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I'm calling it a GL-Minus because it started life as an L, but has several of the GL options. Since L-Plus was already used by Ford, I thought it would be amusing to look at the pessimist's side of that naming strategy.
My GF and her family are Festiva nuts. They started was an '88 L that they bought new. It now has 220,000 on it and they still have it. They've probably had a dozen other Festivas since then. All three kids in her family got Festivas as their first cars, My GF still has hers, but doesn't drive it much. Her brother still has his. Both her parents still have one. He sister upgraded to a new Hyundai a few years ago.
One day a few years ago we were driving down an alley behind the grocery store near her house and saw this Festiva sitting there with a for sale sign on it. She was very impressed that it had a passenger side mirror. All the Festivas her family has had, none of them ever had a passenger mirror.
We stopped and looked at it. It looked nice, but we both already had Festivas so we looked at it for a few minutes and moved on.
A few weeks later a co-worker of hers mentioned that he was looking for another car and he loved his previous Festiva. She told him about that one we saw. He went and bought it.
He drove it for a few weeks, then mentioned that it was making a funny noise and that the shift lever would jerk around when he went over bumps. Katie told him to bring it to my house and I'd look at it.
When I started inspecting the car, I realized that it had been wrecked in the front previously and rebuilt, and that the place where the trans crossmember bolts to the radiator support had given out. I cut it out for him, welded in a piece of angle iron with some nuts welded to the back of it. In the process of doing all this, when I removed the sway-bar to control arm mounts, I realized that the threads on the end of the swaybar were stripped.
When I put it back together I hammered the nut back on and welded it in place and told my GF's friend that he needed a new sway bar and bushings, but that it would probably be OK for a few days until I could get to the junkyard to grab one and he could make arrangements for other transportation for a few more days for me to fix it for him.
He didn't really pay much attention. I didn't charge him for the repairs.
Six months or so later he told my GF that it had made a load popping sound and started pulling to one side. She called me to ask what it was, I told her it was that sway bar thing I told him about before. He said that he didn't really need a car so he'd just let it sit for a while.
Ok.
So one day he called her and told her that the wheels had been stolen off the car and that it had an orange sticker that said they police would tow it soon if it wasn't made mobile and moved to a different spot. He asked her if she wanted it and told her she could have it for free. She asked me if I wanted it. I took some wheels to his house and, bolted them on, and limped it home with a broken swaybar.
In the process of fixing the suspension again, I did an Aspire (automatic) brake swap.
The only other thing I added was the rear hatch with the wiper. I swapped the complete sprayer setup too.
So enough yammering on, here are the pics of it. It was nice out today and I was planning on washing it before taking pics, but I realized that I don't have a garden hose at my new house. So yeah, it's dirty.
The wheels are 15x6" Rota Pulse. They are one of the least common Rota models, but they are light (14lbs per wheel) and cheap (less than $300/set from SubyDude) and I love the way the dark grey matches the color of the Festiva bumpers.
The previous owner painted the car. It's a decent job. I think the car was originally the same color, but the door handles and rub strips are body color now. Not something I would have done, but it seems like a good quality job.
The Vortech sticker was on the hatch when I bought it. I just haven't scraped it off yet. I think it's lame, but it makes people laugh. The hatch came off of a red GL, I sprayed it black. It's faded to grey. I like the way it looks - probably would never bother to get it painted to match.
Something I did that I haven't seen anyone else do on a Festiva, I took the headlights apart and painted the flat parts of the housing, around the reflectors black. I thought with the black debadged 88 grille and the black headlight trim, it gave the car a subtly different look without any complex swapping of parts or ordering things from overseas.
I think the front bumper is from a white GL and had been sprayed grey. I need to get a regular grey bumper for it because the white is showing through in spots. The fenders and radiator support were also white at one time.
The interior is not great, but it's not bad. It really needs new carpet or it needs someone that knows what they are doing to go through and clean it.
The black spots on the seats aren't cigarette burns, they look more like acid burns. Weird.
There are wires hanging out all over the place on this car. I think the previous owner had a big system in it. I went through it one day and yanked as many out as I could find, but they still keep popping up - like the one sticking out from under the rear carpet. I also found a ground wire connected just inside the hatch when I was taking pictures. It's like the car has hit puberty and is growing blue 18gauge hair in weird places.
133K. And runs like it's only got 233K.
Original jack, handle, and lug wrench still in it's sleeve. The spare tire is from an Escort GT (matches the 4x100 Aspire brakes).
Still to be put on. GL C pillar covers.
The repair I did to the radiator support - before I owned it. It needs to be painted, it's got a lot of surface rust, but it's holding strong.
This is the car I built the lower tie bar on. This might give you an idea of the clearance.
The only rust on the car is in front of the driver side rear wheelwell. There are some scratches on the foor under the lock. Like someone drove around with their keys in the lock and it rubbed against the door and scratched the paint.
And finally the obiligatory engine shot.
So. Since I've had this car - for more than 2 years - I've maybe driven it 50 miles. I drove it home, I drove it around the neighborhood to test out the brakes a couple of times. I drove it from my house to the dump to drop off a few things when I was moving. I drove it from my old house to my new garage, I drove it from the garage to backyard. That's it. I love it, but I don't use it for anything.
Lately I've been toying with the idea of selling it, but I have no idea what it would be worth. It's completely solid. It's begging for an engine swap, the chassis is ready for the extra power - everything is rebuilt, all the bushings are poly, the brakes stop this car as well as my 2004 Sentra SER's Brembos stop it. I've been looking for a wrecked Capri XR2 to pop up on Craigslist since I bought the car, I just haven't found the right deal.
