PollyMobiles Rebuild

[pollyp]

gave her wheels & body a good wash.

ever since that local tyre shop fitted my new Falkens, the left side always deflates afew psi overnight, found out all the tyre valves were actually leaking a tiny amount, so yet another few quid to fix ?

fitted the rear spacers back on so they sit the same as the front.
brakes were tiny bit spongy so I bled them little bit more and now it's back to normal & feels firm

went for a late sunset drive to record more videos

the wirebrushed battery connections definately fixed the issue.
alternator was outputting 14.2v and both the battery terminals and the ECU datascan are reading 13.8v

 

[pollyp]

I've finally made a walk around video highlighting some key features of Kassandra using my Huwaei P20 Pro phone with shaky hands (some sorta gimble would help) and some editing. It's a shaky 1st attempt but real proud of how well it came out ?

Been wanting to do such a video for soo long, especially these recent months when ppl in car clubs were doing simple quick virtual walkarounds of their cars during the lockdown.

The royalty free music from youtube makes such a difference to the video compared to just having silence. (picked this song cos it had a little mightycarmod feel to it lol)

Last night I went for a sunset drive to test the brakes, alternator & suspension.



Feels better, charging normal, still got the odd rattle in the bulkhead to sort out, gear stick is getting sticky so I'll need to make a ball bearing joint to replace this sleeve joint soon.

 

[pollyp]

was a lovely day for a drive & few photos

ever since this local small tyre&exhaust shop had fitted my new tyres badly in January
(dots didn't align to the valve, tyre bead didn't follow wheel rim, balanced it wrong, stacked 3-4 layers of weights at one point)
the valves have been leaking round the outside and I was sick of pumping em up every time I drive.

instead of going to the same place to fix the valve, who'll probably just do the same dodgy work, I decided to go to nearby kwikfit to get it fixed.

they quoted me £15 to revalve & balance each wheel, I mentally choked on my tea inside but decided meh, least it'll be fixed.
damn error of going to a shoddy garage to fit online tyres ends up costing me an extra £47 ?

next time I'll just pay bit extra and order/fit em from the tyre place instead ?

 

[pollyp]

thought the rear speakers been getting quieter and less bass, turns out the rear left speaker stopped working ?

anyone know the specs of these? I heared they're just 30W rms

chopped it apart to find the fault

going +ve to -ve, the 4ohm wires are coiled 40 times counter-clockwise

this is where one of the wire had broken maybe from fatigue

my sony headunit outputs 55w rms per channel and I'd like to upgrade all 4 speakers to improve the low end bass without adding extra amps or subs in the boot but with soo many different response from ppl and the billions of speaker choices, it confuses and hurts my brain and still dunno what to buy ??

 

[pollyp]

was curious to see if replacing the gear stick rubber mount with a solid one would help reduce movement?

I made this solid bracket

bolted it up.
hmm yeah that was a mistake lol ? it transmits soo much noise (clunking & whining of the gearbox and the engine firing) to the chassis like a huge speaker. similar to when I once tried a solid front engine mount.
immediately swapped that one back ?

the gear stick has recently felt more sticky, which affects my 0-60
took the bushes out and yup all the grease had dried out and steel has rusted.
(this was suppose to be a temporary fix till I made a new bearing joint)

wirebrushed & regreased and it feels alot better now

I've planned and ordered the bits to machine a new joint using sealed needle bearings

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

was curious to see if replacing the gear stick rubber mount with a solid one would help reduce movement?

The one I use for my mini is a morris 1100 exhaust mount

Mackay

Mackay Online Product Catalogue

online.autoinfo.com.au

I put this particular one in because it was the same width but a larger diameter than a mini exhaust mount which broke earlier. I expect it is firmer than the micra part but I don't get much noise and vibration.

 

[pollyp]

The one I use for my mini is a morris 1100 exhaust mount

Mackay

Mackay Online Product Catalogue

online.autoinfo.com.au

I put this particular one in because it was the same width but a larger diameter than a mini exhaust mount which broke earlier. I expect it is firmer than the micra part but I don't get much noise and vibration.

ah yes good point, I could use the same bobbin rubber exhaust mount I used on my rear backbox

 

[pollyp]

Reading a few 'choosing speaker with amp' guides, they generally say:
pick a speaker with rated/nominal input RMS power close to the amps continuous RMS output,
peak maximum power ain't as important,
high sensitivity speakers for low RMS amp,
low sensitivity for high RMS amps.

