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1400 rally car shenanigans

Huggy444

Huggy444

Edit: Updated with current car specifications.
Hoping to start competing in the 2016 AEMC Rally Championship. Won the Silverstone Junior Rally Championship in 2013 and 2014.

Suspension:
BC BR coil over suspension front, BC BR rear adjustable damper and height adjustable spring.
*Wanting full front 'polybush' to replace worn out wishbones, waiting until I snap an original before doing this*
Front and rear strut braces

Engine:
1348cc Coilpack Engine
GrpA Camshafts
Grp A Airbox
Almera Injectors
421 manifold

Interior:
Safety Devices Cage
Sparco Seats
OMP harnesses
Internal fuel and brake lines
Lightweight dashboard and stripped back loom

AMillOundleSprint2.JPG
EngineBay261115.jpg


Now enjoy my first post, 3 years ago where I was a mechanical retard......
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recently went out and bought our first Micra, a silver K11 named 'Dickie' who should, by the end of Feb/ beginning of March, be my junior rally car

20121215_115242.jpg


The paint was flaking of on the boot when we got him, but was mechanically sound :) We sanded down quite a lot of the boot and then primed, sprayed silver, then given a top coat. Bearing in mind neither me or my dad have any painting skill... it didnt turn out to bad and atleast we got rid of some surface rust :)

Before:
20121208_1220111_zpsa72709d4.jpg


After:
20121215_115349.jpg


We will soon commence the stripping of it's very nice interior ( If anyone's interested it MAY be for sale) and will then be sent of to Silverstone Rally school for its major preparation and build which should be:
Weld in Roll Cage
Anti Roll Bars
Air Filter
etc....
(Usual rally build essentially)

Updates will come slow and steady.... :)
 
Last edited:
So this weekend me and my dad started to strip out 'Dickie'.....
Got boot linings etc out easily enough, then came the struggle of removing the rear seats and seat belts :(
Took atleast 3hrs to remove 6 bolts which finally resulted in a walk to a neighbours to borrow a breaker bar.
Then found shedloads of glass to be removed..... Can only guess the window was broken at some point
Piccies:

20121222_141311.jpg


20121223_105937.jpg



Leaving the front seats and stuff in for now as it still needs to be driven. Will be sent of to be converted properly soon.....
 
Went to go and see the car at Silverstone whilst I was doing some training up there:


Interior has now been fully stripped out (Seats and plastics up for sale....:p) and also got the underbody protection on, which covers the oil sump, petrol tank and brake/petrol line cover as usua (sorry for blurry phone pics)l:



Roll cage and seats will be in soon, and car should - fingers crossed -be ready by the end of this month :D
 
Got the car home yesterday,


Ready to rally bar needing a new throttlebody....Still want:
Retrimmed door cards
Peter Lloyd exhuast
Air intake
Strut braces

Lovely safety devices cage :)
 
Refurbed some cheepy steelies ( Ta andy :p).... Did take hours and hours of sanding though :(


Parents not too happy about the grass


Started to strip down the door cards as they looked Sh** - Cut to avoid roll cage -



Will retrim them later :)
 
Huggy444 said:
Refurbed some cheepy steelies ( Ta andy :p).... Did take hours and hours of sanding though :(
Click to expand...
Tart :p
Yea they were a bit rough :( they've seen no loving really. The car has been by the seaside all its life. Looking better now though Alex :) next time use a wire wheel and sanding 'flap?' wheel in a cordless drill ;)
What you retrimming the doors in?
There's a suede material on ebay quite cheap. Similar look to the flocking you can get for dashboards etc :)
 
h701micra said:
Tart :p
Yea they were a bit rough :( they've seen no loving really. The car has been by the seaside all its life. Looking better now though Alex :) next time use a wire wheel and sanding 'flap?' wheel in a cordless drill ;)
What you retrimming the doors in?
There's a suede material on ebay quite cheap. Similar look to the flocking you can get for dashboards etc :)
Click to expand...

I would have used a wire wheel....but they cost money. And no micra owner has that much money:p
And I've ordered some brown 'faux leather' vinyl, could look, uhm, unique;)
 
Finished my door cards, forgot to take pictures as i went as I was running out light :/
I'm bloody happy with how they turned out and they now clear the cage with ease :)

May even do it for others if the demands high enough

Edit: And thankfully its not as light a brown as I feard
 
Nearly there, still need to just rip the headlining out, but want to keep the roof light? Is that possible in your opinion? There are still other little bits and bobs to do...

