Ryan's Micra Blog

[flyboypuoi]

I've now got time off, as I finally finished my dissertation.
Here's a mod I've been planning to do for months now.
I thought of it the last time I broke one of my rear indicator bulbs. And a while after, at work, when a rear indicator blew.
On the front it's not so bad to lose a bulb. The mirrors also face forwards so people can still see what's flashing. On the side, I did have those two LEDs built in to the reflectors, but they're gone now. Ultimately the side indicators are the least important anyway.
But for the rear, there's no redundancy, and it can actually be a bit dangerous to lose an indicator. Especially at work when I can't even use hand signals, being a panel/box van!
So in the event of rear indicator failure, I wanted to be able to switch to the foglights for signals instead.

So, I added the switches. These are Single Pole Dual Throw, so one input and two separate outputs.
While I did check for clearance from the parcel shelf, I didn't think about the rear seatbelt reels, which these catch on. So a bit of spade bending was required.

I forgot the condition of the rear of the chassis, it's quite fresh. The crashbar is quite brown, but the actual car body is looking really nice. The sunroof drains are still looking good, a mod I absolutely recommend.

In order for the lights to have two functions, and to save effort by using a common ground between them, I used a couple of diodes on each one. These were of course wrapped up later.

There's now quite a few more wires, so I had to cable tie them up a bit. I wouldn't want them to snag on something, hang there looking terrible, or melt on the exhaust.
It's not really possible to show the final product in photos, but it works now. When the switches are set to setting 1, the orange indicators function. When the switches are set to setting 2, the red foglights flash instead. Using the rear foglights will make them both switch on and stay on, regardless of anything else. So, mission successful!

While I was back here, I stuck on a light strip to the underside of the parcel shelf. Admittedly it's not the most straight, looking at it now, but that's okay, because...

...it's hidden when fitted! Even at this low angle only the wire leading to it is visible.
I'm going to buy another 6-pin plug (previous one got cancelled because of a pandemic [bruh] ). The one I put on there about 4 or 5 years ago is a bit shabby and a pain to separate anyway. Then I'll connect the light strip through the plug, so the shelf can still easily be removed. The light will be linked to the existing boot light and will use the same on/off switch.

Since I had the dremel out, I tidied up Cassie's rear bumper. It was getting late though so I stopped making noise. I'll continue with sandpaper next time.

I'll probably do a bunch of other things with my car this week with my new free time.

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[flyboypuoi]

A quick look at it in action with less sunlight.

I've never seen the foglights on on their own before.

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[flyboypuoi]

I'm waiting on some goodies from abroad, one of which will fit in here. Or will it? My panel is a little different, but I think with some chopping it'll accept the new bits.

I'll practice on a spare before I potentially ruin my dark one.
After much research, the prefacelifts and facelifts have slightly different panels. And LHD/RHD are mirrored. I'm hoping that the hole in the middle is the same either way.

While I was out there a package arrived!
I bought this mainly for the work van, as I had a little mishap with a hidden street sign. But I've got two tiny dents on my right wing of my car, so I'll try and get them out with this too. Eddie might find this useful as well.

Nice, seems like a decent kit.

Another day, some more stuff arrived. The body filler is for the track car rear bumper. I might also use it to cover holes where locks and the rear wiper are removed. I might even remove the radio antennae from my car (and the track one obviously) and fill it in with this or something similar.
The other package is an electrical plug.

It came in an explosion of bits. One of the red bits was already fitted, which I had to fish out.

It was extremely fiddly. But here's the plug fitted to the parcel shelf, complete with the new boot light.

Test setup to check the correct polarity of the light wires.

And the most fiddly part was this end of the plug. This was a real pain to assemble as the pins were all wonky and wouldn't go all the way through.

Fitting the two ends of the plug together only increased the fiddlyness as the pins would then pop out or bend. After a lot of faffing about I got them all working, at least for now... I also put some hotglue on the light strip as it wasn't sticking very well.

But eventually I got it working alright. Maybe I shouldn't have used a waterproof plug as that was one reason it was so difficult. It wouldn't need to be waterproof in the boot.
Regardless, the manky old plug that I got from Halfords about 5 years ago has been removed and I've now got 6 pins and the light strip added. It's also black and quite slim, which looks better.

And it's only really visible from below, ultimately stealthy.