Looking at the headunit manuals, my old JVC said 50w max and 19w RMS, meanwhile my Sony only states 55w max and left out the RMS (their user manuals are pretty poorly written & vague too imo)

So with no info about what the Sony units RMS is and didn't wanna fit a low power speaker if the unit was able to pump a full 55w to fry the coils, I decided to investigate more into what the amp actually puts out to get a better overview.

Following a guide on how to test amps, I played a pure sine wave at various frequencies & volume on the headunit using a tone generator app on my phone via bluetooth, with the sound settings maxed out and measured the AC voltage coming out of one speaker channel.
recorded the voltage at every Volume level at various frequencies for both the JVC & Sony unit.

Initially I used a 12v 12.5amp power supply to run the headunit and discovered the amp can only output upto 12v max, same as what it was powered by.

Since the max output is dependant on the input supply I ran the test in the car with the engine running.

I also measured the input voltage at every volume and various settings.
The JVC draws quite abit of juice and the input reads a consistant 13.4v
Sony began at 13.7v and drops to 13.64v when the volume is above 33/50 but it was surprising to find the headunits LCD display brightness had a big effect in drawing soo much power.

With the display colour set to it's darkest setting the input was 13.7v but when turned to full bright it dropped to 13.3v, which will affect the amps max output so I turned it very dim for the tests.

Both units have a non-linear S-curve output vs volume.
The JVC has a wierd curve rising exponentially from 8-21, with the low freq being amplified more than higher freq.
Volume 21-31 oddly flatlines and then it slowly rises from 31-50 till it outputs a maximum of 14.5v (input supply is 13.64v during max volume)

The Sony in comparison has a much smoother S-curve, amplifying low freq more than high freq equally, and reaches a max output of 14.3v with the input at 13.64v

Using the equation Audio power = V(squared) / R
the JVC pushed out max 14.5v = 14.5 x 14.5 / 4ohm = 52.5watts (close to it's stated 50w max power)
It's RMS rating of 19w is approx 8.7v which according to the graph is around Vol 19, that's just above the volume I normally always listen at.

The Sony pushed out max 14.3v = 143.3 x 14.3 / 4ohm = 51watts (little bit off from the stated 55w)

So with the 'max output' figure meaning the absolute maximum juice the amp could constantly pump out with a pure sine wave, I could use the given JVC figure of 19w RMS to roughly estimate Sonys RMS as 21w

Later on I found on Sonys web site for their other headunit models that they stated 55w per channel and 20w RMS, so the estimate was close enough. wish they wrote it in the manual too

After days of researching every speaker make & model till my head is pounding (not a pun ) I narrowed down my selection to this coaxial Kenwood KFC-E1765

It handles 30w continuous RMS power
300w max peak power
good freq range of 30-22000hz
highly sensitive at 92dB/w
fits within the front door
and good price at £34 a pair

See how it goes when it arrives next week

 

[pollyp]

Designed a new gear selector joint using a pair of 15x21x14mm needle roller bearings.

The needle bearings (purple) allow the (yellow) joint to rotate freely and maintains a precise tight alignment against the (green) inner 15mm bushing but also allows the (yellow) joint to slide along the axis of the bolt, this means the length of the (yellow) tube doesn't have to be as precise and I can fully tighten the nut/bolt without the risk of binding the bearings.

(the old ball bearing design required very high precision machining of the (yellow) joints diameter and length.
whenever the tolerances were a fraction wrong, it would either be too loose and rattle, or too tight and seizes/damages the ball bearing)
This needle bearing design is alot more forgiving.

To protect against the elements, the HK1514RS bearing features a rubber seal too.

components arrived

machined the 25 x 35mm round steel billets to form the U-joint and gearstick joint

welded the 2 billets together as a solid 1st because there's zero chance of 'blowing through' or warping the precise tolerance fit compared to if I machined it hollow before welding the thinner tubes

with the U-joint welded together, I intentionally chopped the round bars slightly longer beyond the 35mm needed so that now I can machine each end precisely until the other perpendicular rod sits exactly in the middle and it is precisely 34.8mm long

slowly drilled a 19mm bore

before precisely machining it out to 21mm so I can tolerance fit the 21.05mm needle bearing

2 more holes to machine tomorrow

 

[pollyp]

machined & welded the larger bearing tube onto a spare gear stick and whacked the ball joint further up to make it a short shifter

the finished U-joint casing

press fitted the needle bearings

drilled & tapped the holes to an M12

installed.
the bolt is slightly 5mm too short for the locking nut at the end but at least it's still screwed tight onto the threaded flanges I tapped.
I fitted some longer m12 bolts later on.

went for a drive and it's soo much smoother, easier and sharper feeling with absolutely zero rattles and minimal vibration ?

