1998 Micra SR NOW UP FOR SALE
hi guys, lurked around for a while, but thought i might aswell start a little blog because things are looking up in terms of modifications for my little micra. My name is Valentin, ii study motorsport engineering and also work in car sales everyday when im not busy doing nothing at college!
i bought the car in august from ebay, for the pricely sum of £495. talked to the guy on the phone who was a retired car salesman and has been in the trade for countless number of years blah blah blah. "is the car solid underneath? i know the crossmembers go on these and obviously the sills too" "yep its all solid underneath mate" great i thought, so i traveled all the up to durham from bedfordshire. 5 hours on the train or there abouts. i turned up and the car looked great! apart from dents on both wings it passed the "looks tidy" test. checked underneath.... front crossmember, was non existent much to my dissapointment as the guy said it was all 100% underneath. and the passenger sill had a couple of little holes near the rear jacking point. again, not good
tried to haggle him down as on the phone he said it was mint and clearly wasnt perfect underneath. the guy wouldnt even knock 50 quid off. bellend i thought, but bought it anyway as i traveled 230 miles, im not going home without the car. engine runs sweet as a nut and much to my surprise miles quicker than my 1.7 volvo (which unfortunately met its end when it had a disagreement with a lorry head on at 50) this is also my first FWD.. i was a bit unsure at first, but its actually quite fun. must say i hate the feeling of understeer, its something i have never experienced in the past having driven nothing but RWD. only downside the temp gauge don't work. narrowed it down to it being the sender, but cant find any online - can anyone point me in the right direction?
took the intake pipe off, made it feel quicker dont know if thats because it was simply louder or having no restrictor on the intake made a difference.
quite tidy inside too! dont like the patterns though. would love to have those replaced with just red fabric instead, but might be a bit OTT.
then the car took me and a friend to creamfields, done very well. and was lots of fun in the car parks as they were slurry pits from all the rain. so the car needed a good clean
here you can also see the other dent, not a problem. hardly an absence of red micras at breakers yard. reckon i can get a pair of wings for 25 quid (Y)
so it got a wash...
then a load of polishing:
im a bit of a clean freak when it comes to my own cars, dosnt help that 50% of my job is also getting cars looking their best on the forecourt so i've had plenty of practice with the polish/waxing/claying.
comes up alright with a it of work!
you can see here the dents really let it down, but im not too worried about appearance just yet. spending money elsewhere first
bought some coilovers! these are VW Polo 6N ones, got em off a guy on clubpolo forums for £60 and about 10ers worth in fuel to go get them. one of the inserts did go pop though. do excuse the quality. i only have a crappy old sony phone for picture purposes. might buy a decent camera at somepoint as it would be quite handy.
the reason this insert went pop, is obviously because the previous owner let the top cap get loose on the strut housing and allowed the damper to move about, enough to wear a good 4mm of steel off and make it crack. not to worry though, got a brand new insert for it near enough the day after from a guy on retro rides for a good price!
so here they are, all moving freely etc etc:
now first issue:
one spring is shorter than the rest... one front strut has less thread than the other one.. so if i was to combine the two problem should be solved. before you go off on one about how it will be uneven handling blah blah, dont forget these were cheap ebay items from new and were never intended to be used for precision handling. all they are achieving is epic lows and thats it. obviously if its very noticeable, i will go to the effort of replacing the spring. Pi springs are only down the road so im sure they will have one to match it. but im planning to have these as low as they can physically go so handling will never be my #1 thing.
all that needs doing to these struts is the rears need the mounting eye cutting off and replacing with one of a smaller diameter. and the front needs the hole drilling lower, might reinforce it with a plate of steel either side just to be safe.
and i also need to make up new topcaps/mounts.
Can anyone tell me the diameter i should make the top part on the fronts so it fits inside the micra bearings? as i know with corsa coilies they need lathing down so they sit inside, but im going to be making mine out of steel as it will be easier and also i canmake them shorter for extra low (Y)
and same for the back i anyone can let me know what the mating surface should be like then it would be of great help :grinning:
front passenger caliper is binding atm, so waiting for a new one to turn up. annoying as i had just replaced front discs and pads, and im pretty sure im going to need new ones as the disc has gone purple in colour and im 90% certain the pads are now only good to be used to make CD cases. oh well
MOT is in first week of november however, so the front cross member, although not a prescribed area (some of you may know its a touchy point on k11s and these have always been the subject of debate whether it should pass or not with a rotten one) i was assured by a couple of friends whoa re MOT testers that its not a fail, but i will replace it anyway for my own peace of mind. as at the end of the day id rather have metal saving me in the event of an accident rather than bathroom sealant. i have the panel ready, just need to find time to do it. may have to take a day of work (working weekends sucks )
and maybe in that time also get the rear sill patched up!
