What a B-Day! >:( RIP skeeter; may you live again.

[freshtiva]

Miami man lives in St Louis, Ive gotten several parts from him. Sorry about the accident Guess the tools were a timely gift .

[skeeters_keeper]

OK, life has been buuuzy with school and work and stuff so i havn't gotten an update on here real recently but here's how things are looking:

after stripping things off it wasn't looking too good... i called up 3 shops yeasterday, w/o looking @ it the first one said "at least $5-600", just to straighten the frame. second place said 7-800, third place said at least 250. i took the car to the third place today but they are closed, i'll go in on monday for an estimate. if they will do it for <$300 i'll get it done right away.
I think i mentioned about my neighber had a stiva i wanted to buy, well today i saw he was actually home (b4 i talked to his wife) and there were 3 festivas there! he was taking parts off the one that had been sitting in the woods and putting them on the one he drives all the time b/c he got in a lil accident too; he said no chance of selling..... that was really my hope, fine one for cheap w/ a blown engine and swap in my engine. oh well i hope i can get this frame straight for cheap enough.

after surveying dammage i need:

-corner/turn lights (on the way, thanks brian!!!!)
-hood (already have an extra)
-left and right fender
-front bumper cover
-radiator

i'll know on monday if i hafta replace the core support or not. if i do idn what i'll do, i don't have a mig welder or anything... we'll see

well thank you guys, specially paul who i call whenever i feel like i'm loosing it and don't know what to do...

l8r all!

[PaulLehr]

Sounds like Skeeter might be on a fast road to recovery with the help of everyone here and the talent of a good and reasonable body shop you should have him back on the road in no time. Don't get discouraged

[25Horseplay]

Any updates? I have your lights ready to ship!

[YpsiBob]

oh man, that was a nice lookin festiva. have you repaired it?

[packrat427]

Skeeter , how is the car coming ???
I have this funny feeling that you have been working feverishly to get it back together , and you are going to spring the Fixed photos on us soon
Tell me it is so :lol: and you will make it to OHstivaIV .

[slomoe]

Keeper, my 93 Festiva has been totaled twice. A couple years ago I hit a deer. They paid the car off then and I got it back on the road for very little money. It was ugly, but I was able to drive it home. I took the deer as square as I could. The hood, radiator support, radiator, fan, and a few other parts were toast. I found a good radiator for $50.00 and scrounged the rest for less than $40.00. Spent a lot of time pulling, pushing, sweating to get things back in place, more or less. Ain't as purty as it was but it got me around.

Then this spring an older lady pulled out in front of me. I had to take a high curb at a drive way to miss her. Her insurance bought my Festiva again. The second wreck I have pics of if, you want them. Got pics of the deer strike too, if I can find them. Both times I thought it was curtains.

I did all the work on the deer wreck. But when I hit the curb it literally tore loose and bent the bracket the sway bar is bolted to. It also bent the lower bar of the radiator support. A local body shop pulled things back into place and welded the new/used bracket into place. That cost me a whole $60.00! And it looks a little rougher than it did but still drives great.

I am looking for another Festiva as mine don't look so hot after all this. But I would drive it across country in heart beat. Good luck.

Does anyone know where I can buy 12 inch wheel covers? Mike

[25Horseplay]

With my 1st Festiva I took out a 6 point buck! Then a F150 coming the other way hit the deer too! I was able to drive my Festiva home. The truck had to be towed. I had to replace the hood and hinges, grill, and lights. I was able to straighten out the core support.