 

[pollyp]

ordered some Kenwood KFC-E1765 on monday and it arrived today thursday unfortunately they sent the wrong one!
they sent me the KFC-S1766 which is less sensitive at 89db/w and less range at 35-22000hz
everything else is the same spec and price and nicer looking.
I could've contacted & sent it back to be corrected but imho it wasn't worth wasting another £5+ postage and afew more days & energy for a slightly better model, I'm just gonna slap this budget speaker on to find out how it does

2 holes already line up so I just needed to drill 1 hole and solder the new wires up, easy peasy.
the new speaker surround has a much firmer feel compared to the older softer standard foam speakers.

initially did a visual bass comparison at 30hz and volume #35
you clearly see the standard cone moves a huge amount, maybe it's has a more sensitive coil than the kenwoods, but it begins to distort from vol #15
the kenwood is much stiffer and only moves 1/2 as much but can reach upto vol #35 without distorting



now playing music at equal volume and headunit settings all at default, initially it's kinda disappointingly flat & little quieter than standard but the key big difference is that the kenwood can go much louder.

on the sony MEX-N6001BD unit I'm able to apply a "rear bass enhancement" setting which sends a low pass filter to the rear speakers turning em into subwoofers and then turn the fader to 30/70% front/rear and now I can turn the volume upto #30 with a much punchier bass without distortion.

ordered another pair of KFC-S1766 speakers from another seller for £5 less to complete the fronts ?

 

[l_jonez]

Love your work as usual, I'm at a bit of a loss, why did you weld the bar together then machine for the bearings?

 

[pollyp]

Love your work as usual, I'm at a bit of a loss, why did you weld the bar together then machine for the bearings?

welding it after being machined thinner is more likely to blow-through and heat will warp the precision machined bore

Sent from my CLT-L29 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[l_jonez]

I can sort of see that logic, you have a pretty decent wall thickness and the pulsed mig would probably have been fine

 

[pollyp]

I can sort of see that logic, you have a pretty decent wall thickness and the pulsed mig would probably have been fine

yea it's just a basic budget clarke mig. just machining it after welding simply guarantees precision

 

[pollyp]

Time to replace the old, rusty, leaky flanged steel de-cat with a stainless V-band decat

removed the exhaust

chopped the old flanges off

welded on the stainless V-bands

an annoying issue is that there's a huge misalignment between the down pipe and the mid pipe.
it was a sweaty day and running out of time cos there was a car meet later so I'll have to weld it at a slight skewed angle for now and cause a headache in the future.

quickly had a shower and then washed the dust off the car in 10mins, in time for the Kuruma car club meet at the marina just down the round from home.
was a lovely clear evening to catch up with a few familiar m8s & motors

 

[pollyp]

started going back to work this week as a delivery driver since it's getting busy in the shop.

parking her outside in the baking hot sun, I returned to find the spray adhesive doesn't hold well in the heat and peels off

just ripped it off for now

 

[pollyp]

when going to trackdays, I would engage the seat belts inertia locking ratchet, using a food bag clip to hold the belt locked and then put my seat belt on tightly.
it's often a fiddly task so I wondered if I could mod the unit to lock itself with a button or dial

inside the white cover is the orange Inertia triggered ratchet (engages during high accelerations) and within the wheel is the centrifugal trigger (engages when the belt is unspooling rapidly).
both mechanisms act on lightly locking the white ratchet wheel as the belt unwinds, which then engages the beefy internal metal ratchet mechanism to lock solid.

I simply attached a thumbscrew to the side of the cover so when it's screwed inwards, it pushes the orange inertia ratchet finger on the wheel to engage the main lock.

the other side has a black cover saying "do not open"

so I open it ? and out pops a rats nest of the whole clock spring which tensions the belt.
took a while to untangle the rats nest and rewind the spring ?

the plastic rivets securing the black cover was damaged on removal. so I drilled & tapped it to be secured with M6 screws

assembled back

 

[John_D]

was curious to see if replacing the gear stick rubber mount with a solid one would help reduce movement?

View attachment 69828

I made this solid bracket

View attachment 69827

bolted it up.
hmm yeah that was a mistake lol ? it transmits soo much noise (clunking & whining of the gearbox and the engine firing) to the chassis like a huge speaker. similar to when I once tried a solid front engine mount.
immediately swapped that one back ?