well that sort of brings it up to date, hope it wasnt too boring ( i did try to provide plenty of pictures )
cheers!
hi guys, lurked around for a while, but thought i might aswell start a little blog because things are looking up in terms of modifications for my little micra. My name is Valentin, ii study motorsport engineering and also work in car sales everyday when im not busy doing nothing at college!
i bought the car in august from ebay, for the pricely sum of £495. talked to the guy on the phone who was a retired car salesman and has been in the trade for countless number of years blah blah blah. "is the car solid underneath? i know the crossmembers go on these and obviously the sills too" "yep its all solid underneath mate" great i thought, so i traveled all the up to durham from bedfordshire. 5 hours on the train or there abouts. i turned up and the car looked great! apart from dents on both wings it passed the "looks tidy" test. checked underneath.... front crossmember, was non existent much to my dissapointment as the guy said it was all 100% underneath. and the passenger sill had a couple of little holes near the rear jacking point. again, not good
tried to haggle him down as on the phone he said it was mint and clearly wasnt perfect underneath. the guy wouldnt even knock 50 quid off. bellend i thought, but bought it anyway as i traveled 230 miles, im not going home without the car. engine runs sweet as a nut and much to my surprise miles quicker than my 1.7 volvo (which unfortunately met its end when it had a disagreement with a lorry head on at 50) this is also my first FWD.. i was a bit unsure at first, but its actually quite fun. must say i hate the feeling of understeer, its something i have never experienced in the past having driven nothing but RWD. only downside the temp gauge don't work. narrowed it down to it being the sender, but cant find any online - can anyone point me in the right direction?
took the intake pipe off, made it feel quicker dont know if thats because it was simply louder or having no restrictor on the intake made a difference.
quite tidy inside too! dont like the patterns though. would love to have those replaced with just red fabric instead, but might be a bit OTT.
then the car took me and a friend to creamfields, done very well. and was lots of fun in the car parks as they were slurry pits from all the rain. so the car needed a good clean
here you can also see the other dent, not a problem. hardly an absence of red micras at breakers yard. reckon i can get a pair of wings for 25 quid (Y)
so it got a wash...
then a load of polishing:
im a bit of a clean freak when it comes to my own cars, dosnt help that 50% of my job is also getting cars looking their best on the forecourt so i've had plenty of practice with the polish/waxing/claying.
comes up alright with a it of work!
you can see here the dents really let it down, but im not too worried about appearance just yet. spending money elsewhere first
bought some coilovers! these are VW Polo 6N ones, got em off a guy on clubpolo forums for £60 and about 10ers worth in fuel to go get them. one of the inserts did go pop though. do excuse the quality. i only have a crappy old sony phone for picture purposes. might buy a decent camera at somepoint as it would be quite handy.
the reason this insert went pop, is obviously because the previous owner let the top cap get loose on the strut housing and allowed the damper to move about, enough to wear a good 4mm of steel off and make it crack. not to worry though, got a brand new insert for it near enough the day after from a guy on retro rides for a good price!
so here they are, all moving freely etc etc:
now first issue:
all that needs doing to these struts is the rears need the mounting eye cutting off and replacing with one of a smaller diameter. and the front needs the hole drilling lower, might reinforce it with a plate of steel either side just to be safe.
and i also need to make up new topcaps/mounts.
Can anyone tell me the diameter i should make the top part on the fronts so it fits inside the micra bearings? as i know with corsa coilies they need lathing down so they sit inside, but im going to be making mine out of steel as it will be easier and also i canmake them shorter for extra low (Y)
and same for the back i anyone can let me know what the mating surface should be like then it would be of great help :grinning:
front passenger caliper is binding atm, so waiting for a new one to turn up. annoying as i had just replaced front discs and pads, and im pretty sure im going to need new ones as the disc has gone purple in colour and im 90% certain the pads are now only good to be used to make CD cases. oh well
MOT is in first week of november however, so the front cross member, although not a prescribed area (some of you may know its a touchy point on k11s and these have always been the subject of debate whether it should pass or not with a rotten one) i was assured by a couple of friends whoa re MOT testers that its not a fail, but i will replace it anyway for my own peace of mind. as at the end of the day id rather have metal saving me in the event of an accident rather than bathroom sealant. i have the panel ready, just need to find time to do it. may have to take a day of work (working weekends sucks
)and maybe in that time also get the rear sill patched up!
well that sort of brings it up to date, hope it wasnt too boring ( i did try to provide plenty of pictures
)cheers!
