My Little Micra

[LiamC]

On Tuesday of this week I picked up my birthday/Christmas present, this silver facelift donor car

It's absolutely full of parts including:
A Matt Humphries fast road kit;
- OMP top front strut brace
- Whiteline lower front strut brace
- Spax shocks all round
- Hol 60mm springs
- Whiteline panhard rod
Facelift March front bumper
Nismo shock top mounts
GTiR brakes with grooved discs
Polybushed wishbones
Nismo 25mm front anti-roll bar
E30 BMW bottle caps
Whiteline 20mm rear anti-roll bar

It's safe to say I'm delighted with all this. I'll be selling on the March bumper and wheels, everything else will be transferred over to my car in good time.


Getting it on and off the trailer with a seized handbrake both sides was fun, but we got there in the end with a lot of pushing and swearing.
Today I started working on it for the first time, with the first job being fixing those god forsaken brakes. As usual this wasn't anywhere near as easy as it should have been, as the car had stupid hollow alloy wheel nuts which the threads have turned to dust on. Much swearing ensued getting them off. Tomorrow I'll start pulling bits off and cursing whatever else goes wrong.

 

[Tornado]

Nice one! Have a great Christmas and a fab new year.

 

[lukelog]

Quality, almost bought some identical bmw wheels for mine.

 

[LiamC]

Nice one! Have a great Christmas and a fab new year.

Happy Christmas and a Happy New year to you too

 

[LiamC]

Quality, almost bought some identical bmw wheels for mine.

Yeah I know where there's another identical set in my local scrapyard. Great place that haha. But they do look well, good spec for fitting micras

 

[LiamC]

Well I got a few bits done yesterday despite having to deliver last minute presents and stuff like that.

Wiper linkage is off, as mine is wrecked. It knocks and squeaks and is just crap in general. I'll overhaul this one and regrease it before I replace mine.
Also started removing all the associated rubbish to do with the electric windows to swap onto mine. While I was at that I noticed a big plug with 6 wires going into it. I'm thinking it must be for electric mirrors. Possible upgrade for the future there.
The boot lock broke too, which meant climbing into the boot from inside and taking it apart from the inside out. Which was fun.....

Edit: Knew I'd seen it somewhere along the line years ago. https://www.micra.org.uk/threads/the-beast.53963/
Forgot it was a different colour though, so it was reshelled at some point after 2013, then the silver shell got crashed and put off the road around this time last year. And now it's all going into another car.....

 

[LiamC]

Right I really should have updated this before now but I've been busy.

I decided to spend my St Stephens day doing what most of us probably did, avoiding our families and working on the car instead. I decided to fit my Ga16 airbox which I have been meaning to do for about a year now. It makes a bit more noise and possibly a bit more responsive but I think that's mainly a placebo effect.

Instead of moving the carbon canister bracket down like I had planned, I just decided to remove it altogether. The smallest of the pipes, the vacuum from above the throttle blade, was split wide open. Not a huge leak, and it didn't seem to affect the idle when I put my finger over it but it can't have helped having unregistered air getting in. I'll check all the vacuum pipes and make sure there's none that are actually serious sometime.

The next day I set about fixing my amazingly awful wipers. My friends who own the scrapyard said it is one of the most asked about parts for micras, so I'm happy to have a parts car to get one off. I started by removing the linkage off my car, but I was shocked to see what was under the scuttle panel. Someone has used a key as a washer where one of the holes for the bush has rusted through.

(Apologies for all the muck, the hose was frozen solid so I couldn't wash it off.) It was also bent completely out of shape, presumably by the ape who had used the key. Me and my dad eventually straightened this area out, using a few blocks and a variety of hammers. I also used the mounting bracket from the parts car to make a strengthening plate so it wouldn't pull through again.

When I took the linkage off the silver car the last day, I saw that the white plastic bushes were the problem. They take the full force of the spindle turning, which wears the holes at an angle and causes them to flop around.

I noticed that the drivers side was a lot worse on both cars, so I decided to use the passenger bush from both linkages. Regreased and reassembled, I got it back on to the car and it works silently. I plan on making a jig to put an insert into the bushes so that they will outlast the car in the future.