View attachment 69829

the gear stick has recently felt more sticky, which affects my 0-60
took the bushes out and yup all the grease had dried out and steel has rusted.
(this was suppose to be a temporary fix till I made a new bearing joint)

View attachment 69830View attachment 69831

wirebrushed & regreased and it feels alot better now

View attachment 69832View attachment 69833

I've planned and ordered the bits to machine a new joint using sealed needle bearings

I suspect that the grooves in the bearing tubes, that you cleaned up Paul should have 'O' rings in them to retain the grease and keep water out......Simple fix to try......

 

[pollyp]

I suspect that the grooves in the bearing tubes, that you cleaned up Paul should have 'O' rings in them to retain the grease and keep water out......Simple fix to try......

Yes I did originally fit the temporary machined bush with o rings but as u seen it still got moist and rusted.

Didn't put any seals on 2nd time cos I shortly after made the needle bearing version

Sent from my CLT-L29 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[John_D]

Yes I did originally fit the temporary machined bush with o rings but as u seen it still got moist and rusted.

Didn't put any seals on 2nd time cos I shortly after made the needle bearing version

Sent from my CLT-L29 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

Ther O rings couldn't have been a good fit then if they didn't keep the grease in and the water out........hope you have more luck with the needle rollers, though I can't help but think that given the lack of full rotational duty a plain Nylatron bush would be a more appropriate solution...

 

[Low Rider]

I've yet to have any issues with phosphor bronze bushes running on A4 fasteners Paul.

 

[pollyp]

I prefer the lower friction & low wear aspect of using roller bearings for gear joints

 

[pollyp]

on the drivers side seat belt I put the thumb screw here to lock against the ratchet wheel rather than pushing the inertia ratchet finger and this works really well in locking & holding the belts position.

access is abit tight with it being very close to the seat mechanism but reachable. I should preferably 3d print a trigger handle

I was checking the power supply feed to the Sony headunit to make sure it receives full 14v.
oddly I found the yellow 'constant power' wire was 14.18v while the red 'switched ignition' wire was reading a poor 12.8v
ehh somethings wrong, it should be the same source & voltage just going through the ignition switch circuit.

after much digging I found once again the damn OEM ignition switch has gone dirty and causing a huge resistance / voltage drop to the auxilary circuit including the audio I should really replace that with a more robust switch panel.

wirebrushed to bare copper and now the circuit is receiving 13.9v
much better

also discovered the free wire/connector that came with the cheap Kenwood speakers uses a rubbish 1.21mm2 wire (0.11mm x 11)
whereas the original OEM loom uses a thicker 2.1mm2 wire (0.3mm x 7)

gonna solder the OEM wires directly to the connector heads and bin the rubbish wires

with a better connection it's slightly louder and doesn't distort as much

one tiny little annoying disadvantage about coaxial speakers with an open exposed woofer center is that dirt/debris (ie from drilling new screw holes) can easily fall into the magnetic core and rattle/vibrate against the coil during large movements ?
I managed to dislodge & stop the annoying sound after a lot of brushing, blowing, shaking and knocking the speaker shelf.

 

[pollyp]

2020-06-06 New ignition switch connector

After cleaning the ignition switch and plugging it back in, I noticed that she really struggled to engage the starter (similar to whenever the starter ground lead corrodes with bad connection, but here they were recently wirebrushed and still making good contact) plus the switched ignition wire going to the headunit is still only transferring 12.8v out of the 14v available coming from the alternator/battery circuit

After much probing, I traced the issue down to this old degraded connector behind the ignition switch.
just look at where the white/black 14v input wire has previously overheated/burnt due to high resistance from corrosion, the copper is hard, oxidised & brittle and the insulation has melted back.

No doubt it needs replacing

Design 1
This layout keeps all the wiring far apart and was easy to print but was concerned about the lack seperating divisions between the live terminals, especially where the two locking tabs are close together

Design 2
Inverting the terminals the other way with the locking tabs on the outside makes them easier to remove but the terminals are too close together

Design 3
Pointing them all the same way keeps the locking tab far from the terminal but later realised the bulky ends for joing the wires will be close together

Design 4
Same layout as design 1 to keep the wiring far apart but added dividing sections to keep each terminal and locking tabs secure & insulated, and adding a round outer hump to fit the bulky 3.8mm diameter wires

Printed the connector housing

The loom is too short after chopping the old connector off and will strain the new one.
so I needed to find similar gauge wires to extend it all.

