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

[theastronaut]

A few updates. I have another Michelin autocross this weekend, so I bought a new set of AR1's since the one's I bought last year are used up. Phil's Tire Service in NY is stocking these now so I didn't have to order them out of Ireland like last time.

Its not often that a full set of race tires ships in two 20x20x15" boxes.





These are almost the same width as the 185/60-13's I bought last year but are quite a bit shorter to help gearing on tight autocross courses.






I also finally found a set of 14x7" wheels in the perfect offset, and they're not ugly! This is the widest that'll fit without flaring the fenders, and the added width stretches the tire to stabilize the sidewall and contact patch. I've had the 185's fold the tread in really hard corners on 6" wheels, making the front end hop.


This isn't them, but it's what they'll look like once I strip and refinish them. Very similar to BMW Alpina wheels.





It takes -3.5 camber, rolled/pulled fenders, and small body coilovers to barely get 7" to fit under the stock fenders/quarters.

[theastronaut]

I've also started recovering the race seat. I bought it used about two years ago and it wasn't in the best shape then and it's gone downhill since. We already had the leather, and another local upholstery shop had an insert material that'll compliment the stock interior colors.

Stripped down.




New materials.




Headrest panel marked to have the logo embroidered.




The sides of the seat were pretty lumpy so I glued 1/4" dense foam and block sanded it flat for a good base for the leather to glue to.






The edges were uneven.






Filled the low spots in with foam and used a 2" grinder to level the excess.




Insert design laid out.




So dad has done upholstery for 40+ years; that's all he did when he first opened up the shop but I've never taken the time to learn how to sew. These are my first practice pieces.






The test piece with 1/2 sew foam to make raised panels for the inserts didn't look exactly like I wanted it to, and the stretch of the material made it difficult to keep the edges perfectly square. So I had the idea to cut the shape from 1/4" foam and glue that over the insert padding to create the raised pattern.




With the insert design and raised foam idea working, I needed to make a metal backer for the upper 1/4" foam pieces to glue to since I wanted the upper part of the back rest to fit more flush with the backrest than the 1" foam I was using for the lower part. To blend from a flat background to the 1" foam I glued the 1" foam to the bottom of the metal panel and used a 2" grinder to gradually fade from 1" down to nothing. It still need a bit more shaping but the idea will work.


Small test piece.




Full backrest foam and upper panel.

[mongocanfly]

seat work looks good John

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

seat work looks good John

Thanks! It's been really fun figuring out how to do all of this.


Backrest padding finished.






Left room for the materials to wrap around the edges.




I made a small test panel and covered it to see how much I needed to compensate for the material in each channel between the foam blocks. Then transferred that spacing over to the cloth and used an iron to form creases for easier alignment when gluing the fabric onto the foam.






The finished insert.

[theastronaut]

Came in 19th overall out of 67 cars at the autocross. The layout was really open and set up for cars with more power so my 75 hp wasn't enough to keep up with faster cars.







Had to replace a rear shock, it's blown a few from the mounting bushings being too tight (I think). So I shortened the spring hat to make a flat surface for the bushing to sit on and eliminated the steel bushing seat. This also shortened the extended shock length (measured from the body mounting point) so there's 1/2" less droop now which should limit body roll slightly.

Before:






After:








Forgot to post a before pic of the seat. The original cover was a really thin material and the bottom only had a drawstring to secure the cover to the seat. It didn't last long, and only the logo was worth saving for a monogram shop to have as a pattern.




Finished the seat base pad and cover.










Headrest cover monogrammed.

[mongocanfly]

Congrats on the finish...seat looks great....

[nitroracer]

I've never seen this much detail on making a custom seat, its really neat to see it come together. I think I have the same type of seat for my old Integra.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Congrats on the finish...seat looks great....

Thanks Greg!

Originally Posted by nitroracer

I've never seen this much detail on making a custom seat, its really neat to see it come together. I think I have the same type of seat for my old Integra.

It's been really interesting to attempt this, I'm itching to get started back on it and stitch the leather sides.

