PollyMobiles Rebuild

[pollyp]

I did something very similar Paul. Did some work on the front brakes on my daughter's Primera P12, did one side, got back in the car to turn the steering straight again, put the key in the ignition and it wouldn't turn/unlock the steering. Tried it about three times before I realised I was using the Micra key on my bunch of keys and not the Primera key, on her bunch, which was in the same pocket

hehe very easy to mistake em, I should mark out this spare key with big letters. least I know the NATS works and what the error code is

 

[pollyp]

removed both arms to inspect

looking at the left arm, it has the same insufficient welding as the right arm that failed

wirebrushed and grinded it back down to metal

welded it back up as advised in 1" steps and repainted

top & bottom bearings arrived

wacking the slightly rusty old joints out was abit tricky, just needed persistance

cleaned & fitted the new bearings. also packed it with grease to keep water & rust off the bearing as long as I can.

replaced the top bearings

 

[pollyp]

suspension reassembled ready for the MOT retest tomorrow. fingers xx

 

[pollyp]

she passed
got chatting to few bodyshop guys passing by who were curious about her.
MOT guy said cos it's pre-95, it doesn't need to meet the strict catalyst test or the limits are alot looser, long as it doesn't smoke.

treated self to abit of maccyD

 

[pollyp]

cutting apart the old spherical bearings from the suspension to learn how different they're made and how they wear out.
top: GEH17 bearing I used for the custom lower arm.
bottom: heavy-duty bearing that's used on the BC V1 coilover top mount.

the top bearing that came with the coilover uses a strong solid 1-piece steel outer casing and surprisingly the thin lining is a split 2-piece teflon impregnated bronze mesh.

the GEH17 bearing I used for the lower arm has a weaker split outer steel casing. the solid bronze lining is fused onto the steel and then coated with a thick teflon layer.

both spheres are the same size but with different hole sizes.

The BC top mount (left) has a much taller stronger outer casing wrapping the sphere. The larger surface area can support alot more thrust loads and last longer but has limited swivel angle.
The GEH17 bottom joint (right) has a shallow weaker outer casing. The smaller surface area limits how much thrust load it can withstand and wears out faster but has a wide swivel range allowing the lower arm to swing freely.

 

[pollyp]

the parents 307 exhaust has just started to blow before it's MOT was due, bout 1-2yrs since it was fitted.
such a silly design where the thin guage flared pipe & steel clamp rusts real fast and ONLY at that joint while the rest of the mid-pipe was fine.

a new mid-pipe & silencer are £40-50 each just to fix that tiny section!
fook that

rather than waste money buying a whole new section, I machined a collar sleeve out of spare scrap pipe, welded onto the silencer and joined to the remaining mid-pipe with a £1.50 clamp
should give it afew more yrs of use

 

[pollyp]

changed the fuel filter after the MOT. opened it up with tin-snips and the fuel appeared abit murky brown with lots of tiny rust particles.
the steel fuel filler pipe is rusting away badly and contaminating the tank and poor walbro pump. I'm gonna need to fabricate a new filler pipe out of stainless.

went with afew car friends down to scarborough again for the StaticRoyals car meet

 

[pollyp]

Ralph needed some stainless pins made for his trailer

it has an M4 thread going through the round rod, which is difficult to keep centred on a pillar drill so instead I quickly welded this simple jig (on top of a spare old jig I once made for notching pipes on the lathe) to clamp the rod and drill holes through it consistantly.

setup on the lathe like this

machined the pins

clamped em on the jig and started the hole with a centre-drill

drilled through with a 3.5mm bit

and tapped

3 finished trailer pins

 

[pollyp]

went down to Malton on a sunny saturday morning to visit Abi & Jonny who came up from salisbury for the week, and spend all day driving em around the yorkshire moors, whitby & scarborough

at whitby I noticed the gear stick began to feel very sloppy front-back but still solid when side-side?
looked underneath and the gearbox selector connection is still intact.

took the gear knob & gaiter off and yea, the two bolts holding the gear stick ball joint housing is loose.
so I had to find somewhere to park with one wheel up a high kerb, crawled under the low car and tighten those bolts.
once again kasandra throwing a tantrum whenever I take her out for a long drive

driving them back home in malton at night with this rain storm was interesting and then driving back home through the pitch black, flooded b-roads at 50mph with my candle headlights barely lighting anything up and then smashing through a deep puddle was scary. it took so much concentration till we got back on the motorway.