Most of the wires are 2.9mm O/D, 25x 0.33mm = 8.25mm2 area
except for the starter motor which is a thick 3.6mm O/D, 41x 0.30mm = 12.3mm2 area

Found some similar gauge wires from the old boiler (26x 0.31mm = 8.06mm2) and thick wires from an old power inverter (44x 0.30mm = 13.2mm2)

Initially attempted to solder them, which didn't work well cos the beefy copper core quickly sucked all the heat away from the weak gas iron, leaving a pigs-bollucks looking mess of a cold patchy solder

After two poor joins and using lots of solder, I wasn't happy with it and need to find another better way

Made these crimp couplers out of some brake lines which had similar I/D to the beefy wires

Borrowed dads crimping pliers which worked well on deforming the soft copper brake pipe

Braided the extra long new loom, it's long incase I wanna fit an ignition panel later on in the future

All connected and working a lot better now

 

[pollyp]

so after fixing the ignition switch with a better 12v connection, how has that affected the head unit?

here is the graph with the old burnt connections.
the poor resistance meant the unit was only supplied with 13.64-13.69v and look at how scattered the output of each frequencies are, although the max output was able to peak at 14.3v and the volume knob was abit more sensitive from #13-30

after replacing the power connections, it now receives a full 13.98v and stays there throughout all volumes, the output of each frequency are pretty consistant, although the max output is down to 14.2v and the volume knob below #40 is less sensitive than before

all these tests were done with loudness and extra filtering disabled and all the equaliser settings (bass, treble) maxed out, which might be making the amp begin clipping and maybe why the output of each frequency is soo varied.

curiously I reset all the equaliser levels & settings back to completely flat default and ran the test again.
ooh the graph is soo much smoother, the overall output is obviously reduced but all the frequencies show exactly the same consistant amount because there's no addition boost of the bass/treble so the amp doesn't max out & clip

could this mean that for ideal audio quality, it's best to just leave all the headunit settings alone, avoid using the built-in headunit amp and use an external amp & crossover & sub to adjust/amplify the sound quality instead?

 

[pollyp]

the other pair of speakers arrived tday for the front end

removed the front door cards, notice the missing clear plastic protective weather sheet I ripped out years ago, leaving all this exposed hole for the speaker sound to leak out of

I ducktaped all the exposed holes to hopefully provide some sealing

wired & fitted the new speakers to both doors.

to double check I've connected them up the correct polarity, I looked at the headunits instructions about which wire is +ve -ve, simply connected a little AA battery to the corresponding plug wires and see if each speaker cone pushes outwards as I apply voltage.

I played this youtube video to verify all the speakers are in-phase.



then I played a range of frequencies at 1/2 volume to help locate & secure where parts of the door are resonating & vibrating such as the door lock mechanisms.

initially with all the Sony settings at default, even though I can now turn it up loud without distortion compared to the old speakers, it sounds pretty tinny flat
but after tuning the EQ levels to compensate and turning Loudness on to boost output, it sounds much better while the car is stationary or driving slowly.

at high speed however, the loud road, exhaust & engine noise still easily drowns out the lower bass, so I can only hear the mid-high frequencies as usual.
so someday I'll likely need to add an amp & subwoofer in the boot.

chopped apart my old camera jig to make a more rigid one next

 

[pollyp]

modelled the new jig to calculate the angle & lengths needed

tacked up the new frame

initially with the thick plate bolted on 1 end and the frame tubing welded on the other end, it was too floppy.
so I cut the tacks apart, redrilled the plate to sit further along so the tubing is welded in-between the bolts making it all stiffer

made a stiffer mount to support the camera all along the base

it sits better than before but it kinda has a low resonance frequency so I may need to add some mass to lower it below idling freq or just wedge the middle to stiffen & stop it vibrating

 

[pollyp]

a local m8 with an awesome 1991 Honda NSX turbo beauty needed some help to diagnose why the fuel pump doesn't work and fails to start up.
visited his lovely man-cave

he also had a nice handy thick Acura service manual book to flip through.
the pump relay alone worked fine but there simply wasn't a trigger signal going to it to send power to the pump.
the connector plug from the access panel to the loom really didn't wanna come apart and one terminal popped out but I pushed it back in to make full connection.

he said the issue happened gradually so some connection or component must be slowly failing.
the main relay box was recently replaced with "assumingly" a freshly made unit imported from japan and it did look fresh but he also had plenty of spares in the garage to try out (the relay boxes are well known to suffer dry joints) so he resoldered his old unit, plugged the resoldered unit in and WTF it works and it was just a simple relay box ??‍

sounded and smelled really lovely ?

says I could use his 4 post lift anytime which'll come handy.
next time we meet up, he wants me to upgrade his old weak audio system and rewire some gauges ?