 

[Bougourd]

May have to keep my eye out for some e30 bottle caps as they look pretty smart

Loving the key spacer

 

[LiamC]

May have to keep my eye out for some e30 bottle caps as they look pretty smart

Loving the key spacer

Yeah they do look well and fit micras very nicely. I think I'll be keeping them after all

 

[LiamC]

Quick update here, haven't done anything huge to either car as I'm back at work currently but just wanting to keep a track of mileage.
I generally get a pretty consistent 39 mpg, doing my usual long runs up and down to college every week. This is about 50/50 motorway speeds (75 ish, limit is higher here) and standard cruising on back roads (50). Fairly predictable stuff considering the car is sitting at over 4000 rpm on the motorway.
Recently though I've only been driving to and from work, around 2 and a half miles each way. The car never gets up to temperature in this time, which obviously means it is running extra rich. It's also been very cold weather in the last couple of weeks which makes this even worse. These changes have made it drop down to 31 mpg, which is more of a drop than I had expected. I never push the car when it is not up to temperature, and I don't drive like too much of an idiot even when it is (no point in a micra, you won't get anywhere fast anyway). Just wondering if anyone thinks that there might be more going on here than just short runs killing the mileage, or are micras just this thirsty in winter anyway.

 

[LiamC]

Another day of (some) progress on the silver car. Pulsar calipers and goodridge pipes off. Faced the usual hassle with this car with everything being rusted on solid. Not using these brakes anytime soon, saving for if/when more power is being made. Buying a set of Almera 247mm brakes next week for the meantime.

Sadly unusable EBC Yellowstuff pads

Sheared off end from the other brake pipe.

 

[LiamC]

Haven't been able to get to the car, something I forgot to post the other day was I found that my drivers side inner cv is broken in half. I know the car was crashed which is why it's off the road, which is why I'm guessing the cv broke. What I don't understand is how it drives still, ie why it isn't just spinning the stub of the drivers cv. Do micras have some sort of lsd from the factory? Couldn't think of any other reason it would still move otherwise

 

[LiamC]

Been a while. I'll start with work on the parts car. So far I've removed the BMW E30 wheels, pulsar calipers, goodridge braided lines, polybushed wishbones, whiteline front lower brace, march bumper, rocker cover, front suspension, nismo front anti roll bar, whiteline rear anti roll bar with adjusters and probably a few other bits. Have a lot of it cleaned up and ready to go on mine over Easter, just waiting on a few small bits. Small photo dump will ensue

I did have to cut this nut in half, this was before I realised there were flats for holding the shaft on the other side. Massive face-palm moment.

"It just looks like a scrotum" - Jeremy Clarkson on the K12

 

[LiamC]

So onto my own one (I don't know why I always refer to it as my own because they both are but never mind).

I've been very slack with this so I'm not sure I have to go back, but I've basically just been driving the car and working away on the silver yoke most of the time. Back in February, my car failed the NCT (similar to MOT) on a worn drivers side ball joint and a rust hole on the bottom of the door. So I set about fixing them in my 4 week period of retest time. I pulled the poly wishbones off my silver car and had the ball joints replaced, and got to use a ramp to fit them. This was an absolute luxury compared the usual gravel driveway. To be honest I haven't noticed a massive difference to just having these on, but I obviously can't drive it hard enough to get a huge benefit on the roads. Still, can't do any harm. Although the new ball joints definitely make a difference when it's on full lock slowly, or I'm presuming it's them anyway.

The door was another situation altogether. This was a bit of a bull**** fail in my opinion, never heard of it failing fully on just a door. Anyway, I cracked out the fibreglass to repair the hole from the inside of the door. This was really my first time working with fibreglass, but I enjoyed it to an extent. Not enough to do it for fun, but it wasn't all that bad. My dad gave me some good tips on working with it, which was greatly appreciated.