Night view, it looks good! I've since tucked some wires to hide it a bit better, especially the left speaker wires as they sag near the light strip end.

Neat!

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[Daz1985]

I always lose the tv remote never thought of checking under the parcel shelf lmao

 

[flyboypuoi]

I always lose the tv remote never thought of checking under the parcel shelf lmao

Ah I was testing the speaker connection in the annoying new plug, had to control the radio remotely

 

[flyboypuoi]

A great sunny day, where I'm not at work, because I'm supposed to be at Japfest 2020. Stupid pandemic!
Well, I got a chance to do some work on that rear bumper. I just had to Dremel off some last bits.
Notice the nasty scratches on the left side of the bumper!

Soon enough I had it cut down completely and quite smooth. Looks good!

Looks like it was meant to be that way.

I then sanded the entire bumper down. My old sandpaper that I bought about 5 years ago was barely doing anything, but I found the original packet in a box, with several sheets unused!
Some of the scratches, especially the big ones on the left, required much more work and a lower grit paper.

But, I got it looking quite smooth.

After a rinse down it actually looked quite shiny again, while wet.

A final sand down to really finish it off. I'll need to buy some filler primer to continue.

Bump strips sanded down and reattached. Some final sanding done, ready for some filler action after a final wash.

I've realised that if I fill the bump strips in, there's a line connecting them both. Do I fill the entire upper line in, or try and shorten it?
I'm thinking fill the whole thing in and keep it neat.
The plan is to use a Super S / SR front bumper on the track car, which is quite smooth.

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[flyboypuoi]

So, first time using body filler! Seemed fairly easy, the first side went on well.

I made another batch of filler and did the other side, this time doing a bit of the middle line connecting the strips.

Another go, now the line is completely covered.

One final go, this time also filling in some of the worst scratches that were still showing.

Then I sanded it down for ages. It felt like hours, it may well have been. The sandpaper ended up getting ripped up, even the new sheets.

I decided to dig out a tool I'd never used, an orbital sander. It's been in the back of my garage for a long time. This sped up the sanding process a great deal!

It was starting to look pretty good!

I got it to this point, where it was looking really smooth. It just needed some edges tidying up. But, there were quite a few low bits that needed more filler...

So, I made up some more body filler (now with just a little bit left) and applied it over again, focusing on the deep bits. Then I had one last go with the sander to tidy it up a bit. I had to stop, but I got it looking pretty nice.

Next time I might add the last of the body filler. Then it's time to sand it all smooth, and add the filler primer (when it arrives).
This is looking good! Too bad I don't have the car to fit it to yet.

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[beckylhunt]

I'm waiting on some goodies from abroad, one of which will fit in here. Or will it? My panel is a little different, but I think with some chopping it'll accept the new bits.
View attachment 69168
I'll practice on a spare before I potentially ruin my dark one.
After much research, the prefacelifts and facelifts have slightly different panels. And LHD/RHD are mirrored. I'm hoping that the hole in the middle is the same either way.
View attachment 69169
While I was out there a package arrived!
I bought this mainly for the work van, as I had a little mishap with a hidden street sign. But I've got two tiny dents on my right wing of my car, so I'll try and get them out with this too. Eddie might find this useful as well.
View attachment 69170
Nice, seems like a decent kit.
View attachment 69171
Another day, some more stuff arrived. The body filler is for the track car rear bumper. I might also use it to cover holes where locks and the rear wiper are removed. I might even remove the radio antennae from my car (and the track one obviously) and fill it in with this or something similar.
The other package is an electrical plug.
View attachment 69172
It came in an explosion of bits. One of the red bits was already fitted, which I had to fish out.
View attachment 69173
It was extremely fiddly. But here's the plug fitted to the parcel shelf, complete with the new boot light.
View attachment 69174
Test setup to check the correct polarity of the light wires.
View attachment 69175
And the most fiddly part was this end of the plug. This was a real pain to assemble as the pins were all wonky and wouldn't go all the way through.
View attachment 69176
Fitting the two ends of the plug together only increased the fiddlyness as the pins would then pop out or bend. After a lot of faffing about I got them all working, at least for now... I also put some hotglue on the light strip as it wasn't sticking very well.
View attachment 69177
But eventually I got it working alright. Maybe I shouldn't have used a waterproof plug as that was one reason it was so difficult. It wouldn't need to be waterproof in the boot.
Regardless, the manky old plug that I got from Halfords about 5 years ago has been removed and I've now got 6 pins and the light strip added. It's also black and quite slim, which looks better.
View attachment 69178
And it's only really visible from below, ultimately stealthy.
View attachment 69179
Night view, it looks good! I've since tucked some wires to hide it a bit better, especially the left speaker wires as they sag near the light strip end.
View attachment 69180
Neat!
View attachment 69181

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ive got a question for you? trying to get speakers for my rear parcel shelf but know nothing about speakers at all! do you have any idea what speakers to buy? i was trying to buy a stock parcel shelf but ive currently had no luck on that end! any advice you could give me would be brillant!

