Funky's K12 - The Adventure Begins

[funkydoodycool]

I've just got home from a tour of local (and not so local) shops, where I have purchased the following minor upgrades for my car:-

• Alpine speakers for the front (rears to follow later) - should complement my Alpine headunit quite nicely, certainly better than the stock cones.
• Black flexible vinyl paint for colour coding the interior
• Turtle Wax blue Colour Magic polish - not a mod, but it should cover some of the wear and tear on the paintwork til I can get it sorted properly.
• EBC discs and Green Stuff pads should also be in the post today, courtesy of our friends at Demon-Tweeks.

Off out now to fit the speakers and spray the A-pillars

 

[funkydoodycool]

OK... so I need some mounts for the speakers - the Blaupunkt stock ones are built into a big plastic mount, I suppose I could cut them out and bodge mine in, but then I'd need to cut wires to attach the speakers etc... it's a job for another day, as now its raining.

Note for others: removing the door panels was easy, as per Guy's website, however I recommend removing the bottom first, and putting it back on from the top first, as the top hooks over the metal of the door, at the bottom of the window.

As for the colour-coding - it looks AMAZING For my first time spraying anything, it's a bit sloppy, however it looks altogether good and most of the blobs where I sprayed too much too quick have formed around the edges of the panels (thank you, gravity), and so are hidden by the trim once its fitted

I've sprayed the two a-pillar covers, interior fuse box cover, the C-shaped interior door-handle trims, the trims in the door handles that house the electric window switches (they were already off from where I looked at the speakers), and finally the little 1x6" piece that sits above the stereo/computer display. I will finish off another day (and with another can of paint...) the top section of the dash (big job me thinks), the aircon panel, the trim around the speedo/tacho dials, and whatever else takes my fancy at the time. In fact, I will probably paint the whole lot either black, or blue to match the exterior.

Also gonna paint the rear lights with a translucent black spray.

Used stuff from Halfrauds, including their bumper preparation spray and a microfibre cloth to clean the plastic, and their flexible vinyl paint in black for the.... painting.

 

[funkydoodycool]

Some pics

Some of the parts laid out in my porch post-paint. Watching paint dry... just how I like to spend an afternoon.

The driver's side A-pillar cover, refitted.

Driver's side door handles.

Radio trim, plus a sneaky peak at my Alpine HU.

Fuse box cover.

 

[karlj]

Looks good (Y)

 

[funkydoodycool]

Finally my front speaker mounts have been dispatched by first class, so expecting them tomorrow morning. While the door panels are off I'll spray them and the handles black.

I had a play yesterday and sprayed all the vent trims with red acrylic. It didn't go very well - a beautiful sunny day turned to high winds halfway through, so even under the protection of my porch some dust and grit and seeds blew onto the paint and all but ruined my work

Had to pop to the scrappie and trade £45 for new vents, which I have today painted simple black as in the pics above. I've definitely become better at spraying the last few days, so looking forward to fitting all this back together and seeing how it looks

All that's left to black up are the door trims, B and C pillar covers, steering wheel surround, the centre of the steering wheel, and a couple bits of dash (such as around the air con dials). Oh, and the glove box.

 

[funkydoodycool]

Speaker mounts and new stereo harness arrived today, all fitted nice and easy.

The speakers sound a lot better than the stock ones (obviously) and are also quieter at the same setting on the stereo, which means the sub comes through a lot more, which is handy.

The wiring harness was needed as my stereo kept cutting out for a split second every now and then - I traced it back to the Alpine harness, so replaced it with a £10 third party version from eBay. Works lovely now.

 

[will930]

thats the same HU as mine it is indeed very good!

 

[funkydoodycool]

thats the same HU as mine it is indeed very good!

I'm very impressed with it. I got it only because it was the cheapest Alpine with an included iPhone cable. It's lasted 2 years already and I love it so much that when the wiring loom failed last week, I ordered a new one

 

[r-reg-sr]

thats the same HU as mine it is indeed very good!

has it got a-b replay ?

 

[funkydoodycool]

Today I changed my gear knob, and that of the Brabus. The Brabus one was rotten, the leather had stretched and come unstuck. The Micra one was just fugly.

I chose Momo for both (love Momo), a Gotham for the Brabus, and a Competizione (sp?) for my Micra, as I had the same in my Primera - forgot to remove it.

Pulling off the Micra knob was as simple as... pulling it off. I thought I'd pulled the whole linkage out, the way it suddenly flew off, but thankfully no damage was done. There is a piece of plastic presumably glued to the stick, about 2 inches long, so I attempted to remove it with pliers then the claw end of a hammer - no luck, so out comes the hacksaw.

Now my gearknob is about 2 inches lower than it used to be, and I have a wonderful short-shift feeling - you barely move the knob at all to change gears. Win. I could alternatively have filed down the plastic and attached the knob there, but I didn't. So there.

