'88 F*rd Festiva Autocross/Track/Daily Driver Build

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Looks like your all in on the festiva...
Will you be celebrating fetivus this year?....haha...like on seinfeld...

Those wheels would look good just in plain aluminum...what color you gonna do em in?

Yeah I'm kinda hooked on these things now lol. I'm thinking a medium/dark charcoal metallic with a bit of flattener to knock the gloss off. Should hide brake dust fairly well... mesh wheels on a daily driver that doesn't get cleaned often need all the help they can get!

[mongocanfly]

Funny..i was reading thru your other builds last night..then watched the videos y'all are making...got on craigslist..and what's the first thing j see?.....https://huntsville.craigslist.org/ct...684491876.html

[Russell Ashley]

Looks like they are more common than I thought. https://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/c...676322945.html

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Funny..i was reading thru your other builds last night..then watched the videos y'all are making...got on craigslist..and what's the first thing j see?.....https://huntsville.craigslist.org/ct...684491876.html

That guy is dreaming at $2900 firm!

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

Looks like they are more common than I thought. https://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/c...676322945.html

They're not terribly hard to find but they're usually pretty beat up. Finding a nice one is rare.

[theastronaut]

I took the transmission off the engine and cleaned it, then tore it apart today to figure out why it wouldn't shift into reverse. It ended up being a super simple fix; someone had pulled the reverse light switch off and left the sealing washer off. That let the switch sit in the case too deeply and the spot on the internal shift linkage that swings over to press the detent ball was hitting the tip of the threads, stopping the shift linkage before it dropped into reverse. Unfortunately I didn't spot that until I had the 5th/Reverse gear stack off and the case apart. Getting the shift fork alignment and 5/R gear stack back together correctly was a chore since I didn't have a clue about what I was doing (never been inside a transmission before). It's all back together (and working!) now except for torquing the lock nuts on the end of the shafts and installing the end cap.

[rusty76]

At least you figured the problem out.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by rusty76

At least you figured the problem out.

Yep, I'm glad nothing was actually wrong or broken! They're not the easiest transmissions to find.

[theastronaut]

I worked on straightening the wheels today. One was ok, one wasn't terrible, and two were way out. Used a porta-power and torch. Kinda sketchy but I got them straight enough for autocross. Also shot them with Rustoleum. After seeing how bent they were it would be a waste of time to blast, epoxy prime, and shoot urethane on them.








Latest YouTube vid:

Donor Teardown & Reverse Repair- SFA Ep. 8 -...

[jhrusk]

Cool video.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by jhrusk

Cool video.

Thanks Jay!! I've got my fingers crossed that the rain holds off in Pigeon Forge this weekend...

[jhrusk]

Yes me too. We've been here since Friday night and it was packed for the shades. I think thurs and fri is looking ok but with that storm out there I'm sure it will change daily. Are u bringing anything?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by jhrusk

Yes me too. We've been here since Friday night and it was packed for the shades. I think thurs and fri is looking ok but with that storm out there I'm sure it will change daily. Are u bringing anything?

Probably not, the '69 C10 is taking longer than expected to get it back together... as usual

[theastronaut]

Got my race seat mounted, the R888's mounted on the new wheels, and fixed a blown rear shock. I've been running the car too low with the Escort wheels which killed the shock inserts in the front coilovers as well (no compression damping), but I didn't find that until the night before Saturday's autocross. I raised the car back up to it's optimal height for grip and stuffed soft bump stops on the front shock rods to add some compression resistance. Not the best solution but I didn't have extras on hand to swap in.

I hadn't driven on the R888's before the autocross so I wasn't used to the extra grip. My first two runs were pretty smooth and fast even with the added weight of a passenger, running low/mid 53's which was about 3.5 seconds behind the quickest times posted so far. I pushed the car harder on the third run and noticed that the car was cutting out in the corners; the carburetor wasn't fueling properly from the added grip of the stickier tires. My last run was with no passenger and a better idea of how the car handled with the new tires so it was my quickest at 51.6. They weren't annoucing everyones times like they used to but after asking around a bit we think 49.9 was the quickest of the day set by a modified S2000. So it did pretty good for having blown shocks and running low on power through the corners!

I have a pretty good idea what I need to change on the car to make it stick even better for the next event- taller rear bump stops to decrease body roll and increase the amount of weight on the inside front tire to keep it from spinning when on power out of a corner, and less toe out in the rear so it's not quite as loose. I'll probably have to go with a different carburetor setup to fix the fuel slosh issue; I've been looking at sport bike carbs and building my own intake manifold to fit them.

Intake would end up similar to this, four individual carbs on a simple manifold. I'm pretty sure the stock intake is a restriction now that I've done port work, cam, header, and exhaust work so there should be a gain in power with bike carbs.




Busted rear shock.




Fronts height set too low- even chewed up the bump stops.




Momo race seat mounted. This made a huge difference in driving the car- I had to learn to just steer with the wheel. With the stock seats I was having to hold myself in the seat with the wheel and steer so it made driving difficult.