Started off with this hole, so I cleaned off the rust and removed any flakes and paper thin metal. It was then just a case cutting the glass matting to size and using tape on the outside of the hole as support for the drying resin. Ended up with the bottom picture, which got a skim of filler and paint to finish it off. Pretty proud of myself for a first timer

 

[LiamC]

The only other thing I've really done to the car is put on my Ga airbox, fairly handy. Also lost all the pictures for that sadly. But visited a lot of nice looking places around the West Coast, which for some reason I can't put up here. Seems to be something weird going on with pictures, but hopefully I'll get them up sometime

 

[flyboypuoi]

Haven't been able to get to the car, something I forgot to post the other day was I found that my drivers side inner cv is broken in half. I know the car was crashed which is why it's off the road, which is why I'm guessing the cv broke. What I don't understand is how it drives still, ie why it isn't just spinning the stub of the drivers cv. Do micras have some sort of lsd from the factory? Couldn't think of any other reason it would still move otherwise

I would be very interested to know if these have some kind of LSD. I've wondered that, since I'm fairly sure both wheels spin up when doing sick carpark burnouts.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[LiamC]

I would be very interested to know if these have some kind of LSD. I've wondered that, since I'm fairly sure both wheels spin up when doing sick carpark burnouts.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

Still a complete mystery why it still drove with that missing to me. It must have internally locked itself up or something and still out power down to the one wheel that could spin.
I did end up getting the shaft back in (giggety) when I had the wishbones off and the hub could move around. Definitely not any type of lsd though, spins both wheels opposite ways up in the air

"It just looks like a scrotum" - Jeremy Clarkson on the K12

 

[LiamC]

The past few days I've been finishing off my super s bumper, that will be painted over the long weekend as long as it's good and dry.

.
.

Sunday I gave the full car a tcut, pictures don't show how well it came up but I am very pleased with it.

.

By the time I'd finished and given it a wax it was dark, will get another picture in the daylight on the next sunny day.

"It just looks like a scrotum" - Jeremy Clarkson on the K12

 

[LiamC]

So the parts car is basically stripped of its goodness now. Might take off few stock bits that may be of use in the future, radiator, fuel filler neck etc but I don't have the space to store a full cars worth of parts.
.
.
Little before and after of rear arb

.
.
Had to mutilate some nuts to get them off the already equally mutilated shock tops. Think I need to file in some new flats before they go back together

.
.
Also been prepping up my new wheels. Black racing 14×6 et40.

These will sit something similar to the BMW bottle caps, which I've decided to save as inspiration for getting a k10 in the future. Think they will go a bit with the classic look.
.
.
Finally, had a slight disaster with my Sr bumper. My mother, on one of her 7 o'clock cleaning sprees, accidentally knocked it over and smashed the whole number plate surround area.

It was partially my fault, as the night before I'd given it its final coat of primer, so it was hanging on the bench slightly precariously. Anyway, had to sand out a few scratches, and reinforce the inside of the bumper again

Also remade the infill part for the plate, which funnily enough came out a lot better than last time

.
.
The main reason for a lot of this progress is that I locked myself out of the house for nearly a whole day, and had to wait for my neighbours to come back with the spare key. Anyway, shows how much more work can be done without distractions.
.
.
Everything is getting painted before it goes on to my car. Both anti roll bars are now done, I've started on the shocks which I'll probably hammerite for longer life, the springs are being powder coated (hopefully tomorrow), and all the other associated brackets and crap will be done on good time too. Been a long time in the works, way longer than it should have been but it will be off to the big scrapyard in the sky for it soon. Doesn't deserve to be anywhere else to be honest, it's mainly held together with rivets and filler

"It just looks like a scrotum" - Jeremy Clarkson on the K12

 

[LiamC]

Nothing of any substance worth writing about done, but I've had a few bits turn up this week.
.
.
Dropped off my scabby old HOL 60 mil springs to the powder coaters on Monday.
Before

And the beautiful after shots.

.
.
This nardi wheel I won on ebay the other day arrived this week, I cannot wait to fit this once I sort an adapter.

.
.
And today my strongflex bushes arrived. So now I have brand new front main and end bushes, and the old bushes off the parts car for the rear anti roll bar and wishbones. I think I'm going to be prematurely giving myself chronic back pain with all this, I'm sure it will be worth it though.....