 

[RYB]

went down to Malton on a sunny saturday morning to visit Abi & Jonny who came up from salisbury for the week, and spend all day driving em around the yorkshire moors, whitby & scarborough

View attachment 55658

View attachment 55654

View attachment 55656

at whitby I noticed the gear stick began to feel very sloppy front-back but still solid when side-side?
looked underneath and the gearbox selector connection is still intact.

took the gear knob & gaiter off and yea, the two bolts holding the gear stick ball joint housing is loose.
so I had to find somewhere to park with one wheel up a high kerb, crawled under the low car and tighten those bolts.
once again kasandra throwing a tantrum whenever I take her out for a long drive

View attachment 55657

driving them back home in malton at night with this rain storm was interesting and then driving back home through the pitch black, flooded b-roads at 50mph with my candle headlights barely lighting anything up and then smashing through a deep puddle was scary. it took so much concentration till we got back on the motorway.

Since having my bmw with low mounted front fogs I see the need for them. They do a really good job of illuminating the floor in front of you along b roads like that.


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[pork]

Dfghjggppoougb


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[pork]

Sorry, daughter had my phone


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[pollyp]

Since having my bmw with low mounted front fogs I see the need for them. They do a really good job of illuminating the floor in front of you along b roads like that.


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The issue I have during wet nights is that wet tarmac doesn't reflect any headlight back, so appears murky black amongst the dark surrounding. Puddles are slightly darker but only seen at the last sec. Some b-roads barely have any visible clean cats eyes too.
Full beams just make the road & background the same flat mud colour or brighten up the reflective signs soo much it glares back which makes it worse.

I'm not sure how fog/driving lights down the bumper like a superS beaming at shallow as angle along the wet road can help?

 

[pollyp]

Sorry, daughter had my phone


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Lol I thought it said wubba lubba dub dub

 

[RYB]

Maybe it's more down to the position and shape of them that does it then, they are also a very yellow light which apparently helps with things.


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[sileter]

its to do with how low they are and shape, means it bounces lower and further away with less glare

 

[pollyp]

these standard H4 bulbs I have are pretty weak so I think I'll have to upgrade to the brighter blue ones I used yrs before which was alot better.
it's not often I drive in such difficult conditions so fitting front fogs or a superS bumper ain't a priority. I'll just have to eat more carrots

 

[SuperUno]

Re wiring with new ceramic connectors, and re-wiring with new relays (one per function) and a feed taken from the alternator makes a big difference. You then get a full 12v feed at the bulb.

 

[SuperUno]

Phillips 70%+ bulbs are the best standard bulbs to use.

 

[SuperUno]

Or for the rally car look a LED light bar makes a massive difference.

 

[pollyp]

Thanks Matt

 

[frank]

Or for the rally car look a LED light bar makes a massive difference.

+1 on led,s , they have come a long way, this is my bike one fitted in the van alongside the stock halogen for comparison, both on dipped headlights, far brighter but crap antidazzle beam pattern tho

 

[pollyp]

+1 on led,s , they have come a long way, this is my bike one fitted in the van alongside the stock halogen for comparison, both on dipped headlights, far brighter but crap antidazzle beam pattern tho

View attachment 55665

James may would luv the glare from that collapsed sun

 

[SuperUno]

You should see the light from the rally car on full beam with x2 160w H4 bulbs, a full length LED light bar and the x2 LED corner lights. [HASHTAG]#brighterthanthesun[/HASHTAG]

 

[pollyp]

You should see the light from the rally car on full beam with x2 160w H4 bulbs, a full length LED light bar and the x2 LED corner lights. [HASHTAG]#brighterthanthesun[/HASHTAG]

arghhh

 

[pollyp]

the plastic lid for the catch can was fairly stuck onto the glass jar for some reason so I had to hack it off and make another lid

catch can caught 100ml after 1303miles (76.7ml/1000m)

 

[pollyp]

Upgrading headlight bulbs

So after recently struggling to see the unlit B-roads at night when it rained, I searched through the garage and found I had afew spare bulbs in the box.
(from left-right: unknown bulbs I'm currently using, +50% super-brilliance, +50% super-brilliance blue, Phillips bulb from the spare headlight unit I brought)

the current bulb are quite dull, no idea what brand/model it is but I'm guessing it's bog standard.

the halfords +50% super-brilliance appear exactly the same as the current bulbs

the halfords +50% super-brilliance Blue has a much brighter & whiter core.
I used to run these but then one of em burnt out and popped the old dim ones back on.

the Phillips bulbs from the spare headlights are actually inbetween the 472SB and the blue 472SBB, not bad

ok so my fav is the blue 472SBB but I only have 1 so would have to buy another.
since halfords offer BOGOF, I may as well upgrade to the +90% extreme-brilliance bulbs for £21 (only £4 more).

is it brighter than the 472SB, yup

is it brighter than the 472SBB, yup only just but imo the blue bulb has a cooler/whiter tint while the new bulb is still towards the beige spectrum

quick GIF comparing all the bulbs

driving through the unlit countryside while it's dry, I barely notice much difference imho.
the real test will be the next time I drive through the rain at night

 

[pollyp]

it's time to remove & recondition the rusty rear axle.
most of the nuts & bolts loosened off ok but two of the upper trailing arm bolts have seized onto the bush inserts as usual.
also noticed the dust boots on the rear calipers aren't fully inserted into the groove and could let dirt in so they'll also need sorting.

this is one of the issues with the coilover adjustable spring perch that sits in the hole of the spring cup, it blocks drainage so all the spray & debris simply pools inside this cavity forever till the axle rusts through.

