Bens K10. The Second Micra

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Lets see where do i begin with this. (very pic heavy, takes some time to load :L)
Well first things first this is not my first Micra, this is my second Micra, my first (also first car) was a 1994 K11a 1.0l bought in March 2014

The little Beast at JAE2014

I really loved my K11, absolutely fab car, not too much mod wise (Ta Technix uprated shocks and lowering springs, SR Bumpers, Super S clocks and seats, 1.3 cams and a set of 14' Speedlines 2108's )

The reason i sold it, is i wanted a Mk1 MR2 and that was all i could think of and i become quite uninterested in the Micra so i sold it (to my mates brother so at least i get to see it) and bought a 1985 Toyota MR2 MK1a in October 2014. That was a big mistake a very big one, my MR2 was a bit of a rot box and a big money pit. I had to spend quite a lot of money on it just to keep it on the road.

So this is where the K10 comes in.......

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

In April 2015 I was on the MSC Facebook page and just happened to stumble across this add

A little 1992 gold/beige K10 for £130 in Cardiff (which is about 25 miles from me) I showed it to some of my friends as i joke i said i might buy it. I messaged the guy to come and have a look as i was interested to see what a £130 K10 Micra was like. So i messaged him on Sunday about it and arranged to see it Wednesday. Turned up Wednesday and as soon as i saw it (i know this sounds a bit silly) i knew i needed it in my life.

So after a little test drive and having a very good look round for rust (which there was hardly any) and checking the paperwork including all MOT's from new, i shook his hand and said i'd be back for it the next day. Guy told me he was so happy that i bought it, he said i've had loads of people wanted to banger race it and abuse the poor thing, you (me) were the most enthusiastic person about the car and i'm glad it's going to a good home. That made me feel pretty good haha

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

So now on the the mods and repairs!

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

First things first was to sort the leak at the manifold. I assumed the worst and was expecting a broken stud, turns out the bolts needed tightening up. Job done no more leaky exhaust. Next thing on the list was a bloody good clean. Poor thing looked like it hadn't been washed in 20+ years inside and out. The amount of crap that came from both inside and out was ridiculous. Also sorted the bumpers out with a heat gun too so no more faded Plastic
1st pic is before (not me that was my mate who kindly lent me his drive and an offer to re blacken the bumpers for me!, thanks Mat ) (Also that's his Mk2 Fez)
2nd pic is after! Amazing what a heat gun and some dash cleaner can do haha
Forgot to get one of the front but it turned out just as well

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

So now onto the very first thing i did with my Micra mod wise.....
I bought some 2nd hand D2 Coilovers from one Mr.Scott Murrell in Reading. £250 and around a 200 mile round trip i had em

This is after me and my mate Mat clean and painted em all up. Lovely
Now onto fitting, well the fronts were bolt on as they came from a K11 the backs were a different story. The backs are from an EP90 Starlet and while they are a pretty much direct fit Scott had neglected to tell me that the shock body is slightly too wide and does not bolt into the Axle.... Bugger
So a small bracket needs to be made to get em to fit, so in the meantime i just fitted the front and chopped the springs on the back for some lows (i wanted it lower for Japfest haha)

Best pic i have atm of the lows, not a massive drop yet, mainly down to the springs at the back, but looking much more respectable. Pic is in Works carpark, can't stop myself staring at it! Love it too bits much better than an MR2 and i genuinely mean that.

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Also just to add MR2 is still around atm awaiting to be fixed before i sell it. It's not gone yet, it was fun but i would have cost me thousands of pounds to get looking and running right....

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Now onto my service haha. Went into my local Nissan dealership and ordered a load of parts to treat my K10 after it's faultless run down to reading

I can't help myself i do love Genuine parts (air filter was the only thing they no longer did so got one from Euro car parts for £3 lol)
Service done tappets adjusted and one very happy K10

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Ohh and my Friend @Jordan27 thought it would be a good idea to chop my backbox off as i was a bit bored of the standard system lol
Well it'll do for now, at least no one is mistaking me for an old person anyway...

 

[Jordan27]

Ohh and my Friend @Jordan27 thought it would be a good idea to chop my backbox off as i was a bit bored of the standard system lol
Well it'll do for now, at least no one is mistaking me for an old person anyway...

You're the one that asked for a straight pipe!


