February of 2011, I purchased a 1991 Ford Festiva since I have a 64 mile round trip commute to work. I paid $500 for it and it was pulled out from behind the chicken coop when I showed up to buy it. It had damage from hitting a deer and I had to replace the right rear wheel bearing before I could even leave the sellers farm. I figured if I got a year out of it, I would be ahead quite a bit. Well here it is almost 2 years and almost 30,000 miles later and it is still running great and getting 40 mpg. I've been fighting to solve a vibration issues. I replace the 12" wheels and tires with 13" wheels and new tires and that helped a little. Installed another used set of front hubs and that helped a little more. I installed some new tires 2 weeks ago and it rode like a different car. I was so happy, I decided to paint it. I just wanted a 50 footer. I bought a Harbor Freight HVLP gun over a year ago and finally got to use it. I wouldn't use it on a good paint job though. I bought some tractor enamel from Tractor Supply. Good ole Ford Tractor Blue. I HATE white cars ( and I own 3, now 2). Anyways this is what it looked like when I got it. I replaced the hood and right marker light and installed the proper headlight and that's how I drove until recently. I had purchased a door and fender about a year ago and just put it on last week. The steel on the Festiva is very thin. There are a lot of little dings. I didn't fix many of them, it would have taken way too much time. For right around $100 including the gun, it looks just fine from 50' or more.
That turned out really nice looking! Probably the nicest looking Festiva I have ever seen. Nice work!
Thanks, it's got a lot of imperfections up close, but it turned out better than I thought it would. There quite a few great looking Festivas on the Festiva forum. Many have swapped in larger engines and turbos. They come with a Mazda 1.3L and a 1.6L bolts right in. One even installed a V6.
Looks darned good from 500 miles away!!!!!!!!! I like the color. Reminds me of the 1987 Escort I once owned. It was white also.
Nice. Ive always wanted to paint a car like you did. If I ever get to paint a beater, I'd paint it the same color as the Taurus in RoboCop
The little car looks good all blue! Good job. Thats pretty close to "Petty blue" I think. I once had a Fiat 124 Sport that color. A couple of rattle cans of satin silver on those wheels would give you another big improvement in the looks department.
At 50' it may look good but from 2,649 miles away it looks awesome. Great job. The color sure suits the car.