I just had an idea of turning the whole thing upside down attaching the adjustable perch onto the chassis by bolting it onto the spring top cup, the spring will sit on the axle cup as normal, water can drain out of the hole and access for spring adjustments will be hugely easier.

all the arms removed except for the seized upper arm

rear axle removed

got quite alot of crusty rust to chip off.
good news is the axle's in good solid shape and it's just surface rust

cut off all the useless ABS brackets.

just needs a good thorough wirebrush & grinding tomorrow before spraying it with hammerite

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

If you're still thinking of raising the panhard rod mounting on the body to raise the roll centre whilst the axle is out might be a good time.

 

[pollyp]

If you're still thinking of raising the panhard rod mounting on the body to raise the roll centre whilst the axle is out might be a good time.

aye good call. car is gonna be off the road for a week anyway cos there's alot of stuff to do

 

[pollyp]

took all day to carefully chip/scrape & wirebrush all the crusty rust off the entire axle, urgh so labour intensive wish I had a big shot blaster.

first coat of hammerite took a whole can. gonna get some silver hammerite tomorrow for the 2nd coat

managed to hammer one of the seized trailing arm bolts out of the bushing

but the other bolt is proper seized no matter how hard I whack it

so I had to drilled through it

till I could knock it out

ready with new bolts

 

[SuperUno]

Time for lots of copper grease on the bolts? Also you could improve the bushes with some inserts and/or add some 2 part polyurethane added the the gaps?

 

[pollyp]

Time for lots of copper grease on the bolts? Also you could improve the bushes with some inserts and/or add some 2 part polyurethane added the the gaps?

Yup loadsa grease. No benefit stuffing that bushing cos 90% of the volume is still made up of soft squishy oem rubber.

 

[pollyp]

2nd coat of hammerite silver

 

[pollyp]

found more rust holes while wirebrushing the rear arches

but after removing the filler pipe plastic splash guard & scraping all the trapped mud & crusty rust off, it revealed all these holes to my horror
oh shyte more work & money. this explains why there's rust particles in the old fuel filter.
why the feck did nissan make this highly exposed pipe out of mild steel?

new filler pipes on ebay are a rediculous £80 for just abit of bent tube
I was gonna fabricate a stainless filler pipe but with only a week till my next local meet, Matt found someone in york who's selling one for £30, that'll keep it going for abit while I fabricate a stainless version.

this rusted mount also crumbled off the chassis cos the silly U-shape bracket trapped mud and rusted the whole section off into another hole

rear damper top cup crumbling apart

top of the arch near the filler head needs alot of surface rust removing

damn it I have soo much welding to do

 

[plmval]

found more rust holes while wirebrushing the rear arches

View attachment 55731 View attachment 55734

but after removing the filler pipe plastic splash guard & scraping all the trapped mud & crusty rust off, it revealed all these holes to my horror
oh shyte more work & money. this explains why there's rust particles in the old fuel filter.
why the feck did nissan make this highly exposed pipe out of mild steel?

View attachment 55733 View attachment 55735 View attachment 55728

new filler pipes on ebay are a rediculous £80 for just abit of bent tube
I was gonna fabricate a stainless filler pipe but with only a week till my next local meet, Matt found someone in york who's selling one for £30, that'll keep it going for abit while I fabricate a stainless version.

this rusted mount also crumbled off the chassis cos the silly U-shape bracket trapped mud and rusted the whole section off into another hole

View attachment 55729

rear damper top cup crumbling apart

View attachment 55730

top of the arch near the filler head needs alot of surface rust removing

View attachment 55732

damn it I have soo much welding to do

MOT?

Surprised that rust passed its last MOT, especially as you the customer found it & not your MOT inspector who may need retraining as most ordinary owner drivers rely on them for their safety?

Here in Exeter any weakened perished metal within a 10 inch radius of any structural or safety critical areas would be multiple reasons for MOT refusal, in this case, rendering it beyond economic repair.

 

[RYB]

MOT?

Surprised that rust passed its last MOT, especially as you the customer found it & not your MOT inspector who may need retraining as most ordinary owner drivers rely on them for their safety?

