Cone Filter Adapter Drawing
I designed a cone filter adapter that will fit the escort or festiva MAF. This is made from a piece of 1/4" steel plate and a piece of 3" OD pipe. This will accept a K&N filter.

Cone Filter Adapter
Well that was easy. I milled a piece of 1/4" steel for for the base and used a piece of 3" exhaust tubing for the pipe, then welded it together. I'll grind a little more, smooth the seams with body filler and paint. Now to get a filter and mount it in the car.

Festiva sees the snow for the last time
I thinks its time to put the Festiva up for the winter and start the painting (12/18/04).

Well the teardown begins!

Firewall Patch
This is the firewall patch shown from the engine bay.

Firewall Patch
This is the firewall patch shown from the inside of the vehicle. I made this out of 16g steel. I cut a piece a few inches taller than the hole and folded over the ends. Then slipped it in and traced the firewall profile and trimmed. Next I welded it in. Then made 2 sides and welded them in. There was alot of welding and grinding. A little bondo and seam sealer will pretty this up on the outside and the sound deadener will cover it up on the inside of the car.
The next step will be to modify the heater box. The intake actually hit the blower motor case. There seems to be plenty of room between the blower cage and case to modify it.

A few shots during the tear down

Sanding and body work in process

Ready for primer
The car is ready for epoxy primer. Many hours of body work and sanding to get this car straight. The car was is pretty good shape with only a few door dings and a dent in the hatch. Once epoxy primed I will spray it with high build sanding primer and block sand. The engine compartment will be painted last after the body is in color. It will be painted a semi gloss black.

Car is in epoxy primer
Bad pic due to the paint cloud.

Car is in sandable primer!

Block sanding
Finished the 1st round of block sanding. Block sanded the car with 180 grit and it is very straight. Not a wave or dent in the body now. Spent 6 solid hours sanding today. After that I sprayed another coat of high build sandable primer. Tomorrow I will block sand it with 220 grit. Then I'll get the engine bay ready. Last step before color will be a 600 wet sand. I really hate sanding but it will be worth it in the end.

Engine bay in black epoxy primer
I had planned to paint the engine bay a semi gloss black and not the color of the car body. This is the way the older cars are done, like my mustang. After seeing what it looked like in black primer I have decided to paint it the same color as the body. This includes the inner wheel wells also.

Now the entire car is in sandable primer
Engine bay is primed. Next I will wet sand the entire car with 600 grit and get ready for paint.