 

[pollyp]

rear speaker grills looking like a dull boring cheap plastic grey

so I gave it a quick easy spray of matt black, soo much better looking

 

[pollyp]

the old garage workshop roof was cracked and leaking.
I brought some materials to repair it but a major issue I have is with the extension ladder whereby the top part is permanently used for the attic while the bottom part is generally used outside the house.

It's barely long enough to go over the wall, which doesn't help my fear of heights, my paranoia about the ladder slipping and the difficult transition of getting on & off the roof.

I wanted to fit a safety roof ladder hook but not gonna pay the silly £25-40 for a simple device, so I modelled a simple hook to attach to the rivet holes on the ladder and welded it from a £8 B&Q metre steel tube

also added an extra vertical pole to hold onto during transition.
it feels much more secure now.
still doesn't stop my fear of heights but at least it's abit safer ?

 

[pollyp]

before doing a trackday next month, I need to repair this rusty section near the seat belt point where the X brace is bolted to

looks like the factory seam sealer has trapped moisture and rusted along the spot welding join.
not too bad, I just have to chop the small section out the same as what I did to the drivers side few years ago, should be able to fix it over a weekend and make it to the 6th july trackday ??

 

[pollyp]

I was gonna work on chopping the rusty section off the back seats but realised the fuel filler pipes are right behind it.
The tank is already 40-50% full so I'll have to wait another weekend till the tank is almost empty before I can drain & remove the filler pipes in order to safely chop & weld the rusty corner.

It's time to fit my solid bucket seats for the next trackday.

The bolt holes on the Magnum Euro 1 bucket seat are 405mm wide, 295mm long and 50mm up from the bottom.

Looking at the standard seat subframe, even if I chopped the top half off above the red line, it'll still be twice as high as my current custom subframe

and at 390mm wide it's still wayy too narrow

plus oddly the rear right mount doesn't line up, maybe it's from a 3dr?
so these are going in the bin

the custom subframe I made is 423mm wide, flat & low which is perfect for the bucket seat.

carefully measured the position & angle of the seat to suit my ergonomics

the front needed tilting up by 20mm.
the frame is 18mm wider than the seat base so I made these support brackets from 7mm thick flat bars

tacked the seat onto the frame to test the fitment before fully welding

Bolted in place & fitted the seat belt on.
Fitting the short front belt buckle onto the side of the seat and having to feed the belt clip through the tiny slot like a proctologist whilst sitting would be absolutely impractical.

so instead, I fitted the rear belt buckle with it's longer attachment strap onto the seat frame so it's much easier to insert the seat belt.

first impression, bloody hell this is soooo much more secure!
the seat doesn't budge a mm, it's solid. I'm cocooned & wedged firmly in this comfy seat like an upturned turtle, coupled with the technique of locking my seat belt tightly, I feel absolutely locked solid with the chassis, should've done this years ago. can't wait to finish off and test drive this setup.

only disadvantage with solid bucket seats is it's very very difficult to get in & out especially with the steering wheel in the way, I can see why some ppl fit removable steering ?

 

[pollyp]

fully welded up all the brackets, including some extra gussets

bolted up securely

this is where the seat belt bucket is bolted down onto the subframe so the buckle is as far left as possible without wedging between my hip & seat and easy enough to access

Went for a test drive and the camera footage obviously corrupted

I feel so much more vibration & every bump going through the suspension/chassis via my bum. it's like driving in a bath tub ?
Guess my bum might feel abit numb if I drove long distance in it, the lumber sides could do with more support and the shoulder part seems slightly too narrow but holds tightly.

At 5k rpm the engine sends a weird tingle down my derrier ?
The pedal & steering feel positive, definately feel the car chassis flexing without her x-brace and fully soft dampening via the slightly sluggish fine steering response.

Overall it's been a good outcome.

 

[pollyp]

tday's footage of testing the new bucket seat & camera rig while visiting Jack to collect some extra seat belts, boot strut for the bonnet and a looong update chat ?

 

