Accepting entries for August FOTM 2013

[GenevaDirt]

Lets get them in....remember...it is more about the story but we all want and love pics.

[redspire]

Are Aspires allowed to be entered for FOTM?

[bravekozak]

Yes to Aspires, plus Kia Prides and Mazda 121s.

[GenevaDirt]

Are Aspires allowed to be entered for FOTM?

Absolutely

[RhodeStiva]

Have been Addicted since 2001 when i got my first Festiva.( white GL with pink pin stripes lol)
Sold it to another high school kid. It was handed down from one student to the next for 10 or so years.
he crashed it 2 weeks later( i was devastated). I wanted Another but with no rust i looked for 5 years and found this blue one. from Huntsville Alabama a 8 hour drive and towed it home. Next day started working on it from basic aspire engine swap so i could drive it for the first year. I made it to FM6 and had the best experience ( my wife also).
So much she wanted an automatic when we got back. I found one and bought it (Aqua).
and started digging in the Blue one. Had bad luck at JY with a BP engine took it back got a 95 MIATA engine block and bought Head off a local escort gt enthusiast.Frankensteined it togeher and added my own touch. Before the engine installed i swap the front with 2001 Kia Rio brakes and tinted the wondows. The picture off the old looking one is the day i brought it home.

[redspire]

So, in 2010 I received a call from my father telling me that he found me a car, seeing as how I was having a ton of problems with my current car at the time. On September 2nd 2010 (Which was my birthday!) I went to the car lot, looked at my first Aspire, and that was it. Within the hour I signed the papers and bought my first Aspire for around $1500. Everyone at my school gave me crap for it, but I loved it!
Throughout the course of a month I kept noticing that the car was running out of oil, but not burning or leaking. Mid-October I found out that I had a blown head gasket.
So, being the young and stupid man that I was I took the car back to the lot that I bought it from, and because it had no warranty, I paid another $1500 to put a new engine in it (I know...stupid). The next issue that I had with my first Aspire was when I took it to a shop to have both of the axles replaced. After picking it up from the shop and driving it home, I realized that it would slip out of gear often. When I got it home, I looked under and realized that it was leaking transmission fluid. The idiot mechanic put the old damaged seals back on the car and it was leaking faster than I could keep it full, ultimately destroying the automatic transmission.
I then started my first year of college and a friend of mine had a friend who was giving a car away, and I was fortunate enough to get the car! So I parked my Aspire for a year and began driving my Oldsmobile.
October 2012: The urge to get back into an Aspire was overwhelming, so I brought my Aspire back to my college, but after a few trips back and forth from home I ran into a front end problem and multiple issues and that Aspire is now parked at my college.
Then on March 18th 2013, I got my second Aspire, and my first 5 Speed car! The story behind this Aspire is that one day I was in class, and I was searching Craigslist for Ford Aspires, and I stumbled across this beauty. It was listed as 800, and after talking to the gentleman, we agreed on 600 and he agreed to deliver it 2 hours to me. I sold my Oldsmobile on a Friday and didn't get my car until Monday, talk about a leap of faith.
When I got this car it was idling terribly and would not accelerate without sputtering at all. I replaced the plugs and she ran like a beauty! Ever since then it's been quite the run. I haven't done anything internally engine-wise yet, but I have plans to try some stuff. I replaced the headlights and corner lights on it on day 1 because they were all cracked up.
The next thing I did was replace the stock air filter box for a cone filter and put some blue NGK wires because I couldn't find red. I also replaced the valve cover gasket because it was leaking like a fiend. I replaced the front seats as well because they were all tore up and I had another 97 with decent seats. These were eventually covered with the Red seat covers.
I then started a new position at my workplace and my coworker is a car cleaning fanatic. One day he took some scratch-X 2.0 and rubbed it on my car. I was SOLD! I spent $70 on cleaning supplies that day and spent a whole day cleaning the interior and exterior, restoring it back to its glossy red color!!! The next thing I did was change the blue cone filter to a red cone filter to match the car.
I then did a ton of research on interior painting and decided on painting the interior with Krylon Fusion for plastics paint. It worked great as you can see! I also swapped out the stock gear knob for a billet style one that I got for about $12. I also painted the rims a flat black color, which I think turned out really nice.
All in all, I really love this car, and so does my fiance. It's been an amazing journey with this car, and I can't wait to see what's in store for "The Widow Maker" next.
This first picture is of my first Aspire, which I'm hopefully in the process of getting back on the road.
Aspire 1.jpg
This is my current Aspire on the day that I got it!
CAM00022.jpg
The next are just a few various pictures of the little things that I have done to it.
CAM00027.jpgCAM00136.jpgCAM00137.jpgCAM00138.jpgCAM00140.jpgCAM00141.jpgCAM00162.jpgCAM00256.jpg

[redspire]

Anddddd More Pictures!
CAM00279.jpg

CAM00281.jpg

CAM00285.jpg

CAM00280.jpg

[GenevaDirt]

Ok....2 good ones so far....keep them coming.