[skeeters_keeper]

yes, FINALLY an update! and as some of you seem to have expected, it is a good one

so, first off, i didn't get any money from any insurance. i also didn't have to pay any money, so no gain no loss... sorta anyway.
I took it to the shop we always take our cars to for inspecitons/etc... they also quoted me cheapest over the phone. they had my car for more than a week! thats why the updates were so few and far between. They needed straight fenders, a good hood, and hood hinges before they could do anything. a day or two later a freind and i went to the yard and got 2 red fenders, hood hinges, and a bumper cover for a total of $120. i hate the yards around here, that is such a rip-off... specially since we pulled it all! Oh well, you do what ya gotta do.
i got my car back on Wed of this past week. the shop was able to straighten the rad support and all alright. required some welding at spots, and the drivers side is about 1/4" back frother than the pass side, but at least the front end is more or less straight!! they charged me $350+tax.
i filled up the (still) leaking radiator and drove it home (no lights/bumper, but at least it had fenders and a hood on this time! before it didn't; quite a site to see ) as soon as i got home i took the rad off, and drained it. let it sit over night drying out some and the next day put JB-weld on the large visible crack on the top side (about 2-3" long). the fan had been pushed up against the engine and into the back side of the rad so bad it wouldn't spin; i layed the rad down, stood on the corners and pulled the fan up. all fixed! lol. the rad is a lil convex as a result, but hey :p
then friday after i got home from school (around 1pm) i put the rad back in, mounted the front bumper as much as i could. I had to drill new holes in the bumper support on the drivers side b/c it is still about 2" further back than it should be. i ligned the bumper cover up w/ the fender and attached it there, then went along and drilled new holes in the bumper support. there were 2 or 3 i could use the stock holes with on the pass side but that was it. The guy at the shop recomended replacing the bumper support; i dont think i'll bother.
after i got the bumper on i mounted the headlights, and was like "thats about all i can do really till i get the rest of my lights"... and then i heard the UPS truck... my lights!!! THANK YOU BRIAN!!!
Put the corner lights and turn signals in, and messed with them a little to get them working. got all my lights working then i prepared to try to fix my Rad... mixed up about half a can of that stuff thats supposed to repair rad leaks.. that stuff is nasty! after a while i got it all in, and let the car idle... and idle... and idle... it was at least 20+min, and i was like "the rad fan should be kicking on..." i checked the temp guage several times, at first it was normal, then it slowly went up about half. so i shut the car down and started testing my fan... i found a blown fues. tried again; fan didn't come on. i checkd and had power, so i found the relay and pulled that out... wasn't sure what to do but sat morning my dad and i pulled it apart, looked OK, sprayed some contact cleaner on it, put it togethter, fan works
we did this around 12:00 on saturday.. and i was planing on going to see a movie with a friend @ 12:35. quick got changed and hopped in my car, took it to the movie checked the fluid and checked for leaks several times, doesn't seem to be leaking at all! and drives straight too. sooooo happy
of course note *everything* is compleatly well in the world of skeeter, it has red fenders which look a *lil* funy, but i have plenty of paint left over from doing the whole car and over thanksgiving break i should be able to paint those. Also it stalls when idling after its warm sometimes, and whenever i start going it bucks and chugs real bad till i hit higher RPMs (like in first > 10mph or so), but it does it in every gear... i cleaned out the intake a throttle body yeasterday, we'll see if it fixes anything but it wasn't that dirty. when it does it sometimes it sounds really weird, like its only firing on 3 cylenders... but then it smooths out and is back to normal after a while. idn, i'm a lil stumped, but as long as it keeps chugin along for now i'm happy!
Thanks again soo much to all who helped and gave advice

Pass side:


Driers side:


Drivers sidea again; you can see how the wholes for the fender bolts had to be ground longer to get it to fit together. that side of the frame is still about 1/4" shorter than the other side, but he started ripping sheat mettal so he said he couldn't pull any further:





This is the fram below the battery tray... yea, it got seperated perty bad. he put some weld there..


I don't have any pix w/ the lights in b/c my camera decided to die! but i will soon. The inspeciton expired yesterday... i hafta call the shop tomorow to see if i can get it inspected... but basically its comming together real well

later all,

[packrat427]

I was right
Awesome Skeeter , so you will be able to make it to OHstivaIV
So you don't think you can pull off a quick touchup before then

[25Horseplay]

I am glad you were ale to get it back on the road with out too much trouble. I was glad to be able to help even if it was just a couple small parts!