White steels make it look better as well...
 
Keeping the interior light isn't a problem :)
Though for a rally car you might want to consider LED strips on a switch. They're lighter and brighter... every gram helps. At £5 all in its not exactly expensive either :)
 
Huggy444 said:
So this weekend me and my dad started to strip out 'Dickie'.....
Got boot linings etc out easily enough, then came the struggle of removing the rear seats and seat belts :(
Took atleast 3hrs to remove 6 bolts which finally resulted in a walk to a neighbours to borrow a breaker bar.
Then found shedloads of glass to be removed..... Can only guess the window was broken at some point
Piccies:

20121222_141311.jpg


20121223_105937.jpg



Leaving the front seats and stuff in for now as it still needs to be driven. Will be sent of to be converted properly soon.....
Click to expand...



Huggy I need to know where to locate the "6 bolts" I spent easily over an hour the other day and only managed the bend the poxy seat on the corner.... It's like a fortress down there.

Cheers mate. I don't suppose you got any pics of where the bolts are?
 
uhm, theres the black brackets that need to be removed (behind the seat), seat belt bolts, lift the rear seats bottom at each corner and they should unclip (Might take a good tug, if you lift the seat slightly you should be able to see the clips). First thing id do is remove the bottom bit of the seat.. Give me a minute and ill check my Haynes manual
 
Ordered my Haynes on Friday ... Just a waiting game for now. Just FYI I may be going down the route of "rallying" this 1.0L. We'll have to see how things go.
 
Noooo, not at all. Dads an accountant.... I'm massively into cars and so is my dad though so he took the opportunity to get me into it, will also look good when applying for uni/apprenticeships :)
 
Amen to that .. I'm a Financial Paraplanner (20 years old). My little bro's into mechanics and bikes etc etc, I have quite an interest in it so I thought this'd be perfect for a little mess about. :) How many miles has yours got on it?
 
The engines got like 55k on it i think, first event in it is on the 18th this month... Lots of bits to finish off, but fingers crossed it'll all work out with no crashes :/
 
Didn't you pay to have it built alex.
And yes a rally car lookd good on a cv if you can back it with a portfolio
I know it doesn't apply to you but I get people saying they've built a rally car. Stripped interior, air filter alloys... no. Even then they've no proof they've done it.
Sorry to hijack partially here
But if you are building a rally car keep a portfolio of thr build. Like a blog but on paper :)
 
I didn't do any of the major building for the car, learnt a lot from helping/watching them do it though. The main reason for me competing is that most Motorsport engineering courses put pupils who are passionate about it in front of others... And because getting into a good Uni course/apprenticeship is getting harder and harder, every little bit will help :)

But, I have learnt to change alloys, strip interiors and put new bulbs in if that counts as building it? ;)
 
Take a seat out... photo it... put seat in photo it.. and add a bit of feedback. How easy/hard it is and the benefit of adding such a seat. Like it gives better protection and more confidence. Little bits like that add. Devil is in the detail :)
 
northernmicra said:
hi see you on sunday iam car32 I will look out for you to have a chat nice to see another local lad
Click to expand...


Sweet, will pop over if I see you about :) What time you going for scrutineering?

h701micra said:
Take a seat out... photo it... put seat in photo it.. and add a bit of feedback. How easy/hard it is and the benefit of adding such a seat. Like it gives better protection and more confidence. Little bits like that add. Devil is in the detail :)
Click to expand...


Aye, might do something like that after my panic for this event has settled down ;)
 
Going well so far, had to make a very crude transponder bar and cable tie it on :p

Stiffened up the suspension and lowered it a tad, follows my lines nicely unless im just being stupid ;)
 
Yeah :)

Was a near constant 20 secs behind everyone else in their rally cross minis (130hp ish) happy with that :)

Day went without a problem, well.... Heard a horrid knocking after a heavy launch, thought **** that's my driveshaft. Hadn't tightened my wheel nuts :/ whole stage closed because of me.... Oopsie
 
Yeah....I cocked up to be honest :(

Was trying to get one last practice run in so was swapping tyres as quick as by myself as Dad was off marshalling...Just forgot THE most important bit :(
Oh well, no axle etc damage so ill just learn from my mistake :)
 

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