Martha is now in fine fettle and about to go up for sale. But before I do a listing I thought i'd do an update here.
She went up on the hoist and I removed all the front bumper/lights/guards etc.
The rust that she had failed her last wof on was all along the bottom of the radiator support - probably the most typical place for NZ k11s to rot.
Cut it all out and let in new steel. Pics explain it easier..
Phew. Done. Gave it a good coating of paint. Then while the guards were off I cut out the rotten corner on one and let in new steel..
While up on the hoist I gave the underside a clean, check over and quick tart up with some of the ever magical CRC Black Zinc 'new car in a can'...
Then the surface rust around the windscreen. It looks like it had been flagged for rust, the previous owner then started cutting away the sealing trim around the screen and gave up. I cleaned it right out, wire brushed it back, painted a POR 15 type inhibiting paint around the full perimeter. More pics..
Then masked the car up and gave it some sparkle with a can of colour paint. It came up fine. Nothing flash but far better than what it was like when we got it plus now solid. There was a dent on the drivers guard, 'fixed' with poorly applied filler. I did my best to tidy it up, feather it in and paint it with the small amount of patience I could muster up and its improved but certainly something that needs more love.
Then this stupid bloody sticker...
Heating it up, very carefully, allowed me to peel the 'JDM scene' off without leaving a trace.
Hannah spent some time tending to the usual little surface rust spots k11s get under the rear boot seal and add some aluminium tape over the holes that we've learned through experience can allow water in..
Se also replaced the brake pads for some almost new items we scored from the wreckers...
We had fitted the spare wheels from Molly but one was worn so a good tyre was sourced and fitted. Then we took her for a wof and she flew through with flying colours. There was a chip in the screen that was noted and we already knew about however it was not in a zone that mattered.
Still, just to be sure, we had our friendly glass man squirt some of his magic goo into the crack while Hannah watched with keen interest...
While he was there he also tended to a tiny chip on Minkys screen.
The wof pass was about a month ago. We've been driving her about and watching for any issues and the only one that I noted was how slow she was to heat up. I suspected a removed thermostat and had mild alarm bells ring however she never used water nor heated up beyond normal. I pulled the thermostat cover off (noting that there was still factory grey sealant present) and happily discovered that there was still one in there, stuck open and looked to be the original Nissan item..albeit very stuffed..
I swapped in a spare we had kept from Molly and it heats up properly now.
She drives really well. Very peppy, seems to be as thrifty on fuel as they should be too. Handles well but very stiff on what seem to be even stiffer springs then whats fitted to Minky. Really fun on the right roads but a little tiring if you're just wanting to cruise A to B. We've taken the squeal free wheels that we'd swapped on, fitted them to Minky and Martha now wears Supercats on the front for maximum squealing delight
So that is that. Took some nice photos of her the other week. We will now list Martha up for sale tonight on Trademe (because its free car listings tonight) and see what sort of interest there is.
With luck the next rather special K11 that we have been told might be heading our way will actually come to be. Quite excited about it but I wont say anything more in case it doesn't happen. If it doesn't then at least I might get more done on the Imp..
A month or so ago our friendly local wreckers gave us a heads up on a K11 cabriolet they might be getting in.
"Its owner had a whoopsy, smashed the front guard in and needs a bit of work. Reg and wof'd. Would you be interested in it?.."
"yes" was the obvious answer.
They collected it today, gave me a phone call and we were at the yard as quick as a flash. This beauty greeted us..
First thing we both spotted were the wheels. Even covered in dirt they still looked new. Pretty nice look and we thought they'd suit a yellow car better. Good tyres too. 185/55 15 are about 10mm bigger OD then the 175/70 13s we currently have on Minky and Martha. Might have to try them out for size... if we bought the car that is. Best check it over and not get carried away.
Looked over the rest. Needs a guard, bonnet needs straightening in the front corner, headlight bracket is broken and the windscreen is cracked. Cant tell on the rest- test drive will show up things but the chassis legs looked ok. I think the guard/light/bonnet took the brunt of the shunt. Worst thing is a smashed drivers side window. Not exactly one of these cabs on every street corner so that could be a search as its quite different in shape. But I could just throw a plastic one in for now. Wing mirror smashed off, no doubt into many little pieces. Again - not the same as other k11s.
Checked the windscreen size and it appears to be the same as a bog standard k11. Phew.
We had a quick skim over the rest of the car, because in our minds we'd already 'bought' it by now - for the wheels alone and little dose of ****s and giggles to even just own it, sample the k11 drop top life and have a laugh no matter what happens. YOLO.