 

[nissan boy]

ive got a question for you? trying to get speakers for my rear parcel shelf but know nothing about speakers at all! do you have any idea what speakers to buy? i was trying to buy a stock parcel shelf but ive currently had no luck on that end! any advice you could give me would be brillant!

Depends what your after, running a amp or not,
Your looking sud 45rms speaker wise. (as that's what the stereo can make without destortion ect,

I used Sony xplod 6x9s in one was great,
Used a chopped stereo plug to fit the plug in the car (instead of hacking the wiring ),
The cheap JVC, Kenwood are ok off eBay and work within stereo specs, also halfords vibe speakers are the same (the cheap ones),
And then stereo setup /audio setts help more,

Sorry Ryan to jump in

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[flyboypuoi]

Depends what your after, running a amp or not,
Your looking sud 45rms speaker wise. (as that's what the stereo can make without destortion ect,

I used Sony xplod 6x9s in one was great,
Used a chopped stereo plug to fit the plug in the car (instead of hacking the wiring ),
The cheap JVC, Kenwood are ok off eBay and work within stereo specs, also halfords vibe speakers are the same (the cheap ones),
And then stereo setup /audio setts help more,

Sorry Ryan to jump in

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You know more than me, I've only got stock speakers. I'd like to upgrade some time too. I also wouldn't know what to get.

 

[nissan boy]

You know more than me, I've only got stock speakers. I'd like to upgrade some time too. I also wouldn't know what to get.

Yeah,
It's really the RMS stereo setting /stereo running amp and such
I'm still running stock with a sub as they are surprisingly good specialy with a decent stereo ect ,
I'm tempted with the £11vibe speakers 40rms and 110w or somthing
Seem much better then the eBay jvc speakers that max is 30rms with cheap quality and tiny driver ect but depends what your going for and worth sound deadening abit also I put some behind the front speakers to stop them rattling off the window guide

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[flyboypuoi]

Haven't updated in ages!
I bought a wraparound spoiler! This isn't for me, it's for Eddie. It's in great condition, including the studs. It's got a bit of a crack on one corner but we can fix that.

Final sanding of the track car bumper. At least I think.

The driveway needed some TLC, so the cars vanished.

Oh, no, there they are.

As always a little play with the Cabrio roof, to air it out.

I kinda like early JDM facelift headlights for their indicators. They'd make for great sidelights, perhaps a switchback white/orange would be a good solution.

So cute from above. Just ignore the paint on the spoiler.

Got an engine code. As always my reader won't show me the code, but if I'm lucky enough to have it pending I can snatch it. Seems that we're running rich.

That would explain the slightly rough idle at times (can even stall). Also seems to be a bit of a lack of power. It could be a slight leak in the exhaust somewhere between the sensors, but I think it's more likely my bootleg MAF sensor again. I've got a couple of genuine ones in the garage but they're both like 20 years old and used.

The oil was still leaking of course, but by now it had pooled in the engine bay and was dripping out quite a lot. I had to leave my car on cardboard. Coolant is now leaking again, quite a bit, so I'm going to try and fit my spare water pump on this car. That pump was actually on this car originally.

I was having to use my MCM cable ties, which I only really want to use in places where they can be seen. So I bought one thousand cable ties.

Today! I was outside doing stuff all day, partly cleaning the driveway still, but also working on my bike, finally. I won't post the photos here as it's too off-topic. I'm not on a Bandit or Suzuki forum, but I'm on the Facebook group and it's quite toxic.
A care package arrived today, with my new headlights!
Sent from the one and only nissan boy! These are exactly what I was after. Some minor damage around the back but typical of headlights once they're removed. The glass, where it meets the plastic and reflectors all look great. I'd otherwise use one of my many other sets, but they're all slightly imperfect in a few ways.
These will be painted black like the old set.

