the front/rear spoilers, I took them off to clean the leaves and junk out from under them. Just finished giving the front spoiler a coat of paint since the old stuff was pretty blistery. Thanks for the info about the bumpers F3BZ and Kozak, I don't think I'll have any luck pushing out the ding, it's hard to see in the picture but it's pretty badly creased. The canvas top is in ok shape, it does have one tear near the rear and the sliders aren't really attached to it any more but other than that it isn't bad.

Added a couple of pictures of the repainted front spoiler, haven't done the rear yet as I want to fix up the rust that's setting in around the mounting holes. I'll also do the rear bumper + the replacement front bumper and the side trims eventually.
I think the front spoiler came out pretty good for a rattle can job outside on a windy day.

http://imgur.com/a/WiYQI

[F3BZ]

did it have a funtop or suntop decal? i thought mazda put a nice styling touch on that windbreak what with the depression in the middle. especially considering it being an econo car. and the rear one is indestructible. brand new, the front one was smoked translucent plastic but years of weather and debris usually score them up and hazy. i was thinking of polishing as best as i could and then maybe a coat of smoked lens tint on the backside so it doesn't get worn off from air born abrasives. here's a new one

[Xotyll]

Yeah the front windbreaker has a little fun top decal on it, it's still there. I decided to paint mine because someone else had already painted it and not done a great job, the plastic was also blistery in some places so I wet sanded it down a bit before the paint.
Picked up the festiva bumper from the wreckers, it was coated and dirt and I thought it was unpainted but turns out its painted dark grey. It'll be getting a coat of black along with the rear bumper at some point. Hadn't realised but turns out the Festivas have flush bumper indicators rather than the recessed ones on the 121. The new bumper came with 1 and I reckon they look much better than the recessed kind so I'll grab another one when I head over to the big self serve wrecking yard on Sunday along with other odds and ends I need.

http://imgur.com/9vYvKAL

http://imgur.com/xv1e2UX

[bravekozak]

I was going to send you the link to the 88 Mazda part number index on the Russian website. But, they updated it into the nineties. No longer online.

Thread 56351

[F3BZ]

Should be the same indicator for both. I have covers with flush and recess but the light is the same. There might be a difference in the wire connector.

[Xotyll]

Picked up a few more parts today. Got the other flush indicator, a glovebox with an unbroken latch and a few other odds and ends for the fun top and my corolla SX.

Now I suppose the main issue to work on is the cold starting. The choke does not appear to function as it should, I can open and close the choke fiddling around with the carb but it doesn't seem to engage automatically if the throttle is pushed to the floor before starting. If I close the choke and start the car, the rough cold starting is alleviated but I don't think (maybe I didn't let it get warm enough) it opens once the engine is warm.
I know carb issues have been done to death but I suspect there may be a physical problem somewhere - the carb seems to be a bit worse for wear, e.g. the switch on the side of the carb is out of line with screw that should engage it (I do not know what the switch does). Is it possible that a spring is missing resulting in the choke not activating when the throttle is pressed to the floor before starting?

[bravekozak]

I solved my carb problem by making an adapter and bolting on a set of twin carbies from an 81 Ford Laser. It runs great now. Mechanical twin choke cable.

[Xotyll]

the weber 32/36 conversion is looking more and more tempting. There's a kit in Aus for ~$600 but that's fairly pricey. I'm going to see if they are willing to sell the adaptor separately and look at picking up a used 32/36.
How tricky was making the adapter?