1.3 with only 126k on the clock. Neat.
Oh. Nissan N-CVT slushbox. Not so neat but how bad could it be?
Ka-ching. Sold! I'll drive it home.
We grabbed a guard and wing mirror (I'll cobble together something that satisfies the the legal requirements of having both mirrors but it might not look pretty) and put our name on the screen that remains on the k11 we've now been robbing for quite some time.
I fastened the loose guard liners with cable ties, checked the coolant (oooh -strut brace!) and kicked the tyres.
With the top lowered (its electric!) I cruised off into the evening sun, the huge exhaust tip droning away, enhancing the wonderful monotone revs holding of the CVT.
Watching the gauges like a hawk (oooooh - a full tank of petrol. $500 k11 was suddenly only $374 * ). Temp sat bang on. Everything works. Steering seems fine. Doesn't pull. Wheels seem ok. No shakes there. But wow- scuttle shake. Not terrible but noticeable.
Main thing is its fun! Heater works sweet as which was a good thing on another crisp clear and cool Tasman evening in winter (apparently winter. I'll stick with late summer)
Once happy that Mandy, her name decided almost as soon as Hannah had paid for her, was not going to lead me off into a hedge or die in a cloud of steam I was able to relax and just enjoy the ride.
I felt no need to drive fast. I cruised along, noticing many looks from other drivers, no doubt wondering what the backstory was for the funny little car that looks like a March k11 but is a drop top and has one front side caved in, no bumper, a headlight hanging at an angle and its mirror smashed off.
I fumbled with the stereo. Does it work? Ooh the previous owner had left a cd in it. What's going to be this evenings music???
Bruno Mars.
Bloody perfect! I cranked it up loud and rang my fingers through my hair.
Hannah took some pics as we cruised to the beach for a photo shoot.
Sadly the sun was gone from the beach so took some pics near the forestry..
Drove home. Parked it inside because no side window and a frankly threadbare looking roof does not a rain tight car make.
More pics. Its better side (like...has a mirror)
The modified exhaust looks terrible and sits too low off centre. Friend at wreckers wants it so we'll put a stock on in place. Less CVT drone for better living.
The donkey up front...
Someone bought a Nissan sticker pack from Bob's $2 auto emporium ...
Huge boot..
Pull a lever and pop the back seat down for the skis/ironing board/golf clubs/ french sticks...
Pretty much a Jaguar interior...
Its those little things...
Wow. What an afternoon.
Plans are to fix it, drive it, enjoy it.
Then sell it on for someone else to enjoy...
...he says now.
Oh and pinch them wheels to try out for size. Not totally set on the style/size yet until they are washed and fitted to Minky.
Update time before the weekend when our stable of k11s is reduced to 2.
Mandy first. We stripped her down, removing both guards. Only needed to remove the drivers side to fix damage but as we've learned they all collect a load of dust/dirt at the back bottom of the guard so its worthwhile removing to clean it out. Took off the bumper and the headlights.
It looked like this behind the bent wing.. (I took no photos. These 2 following pics are screen captures from a video I had sent my brother. Yes. He's that lucky)
I then used many various tools including hammers, slide hammer, dollies, vice grips, pliers, blocks of wood, long lengths of steel etc to carefully reshape the inner guard front until it sat where it should. Lobbed some black zinc on and fitted the white guard we had scored from the parts car at the wreckers.
Then I had to fix the bonnet corner. Same again.. lots of tools and some patience rewarded me with a bonnet that you'd hardly tell was damaged but for black paint and some dents.
Classy.
The headlight next. Turns out the back of it was smashed more than I thought and its not one that's so easily found locally , the car having facelift 2 lights, among other 'updates' (even though on the tintop cars facelift 2 updates didn't happen for 2 more years. Maybe the cabs were used as a test bed. Or maybe they were seen as extra special, got these new upgraded bits and then the thought to fitting on the tintops 2 years later? Very interesting I know! I can tell you're impressed )
So the headlight. It got some Barry levels of diy plastic welding using a big soldering iron, plus some riveted on alloy brackets. Shame I did not get a photo. Its beautiful. I earned extra milk arrowroot biscuits for that effort and was talk of the blokes shed that evening.
So now the front end looked straight and the headlight pointed in roughly the right direction we swapped the alloys over onto Minky and Minkys steels went onto Mandy. Then we went for a drive to town. I spotted another local k11 and nabbed this shot to the amusement of the other carpark dwelling folk..
Cute k11 - nice colour and PFL2D ! I shall add it to the list of k11s I could have in the future when its elderly owners die.