[pollyp]

collected a full set of facelift seat belts and boot struts from Jack yesterday.
notice at the far right how my 1993 preface rear seat buckle in comparison is 3" longer

for a few months there's been an annoying rattle/creaking hidden within the left part of the dash and been getting worse recently, so I stripped the dash out to find why

with most of it removed, I went for a drive in it's bare form to see if it still rattles/creaks/resonates

damn, still occasionally creaks when going 2k rpm over round tarmac and can't pin point the source
tried more zipties on the loom, the battery cable extension in the bulkhead, the throttle cable was rubbing the bulkhead so taped it further away

with most of the noise gone, I reassembled the dash, went for another drive and FFS now it resonates at 2.5k rpm instead ?
narrowed it down to squeaking between the top of console cover & dash (applied some tape)

pushing the dash forward and tightening the top screws hard reduces the creaking abit, I'll fit some washers to help spread the allen screw load.
finding hidden noises is soo frustrating

since I've modded the solid seat subframe for the bucket seat, I'll have to use my previous universal seat rails to install my daily seats.
wasn't happy with the amount of wiggle so I welded extra beams to brace the frame

only a little improvement cos there's so much play in the non-locking slider rail, but that'll do.
unless I decide to mod the original subframe to fit

when the dash was out, I tried fitting this facelift glove box (with better latch) in my preface dash but turns out to be all incompatible ?
interesting to find it's made in two parts which are plastic welded together

 

[pollyp]

Coming home from work, the fuel tank is almost empty so I can now safely remove the filler pipe without drain any fuel and begin work on chopping the rusty rear seat corner out

Top bit of the hole for the fuel filler head is a little crumbly, just the seam sealer that's holding the shape ?

Wirebrushed as much rust off the inside, just look at that thick thick layer of rust splitting the spotweld seam apart

Wirebrushed the underseal & seam sealer off the back side and jeezuz Nissan!, the bottom part of the seatbelt reinforcement plate had a huge 1mm thick layer of seam sealer holding it to the chassis (and holding moisture making it rot) and only barely spot welded

Also why is the seat belt fastener fully exposed to all the tyre spray, dirt, salt, etc ensuring it'll seize up?
I'm thinking of gluing a little cover over the bolt hole to protect it from the elements.

A small hole as often leads to a bigger hole as I chop out as much of the weak crumbling rusty sections so I can next weld onto healthy steel

 

[pollyp]

welded the new pieces in place

1st layer done, now I finish the 2nd layer of the reinforcement plate

just a bit of grinding & painting next and she'll be ready to go back together

 

[pollyp]

painted

smothered the whole backside with tigerseal to seal it and provide a tough coating against the elements

 

[pollyp]

After a week of intense heat, the garage roof will be bone dry.
With the materials ready and the ladder made safe and a thunder storm forcasted this weekend, now is the perfect time to repair the roof.
Getting up onto the roof with the modded ladder grab handle is soo much easier.

I'll be laying down this 'flame-on' bitumin roof sheet. never used it before but imagined it's similar to flash tape.
I first brushed some sheet primer on the roof, it's like contact glue so the sheet has something to bond onto

the sheet bottom has this very thin plastic coating which was very difficult to peel off intact, not sure if it's suppose to peel off to expose the sticky bitumin (like flash tape) or if I just heat the whole sheet and burn off the plastic coating

with only a heat gun and a small blow torch, I figured I just heat the underside till the plastic coating burns away and the bitumin goes shiny soft and then just press the sheet down to bond it to the roof/sides.

the 1m x 8m long green-stoned roll only covered half the roof so I had to quickly pop to BQ to grab another roll

cover the other half with the new black stoned sheet

the soft lead flash tape sealed up the edge gaps.
me & mom are real proud of doing a gr8 job. well worth the exhausting hard aching work ?

fingers crossed it stops it leaking when the rain comes tomorrow ?

 

[SuperUno]

Roof felt I found you either end up with not enough (as you found) or way too much which you then store, and then find it is useless when you next need some...

What flashing tape did you use? I need to re-felt our shed (tyre store) over the summer.

 

[pollyp]

Roof felt I found you either end up with not enough (as you found) or way too much which you then store, and then find it is useless when you next need some...

What flashing tape did you use? I need to re-felt our shed (tyre store) over the summer.

Yup, and each roll is £43-56.
I was very lucky in that 2x 8x1m rolls were "just" enough to cover the roof

2 10m rolls of that flash tape (£12 each) which B&Q or Wikes sell was enough to seal the edges.
Its really sticky & soft

Sent from my CLT-L29 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[pollyp]

after fixing the rust and with the tank almost empty, the next task is to corner balance kassandra in her lighter trackday setup so I don't max out the 300kg scales.

before fitting the bucket seat, I measured how much they weighed.
the Magnum solid fiberglass bucket seat & frame was a light 8.8kg
meanwhile the cheap, universal ebay, steel & foam framed reclinable sports seats were a hefty 14kg, almost twice as heavy ?

removing all the back seats, parcel shelf, passenger seat and fitting the magnum seat & X-brace should save approx 35kg ?

