Andrew's leader

[Andy652]

I thought I'd start my blog again seeing as it got deleted the other day when the server crashed/got hacked. so, time to get up to speed on my car.....

firstly, fog lights behind homemade grill (piece of folded mesh). my car doesn't have this any more but I thought I'd put it in anyway


my center console that I made from mdf that I still haven't got round to covering yet. also my cb radio and dvd player, though the dvd player's coming out as soon as I go back to birmingham for uni and the old cd player's taking its place


my voltmeter and rev counter:

you can also see the steering wheel in this. its just a standard wheel wrapped in bike handlebar tape, which looks rubbish but is very comfortable.

wheel center caps/dust caps, old and new:

and my spare wheel (got bored and found some red hammerite)


boot light (overkill but its what I had lying around)


toyota mr2 seats:


the engine bay as it was (gone back to standard filter for the time being)


just some general pictures of my car



ok, so I think that was as far as I got with the blog before, though I wrote more the first time but I wasn't in the mood to write it all out a second time.

since then I've fitted a new instrument pannel and remote boot release, both bought from sammyboi. I've got different wheels on (standard k11 steels) also painted white, but these are only on while I tidy up the original wheels. I've also made and fitted a variable intermittent wiper kit as I only had 2 speed wipers before and that gets very anoying. I'll post some more up to date pics in the next few days.

I think thats about it for now, but I'll update as I remember things or as things change.

 

[micrah220]

looking nice (Y). the lights on the front look smart

 

[Andy652]

thanks micrah220. still havent got new pics, but will probably do it tomorrow as I have the afternoon off.

Had my mot today, went straight though with no advisories. I did have to put the spare wheel on though cos my tyres were more worn than I thought and the front right was below the legal limit, so my car has the red and white wheel on atm and I'm getting a few more odd looks than usual. They also found out that one of my rear shocks is leaking, though its not too bad. when I get round to changing that I might upgrade to something better to try and reduce the body roll.

anyway, thats the only news for today (well...relating to the car)

 

[Micra 110]

Good pics

Nice looking Rally Car, i like the Switch idea in the Boot area very original, nice Welding too :wink:

I must apologize in advance but that mesh just has to be copied yo :laugh: what do you reckon about red mesh on a Red car, naff or nice?

Keep up the good work (Y)

 

[Andy652]

cheers. I recon red mesh would look ok, but the only way to really tell is to try it out, and it doesn't take much to change the colour if you want to

nice Welding too :wink:

actually don't know what u mean there. never done any welding in my life and afaik the car's never had anything done to it since it was made. and if its a joke I don't understand, though I can be a bit dim sometimes


so, the pics it's taken me so long to get....


that's my intermittent wiper jobby and switch. the switch for it is the top one, it twiddles round in circles to the different speeds. The first 2 pics are so you can see the circuit board and the pic on the right is how it normally looks, with the circuit board slotted next to the rear fog switch.
The other switches are spot lights, fog lights and dixie horn. They look a bit rubbish but theyre there for practicallity rather than looks




new dash, day and night. Still not sure whether I prefer this one or the one with the clock.



and my temporary k11 wheels. bloody filthy atm, but you get the idea. just in case any of you were thinking of k11 steels and wanted to know what they looked like on and painted


thats about it for now I think. I've ordered some more stickers and I'm going to change the look of the car a little, but its still going to be the same sort of style. will update when I've done that

 

[Andy652]

a little update.
I've bought a few things from curtis (the only thing thats on atm is the k&n filter, though it has the original airpan lid on while i make the lid for the k&n more presentable). My original wheels are back from being sand blasted so I've just started painting them. And as I was writing that I realised that I haven't paid for the sand blasting yet :doh:
I've been told that my stickers will be ready tomorrow so I'll be sorting them soon, Possibly on the weekend.
I went to Ormerod engineering today and took in my cylinder head and flywheel to get them skimmed and lightened. The bloke was unwilling to take more than 1mm off the head on the first go, so thats how much is coming off. And I told him to lighten the flywheel as much as he thinks he can without making it too weak for the job, so we'll see what that's like tomorrow when I get both of these back.

Thats all I can think of for now, but it shouldn't be long before I start getting up pics of new things

 

[Andy652]

the head has been skimmed (though no pic:down: ) and dropped off at the garage along with the valves, springs and cam so they can get some of that sorted before I take the car down. The flywheel's still with the engineer because there was a slight problem and he didnt want to make a descision without a yay or nay from me, so I'm picking that up on saturday morning, then it's getting balanced on monday and the car's going in to the garage on thursday to get that and the head fitted.

As for the stickers, I'm going to sort them out propperly on the weekend, but I've sorted the smaller, easier ones this afternoon....

the spot light covers, before and after.


the boot, with a closeup of the sticker in case you can't see it propperly in the full view.

I'm actually quite happy with this one :grinning:

 

[joesouthgate]

sticker looks good, where did u get it made?

 

[Andy652]

I got it made at C Stanley Jones. It's where I get all my stickers made.