[theastronaut]

The Miata engine I bought ended up needing too much work, so I found another Capri this week, this time running and driving with a big nose engine for only $400. The guy that had it quit driving it after it wouldn't pass inspection due to the taillight sockets being messed up and it not idling. The idle problem ended up just being a cracked intake boot between the air flow meter and throttle body, throwing off the amount of air going through the AFM. The interior is rough and the quarters are rusty so I'll pull the engine for the red car since it runs good and part out/scrap the rest.






Test drive vid. It makes around 90-100 hp stock and the Capri weighs 700 pounds more than a Festiva. It should make 150ish in the Festiva and rev to 8,000 rpm so it'll be a bit quicker once swapped over.

Donor Capri Test Rip - YouTube

[MP&C]

John, you’re just having too much fun!

[theastronaut]

Finally got a chance to get the new/old wheels stripped and painted. I had single stage urethane color matched the the Festiva's paint code so the color would match. Pretty happy with how they turned out.









Also found another cheap Capri, the owners were only asking $150 for it. The wiring harness under the hood is completely destroyed and its beginning to rust underneath so it's not worth saving, but it has a good big nose 1.6 and a lot of good parts to resell. It came with a really rare '94 XR2 only spoiler, only 366 XR2's were imported here that year.

[mongocanfly]

Nice sunset pics ....

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Nice sunset pics ....

Thanks... unfortunately things didn't go well with it today.


















It's pretty bad... the C-pillar was hit hard enough that it's warped the body from the b-pillar back. The paint is cracked on the roof rail above the B-pillar and the passenger door is scraping the latch when opening/closing it now. The hatch isn't latching correctly either. You can see just how bad the roof is warped by the gap at the front of the quarter window. I have full coverage on it but I'm sure repairs would cost more than its worth, so it'll probably be totaled. And negotiating a reasonable value on the car with the insurance company probably won't be fun either, NADA range is 500 for low retail to $1225 high retail, KBB is $1038 to $2115... neither are realistic. It still drives fine, but I'll have to take it to a shop with a frame machine and hopefully they can get it back in shape.

[gigamanx]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Thanks... unfortunately things didn't go well with it today.


It's pretty bad... the C-pillar was hit hard enough that it's warped the body from the b-pillar back. The paint is cracked on the roof rail above the B-pillar and the passenger door is scraping the latch when opening/closing it now. The hatch isn't latching correctly either. You can see just how bad the roof is warped by the gap at the front of the quarter window. I have full coverage on it but I'm sure repairs would cost more than its worth, so it'll probably be totaled. And negotiating a reasonable value on the car with the insurance company probably won't be fun either, NADA range is 500 for low retail to $1225 high retail, KBB is $1038 to $2115... neither are realistic. It still drives fine, but I'll have to take it to a shop with a frame machine and hopefully they can get it back in shape.

That's awful to see man. Here I am ready through your thread seeing all the work and enjoyment only for murphy to go drop a tree right where you parked. Junk it maybe? Keep the seats and tires for the next ride

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by gigamanx

That's awful to see man. Here I am ready through your thread seeing all the work and enjoyment only for murphy to go drop a tree right where you parked. Junk it maybe? Keep the seats and tires for the next ride

It sucks, but at least its fixable. I'll push the roof rail back in place and repaint it.



I bought another turbo Capri over the weekend for a drivetrain donor. Got it for $250 and it the owner said it was running six months ago. Doesn't seem to be getting fuel so it should be a simple fix to make it run again.

[mongocanfly]

Dang the bad luck...!!

[theastronaut]

No real progress, just more parts collecting. I finally found another set of NOS Cibie driving lights (top lights in pic) to tie in with the high beams for better distance visibility at night. This was one of the best things I did to the maroon '88 when I first bought it.




Found a set of BMW/BBS 13x6" wheels for cheap locally, but only because I was running low on wheels...






The new cover for the race seat had been on hold, waiting on these harness grommets to show up. They were supposed to be aluminum but were plated instead, which would've worked for the brushed finish I wanted if the plating hadn't been so thin. I'll have to strip all the copper off or find another option.