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[Fujiwara-Ben]

True.... I do kinda like it TBH

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Now onto more mods! (well kinda)
So on my week off work i decided i was gonna try and find some new doors as mine were ruined after a previous brake in (happened a couple of years ago, previous owners decided some weird putty stuff would fix the problem....)
Found some doors and a complete grey interior as i was pretty fed up of brown central inside. So one trip to Milton Keynes later i had all this

That fitted into this

i was pretty impressed and now have a full grey interior and two lovely doors in red (red you say? Is you car not gold? Well.... I've got some plans for that but all in good time fellow Micra lovers)

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Also on my week off, after going to Japfest and seeing an awesome K10 with a pre-face front end conversion, i was on the hunt for the parts. Quite conveniently someone on the K10 FB page was selling the complete front end conversion for £90 offered him £80 and he accepted. Only problem is that he was down in Weymouth so i had another long trip ahead of me. Especially since the k10 likes to cruise between 50-60mph
(The K10 is the blokes that i bought the PFC (pre face lift conversion) off, he was gonna fit it to his but decided to sell his K10 instead )

YAY!!! Pre face lift goodness

Thought i'd go right down to the end of Portland too while i was there haha

The really long beach thingy, looked cool so i wanted a photo haha

Pre face lift bits home safe and sound (but hang on white front end, red doors and gold car?!)

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Sorry about three pics of the same K10 Crome kept crashing on me Grrrrr

 

[joesouthgate]

Looks Good Ben

 

[pork]

Cool, more k10's!


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[Fujiwara-Ben]

I've still got more to go haha, this is still from around a month ago haha

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Right lets see, also sometime around when i was buying preface lift bit's i also spent £41 on some CBR600 carbs and £20 on a rover K series manifold lol

Luckly for me i've got a Tig welder i can (kinda) use in work and some decent tools so making these two fit should not be too much of a problem (fingers crossed) just need to get some measurements of port spacing and then i can start making up my inlet mani and modding the zorst one

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Also i went to a locksmith to get a new key made as my old one was badly worn. Fair play to the guy he made the new one up in around 15 mins and did'nt even use my old key as i template. Not too bad for £15 and on top of that i can use my passenger lock again

 

[pork]

My advice, buy some carb cleaner, strip them down and clean everything first.

I was forever taking mine of and off again until I have them a proper cleaning

Also on your shopping list will be a fuel pressure reg, the ma10 pump is fine, bit to high of pressure for these.

Sound great tho


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[Fujiwara-Ben]

Thanks pork. The idea for the carbs came from your blog haha. BTW about fuelling for the time being i can get away with the standard MA10 pump yeah? Is it really bad for pumping fuel out the overflow or can i even plumb the overflow back into the return line for now?

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Reggy is deffo on the list

 

[pork]

Try it and see lol

Mine overflowed, but mine were in a poor state.




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[Fujiwara-Ben]

Made a start on the grey interior swap, decided to do the hardest bit first and do the dash. Around 3 hours later i had it in and looking much better than my brown one, the rest of the interior is coming soon but i need to rent an upholstery cleaner to clean all the mats carpets and seats as they smell a bit damp and the mats are stinking haha, but they are genuine one's so worth keeping!

This is how it originally was.

Half-way through, was quite a struggle so far but pretty straight forward

Back of a K10 dash incase any one was wondering, look at all them heater pipes... They were a real pain to line back up.

All done! Lovely grey dash, looks so much better tbh

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Right back onto the updates!
So now i have two red doors a white front end and a gold/beige car.... hmm. Well i was thinking about changing the colour and i suppose now is a good opertunity but i did'nt want to spend alot on a "proper" re-spay so i asked Chris with the Graffiti painted green Micra about his paint, after speaking to him about it i thought that would be a good way to go. Now i will tell you it's MTN Montana 94 Graffiti paint but i'm not telling you the colour code! (thats a secret haahaa)

Thats wing number one done and looking very good (also thats my manifold in the box next to it)

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Wings, bonnet and valance

done

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

So now onto the Preface lift conversion. For all you facelifters planning on doing this you need to make sure you get more than just bonnet, headlights, sidelights, and grille. You also need the bonnet catches and the headlight adjuster screws are different. Basically you need pretty much everything you can grab from a pre face to make life easier. Now onto the pics

Before

During

Getting there

Done

 

[pork]

Looks hreat


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[Fujiwara-Ben]

Thanks Pork, i appreciate it. At the moment most people make fun of it because it's half blue
I really love that Graffiti paint it's so easy to use and leaves a great finish. I do need to redo the bonnet as you can see the spray marks in it :L

Looking better with a number plate on

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

I really need to start getting on with making my bike carb manifold. Every time i go into my shed i can see them ready and waiting to go. Ready to make the Micra go brwappp brwapp.....