So yeah, that's one of my Festivas and long story of my time with it.
Thanks for looking.
My GF and her family are Festiva nuts. They started was an '88 L that they bought new. It now has 220,000 on it and they still have it. They've probably had a dozen other Festivas since then. All three kids in her family got Festivas as their first cars, My GF still has hers, but doesn't drive it much. Her brother still has his. Both her parents still have one. He sister upgraded to a new Hyundai a few years ago.
One day a few years ago we were driving down an alley behind the grocery store near her house and saw this Festiva sitting there with a for sale sign on it. She was very impressed that it had a passenger side mirror. All the Festivas her family has had, none of them ever had a passenger mirror.
We stopped and looked at it. It looked nice, but we both already had Festivas so we looked at it for a few minutes and moved on.
A few weeks later a co-worker of hers mentioned that he was looking for another car and he loved his previous Festiva. She told him about that one we saw. He went and bought it.
He drove it for a few weeks, then mentioned that it was making a funny noise and that the shift lever would jerk around when he went over bumps. Katie told him to bring it to my house and I'd look at it.
When I started inspecting the car, I realized that it had been wrecked in the front previously and rebuilt, and that the place where the trans crossmember bolts to the radiator support had given out. I cut it out for him, welded in a piece of angle iron with some nuts welded to the back of it. In the process of doing all this, when I removed the sway-bar to control arm mounts, I realized that the threads on the end of the swaybar were stripped.
When I put it back together I hammered the nut back on and welded it in place and told my GF's friend that he needed a new sway bar and bushings, but that it would probably be OK for a few days until I could get to the junkyard to grab one and he could make arrangements for other transportation for a few more days for me to fix it for him.
He didn't really pay much attention. I didn't charge him for the repairs.
Six months or so later he told my GF that it had made a load popping sound and started pulling to one side. She called me to ask what it was, I told her it was that sway bar thing I told him about before. He said that he didn't really need a car so he'd just let it sit for a while.
Ok.
So one day he called her and told her that the wheels had been stolen off the car and that it had an orange sticker that said they police would tow it soon if it wasn't made mobile and moved to a different spot. He asked her if she wanted it and told her she could have it for free. She asked me if I wanted it. I took some wheels to his house and, bolted them on, and limped it home with a broken swaybar.
In the process of fixing the suspension again, I did an Aspire (automatic) brake swap.
The only other thing I added was the rear hatch with the wiper. I swapped the complete sprayer setup too.
So enough yammering on, here are the pics of it. It was nice out today and I was planning on washing it before taking pics, but I realized that I don't have a garden hose at my new house. So yeah, it's dirty.
The wheels are 15x6" Rota Pulse. They are one of the least common Rota models, but they are light (14lbs per wheel) and cheap (less than $300/set from SubyDude) and I love the way the dark grey matches the color of the Festiva bumpers.
The previous owner painted the car. It's a decent job. I think the car was originally the same color, but the door handles and rub strips are body color now. Not something I would have done, but it seems like a good quality job.
The Vortech sticker was on the hatch when I bought it. I just haven't scraped it off yet. I think it's lame, but it makes people laugh. The hatch came off of a red GL, I sprayed it black. It's faded to grey. I like the way it looks - probably would never bother to get it painted to match.
Something I did that I haven't seen anyone else do on a Festiva, I took the headlights apart and painted the flat parts of the housing, around the reflectors black. I thought with the black debadged 88 grille and the black headlight trim, it gave the car a subtly different look without any complex swapping of parts or ordering things from overseas.
I think the front bumper is from a white GL and had been sprayed grey. I need to get a regular grey bumper for it because the white is showing through in spots. The fenders and radiator support were also white at one time.
The interior is not great, but it's not bad. It really needs new carpet or it needs someone that knows what they are doing to go through and clean it.
The black spots on the seats aren't cigarette burns, they look more like acid burns. Weird.
There are wires hanging out all over the place on this car. I think the previous owner had a big system in it. I went through it one day and yanked as many out as I could find, but they still keep popping up - like the one sticking out from under the rear carpet. I also found a ground wire connected just inside the hatch when I was taking pictures. It's like the car has hit puberty and is growing blue 18gauge hair in weird places.
133K. And runs like it's only got 233K.
Original jack, handle, and lug wrench still in it's sleeve. The spare tire is from an Escort GT (matches the 4x100 Aspire brakes).
Still to be put on. GL C pillar covers.
The repair I did to the radiator support - before I owned it. It needs to be painted, it's got a lot of surface rust, but it's holding strong.
This is the car I built the lower tie bar on. This might give you an idea of the clearance.
The only rust on the car is in front of the driver side rear wheelwell. There are some scratches on the foor under the lock. Like someone drove around with their keys in the lock and it rubbed against the door and scratched the paint.
And finally the obiligatory engine shot.
So. Since I've had this car - for more than 2 years - I've maybe driven it 50 miles. I drove it home, I drove it around the neighborhood to test out the brakes a couple of times. I drove it from my house to the dump to drop off a few things when I was moving. I drove it from my old house to my new garage, I drove it from the garage to backyard. That's it. I love it, but I don't use it for anything.
Lately I've been toying with the idea of selling it, but I have no idea what it would be worth. It's completely solid. It's begging for an engine swap, the chassis is ready for the extra power - everything is rebuilt, all the bushings are poly, the brakes stop this car as well as my 2004 Sentra SER's Brembos stop it. I've been looking for a wrecked Capri XR2 to pop up on Craigslist since I bought the car, I just haven't found the right deal.
So yeah, that's one of my Festivas and long story of my time with it.
Thanks for looking.
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