More excitingly, a random, unknown selection of small parts was waiting in the box too. Some window winders in black, nice. A bulb socket, looks like it's for a side indicator? Good to have, especially for the internal parts if making an electrical bodge. An electric mirror switch, very cool, haven't seen one of these basic ones in person until today. A second-face rear wiper cap! I remember many years ago I lost mine and couldn't find one, and had to buy one new from Nissan at great expense. So I'll collect those!
And lastly, an item I knew was coming, a little mat thing for the upper dash! I've never seen one of these before. Not made for the car, I mean. It's even got a logo on it. Too bad it's the second-face logo, the worst one, but still, I like it! On the back it's got another logo, implying it can be reversed for LHD cars.

Without (and sunglasses case removed)...

...and with. That's quite cool!

The headlights were in excellent condition. One even came with a bulb and socket.

Aired out the Cabrio once more.

And finally, my new cam cover arrived! So with this here, the final oil leak will be sealed. This one is a bit better made too, partly because there were no bodge holes to weld up.

I'm going to give it a clean and then paint it! I'll do the same paint scheme as last time, red but with the middle bit black.

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[flyboypuoi]

Time to get scrubbing on this then!

It started looking good immediately. The wirebrush attachments on my drill made this 100 times faster.

Bit more cleaning down, and the holes for the lead holders (most of which were filled with the broken bottom end of the holder) emptied out.

Soon enough, I got some paint on. I used the last of one can.

I later used another can for a second coat (this was also running out). I'm going to use some nicer bolts for the coilpacks this time.

Meanwhile, my car helped inflate the flat tyres on my now basically complete bike.

I retreived the MAF sensor from the CG10 that came with my current car. Let's see how well a genuine 17 year old sensor compares to a bootleg <1 year sensor.
Time to split down these new headlights then! As always, a crappy old hair dryer is all it takes.

I found this tab which belongs on the bottom of one of the lights. They both have one missing and the one in the photo has a crack on the remaining one, making it flappy. I was considering gluing this back on, but I don't think they do a lot. The glue would cause more trouble than it's worth.

Headlights split down and ready for the eyeliner.

This time I'm trying a new method with masking the sidelights. I didn't have any bluetack left. Since I used some white labels to mask the indicator lenses (couldn't find the masking tape, even though it was next to the headlights), I put some labels over the sidelights too. I then cut along the side of the lens, leaving only a millimeter or less of label holding on outside the lens. I hope this works...

Primer on. This also ran out before I could get a satisfactory amount on. The labels on the left light lifted a little bit... I hope no paint got in.

While that was drying, it was time to sort out the glass. First of all, a good scrub with a brush not used for dishes.

Then once dried, I polished both the inside and outside of the glass.

Result: Nice clear, shiny glass. Looks like the green colour is unavoidable. Must be due to how the glass is made or treated.

When the primer had dried enough, it was time for the black. Once again the paint can ran out before I was done! I had one can left which was also low, and that too ran out before I was satisfied! I've got four new empty cans as of today.

The fun will continue tomorrow, as the red paint is also running out. I thought I had a new one, I guess not. Also, the black paint I used on the cam cover wasn't high temperature, I didn't realise until after. I don't think the cam cover gets hot enough to really need it, though.

Tomorrow I must fit the new cam cover, as I need to go to work the next day. And I don't want a drop more of oil to go on the floor.

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I think I used the red high-temp paint I thought I had on my red fan in the engine bay.

 

[flyboypuoi]

So, the new label & trim method worked very nicely with the headlights! Better than with bluetac, as now none of the chrome is pulled off from the reflector. These look good. It is the 3rd time I've done this now. Running out of paint didn't help, but the most visible areas are coated well enough. It's behind glass anyway, imperfections aren't so noticeable.

Yes! Look at that. Looks great.

This time, as well as heating the original gasket to glue it back in, I also used my gasket sealant stuff. It was pretty messy but hopefully now these won't ever fog up. I also fitted all 3 vent caps to each one, as I've got a bit of a collection.

Time to mask up the cam cover. As before, this was tricky, and I left it "good enough". I decided to mask the oil cap hole completely to make sure it's got a good clean surface, as the bootleg Nismo cap does leak a little unless it's extremely tight.

Quite pleased with the PCV hole masking, not that it'll ever be seen up close.