[bravekozak]

How does that beehive shifter knob feel? Is it rock hard or slightly soft?

[redspire]

Rock hard! I love it though, and the cap unscrews so you can put stuff in it!

[Kbaker2012]

I would like to submit my 89 LX for FOTM 2013. I did Focus spindle swap and 626 coil springs up front swapped to 13" powder coated Geo Rims Honda Civicc Short throw Shifter redone the complete engine ported out the head and intake and has a K& N air filter Honda Civicc rack bigger sway bar front and rear ( Rear is Aspire ) Front is 323 Pioneer Head Unit with Phoenix Gold 1300 Watt amp and two 10" Infinity subs all speakers have been upgraded to Pioneer with 5 1/4 in the doors and 6x 9 in the rear mounts Mazda RX7 steering wheel the car was a complete mess when I got last May and I just painted it ( July 4 ) Fleet Metallic Blue. Have 175/70/13 tires on it and KYB GR-2 struts all the way around. It was a smoker with bad pistons and rings and a cracked head. I located another head and had it check then ported it and put larger valves in. I had an old cam and had it custom ground for more lift and power. Future mods include but not limited to is center console from and Escort GT and Kia Rio seats and 4 Wheel Disc brakes. I may use the Rio tranny as well. I am very impressed the way this thing handles and it still gets 47 MPG. It is call my Machine Under Total Transfer or just [B]MUTT [/B]

[crazyrog17]

I've been waiting for August to come up to enter my car. It's my birthday month, and the time I love driving it the most! Windows down and tunes blaring, curvy long two lane roads... Beach and back on $3.35.

I have a 1993 Ford Festiva GL with an Automatic and 118,075 miles. I bought it Jan 2, 2010 with 93k on the odo. The car came home on a dolly from Toledo with a cough and a wheeze; 5gal bucket of ATF in the hatch? The broken and flailing connecting rod meant engine replacement. I still owe Donny (xaero_81) many, many more thanks for getting the beast running again.



We dropped in a freshened up Craigslist -delivered for $100- '92 B3. 25k miles turned on it, then 2k ago I replaced the head gasket.



Short list of mods:
Keyless Entry / Remote Start
35% front 20% rear tint
White 13" TSW's
Escort wiper gear
Big Volvo Horns
White carby grille
All LED exterior lights with 1200 lumens of red brake lights
LX plush seats with removable headrests and 50/50 split rear seats
Pioneer HU and an 8" Subwoofer in ported box
Custom white LTU license plate frame



This is my favorite zip around car. I commute 1.5 hours in city traffic on school/work days and it's made better by having this efficient, fun and awesome Festiva.



I'm working on putting some more into it, so keep yer eyes peeled

[kellen302]

Did you do the blinkers with LED's too? did you buy one of the resister kits to make the flasher unit work? How much did the LED's cost you? if you don't mind my asking.

Thanks

[crazyrog17]

Shoot, I guess not ALL exterior lights. I haven't done the turn signals. Not many plug and play bulbs have the lumens required for that function!

If you were to use LEDs, just replace the flasher module with a digitally timed one instead of using resistors. It probably wouldn't be a direct swap but it would be more efficient, rather than correcting the flashing by faking a large current load on the system.

Total for running lights, dome light and brake lights is under $50. I spent a lot more than that before I found GOOD bulbs though.

[Powerstiva]

Here goes mine:
Back in June of 2012 I was working at a summer camp and on one of my weekends where I came back home my neighbor was selling it, I got him down to $1000 for it.
I bought it with a bad exhaust leak, but it was an easy fix since it just needed a new crush doughnut between the exhaust manifold and downpipe, but even still it turned out that I should of looked it over a little more beforehand but oh well cant do anything about it now! It's a 1992 Festiva GL with the passenger mirror! Since I got it my friends and I have put a lot of time and money into it. I've become obsessed with getting new parts for it!