But for now I was happy with the look of our yard...
Now I turned my focus to the mirror. Luckily the mirror housing is actually the same as a tintop item. They just fitted a different stalk. So I striped down the wreckers one and swapped bits, after having cleaned out a family of spiders. I had to fabricate a special tool to hold down the large spring and remove a clip. Prick of a thing but got there in the end.
While I did that Hannah cleaned out the interior. She found the coin one should usually find in such jobs, so knocking the purchase price down. By how much I don't know as it depends on inflation...
There was also this unit under the passenger seat. Some sort of television control? Figuring this car must have had the very latest in car entertainment back in the day...
Next major job was to make a side window. I had rang about various wreckers all over NZ looking for one but no luck I even emailed the main garage in the cook islands where there's apparently loads of these cars but no luck there.
So a plastic window it is. Anyway- its a convertible. The windows shouldnt be up when you're driving. I got a bit of plastic big enough from a Nelson outfit (bendy stuff that doesn't crack - not sure what) and we removed the passenger window.
Actually a really easy and quick job which was a relief. Used it as a template and traced around it, cut it to shape plus measured the curve depth.
Dropped the plastic back in to the specialist and they heated it up and formed the curve. It turned out good. Fitted and now a window we have.
Next job to do before we can go for a wof is replace the cracked windscreen. But it had to wait until we had some decent weather because for seemingly 2 weeks it rained. Finally it was back to the wreckers to (carefully) remove the screen (inc as part of the sale) from the ever diminishing parts car...
This we'll gloop into Mandys aperture, probably with the help of our friendly tame window fitter person. For now we are driving about ignoring the crack, which has not grown but it just too long to get pass a wof test with.
Meanwhile the other two k11s were probably sulking because until we sort out the tears in the roof Mandy gets to stay inside.
Minky got Mandys alloys as a treat although we are not 100% sold on them. They just seem a little bit too big. Really nice from some angles but from others just wrong..
So we'll keep looking for 'the wheels' and probably just sell these on. We actually really quite like her with the steels so possibly some 14" steels with 60 series tyres could be spot on.
Martha has found a new forever home and we are super stoked about who's getting her. She will be picked up this weekend. A few weeks ago we decided that the ripped passenger side CV boot needed replacing. I bought one of those really stretchy universal items but jeeez it was tight and I ended up having to remove the axle to fit it. Sorted now and also good to know that the drain/fill plugs on the gearbox aint seized in place , given the fiasco we had removing Minkys filler plug.
So that's that for now. Get Mandys windscreen swapped asap and then go for a wof...
The last few months we've used Mandy the cabriolet quite a bit and its been super enjoyable. Its our first convertible and all a bit new.
On the first decent outing on a hot as day was a trip to Nelson where we both learned why it is we'd always seen convertible owners wearing caps and its not because they are a suitable place to put an MG or mx5 logo. Without a peaked cap the sun in pretty intense when there's no roof. Duh.
Another thing we learned is you get baked!!! Its like a little oven. Tops of our legs. Ouch.
So caps and lots of sunscreen became a thing.
Took the car over to Blenheim via the lakes for Dads funeral. Kevin came with us. Great drive. Really nice scenery and a new outlook with no roof.
Took some pics on the way...
Kevin wasn't that impressed with the lake ..
He likes the little nook he had under the seat...
Found this aptly named street near Blenheim - that's my younger brother with a childs cap he'd found on the footpath ..
So yeah- this little car has been great fun. Even used it to collect some alloy- the drop down rear seat centre was very handy...
But we had never intended on keeping this car forever as we've enough cars and more projects on the way. We have had it advertised on trademe for a while now and there was plenty of interest but we wanted it to go to the right home where it would be cherished and adored. A few folks who enquired were blatantly going to trash it as a cheap car.
Finally the ideal new home was found - a young fella in Auckland who'd owned a k11 before, missed it after it was gone and really wanted another one. He made his way down yesterday via plane, ferry and bus with his Dad and was super enthusiastic about his new car. He works in a race car preparation workshop and has some cool ideas for future Mandy. I think he's already sorting out a new roof from some guy in the Netherlands who makes them to order.
So that's the short story of Mandy and here's a pic of the excited new owner and his Dad just before they headed off to make their way home - and it looks like they'll be avoiding the upcoming next lot of rain expected luckily.
Of course, as seems to be the case with us, when one k11 goes another pops up. On our way home we stopped to check out a k11 that has been left dormant on the side of the road for the last two weeks. I've located the owner and I'll be asking what the deal is - does it need rescuing
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