And so on goes the red. The little I had. I could only get one single coat on, and even then, it wasn't fully coated... That sucks.

I gathered all of the headlight clips I had. Now each light has 7 clips on the bottom...

...and four on the top. This'll hold the glass really tight (especially as these were still warm).

I've been considering useing these bigger injectors again. Very mixed opinions on these, so I figured I'd just give them a go.

So, in they went. I also put in the MAF sensor that I had ready. No more crappy bootleg ones.

Cams exposed. Time to get the new cover on, and a new gasket.

The cover came out pretty nice, actually. A little sloppier than before, especially with the single coat of paint that doesn't even fully coat it. But, I guess, it'll do for now. I also got a bit impatient with sanding the lettering down.

It was at this moment, I found these two in my car, under the passenger seat!!! I'm such an idiot!!! I'm never going to recover from this monumental cock-up.

Moving on anyway, the cam cover went on. And nothing got cracked this time. Unfortunately the coilpack bolts weren't long enough. Shame. Well, I'll get some nice ones some time.

I forgot I fitted that new air filter. Looks great!

There's a bit of a red theme going on here.

But I noticed a problem. All of the coilpacks were sitting too high, and not sealing. With the engine running (it was fine with the injector/rail change, and MAF swap), I saw oil seeping out from the coilpack seals.

It started to come out from all of them... This needed fixing.

I started grinding down one of them. This took forever, made a mess, and made a lot of noise. So I tried to instead cut down a coilpack. Turns out under the plastic bit, it's many layers of metal. So cutting it was really messy and tricky. After deciding that I'd butchered it, I took a spare and went back outside.

Lucky for me I found my junior hacksaw when I was tidying up yesterday. I even found one blade in the bottom of my toolbox. I didn't think this would be faster than a power tool, but I had a go and it chopped right through the aluminium!

So, I cut them all down a bit and sanded the sharp ends. On the last boss, the end fell off into the spark plug hole. It turned into a big rescue mission using some wire and my grabbing tool. I got it out in the end.

And with that, the coilpacks were held in place securely. They aren't perfectly straight but they're good enough for me, especially as such a custom setup.

And the headlights looked great! Again on the right side, a stud got stuck in the car, this time the other one. It was no match for my mole grips though. This time, I've used some nicer nuts to hold the studs in, with a wide bottom to act like a washer.

I've missed this face.

I wanted to see how the change in MAF and fuel injectors made the car run, so I looked at the data. This was idling at my house until warm.

And once arriving at the shop. I added the 3 dials on the right, I didn't know they worked on this car. I noticed that the first O2 sensor was reading quite erratically. So I might try and replace it with a spare I have. The problem is that it requires a huge spanner which my set doesn't go up to.

Anyway, it's looking good, and best of all, when I left this spot, there wasn't a single patch of oil underneath! I think with this cam cover replacement, there are no more oil leaks. The water pump is still leaking sometimes, but it seems to go for weeks before dumping coolant. I actually heard a bit of a noise from the pump while I was checking the engine, so I'll definitely swap it with my spare one some time. Until then, though, I'm going to see how the injectors feel on the way to and back from work tomorrow and Sunday. The car is running fine, but I'm not sure if it's at full power.

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[fuzzy-hair-man]

And once arriving at the shop. I added the 3 dials on the right, I didn't know they worked on this car. I noticed that the first O2 sensor was reading quite erratically. So I might try and replace it with a spare I have. The problem is that it requires a huge spanner which my set doesn't go up to.

It's supposed to be erratic, that's the ECU closed looping, because of the way a narrow band o2 sensor works the ecu bounces either side of stoikiometric this also allows the catalytic converter to clean up nox and hc emissions alternatively.

 

[flyboypuoi]

It's supposed to be erratic, that's the ECU closed looping, because of the way a narrow band o2 sensor works the ecu bounces either side of stoikiometric this also allows the catalytic converter to clean up nox and hc emissions alternatively.

Ah good. That saves me the hassle then.

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[flyboypuoi]

Car nearly got boofed at work

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[flyboypuoi]

Woah, I haven't updated in a long time. I've been quite busy doing extra work and lots of car stuff as well as my other hobby!
So, these photos are over a few weeks.

I've never actually washed my microfibre cloths. I usually just barely hang on with miniscule clean patches, or buy new ones. It was satisfying to do them all in one go though. Fitted perfectly on the small drying rack too.