The first thing that my friends and I did was swap in a 95' BP from an Escort GT with about 120k miles on it and a stock 5-speed E-series tranny. It somehow had a bent valve when I got the engine but my my friends dad was able to straighten it out with a screwdriver trick or something? I'm not sure what he actually did but it worked! It was our first time ever doing and engine swap and we got it done in about a month. That was how I spent the last month back home before I went to boot camp for the Marine Corps (3 months) The B3 was leaking quite a bit of oil, before the swap. Since then haven't had any engine related problems... Transmission problems however is a different story.

Like I said above at the same time of the engine swap we put in a 5-speed manual instead of the ol' 3-speed slushbox. I blew the clutch out after driving it for only 3 days, that happened because of a combination of it being the first manual car that Ive ever driven, as well as not putting in a new clutch right away and reusing an old one. This was a sort of bittersweet blessing, because it caused me to spend the rest of my short 10 days at home with family. After blowing the clutch she just sat around for about a month while I went to my combat training.

When I got back home this time it was only another 10 stop there this time we spent one night taking it apart and then had the flywheel resurfaced the next day and then on the third went to put it back together but couldn't get everything lined up right. After that I decided that it was taking up too much time away from my family and friends because this time it was around Christmas, so yet again I just let her sit =(

Fortunately I was able to talk one of my friends that helped with the engine swap into finishing putting her back together so I was able to drive her the next time when I was at home which wasn't until 6 months later. Throughout those 6 months I was able to purchase just about everything for my suspension swap that is very similar to AdvanceDynamic's because he helped me alot with putting it together.

Upon getting home this time I got 15 days to do stuff and most friends and family were busy because this time it wasn't around a holiday unlike the first two times (Thanksgiving and Christmas) With my time my dad, my buddy and I were able to swap the front suspension out with KYB VW MK2 Raceland shocks and 250Lbs springs which are WAY too stiff, and the front brakes swapped Aspire stuff and got her riding on 14"s in the front. We also pulled out the back seat at this time and attempted to install a new steering wheel but was unsuccessful with that because we couldn't get the new horn to work properly.

After this work I drove her around town and on the highway once. And then on about my 3rd to last day at home I was taking my sister to her summer school classes and I started noticing that the clutch was slipping and eventually it wouldn't hold at all. So I was out another clutch at this point, I was right around the corner from an auto shop when it happened and due to the fact that I just didn't want to deal with replacing the clutch myself I went and found out how much it would cost for them to do it, and the quoted me around $700! I straight up told the guy that it could be done in like 3 hours but he wouldn't hear it so just turned around and walked out. So now she sits once again, but this time Im stationed over in Japan and wont be home for at least a year and that would only be about a 20 day visit. I should come home to the states for good in about 2 years though.

Before the swap I put on around 1,000 miles on it, since everything else I've put on about another 5,000.

Here is a listed of the things I've done since purchasing her:

BP engine from a 95 Escort GT with about 120k miles
5-speed festy transmission swap
Replaced cracked windshield

Upgrades and Changes:
Kenwood Headunit
4" MTX Dash Speakers
4" Walmart rear deck speakers
6.5" MTX door speakers
200 watt BOSS amp
12" Kenwood Sub
KYB VW MK2 front Raceland shocks
Aspire Calipers and Rotors
14"VW snowflake Rims
New steering wheel
Rear seat delete
NGK Sparkplug wires
Cone filter =D

Things still needing installed or fixed:
Tiedown the battery in the back
KYB Struts/Shocks for the rear
Rear aspire beam and brakes
Fix slight rust/possibly replace hood as well as hatch
Replace 400 watt amp with 1200 watt
2 more 12" kenwood subs
Orange tach cluster
Smoothie tailights
New Clutch (again...)
Protege center console
Escort map light
Festiva badges

My future plans for it are as follows:
Complete teardown and cleaning of the engine, new pistons, rods, crankshaft, valves, valve job and porting
New transmission its going to be a G-series
Upgraded clutch
LSD
New Fuel pump
Rear Aspire brake swap with KYB shocks
Rear-Mount turbo
Standalone Unit

I have been talking to someone thats going to help make the engine rebuild and tranny swap possible for me while Im gone

And last but not least the pictures!!