"It just looks like a scrotum" - Jeremy Clarkson on the K12

 

[LiamC]

Once again I've left this embarrassingly long between updates. I haven't done anything interesting really, but still the small bits add up. It's mainly been painting, between the Super S bumper and the new wheels I've been busy with them when I get time.
.
.
So boring prepping and painting aside, I had a very badly timed glovebox breakage while me and my friends were on a bit of a road trip, to see Jimmy Carr the comedian. I had just checked the tickets were safe and sound in the glovebox, and as I closed it, the lock deconstructed itself and ended up all over the floor. While we stopped for fuel, one of the lads found my cable tie stash and decided to "help" (I use that term in the lightest sense).

.
.
Bought a folding cup holder for 2 euro off the 'bay of e', and decided to chop the spare arm rest off my parts car to use it on the door. It's actually brilliant, because I unintentionally designed it so well, that I can use the side air vent to cool drinks.

.
.
Done some more off-roading, back out to Omey Island over the beach crossing.

Some cows got very friendly with the car too.

Few handbrake turns on the sand on the way back over. The tide gets rid of any evidence of tomfoolery which is good.

.
.
That's probably enough pictures of me touring the West, now onto some relevant stuff. A couple of weeks ago I undersealed the rear arches, which also included some major weight reduction, just from cleaning all the mud trapped around the fuel filler neck. I'm going to remove the one off the parts car and clean it up and fit it, just for peace of mind.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[Tornado]

Brilliant cable tie work that, it should be on one of those "surprising ways to improve your life with cable ties" web sites. Me, I cleverly repaired the washing line pole with one only yesterday. Proudest day of my life.

 

[LiamC]

I meant to finish that update last night but I went to the pub instead. Here's the continuation.

The main updates from this week are the fitting of the fast road kit from Matt Humphris and fitting my new Nardi steering wheel.

I'll start with the lowering since that was done first. I started off with the shocks and springs from the silver car in a sorry but usable state, so removed them to be cleaned up and fitted onto the red one.

Before

I wire brushed, sanded, metal prepped, rust inhibitored, primered and then finished with underseal just to be sure to be sure.

Next I cleaned up the uprated top mount bearings. I soaked them in kerosene and cleaned them with an old toothbrush, and fitted it all back together with plenty of grease.

I had the springs professionally re-powder coated, since it would have taken me months and still wouldn't have come out well.

After that it was a case of fitting it all back together, I had to use a swan necked spanner to get down into the top mount and an adjustable spanner to hold the shock shaft.

On to the actual day of the lowering. I started out the day helping my friend to lower his Starlet, and we decided to move onto my car after that. My original plan was to just loosen up the bolts, which is what I usually do a couple of days before I plan on doing a job. However, with the two of us there, it made sense to carry on. We ended up having major problems with the panhard rod, due to it being the old style Whiteline one that you adjust off the car first and then fit rather than an on-car adjustable one. We ended up getting the panhard off, but the bush left on the axle end after pulling out of the panhard rod. So I had the brilliant idea of burning it off. It was nice to keep warm anyway.

After that it was pretty much plain sailing doing the front, and while I had everything out of the way I undersealed the front drivers arch. That leaves only the passenger side to do, which I will do when I change the wheels over.

Finished result

The Nardi wheel was easy enough compared, bar the stock wheel being ridiculously tight on the splines. I feel this isn't how nissan fitted it, since it's always been off to the left when going straight ahead and it also has tippex writing on the back, a sure sign of it being from a scrapyard. I'm assuming someone tightened it up with a breaker bar, hence why it was jammed on. I resorted to hammering the centre of the spline until it came loose, and pulling with my knees on the bottom. It's on now anyway, just need to fit a horn onto it.

Earlier today I removed the fuel filler neck off the spare car, which I'll clean up and fit to mine over winter when I take the car off the road to save her the hassle of salt and general road crap.

Crazy pattern under where the paint has peeled off too, not sure what has caused that

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[LiamC]

Brilliant cable tie work that, it should be on one of those "surprising ways to improve your life with cable ties" web sites. Me, I cleverly repaired the washing line pole with one only yesterday. Proudest day of my life.