I picked up a rust free local '93 Aqua for a friend in Ohio and delivered it to him at a weekend Festiva meet near Columbus. The flatbed did great on the 1100 mile round trip, and got better than expected mileage even with all the hills- 11.1 towing on the way up and 12.3 on the way back with the tow dolly strapped to the flatbed. One of the guys had someone hit him at an intersection, so I helped pull out the damage using ratchet straps and limited tools. I got to drive a 1.6 dohc swapped Festiva for the first time, and also a 1.8 swap, and finally a 1.6 turbo XR2 swapped Festiva... that was probably top 2-3 fastest cars I've ever driven, and I'm itching to XR2 swap one of mine now.










I've been wanting an Aspire trans for the shorter final drive and was able to pick one up at the meet in Ohio. I split the case to look inside but haven't done anything else with it yet.




And I bought another Capri, this time a pretty special one. They only made 366 turbo XR2 models in '94 (last year of production) so I was surprised to find one that was close enough and cheap enough. The owner parked it a few years back after a mechanic shop ruined the crankshaft snout after redoing the timing belt. He had bought another XR2 engine to fix it but it ended up also having a bad crank snout, so he gave up on it. I bought it Friday after work and got the drivetrain and harness/ecu pulled. I'll do a quick detail on the shell and post it on the Capri group for someone to restore.

[mongocanfly]

Another one ....wow...I'm sure you'll get the other fixed...

[theastronaut]

Went to Illinois a few weeks ago for a Festiva meet and autocross. I think I came in 32nd overall out of around 70 cars and first out of all of the Festivas. It was a fairly open layout so only having 75hp hurt me, and there were numerous trailered/purpose built autocross cars that were running Hoosier A7 slicks competing. I was 5.3 seconds off the fastest time of the day.








I've been wanting a hit and miss engine for years now but they're hard to find in SC. One of the guys at the meet had a 1924 Fairbanks Morse 1.5hp throttle governed engine that I ended up buying... it's not a spoked flywheel hit and miss like I wanted but I can maybe use it to trade up to one.




The engine is starting to get a little weak and smokey so I started collecting parts to build a replacement. I want to stick with the original 1.3 sohc in the white car just to keep it simple.

I picked up a '94 Aspire for a friend in NY and he let me have the engine and trans for storing it for him. Its the same engine and trans as a Festiva, just geared shorter (4.05 vs 3.77). I'll use the trans since to help it pull out of slow corners better, and it'll still hit 60 in second since the new engine will rev to 8k instead of 7k. I had planned on using the engine since it only had 150k miles but it ended up having a blown head gasket and really warped head- the cam had to be hammered out.







Another friend had chopped up a stock engine to see how thick the castings were in various areas.




Measuring the combustion chambers, then refilling them with the amount of cc's needed to get the compression where I want it- .090" off. I had the warped head cut .100" to make sure it could be cut that far safely.








Measuring valve spring pressure.




I've been buying up NOS parts for the build as they've popped up on eBay. There's a set of NOS .030" over pistons in the mail now.












One major upgrade I'm doing is swapping in a 02-05ish Kia Rio crank and rods. They're identical except it has full counterweighting on every rod throw instead of only on half of the throws on the original crank. These also have a harmonic balancer instead of the stamped steel Festiva pulley. This should help the bearings last longer when spinning 8k rpm.




I went to an auction awhile back and bought a tub of AN hoses for $15 with no idea of what I was going to do with them but they were too cheap to pass up. I'll be able to use them to vent the block and head to an air/oil separator. The stock venting leaves a lot to be desired when revving higher than stock, especially on my worn engine that has some blow by.








And no update would be complete without the purchase of another Capri

[theastronaut]

Made a bit more progress on the b3 build. The original intake has been a restriction even on the mild 75-80hp engine that's in it now. A friend of mine in the Festiva group has been playing around with aluminum casting and wanted an intake that would adapt independent throttle bodies from a sports bike to the original Festiva engine, and we had talked about a version for bike carbs as well. The angles runners required for bike carbs didn't work out, but we found snowmobile carbs that are designed to mount flat and he made castings to mount them to the engine using 3D printed forms.


This was a test run, not the actual production piece we'll end up using. I have the 3d printed forms now to slick up with high build primer and paint so we can send them to another friend that will cast and machine a batch of them.