Old ride height on the new wheels/tires. Looks good but rubbed the fenders, and the suspension geometry isn't the best for grip.




At the autocross at race height. Blake brought his GoPro and had it mounted in the car for three of the runs so I'll post those once he get them on YouTube.

[rusty76]

Glad to see you beating on it. I bet it is a blast to drive.

[Travisarmenta]

Just checked this out, extremely fun thread man

On to look for Festivas.......

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Glad to see you beating on it. I bet it is a blast to drive.

It is! People that complain that fwd cars are no fun need to go for a ride in this thing, it'll change their mind real quick!

Originally Posted by Travisarmenta

Just checked this out, extremely fun thread man

On to look for Festivas.......

Don't do it unless you have room for multiples... they're addictive and you'll end up buying more lol. There's a blue '88 nearby on Facebook Marketplace that has me tempted.

[theastronaut]

Back to the red car... I'm hoping to have it running by the Festiva Madness show in Raleigh in a couple of weeks. The to-do list is a mile long so it may not make it, but I'm trying hard!


I started by cleaning and painting the 1/8" plates I welded in, and also painted the new lower rad support.









The engine is back in.





Carbs on to figure out linkage and caple placement.







The header flange was warped from welding so I roughly straightened it in the press. I'll have it surfaced and ceramic coated.





Fitted the downtube and tacked it to the flange.

[jhrusk]

Cool project. Getting it done.

[rusty76]

With the carbs that close to the firewall will that create a restriction in airflow? It’s really cool to see there are shows dedicated to these machines. When is the meet in Raleigh? If possible I’d like to go but if not this year maybe next. Looking good.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by rusty76

With the carbs that close to the firewall will that create a restriction in airflow? It’s really cool to see there are shows dedicated to these machines. When is the meet in Raleigh? If possible I’d like to go but if not this year maybe next. Looking good.

There's about 2" right now which should be enough. I'll end up using shorter stacks and filter housings, making sure to keep enough space between the stacks and lid.

The festiva show is on the 13th in the Snoopy's parking lot (2431 Spring Forest Rd, Raleigh). Hope you can make it!

[theastronaut]

All of the new suspension parts came in so I've been assembling that.

No one other than Tein in Japan makes direct fit Coilovers for a Festiva... those aren't the best and are expensive so we modify coilovers made for a MK2/3 Golf/Jetta. The supplied spring hats for the front were too tall so I used the rear spring hats but had to cut them down and add a chamfer on the lathe to get them to clear the strut tower at full caster/camber settings. The springs were too stiff for the lighter Festiva, so I bought 10" tall 2 9/16" 120# springs from Southwest Speed. I also had to cut the brake line tab off, bend the brake line, and weld it back on about 1" rearward. I didn't have to do that with the earlier setup I had on the car (same as the white car now) since I'm not using camber/caster plates with those coilovers.






Spring hat clearance before and after trimming.











Brake line interferance. (the lines aren't as rusty as they look, they had some sort of soft clear coat that's flaking off that has rust stains)




Camber/caster plates installed. Charlie has tested the plates with these coilovers back to back with the setup I'm using on the white car. He picked up two seconds with the new setup and said that the tires wear more evenly, last longer before overheating, and the car hooks up better coming out of corners. The plates are new so this is the first time anyone has been able to adjust caster on these cars.





I cut down an reshaped the Capri upper radiator mount and mounted/wired the fan using factory plugs from the Capri.




The guys at Oreilly let me go in the back to look at all of their radiator hoses so I could pick out a pair that were shaped correctly.




I found a set of NOS Motorcraft plug wires and sorted out the carb linkage and accelerator cable brackets.

[theastronaut]

For the rear suspension we use KYB GR2 shocks made for the rear of a MK1 Cabrio with 36mm Bilstein sleeves/adusters to turn them into coilovers. The springs are 105#, 10" tall, 1 7/8" diameter. This setup is a few pounds lighter than the MK2/3 coilovers, is smaller diameter for more tire clearance, and the extended length is shorter for less suspension droop (important to control body roll).


The sleeves fit over the shocks like they were made specifically for them once you lightly grind down the peaks of the weld beads at the top.







Fully assembled. Notice the tall progressive rate bump stop inside the spring- that helps to limit body roll as the car leans without needing to use a sway bar. I'll trim it to have 1" of free travel before the bump stop engages.




One of the guys on the Festiva forum makes these spring top insulators that fit snugly into the shock tower. The top half is molded soft urethane to dampen noise transmitted through the spring. This is another upgrade over the machined spring hats I have on the white car.

[69gmcc10]

Seriously excellent work being done here! Good knowledge, fun videos, outside of the norm; this is my favorite build on the forum. please keep it up!

[rusty76]

Never in a million a years did I think there would be so much to do with a Festiva. Lol. Cool work.

[mongocanfly]

That some serious suspension you got going on there...