I've streamlined the design a bit, my friend has a pre facelift parts car which I keep meaning to go over and get the glovebox off but it keeps slipping my mind

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[LiamC]

Brilliant cable tie work that, it should be on one of those "surprising ways to improve your life with cable ties" web sites. Me, I cleverly repaired the washing line pole with one only yesterday. Proudest day of my life.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[Tornado]

"I wire brushed, sanded, metal prepped, rust inhibitored, primered and then finished with underseal just to be sure to be sure. " Do you have pictures of the process, and the brand names of the stuff used? I'd love to know. Great work, especially the glove box, genius.

 

[LiamC]

"I wire brushed, sanded, metal prepped, rust inhibitored, primered and then finished with underseal just to be sure to be sure. " Do you have pictures of the process, and the brand names of the stuff used? I'd love to know. Great work, especially the glove box, genius.

My dad's wire brush drill attachments, which worse completely down to the nub 100 grit sandpaper, taken from work
Por 15 metal prep, we got it in part of a kit when my dad was repairing the fuel tanks on the generator. This stuff is an acid and is a rust inhibitor too.
Zinc 182 (brilliant pun on the band, which took me months to get) rust inhibitor spray
And then underseal with the company that does waxoyl. Good thick application, same to the arches just to make sure

I'm proud of the glovebox actually, I'd nearly leave it like that

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[LiamC]

Last arch undersealed. I'll start the underneath sections next

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[Tornado]

Nice work, thanks for the reply. Some price, that Por 15 stuff, nice to have some lying around, it's probably one of the best.

 

[LiamC]

Nice work, thanks for the reply. Some price, that Por 15 stuff, nice to have some lying around, it's probably one of the best.

It is serious stuff though all the same. And my father wouldn't be one to splash the cash, only on things that work

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[LiamC]

Decided to have a go at tinting the top section of a march rear light, for a more two-tone look instead of three colours. Similar to n14 sunny lights now

You can't really see the difference between stock and what I've done in the picture but it looks convincing in person.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[LiamC]

I've had a bit of time off before I'm back working next week, so I finished off the last two Black Racing wheels, got tyres on them, and painted and lacquered the Super S bumper.

The wheels came up really well I think, plus I learned some things from doing them so even if they came up crap I'd call it a success regardless. I rushed the lacquering on two of them, which caused the paint underneath to bubble and break up a little but it's not too noticeable so I'm just going to live with it. The colour is a VW colour, used on old Golf GTIs and Corrados. I really love it because they appear very dark, nearly black, from a distance but up close they glitter and shine like mad. I've had two offers of people wanting to buy them already, including my tyre fitter who wants them for his Honda Beat. They've changed the car completely and are exactly how I want them, so they will be staying for the foreseeable future.

The Super S bumper was the third thing I bought for the micra, way before I had my car, around two and a half years ago now. It started off as being fit the bin, sitting in a pile of rubbish in my friends shed. It had had the number plate holder and cross pieces cut out of the centre, so as a result it was flimsy as hell and just flopped around if you didn't lift it right. It also seemed to be painted with a really crappy black paint straight onto the original paint, so it needed some love and attention. One of the lights had had a minor fire, which as a result melted the holder and ruined the light in the process. In a previous post I documented what I had done up until that point, just basically making a new number plate holder out of facia board and filling in the gaps made by the cutouts from the cross pieces being removed. After that point, it was pretty much just more fibreglass and filler to strengthen and finish it up, until the point my mother knocked it off the shelf in a 7 a.m. cleaning frenzy, which resulted in the number plate holder breaking and cracking some of the fibreglass out. A number of hours went into repairing that cock up, and again it was ready for paint. I always use Holts paint and lacquer, and I'm very impressed with the finish it gives.

The bumper mounts need a bit of fiddling to fit around the housing for the driving lights, so I purchased an angle grinder (or angry grinder as my dad calls them after an incident involving one meeting with his leg) and got cutting. No injuries occurred this time thank the Lord.