Yamaha RX1 carbs and dual Ferrea valve springs that are known good to at least 8500 rpm.




I decided to use the original block instead of the standard bore Aspire block after finding NOS .030" pistons on eBay and NOS Mazda rings in Dubai.




Before/after pics of porting the head.









Found a suitable spot on the block to drill and tap for a breather vent. I'll also drill/tap the valve cover and run lines to an air/oil separator.








And the obligatory Capri purchase post. Found this one 20 min away for $450 and it was running/driving with only 130k miles. It's a '92 so it has a big nose crank engine. Plan is to do a little fixing up and drive it while the Festiva is apart getting the new engine swapped and dialed in. I've already bought a set of wheels and tires, new top, basic maintenance parts for the engine, and pulled a bunch of parts from my parts cars to make it dailyable. I'm off all this week so I'll work on doing some minor bodywork an shoot it the original white color to make it less ugly. I've put around 375 miles on it so far and it runs and drives great.

[mongocanfly]

Wow.....you've been busy..!!

[Russell Ashley]

I didn't know you could still buy a running and driving car for $450 dollars. The wheels and tires look great, it's going to look good when you work your magic on it.

[rusty76]

You were talking about using the RIO crank. Are the Festiva and RIO motors the same? I’m just curious because I’m noticing some patterns here. It seems the Miata, RIO and Festiva see to be close relatives. Nice work and info as usual.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Wow.....you've been busy..!!

Yep!

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

I didn't know you could still buy a running and driving car for $450 dollars. The wheels and tires look great, it's going to look good when you work your magic on it.

Thanks, I literally registered it and put a new soft top on it and it was ready to drive. It's crazy how cheap Capris are. I did have to put a water pump on it about 200 miles into driving it, it started leaking. Went ahead and did the cam/crank seals and timing belt while I was at it.

Originally Posted by rusty76

You were talking about using the RIO crank. Are the Festiva and RIO motors the same? I’m just curious because I’m noticing some patterns here. It seems the Miata, RIO and Festiva see to be close relatives. Nice work and info as usual.

They're not all the same but similar. Mazda originally designed the Festiva for Ford, and Ford had Kia build the models that were sold it the US. The drivetrain was based on existing Mazda B-series engines used in the 323 and was built and assembled by Mazda in Japan, but Kia continued to use various Mazda B-based engines and random mechanical parts even after Festiva production was over. Early Miata 1.6 DOHC engines are the same block/head/internals as Mazda 323 GT/GTX and Capri, the Miata had different external parts since it was RWD. Festiva has a 1.3 version of the SOHC 1.6 323 engine, the bore is different and the head has different sized ports but it's basically identical except for the bore size. It's a direct bolt in upgrade for a Festiva. Rio's have an updated version of the 1.6 DOHC engine, the crank dimensions are the same and the block is mostly the same with an updated head. The 02-05ish Rio's still used steering racks that interchange with Festiva racks, we adapt the Kia front strut mounts to Festivas since they have bearings instead of bushings so it steers easier. The 1.5 and 1.6 early 2000's Rio engines either are Mazda engines, or have a lot in common with Mazda engines, so some of those parts interchange directly with Festiva/Capri engines. The Capri/Miata engine has the same stroke as the Festiva engine, as does the Rio crank and all of the flywheels/harmonic dampers, etc will interchange. I think the rod length is different on Festiva/Rio and Capri/Miata so I went with the Rio crank and rods to get the double throw couterweights with rods that fit the Festiva block and pistons. It makes for really good parts availability and a lot of parts to choose from for upgrades, and it's all dirt cheap since its so common. The DOHC parts are pretty stout too since the engine was originally developed for rally use in the 323 GTX.

[theastronaut]

The rear quarters needed more work to make the wheels fit in the rear so I cut the inner fenderwell and pushed the quarter out about an inch with a porta power, then plug welded a strip over the cut. That made the quarter buckle directly over the wheel, so I pushed it out and did some hammer/dolly stretching to straighten it out, then skimmed and blocked it straight.
















Bodywork roughed in, SPI paint bought.






Now they tuck under with some camber added. This is right at full compression, it won't sit quite this low when its done.