I also had to tighten the gaiter around the stick, as it was attached to the bottom of the old knob. I simply folded it over itself again, and put it over the stick before I fit the new knob.

The new Brabus knob

The new Micra knob

The tools and bits I used to finish the job

The piece of the gearstick I cut off

 

[funkydoodycool]

Just thinking about my car, and thinking of what cheap/free mods I can achieve while I save for the expensive things.

I'm going to remove the rear seats, and ask my carpenter friend to fashion a "box" to basically extend the boot to behind the front seats. I'll probably get it flocked. Then I'll move my sub to right behind the seats, leaving me with a great big boot in which to place a full-size spare wheel. Then I'll get the rear 3 windows tinted dark black.

 

[Guy]

Cool, I've done a similar thing:

.

 

[funkydoodycool]

I think it was maybe your idea I stole but cos I have a sub enclosure, and soon a couple of amps for my speakers, I'm gonna box off the boot.

Looks sharp Does it make much difference to performance to lose the seats?

 

[Guy]

It was very noticable. The seat and seatbelt reel things were extremely heavy .

 

[funkydoodycool]

Hmmm perhaps I'll take them out tomorrow and make them into a sofa like on Top Gear. The only problem is my sub which is wedged against the rear seats, and held in place by the jack

 

[funkydoodycool]

Changed the gear knobs around - got the Momo Gotham in mine now - very nice inded

We've decided to sell the Brabus, as it costs too much to run, and I want the money towards my mods

 

[funkydoodycool]

Finally got my back seats out, and the rear seatbelts. They are VERY heavy - took me some effort and a couple of pulled muscles to get the seats out of the car (coulda done with some help really).

Lots of noise from the back now, the exhaust is loud (and raspy and horrible). I need to find a satisfactory way to secure my sub to the floor. My initial test drive led to my sub, which was stuck to the carpet with heavy duty velcro, flying into the back of my seat, pulling the carpet with it. Obviously the carpet was held in place by the seats

Took the sub out, and whilst I won't get to enjoy it's presence the car is a lot lighter. I'm estimating from the effort dragging it about 40kg, certainly heavier than an airplane-friendly suitcase. I managed to through it round a mini roundabout at a slight slide - it is a bit more nimble now.

Just the sub to secure, and perhaps some noise reduction.

Maybe I'll do as Guy has done, and put in a full-size spare on top of a wooden board, and fit my sub into the space-saver spare wheel space.

 

[Tchaaa]

I found with my old K11 the best way to get the rear seatbelts out was to secure the spanner on the best I could climb the car and jump on the other end, and then they still put up a bloody fight! It went to the scrapyard with one of the front ones still attached as we couldn't even cut it out, bloody thing didn't even work in the crash either!

tl;dr, they're stubborn #######s and I sympathise with you!

 

[funkydoodycool]

Haha! The bolts were very easy to undo actually, apart from one that was obscured by carpet that wouldn't budge. In fact I was a bit surprised they were SO easy, but I guess they weren't about to come loose.

The seats are just so heavy! Comfy to sit on in the house though.

 

[funkydoodycool]

Not sure I like this... there is SO much noise in the car now - every rasp of the horrible tinny exhaust, and all the noise of the rain spraying the undercarriage from the wet road.

Gonna look into sound-proofing the exposed floor.

Also not noticed any change in performance. Well maybe a tiny bit, but nothing compared to what I thought I would from removing that much weight.

My speakers sound horrible now too - very tinny. Especially with no sub to back them up.

I'll try and arrange some felted wood to cover the floor under where the seats were, and some more to make a boot, with sound proofing on the back. If that doesn't improve things, I'll probably consider putting the seats back in.

 

[funkydoodycool]

So I decided I didn't like having no back seats. The noise from the exhaust and from a wet road is terrible, and the lack of my subwoofer saddened me, so the seats have gone back in for now.

I've taken some photos as I put it back together in order to write a how-to on removing the rear seats and belts, I'll do that later.

Putting them back in was easier than taking them out in many ways - partly cos I knew what I was doing. The only real difficulty was in keeping the carpet in place. When I finished, the carpet wasn't quite right, but it'll do. I'm gonna get a nice bit of MDF carpeted to replace the whole floor of the boot, perhaps with a hinged hatch to access the spare. The flimsy bit of board over the spare now doesn't really support the sub.

 

[slimothy]

Coming along nicely

I took my back seats out in a car I had years ago (Tropheo spec Fiat Cinquecento 899) to get the cage in properly - and the noise was horrendous! (didn't help that it had an abarth manifold, no cat and a twin exit peco backbox!) - so much so that in the end I sacrificed the extra stiffness of the cage and put the interior back together