I fitted it yesterday, after a polish using 7000 grit sandpaper. It shines beautifully, if a little off colour due to the paint being 20 years old on the car. I still have to adjust the driving lights, which I have no idea how to do, but I'm sure I can work it out. Also, I think I said this before, but thanks to r-regSR for supplying the lights and helping me in the war against idiots with hids who don't dip

 

[St0rm91]

Last arch undersealed. I'll start the underneath I'm sections next


View attachment 57088

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

What've you been using for underseal?

 

[LiamC]

What've you been using for underseal?

It's the same lads who make waxoyl, the stuff you get in Halfords. It's good stuff, real thick and tarry so it doesn't drip or run

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[St0rm91]

It's the same lads who make waxoyl, the stuff you get in Halfords. It's good stuff, real thick and tarry so it doesn't drip or run

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

Cheers. Any tips for getting the original stuff off? Plan on stripping the car down next time I'm back. I'm thinking heat gun + diesel + scraper as thats what we use to shift HFO thats been spilled on ship?

 

[LiamC]

Cheers. Any tips for getting the original stuff off? Plan on stripping the car down next time I'm back. I'm thinking heat gun + diesel + scraper as thats what we use to shift HFO thats been spilled on ship?

I just go straight over the original unless it's flaky tbh. If it flakes or the original paint is peeling, or there's dreaded rust spots, I wire brush and sand back to bare metal with 60 grit sandpaper. Should metal prep it at that stage, but I don't always have access to it. If you have a better technique I'm all ears though, can I ask what HFO is?

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[St0rm91]

I just go straight over the original unless it's flaky tbh. If it flakes or the original paint is peeling, or there's dreaded rust spots, I wire brush and sand back to bare metal with 60 grit sandpaper. Should metal prep it at that stage, but I don't always have access to it. If you have a better technique I'm all ears though, can I ask what HFO is?

Sent from my SM-G903F using Micra Sports Club mobile app

Heavy fuel oil. At room room temperature (45+C in an engine room) its like tar. Needs to be heated upwards of 110C to be usable as fuel.

I am tempted to just shot blast the entire can tbh since it'll already be half stripped.

 

[LiamC]

Once again I've let life get in the way of both updating my blog but also doing bits to the car. So picking up where I left off with a brief summary, I have;
~Fitted my modified Super S front bumper,
~I am in the process of painting a rear Super S bumper to match (currently primered in my shed),
~Cut 2 coils off my rear springs to even up the front and rear,
~Modified and fitted Saab 93 shock absorbers to the rear to keep these springs nice and captive,
~Gotten my hands on a march arm rest which is very nice for long journeys,
~Picked up some genuine Watanabe wheels which will be going on the car in spring
And today;
~Fitted some colour coded mirrors that I painted last week and
~Gotten my windscreen replaced

I also started on modifying a Toyota Glanza spoiler which was given to me for free (it involves cutting and fibreglassing together to get it to fit properly), and next weekend I'm going to raid a March G# for parts (hoping to get interior, grill and bumpers but don't worry I'm not killing a perfectly good car as the rest of the car is utterly riddled with rust). I'll go into more details of jobs carried out over the week.

Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[LiamC]

So, I'll start off with a few pictures of my lovely new bumper fitted to the car

As stated earlier, this bumper was the third thing I ever bought for a micra, for the grand total of 10 Euro off my friend, after it had been passed around various members of his family and eventually landing in his shed. I fixed it up, sanded the living daylights out of it removing every little stone chip and mark and painted it in glorious Cinnabar Red, giving it a whole new lease of life.
.
.
The next thing I did was take 2 coils off the rear springs to even out the difference between the front and back arch gaps.

It came out very well in my opinion, and sits perfect to my eye. To keep these captive, I modified a pair of rear Saab 93 shock absorbers (in exactly the same way that the Corsa shock modification is done) and fitted a Gizfab panhard rod to keep everything nice and central. It's not a hugely noticeable difference on pictures but in person it fixes the car overall
.
.
I picked up a March centre arm rest and a Super S rear bumper too off a car being broken a few miles from me for quite a good price. The arm rest is very handy for my long journeys up and down the country, and the rear bumper was very cheap due to being broken on the corner (after the car was run into).

