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1.3 5 door Project. LOW BUDGET!!!

J

JMcCarthy

Yeah I know what you might think, "whats the point in doing it if you have a low budget". I want to prove to people and myself really that it is possible.
A little about me, Im 17 and just finishing school to go onto university, Im also a chef in kfc (terrible money), this is the main reason for the low budget ;)
My car: given to me by a family member as an early 18th its a 2000 silver nissan micra 1.3 5 door. Battered exterior with some dodgy work done to it, (pics to follow).
Stone chips to bonnet look like bullet holes and extremely thin wheel arches.; High priorities.
The plastic bumbers and side panels are stained with wax they look bleached. All in all a dodgy looking ride.:(
The interior is the dull grey of most and the interior is my top priority for the whole project.:)


Main plans.-
. Carbon wrap bonnet (anyone know rough estimate of price) possible carbon wrap wing mirrors
. Lower 35mm to get rid of arch gap
. Paint all plastic nissan silver to blend.
. Paint grille black and mesh.
. Spray interior black to contrast with grey.
So any comments? and pictures will be up soon.
 
Welcome to the forum!

Good plans although you'll need to go lower than 35mm to get rid of the arch gap on these little cars, monster trucks from standard they are! ;)
 
JMcCarthy said:
Oh and by the way I have NO prior car knowledge!
Click to expand...

Hi fella, your best bet is to look through the "blogs" if your after a bit of inspiration.

Its your car at the end of the day to do whatever you want to do to it :) i imagine your limited by the impact modifications will have on your insurance but theres still loads of little bits & bobs you could do.

Carbon wrapping a bonnet with decent wraps around £50 - £70

Theres lots of info on here about taking the bump strips off your doors if they are on the scabby side etc.
 














As you can see the bonnets got some major stone chips, they dont look AS bad because the cars wet but you get the picture.
Im missing a wing mirror (on order).
Theres a single wiper conversion, not to sure about it though, Opinions?
My first change was to remove the centre console, speedometer guard and spray black, this cost me £5 but I think it makes it lok 100% better. im on the first coat of black on the glovebox too.

Plans for interior:
.light the footwell, an glovebox.
.Spray more of the interior.
.New steering wheel, Can you help with finding a replacement one in black must be with an airbag.
.sticker bomb the guard above the speedometer.
.find an arm rest and cupholders. Have seen JDM ones but looking for alternatives.
.New Stereo.
.Black seat covers.
Switches in center console to control lighting in footwell and glovebox.
 
Skinner_87 said:
Hi fella, your best bet is to look through the "blogs" if your after a bit of inspiration.

Its your car at the end of the day to do whatever you want to do to it :) i imagine your limited by the impact modifications will have on your insurance but theres still loads of little bits & bobs you could do.

Carbon wrapping a bonnet with decent wraps around £50 - £70

Theres lots of info on here about taking the bump strips off your doors if they are on the scabby side etc.
Click to expand...

How much around for a proffesionall to do it?
 
20121230_1440441_zps09d1b771.jpg

That's 35mm lower on left, standard on right. You want 50mm really min for noticable arch gap loss, so don't bother with 35mm lowering springs unless you plan to chop the rears later as part of a corsa coilover based drop or similar later, will just be wasting your money in the long run otherwise...
 
Enuo said:
20121230_1440441_zps09d1b771.jpg

That's 35mm lower on left, standard on right. You want 50mm really min for noticable arch gap loss, so don't bother with 35mm lowering springs unless you plan to chop the rears later as part of a corsa coilover based drop or similar later, will just be wasting your money in the long run otherwise...
Click to expand...
Yeah was researching 50mm earlier. Definately!
 
Just took off door cards going to cover them in carbon look sheet. and spray the fittings black. Anyone have a link of this being done?
 
Careful with the clips when you remove the door cards mate.

If you've already got them off im sure you know this, but next steps:

On back of door cards there should be some flat headed screws that hold all of the plastics (/handles etc) in place, remove the screws to remove the plastics.

When the fabric was wrapped on the door cards in:
http://micra.org.uk/threads/red-celebration-revamp.56202/#post-593322
..The previous door card fabric was left on there, and strong glue was used to stick the fabric to the door card - glue is the white glue stuff as seen in the pic:
null_zps5895edc9.jpg

..It was applied to the front and back of the door cards and the fabric was stapled in place on the back of the door cards, which is hidden by the top grey plastic bit as seen in:
null_zps1a3d9199.jpg

You could always staple wherever plastic covers the fabric to hopefully prevent it from sagging down over time i suppose as the staples would be hidden by the plastics and fittings.
Hope this helps! -There's more details in the original thread i linked, should you need it, or to ask any questions about the process http://micra.org.uk/threads/red-celebration-revamp.56202


As for spraying the fittings black, make sure you prep them first. And by prepare them first, i mean rub them down so that the paint you apply can stick to the plastic properly, and make sure also there's no greasy marks or anything on the plastics, as the paint will probably not stick and come off in those areas.

Need anything else, there's the search function on the forum: http://micra.org.uk/search/ which should bring up some guides on many things you want to do.
Or otherwise just ask around there'll be plenty of people to help :D
 
CraigIC said:
Careful with the clips when you remove the door cards mate.

If you've already got them off im sure you know this, but next steps:

On back of door cards there should be some flat headed screws that hold all of the plastics (/handles etc) in place, remove the screws to remove the plastics.

When the fabric was wrapped on the door cards in:
http://micra.org.uk/threads/red-celebration-revamp.56202/#post-593322
..The previous door card fabric was left on there, and strong glue was used to stick the fabric to the door card - glue is the white glue stuff as seen in the pic:
null_zps5895edc9.jpg

..It was applied to the front and back of the door cards and the fabric was stapled in place on the back of the door cards, which is hidden by the top grey plastic bit as seen in:
null_zps1a3d9199.jpg

You could always staple wherever plastic covers the fabric to hopefully prevent it from sagging down over time i suppose as the staples would be hidden by the plastics and fittings.
Hope this helps! -There's more details in the original thread i linked, should you need it, or to ask any questions about the process http://micra.org.uk/threads/red-celebration-revamp.56202


As for spraying the fittings black, make sure you prep them first. And by prepare them first, i mean rub them down so that the paint you apply can stick to the plastic properly, and make sure also there's no greasy marks or anything on the plastics, as the paint will probably not stick and come off in those areas.

Need anything else, there's the search function on the forum: http://micra.org.uk/search/ which should bring up some guides on many things you want to do.
Or otherwise just ask around there'll be plenty of people to help :D
Click to expand...

Thanks mate. Yeah I think Im just going to blacken the fittings for the time being until finds come in for good quality carbon comes.
 
So the door cards were quite hard to put back on correctly!!
My plans are now to buy wheel arches spray them silver.
Any body have any idea of the best way to do this without a spray gun etc. and what colour codes are there for micra silver?
 
Be interested to see what you do :) I'll be watching :) looking good so far. Liking the plans :) I wrapped my door cards in leopard print :) cost me four pound :D
Chloe
X
 
JMcCarthy said:
So the door cards were quite hard to put back on correctly!!
My plans are now to buy wheel arches spray them silver.
Any body have any idea of the best way to do this without a spray gun etc. and what colour codes are there for micra silver?
Click to expand...



If you pop the bonnet and have a look in the engine bay on the left hand top corner theres a black plate with some of the cars details on it, your colour code for your car is on that :)
 

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