So, I bought these new speakers. They were really cheap at £18 for a pair. Let us see how good these are then!

I also finally figured out how to bodge together some under-shelf lighting in my garage. I've had the strips for over a year now...

The old speaker was grotty and had water stains on it.

The new one looked great fitted! I tried using two of the existing mounts on this one and had to drill a third hole in the panel to fit it in as the holes don't all line up. In retrospect I should have drilled all 3 of them. I then chopped off the protruding screws out of the bottom as they were long.

I had a peek in the bottom of the old speaker, it has some kinda nasty worn out foam in there but it's mostly gone.

I wired it up and gave it a try. I didn't want to replace all of them at this point as I was waiting on some more bits. But I wanted to test out the speakers individually to hear how they sound.

The chrome bit is visible through the grille, nice.

I also tried to clean off oil from the engine as it was still dripping out. It turns out that there is one more oil leak! Also, coolant kept leaking out. It wouldn't do it for many days, then suddenly a load would come out for a day or two.

My goodies from Finland came! Sent from the hero who saved us when our N13 suspension collapsed. I bought one for me, one (likely) for Eddie, and the last one for the highest bidder!

I also got this LHD preface tail light, for the track car!

It seemed at first that a lot of modification would be needed for these switches to fit...

Back to the speakers though, the bits arrived. These are foam speaker rings. Made of some cotton based sponge, I think. These are a very very weird texture, much like cake. They had some 3M sticky backs.

I chose to cut them down a bit on the rear speakers as I didn't want the foam collapsing in over the speakers and absorbing the sound. They're there to make sure that the sound is coming straight out of the speaker cone and not vibrating panels and parts around them.

Both speakers in and wired up.

Looks good from above!

I then fitted the inner parts of the forbidden cake. The sticky backs allowed me to curve them around the speaker.

Not only will this protect the speaker from stuff in the boot hitting it, but this makes sure that the speaker isn't shooting sound out of the back (they do almost as much as the front!). Rather than playing music in the boot, I want the music in the car.

With the door cards taken apart, I had a look at the internals of the electric window switch. There's a blank for the passenger window disable but not one for the door lock. And the box at the back is where the relay sits, so definitely different to the March one as some of them have rear electric windows.

From the last time I fiddled with the door I adjusted the guide rail and made the window struggle as it reached the top. But, I couldn't get it to go up smoothly at the last bit. It turns out my wind deflector is upsetting the last bit! Odd as it didn't at the start, and the left window doesn't suffer from it.
While I was here I was meant to tighten rattly handle internals but I forgot. I'll be back here soon.

Speaker in. I at first attempted to drill holes in the door, but quickly realised that drilling the speaker was much easier.

I then added the backing foam...

And in it went. I of course added the rain shield around the backing foam. It was a tight fit but it looked alright. The foam rests gently against the window rail. I haven't noticed any speaker vibrations since I did this, so it worked great. The window operation was unaffected.

It was then time for the foam ring.

In order to line up the holes properly, I fitted the old and new speakers together with a screw through a common hole. Obviously I didn't drill with myself as a platform but this was the easiest way of showing it.

This one is ready to go. These speakers do look quite good.

In it goes.

And foam ring added.

Looks quite cool.

The second-face grille doesn't allow much speaker visibility, but you can just about see the chrome in there.

And it looks like I've run out of photo space! Next post in a moment!

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[flyboypuoi]

Continuing on from the last post...
I had to give the preface tail light a good clean. A lot of the roads in Finland are dirt roads, and in the summer it becomes very dry and dusty. Almost like driving on sand. So a lot of dust was inside the tail light, particularly as a part of the light above the bulb socket has broken off.

It was nice to have my car at the front by the garage opening! Time to do some work.

The cabrio was moved outside while I cleaned off more of the oil on the road and top of the driveway.

So I guess it's time to check out those leaks. Firstly, the oil. It seems like it's coming out from around the sump, where it joins to the block. I gave all of the bolts a bit of a tightening down, and noticed that one of them was free spinning. There may have been a concentration of oil from there too. Obviously I was the one who put the sump back on when this engine was out, and had never touched one before. Hopefully the tightening of the bolts at least holds the oil in a bit more. It's leaking onto the exhaust which stinks when it's warm.