Here in Exeter any weakened perished metal within a 10 inch radius of any structural or safety critical areas would be multiple reasons for MOT refusal, in this case, rendering it beyond economic repair.

Rear arches only needed aggravating with a wire brush by the looks of it to perforate into a hole. Gone are the days of mot testers mindlessly stabbing the car with a screwdriver, they have special 'rust testing' tools and aren't allowed to go mad. I've had rustier looking k11s go through mot's.


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[pollyp]

I doubt the tester would've been able to expose these holes cos most of them were hidden under a thick, hard, crusty layer of rust (I had to hammer & wirebrush the dark oxide away quite extensively & aggressively to expose em), caked under a load of mud, difficult to access with a wheel in the way and the holes are no where near structural or suspension parts.

 

[pollyp]

removed the filler pipe. the underside exposed to all the wheel spray has rusted away

the top side against the bodywork is just surface rust

this bit is simply swiss cheese. interesting to note that the spring loaded nozzle for the unleaded fuel pump is a seperate piece inside. maybe this is where nissan can economically change the nozzles between unleaded & diesel micras rather than change the whole filler pipe?

a whole load of mud debris from wirebrushing the wheel arch

so the inner wheel well needs patching up where the filler pipe was mounted

the lower cup that shrouds the damper top rubber mount is abit perished but the main strut tower steel is fine, so I'll need to cut & replace the cup

the top of the wheel well around the fuel filler has alot of surface rust and afew pin holes from all the caked mud. it's very difficult to access with power tools so I'll only be able to clean it up and underseal it the best I can.

the inner skin has rusted off the wheel arch lip. the lip simply traps in all that moist mud and leads to this

begin cutting out all the rotten holes

 

[pollyp]

the rear arms & panhard looking abit rusty

dismantling it apart for cleaning

the panhard/axle bushing is looking abit tatty & tired after years of repeatedly sliding it on/off the axle

so I removed the PU bushing and gonna machine a fresh one

this inner steel bushing have always been seized onto the axle stud as far as I remember

so it's time to grind it off

and machine a new one so it can easily slip on with the new bushing

machined some new bushings from spare nylon I had

assembling

fits with precision and there's just enough give in the plastic bushing for bout 1-2 deg of longitudinal swing when the axle moves forward/backwards

 

[pollyp]

the rear of the sills was too rotten so I cut all this off and looks like I'll have to reconstruct the arch lip

cut out the perished cup shroud below the damper top mount. most of it was soo rusty I could almost peel it off the spot welds like a tin of spam

I found the end caps from a welding canister was just the right diameter

drilled the matching hole

perfect and much stronger than the old one

drilled & welded it on with some plug holes.

just need to finish it off with the outer cover.

welded up the back of the arch

and welded up the inner wheel well. was very tricky to weld with difficult access, poor lighting and without blowing holes through the old tin foil body

 

[John_D]

Impressive patchwork Paul

 

[pollyp]

Impressive patchwork Paul

Thanks John. It was abit hard butt welding onto thin dirty steel, filling afew blown gaps and looks pigeon poop as a result but the grinder will sort that

 

[pollyp]

welded a shroud over the top mount

filled in this exposed top with weld

CAD template for rebuilding the arch lip

carefully welded it on

tried to weld the inner skin of the arch to the outer skin but it was frustratingly difficult to access cos the car ain't high enough, garage is tiny and the arch ain't big enough to fit my head & this bulky weld helmet

 

[micra_uniraid]

Great progress!

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[pollyp]

Great progress!

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Thanks m8

 

[pollyp]

new fuel filler arrived, just has abit of surface rust

welded a nut as the upper mount

wirebrushed the whole pipe down to bare metal

trying out this beige "hammerite rust beater" inhibiting primer

 

[pollyp]

little template for the arch

 

[Nasko-Kan4ok]

Hello, if you let me ask something, I'd be glad to help.

My request is if someone has repaired a Nissan Micra K11 distributor, can you share the dimensions of the bearing and seals?

Part number I can not find them as details.
The Distributor's number is:

Thank you very much for your cooperation

 

[pollyp]

while in the middle of cutting the new panel, my +10yr old angle grinder finally "grinded" to a halt. found out looking inside the motor bearing that half of the balls have disintegrated!
my cheapo hand drill had also burnt out with worn bushes after only few yrs.

really need to get it finished by the weekend so I had to pop into wilko and buy some cheap grinder & drill. I was surprised that a £30 grinder features a nice progressive "soft" start. we'll see how long they last.

new LH panel welded in.

shaping it to follow the arch lip was a real PITA and welding at such an awquid tight posture, I've burnt my hand afew times from all the spatter, ouch.
burning skin from small molton spatter smells wierdly like sewage or a big burning fly in those UV catchers

welded up the RH arch lip