After many years of adventuring, and a little bit of misadventuring, I'm back to a similar spot with the current Ford Festiva that I was at about ten years ago with the previous one... it's bio-degrading rather rapidly.
So the search was on for as rust free a Festiva as could be found within a reasonable distance and at a reasonable price. That part of the new project has been completed!
I am now the proud owner of an essentially rust free 1992 white Festiva with less that 120,000km (74,500 miles) showing on the odometer. It's had been parked on a concrete driveway for the past six or eight years and, fortunately, there is no evidence of any kind of animal inhabitants.
Following this link will take you to the build story for the current car and the general plan is to repeat that process for this latest acquisition. I will be updating and revising some of the systems as I go along. Depending on budget and timing some of those may, or may not, include:
- engine will be refreshed
- an air-to-air intercooler will be added to complement the water/methanol injection
- the A/C will be made to work properly
- coilovers replaced or sent off to Tein to be refurbished
The goal is to have the car ready to make the 2400 mile trip from Calgary to Festiva Madness 20 in 2026, hence the name FMXX. Festiva Madness is held annually on the first Saturday in October in the Raleigh NC area. We've been twice, once in 2011 and again in 2019. Each of those trips, and quite a few others, have been chronicled here in the Econobox Cafe. You can find the starting point for each trip here.
One of the major decisions will be regarding paint. Do I keep it white, paint it the same as the current car or a completely different color? Thanks to the photo-shopping skills of one of my daughters, here's an idea of what the finished product might look like in the original white! I am very pleasantly surprised how good this looks!
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If i decide to stay with the white this will bring me full circle... I purchased my first Ford Festiva back in 2000 and it was a white 1992!
I'm currently working on the logistics of this project and will keep you updated as things progress. I would love to hear what you think, or if you have any suggestions, so be sure to leave a comment below.