tested the spray can I ordered from Nu-Agane of my paint code LK0 on a scrap piece of alloy, using halfords grey primer, followed by the base coat & top coat they provided and tbh it looks nowhere near like the factory shade on the doors, boot and fuel cap or even the other mismatched panels like front wings, bonnet, rear quarter.

it has too much blue & silver ? I'm not sure I can use this

 

[pollyp]

setting up the corner balance scales for Kassandra in her trackday mode with an empty tank and sway bars disconnected

that's a big weight loss since last time ?
she used to weigh 975kg with a heavy turbo setup, full interior, sunroof, ballast and half tank.
or 885kg with the current N/A setup, full interior, no sunroof, no ballast, full tank

but after stripping all the heavy seats out, fit a lighter bucket seat, install the X-brace, and run an empty tank, she weighs only 826kg.
that'll explain why she's been soo nippy recently

corner balance is near enough, I cba to mess with the springs for that last 1.5%

washed her dirty body

laid some tape on the seat so my derrier & awquid entry/exit doesn't wear out the fabric prematurely ?

went to the marina to catch up with a few local m8s and look at some beauties ?

 

[pollyp]

dusted off and cleaned the trackday wheels which were stored since my last trackday in march 2019 and are upto 3yrs old so probably getting abit harder now

took her for a usual test drive. she's soo nippy & fun in her trackday form now at 825kg. at tight corners I can sense the semislicks are getting abit old & less grippy now.

with full interior she did 0-60 in 9.2s back in march
now with the seats removed and fitted with X-brace, lighter bucket seat & semislicks she does 9.1s on a slightly damp road .

that annoying dash rattle was still there ?



time to clear her fluids before the trackday

usual bits on the drain plug, grinded a gear few months ago.
the comma LS80w90 GL5 oil has this hazy blue look to it, probably all the fine metal particles

ordered some normal comma 80w90 GL4 that matches the haynes manual

got another oil filter from halfords. they no longer sell their nice own branded £7.50 black filters and instead the filters section is now hidden in some corner selling a cheaper £4.50 Crosland brand ? dunno if it's a good or bad thing, hope it holds up for the trackday

that damn rattling dash is soooo annoying, I've removed the dash YET AGAIN for the millionth time to locate the noise

and looking under the dash, I believe this is the cause, the passenger vent tube wasn't fully screwed

also the alternative foam tape I recently applied didn't seat correctly so it didn't seal or hold the vent tube steady.
and notice the broken screw point in the middle from where I frustratingly Hulk Smashed the damn console as it rattles ?

 

[plmval]

I always thought that old banger clunkers were supposed to shake rattle & roll & that was part of their charm?

My hearing was very acute when I was young & the easiest practical solution to motoring noises was ear plugs hearing protection.

A lot less hassle then trying to fix every little noise?

Ref; https://www.google.com/search?safe=...=ear+plugs+hearing+protection+prices&gs_lcp=C

 

[trike micra]

A brilliant read. Shame you aren’t a bit closer, a few more horses never go amiss.
think I have gone far enough with weight reduction ??, just under 500 kg now.

 

[pollyp]

I always thought that old banger clunkers were supposed to shake rattle & roll & that was part of their charm?

My hearing was very acute when I was young & the easiest practical solution to motoring noises was ear plugs hearing protection.

A lot less hassle then trying to fix every little noise?

Ref; https://www.google.com/search?safe=strict&client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=ALeKk02Dp5AMt7lW57LGagIdgIw49TSnuw:1593685812469&ei=NLf9XvajHMvWgQbghoaQCQ&q=ear+plugs+hearing+protection+prices&oq=ear+plugs+hearing+protection+prices&gs_lcp=C

this is one of those annoying, distracting hidden little rattle while everything else is quieter. especially since I drive it daily, it'll drive me nuts lol

I wear earplugs for long trips but for shorter daily commutes it's impractical and I'd prefer to hear & be aware of my surroundings

I prefer to go through the slight hassle to eventually fix that single irritating noise and enjoy the quiet drive...till the next thing rattles

 

[pollyp]

A brilliant read. Shame you aren’t a bit closer, a few more horses never go amiss.
think I have gone far enough with weight reduction ??, just under 500 kg now.

a few kg less makes a huge difference in everything about a small light car

jesus 500kg, that'll float off on a windy day ? that'll be nippy fun

 

[pollyp]

applied & trimmed new foam tape around all the vent tubes

did it work? erm no it still friggin creaks but I think it's actually between the metal strip at the top of the dash and the windscreen bulkhead, when I push the dash away from the bulkhead it stops creaking, so I'll wedge some foam inbetween em tomorrow.

realigned the wheels so it drives along straight with less dragging toe