Although this is currently ready to be sprayed, I actually started working on it at the start of the summer, but between all the fibreglassing and filler work to repair it I ended up losing interest in it, so it has sat around my shed for months in a half finished state where it has gotten slightly re-damaged in places. When I started back to it a couple of weeks ago, there were a few areas I had to sand back and filler over, but the paint kept reacting around the places I had worked on

(I later found out this was from me spraying primer on too thick, and as it dried it shrunk and peeled the paint underneath it off the bumper), so I spent a lot of time priming and sanding trying to get rid of this peeled effect to no avail. In the end I got there though, by using very light coats and bringing it inside the house to warm up after spraying (my mother was very happy about the house smelling of paint), and I'm just after sanding it to a final 800 grit before paint tomorrow evening (weather dependant)

Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Micra Sports Club mobile app[/URL

 

[LiamC]

Here is the exciting bit, my new (to me) Watanabe RS8 wheels.

They are 14"x6" with an et of 13, they're proper split rims and were made all the way back in 1991. They have a PCD of 4x114.3 so I'm having to buy hub adapters which are 18mm thick and will push the offset to -5mm, a bit more pokey than I like but it won't be too extreme compared to the 7" et-7 of most minilghts on micras. Here is a picture of a micra on 7" et8 wheels, which are identical in terms of poke to what I will have

. The plan is to get some part worn tyres on them (165/60 should fit nicely) for the time being just to check if they fit fine, and then eventually upgrade to something nicer and grippier.
.
.
Next weekend I'm going to be getting parts from a March G# that I've found being broken, I'll be picking up a spare set of Super S style bumpers but with a jap plate holder
The rare front grill

And most importantly the most amazing looking interior that micras got, the black and white camo Super S style seats

Pictures robbed from post on the Australian micra page, MaxK11C's blog when he was one of the many owners of N240 RAP and some random Dutch website dedicated to saddos who like Nissans like us

Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[Deleted member]

Hey Liam
Long time no chat
You ever fit the maroon wrap around spoiler I sold you ?

 

[Deleted member]

T

Here is the exciting bit, my new (to me) Watanabe RS8 wheels. View attachment 60264They are 14"x6" with an et of 13, they're proper split rims and were made all the way back in 1991. They have a PCD of 4x114.3 so I'm having to buy hub adapters which are 18mm thick and will push the offset to -5mm, a bit more pokey than I like but it won't be too extreme compared to the 7"x-7 of most minilghts on micras. Here is a picture of a micra on 7" et8 wheels, which are identical in terms of poke to what I will have View attachment 60265. The plan is to get some part worn tyres on them (165/60 should fit nicely) for the time being just to check if they fit fine, and then eventually upgrade to something nicer and grippier.
.
.
Next weekend I'm going to be getting parts from a March G# that I've found being broken, I'll be picking up a spare set of Super S style bumpers but with a jap plate holder
The rare front grill View attachment 60266
And most importantly the most amazing looking interior that micras got, the black and white camo Super S style seats View attachment 60267

Pictures robbed from post on the Australian micra page, MaxK11C's blog when he was one of the many owners of N240 RAP and some random Dutch website dedicated to saddos who like Nissans like us

Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

Here is the exciting bit, my new (to me) Watanabe RS8 wheels. View attachment 60264They are 14"x6" with an et of 13, they're proper split rims and were made all the way back in 1991. They have a PCD of 4x114.3 so I'm having to buy hub adapters which are 18mm thick and will push the offset to -5mm, a bit more pokey than I like but it won't be too extreme compared to the 7"x-7 of most minilghts on micras. Here is a picture of a micra on 7" et8 wheels, which are identical in terms of poke to what I will have View attachment 60265. The plan is to get some part worn tyres on them (165/60 should fit nicely) for the time being just to check if they fit fine, and then eventually upgrade to something nicer and grippier.
.
.
Next weekend I'm going to be getting parts from a March G# that I've found being broken, I'll be picking up a spare set of Super S style bumpers but with a jap plate holder
The rare front grill View attachment 60266
And most importantly the most amazing looking interior that micras got, the black and white camo Super S style seats View attachment 60267

Pictures robbed from post on the Australian micra page, MaxK11C's blog when he was one of the many owners of N240 RAP and some random Dutch website dedicated to saddos who like Nissans like us

Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

Hey man you ever get the G# parts after ??