 

[pork]

Nice to see another k10 build going, pretty non existent nowadays


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[Fujiwara-Ben]

I'm trying my best at this blog thingy but i'm not the best haha :L
Thanks again pork
Yeah the K10 section is pretty dead these days, it's a real shame to be honest....

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Work gets in the way so much when trying to do things with the Micra, by the time i get home it's 5:30pm and then i'm too tired to want to do anything.....

 

[pork]

No the feeling

I built my last car in lunch breaks and hour or 2 after work


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[karlj]

Nice to see another k10 build going, pretty non existent nowadays


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That's cause they've been used for banger racing

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Yep.....

 

[wehey]

Nice to see another k10 build going, pretty non existent nowadays


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I'm hoping to do a K10 one day once the pao is finished .
I have a 1.3 in the shed too and would love to do a turbo conversion
Prob is I have buggered my arm and nothing is happening fast at the moment

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

You would'nt be interested in selling that 1.3 would ya

I have a 1.3 in the shed too and would love to do a turbo conversion

 

[wehey]

You would'nt be interested in selling that 1.3 would ya

Nah sorry. Keeping it as a spare or for a K10

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Damm... Worth a shot! Hahahaha

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

I have'nt been up to too much lately but i have changed my passenger door over (no pics sorry) and even more importantly i've done my drivers door! Which was absolutely destroyed from a previous break in. Been itching to change it ever since i bought the Micra...
Also found a quick way to resize pics so i can add even more now

Door off, looking a bit drafty without it hahah.

Drivers view...

A considerably amount of rust along the bottom where water has been getting in for ages.

Apprently the drives door is a replacement, at least it's genuine lol. Not sure why it was replaced originally.

Why i've wanted to change this door for so long, all cracked and broken where somebody pulled the door back.

All done! Looking much better blue, and to make things better i sorted the horrid amount of door droop and no longer get as much wind noise as it seals properly!

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Got bored and decided to see if i could chop some foam outta my drivers seat so i feel like i'm sitting in it rather that sitting on it.

It kinda works, i used a bit of sound deadening stuff to stop myself sitting on springs. it has made it slightly more comfortable for long distance driving and i don't seem to move around as much, not bad for an hour of tweaking

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

I also decided to have a look at my boot catch as my boot lid is rattling quite badly, seems the lock is a bit worn, but i adjusted the catch back a bit and thats sorted it somewhat, but it doesn't like to close first time now. At least it's not rattling around now though lol

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Forgot to mention that i had my MOT recently. Had to put a standard exhaust back on. That was a real pain. Had to pretty much drop the axle off and have the car jacked up fully with the jack on three lots of three bricks with a plank of wood. Only then could i get it to fit.

The very boring and very difficult exhaust.

ohh and i passed my MOT with only one advisory and that was my front right tyre was a bit worn, £12.50 for a part worn and that was that sorted!

Also asked for a look underneath while it was up in the air and i couldn't believe how clean it is underneath, hardly a spec of rust, underseal deffo needs redoing though!

 

[pork]

Exhaust is s pain without a ramp!




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[Fujiwara-Ben]

I need to make up a side exit. That would save taking it over the axle! hahah

 

[Fujiwara-Ben]

Got two weeks off work next week, which should hopefully give me enough time to paint the Micra Blue, get the interior swapped to grey, find a CG13, get a nice set of wheels and clean up engine bay all in preparation for JAE!

 

[pork]

Cool, what you using to fuel the cg13?




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[joesouthgate]

Cool, what you using to fuel the cg13?

Petrol I would imagine

 

[pork]

Haha, fair enough

Carbs or efi


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[Fujiwara-Ben]

CBR600 carbs, the set i was going to use for the MA10 but then decided they would be put to better use on a CG when/if i can track one down. I hope i can anyway :L