 

[Andy652]

I have my flywheel back now.it still needs to be balanced but I thought I'd throw up a couple of pics



I don't know if it's clear from the pics but as well as the holes, the rim has been taken back to about half it's original thickness. I don't know what it weighed originally but it now weighs just over 4kg

 

[frank]

look,s good andy, it,ll have more effect if you remove all the outer ring tho eh.
i think the effect is "squared" in relation to the radius and mass, so the inertia difference of removing 1kg at the outer 10" radius is a lot more than double, than taking 1kg off a smaller 5" radius

 

[Andy652]

I got my stickers sorted out finally. Taking the old ones off wasn't too bad, just took a lot of time, and putting the new ones on took me a fair time too. I wasn't sure what it would look like but I'm quite happy with the result.







oh yeah, should anyone want them I have 2 lots of the large "NISSAN MICRA" stickers left over, as I originally had slightly different plans for the car but they ended up being slightly wider than I expected. The "NISSAN" is 84x12cm and the "MICRA" is 86.5x12cm

 

[joesouthgate]

loving the tread graphics

 

[Andy652]

They're actually growing on me now :grinning: and I'm getting quite a few more comments off the customers at work.

Went into town today at lunch time and dropped off the flywheel to get balanced and I've been told that it'll be £25. Don't know if this is a good price or not, though it doesn't really matter as it's aparantly the only place in hereford that will do it :suspect:
I also went and paid for the head skimming and flywheel lightening today. It came to £75 (I think it was 50 for the head and 25 for the flywheel but im not sure). Again I don't know if this was a good price or not but the place is relatively nearby and it's quite convenient so I'm not too bothered. I also spoke to the bloke about fabricating manifolds and an exhaust system, and he said he'd be happy to do it but I'm not going to go into that propperly untill at least christmas time. That'll probably be the next big thing I do to the car once I've got the head and flywheel on.

 

[frank]

andy

those sound like good prices to me, it,ll be interesting to see what gains you get.
you might want to advance the cam a little (slotting the top pulley holes)
btw, is fred still running the salvage yard in hereford ?

 

[Andy652]

I was going to mention that to the mechanics at the garage when I drop my car off on thursday.

As for the salvage yard, There are 3 that I know of. One that now only takes things for scrap metal and wont sell things off anymore. One in rotherwas that I've never been able to find. And the one I normally go to in Holmer trading estate, and I have no idea what the name of the owner or any of the people who work there are. The one who seems to run it is a bloody gigantic blonde chap if thats any help to you

 

[nexussteve]

Car looks the nuts with those vinyls! Top job!

I'd actually be interested in the leftover ones too, if you still have them!

 

[frank]

andy

he sold right-offs, the yard was 1/2 way down the drive and his house/restaurant was at the end of the drive (he was mad as a hatter )

 

[Andy652]

lol, never heard of him though he does sound quite cool. Do you know where abouts in hereford it was?

nexussteve - thanks, If you want them send me your adress and I'll post them tomorrow, or if you don't want them all then tell me which ones you do want

 

[frank]

andy

off the holme lacy rd iirc, then right, down a drive alongside a little brook

 

[Andy652]

cheers. I'll have a look for it next time I'm over that way if I remember

 

[Andy652]

I got my car back on the road again yesterday
it felt slightly more pokey with the work, though the tickover was a bit lumpy but I was very happy with it.
then as I was driving back to Birmingham last night it had a sudden drop in power and when I finally got it off the motorway and stopped it had very little power, would barely tick over and oil was coming out of the breather :down:
I've now decided to get it on a trailer and get it taken back home to get fixed, but we'll see how things turn out. With a bit of luck it's only a seal or a gasket somewhere

 

[frank]

andy

is it anywhere near me ?

 

[Andy652]

I'm on Heeley rd in Selly Oak

 

[frank]

andy

pm sent

 

[Andy652]

The car was taken back home last night and it's been looked at today and I'm less lucky than I'd hoped, as it's aparantly either a piston or a piston ring (or more than one) that's gone. I think there was other stuff too, but I didn't get all the details, but I was talking to the mechanic that owns the place and he thought that the repairs would leave me with very little change out of £800, and my thought of getting another engine put in isn't going to be particularly cheap either. That, along with other work that I know needs to be done on the car within the next year or two means that I'm very strongly leaning towards calling it a day with Roxanne (yes, my micra does have a name ) and scrapping it. I'm still gonna have to think about this a bit more, but I may well be getting another car (haven't decided what it would be yet, maybe another micra).

I'm very disapointed given the amount of effort I've put into this, but these things happen. I'll be posting an update when I've come to a decision

 

[nexussteve]

Dammit!

All these awesome cars going down the pan!?!?!

Don`t do it! Convert it!

Keep ROOOO-XAAANEE!

You don't have to put on the red light!!

(But you may have to sell your body to the night. Sorry mate)

 

[joesouthgate]

thats the problem with old cars unfortunetly doesnt take much for them to be uneconomical to repair.

 

[Andy652]

I'm now getting a '98 1.8 turbo diesel ford escort, which I will hopefully pick up tomorrow. I was thinking about it quite a lot and for the time being I just want a reliable car to get me from A to B comfortably, and I don't have the money to play around with any cars at thwe moment. I'm hoping that the escort will be a little bit cheaper to run than the micra as I'm on motorways most of the time and the micra didn't seem to be very economical (or comfortable) for that.

Sadly my car will be going to the scrappy quite soon. When I get home this weekend I'll start taking bits off and put them up for sale.

 

[Andy652]

This will be my final update.

I've stripped the car of everything I want for now, and I've put stuff up for sale CLICK

Here are pics of the car on a farm now and when it was towed back from birmingham. It's gonna stay there for a fairly long time now in the hope that the value of scrap is gonna go back up.

 

[nexussteve]

This is a sad, sad day...