 

[LiamC]

T


Hey man you ever get the G# parts after ??

Yeah fitted the wrap around and this one hasn't gone anywhere like the last time. Yeah got bumpers, grill, seats, interior bits, lights and managed to fit all of that inside my own car. Must do an update with all the stuff fitted

 

[Deleted member]

Yeah fitted the wrap around and this one hasn't gone anywhere like the last time. Yeah got bumpers, grill, seats, interior bits, lights and managed to fit all of that inside my own car. Must do an update with all the stuff fitted

Hit me up some photos on messenger Facebook

 

[LiamC]

I can't believe how long I've left this. I'll start with the bad news, unfortunately I made the decision to take this car off the road last October as I needed a car to do long distances driving to and from work at 4 in the morning and the Micra wasn't cutting it (sitting at 4500 rpm on the motorway is painful). I'll do a quick recap since I couldn't possibly fill in exactly what has happened and when.

The last post I made was just after I received my Watanabes, and right before I collected my March G# parts, so I'll start there. I took the whole interior out of my car to be able to collect the new parts including seats, bumpers, grills, lights and other small bits off the March. It was quite the journey with fitting a Micra inside my micra but at least it makes for a good story, and to be fair to Micras they make amazing use of their interior space.

I apologise for the terrible night pictures, I was working very long hours and only got time to play with things in the evening. There were some fitting issues with both the front and rear seats, stupid Nissan making life awkward.

For Christmas that year, my girlfriend bought me genuine Watanabe centre caps, valve stems, wheel nuts and lock nuts. They finish off the wheels brilliantly so thank you very much to her (she definitely didn't make me write that part.....)

The Wats were quite pokey with the big adapters, but I was saving hub machining for another day as I just wanted them on, I'm still working on the front hubs yet but havent yet found a solution so it looks like more tyre scrubbing for me sadly.

I'll finish with a few pictures of some expeditions, once again to Omey Island and Fanore on the West Coast of Ireland. This car makes adventuring so much more fun and is why the car has so much special meaning to me

The final thing I will leave here is that the car is currently being dry stored on a dairy farm (and is slightly trapped there due to the Corona C*#t virus) but will be making a comeback for the summer. Right now I'm working on a small amount of rust prevention, handbrake work and 4x114.3 hubs to get it there. I wish all my fellow Micra lovers the best, these cars really are underrated but I'm happy I found them along with these forums where I've learnt so much. Special thanks to the people like Frank, Pork and pollyp for showcasing all your craziness over the years and letting others learn.

Sent from my LG K11+ (yes I did buy the phone specifically to have a K11 phone, I'm that sad)

 

[flyboypuoi]

Long time, no read!

 

[LiamC]

Long time, no read!

I know, I feel quite bad that I have let down my poor car for not photo whoring it enough. I feel good about getting it back together and being back in it though, spent a few hours working on replacement front hubs tonight with essentially no success sadly due to driveshaft differences now. But I now know there is plenty of room to machine out the bearing housing of the hub upright to take bigger bearings from other 4x114 cars.

 

[LiamC]

Last night I went on a mission to butcher some shafts together. I got as far as finding that there should be room in stock Micra hub upright to machine it out for an N16 Almera bearing, but the inner shaft splines are too small and only have 19 vs 23 on the Almera CV. Going to go older and see if something like a Bluebird CV might work

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

K13 micra driveshafts have the same inner splines as the K11 of I remember correctly it might be worth seeing if the outer joint suits your purpose. The inner is the same as the pulsar I was trying

 

[LiamC]

K13 micra driveshafts have the same inner splines as the K11 of I remember correctly it might be worth seeing if the outer joint suits your purpose. The inner is the same as the pulsar I was trying

Is that the same inner splines as pre facelift 1.0 or later type 1.0/1.3. If I remember rightly you were over in Oz no? So obviously early type 30 box on a 1.3. I'll have to keep digging through sites, unfortunately everything I'm finding has much bigger shafts than Micras