And the other issue was the coolant escaping. I watched it drip and found that it was coming from the hole on the bottom. This means that the bearing/seal is failing inside the pump.

So I took off the pump from the CG10 in my garage.

I gave it a nice little tidy up.

Including the impeller.

I had to remove the pulley from the pump in the engine to get it out (especially as my 10mm spanner is missing). I noticed that the one already in the car has weight reduction! So of course I'm going for that one.

I had to remove the power steering reservoir in order to access the pump, which meant making a little mess with PAS fluid.

But the pump came off easy enough. Had to of course hit a hammer against it to free it.

Spare pump going on, and I may have overdone it with the gasket goo.

It was easy enough to get back on, once I figured out how to fit it in past the engine and chassis. I removed the cam position sensor for a little more room.

But! As soon as I started filling water into the radiator, it started flowing out of the pump! I left it for the evening and tried again the next day. This time with more gasket goo. Again it was pouring out. I would've rathered the old pump which was just dripping a bit.
So I had to get a new pump, but with work looming very very early the next day, and no legally functioning vehicle at my disposal, I had to call in backup.
While I was waiting, I noticed another pulley difference. The PAS pulley in the car is practically solid, but the one on the spare engine has weight reducing holes on it! Obviously keeping overall mass down is little affected by this difference, but rotational mass on the engine, absorbing power, needs to be looked at!
I tried to lock the pulley in place with wire wound through it several times... which broke.

I tried locking it with various bolts and tools, but the tools were less tough than the bolt holding the pulley on!

I tried wire, which has worked in the past, but it broke immediately.

One thing I was concerned about was that the bolts for the water pump were not going all the way into the block, as a lot of gasket goo was in the bottom of the holes...
So I decided to space them out a little bit. This is all of the spacers I have, minus the two that I made from chopped electrical eyelets. I need to buy some...

My friend arrived and delivered the water pump in a pandemic-safe manner. It came with a gasket! I noticed that the pulley mount was different. Not so good for rotational mass but I'll take it.

The impeller was also different. Definitely looked cheaper than the OEM ones. But well, it was cheap! Around £18. It felt quite stiff to turn but I was told that new, greased bearings are like that.

I got the pump on in record time this time, and didn't have to worry about smudging gasket goo inside the pump. Look at the shiny!

But problems arose when fitting the pulley. I was far too lazy to go under the car and loosen the belt, plus it was wet on the ground at this point, and my creeper trolley is also misplaced...

It took me quite a long time and lots of approaches...

But I got it on!

The upside to making a mess here in the bay was that after I cleaned the mess, it was quite shiny here!

Pump in and looking good! When I added water, nothing came out at all. Mission complete! I should probably get some coolant some time, but water works just fine, even in the hot summer. The coolant will be better on the internal components though.

I chopped a spare lower dash panel up to see if I could get the seat heater switches in. Not too bad at this point.

It was a little wonky though.

I marked out where I was going to chop my existing black panel...

Another day, and I've bought the seats I've been after for so long! These came from a Super S that my friend was breaking (the shell is no good).

They could use a clean but they're in good shape. Only one bolster is a bit worn but not badly.

And oh, I've run out of image allowance again!
...

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[flyboypuoi]

Continuing on from the last post again...
So I've got my seats, and they look really good. But I'm not putting them in yet. I've got 3 big plans for these.

For one of these plans, I need to measure the inner fabric...
Bottom, back to front: 47cm

Bottom, right to left: 32cm

Top, right to left: 28cm

Top, bottom to top: 44cm

I figured out how to split the seats finally. It didn't envolve pulling the adjuster rod out. There are a couple of circlips holding some bits in that need removing.

I got another part from the Super S. The lower dash panel. So, the panels on prefaces and facelifts are the same in the mounting points, but the shape of the hole is different. I only had to make a few cuts to get the switches in, which meant it stayed rigid.

Looks alright! I might in the future adjust the hole on the bottom over, as it's pulling one side a bit.

I added a bit of bracket to the bottom screw to pull the switches down flat.

I'm almost up to date now!
Yesterday...
I had a look at the SRS module as it clashes with the preface dash panel. I see now why the facelift one is angled upwards so much, to avoid this module. No wonder it's so useless.

For comparison, there's the JDM Cabrio one. It clashes with the mount on this one.

After a lot of fiddling around, I found that this lip above the hole, right at the bottom of the dash itself, was getting in the way. It's been squashed by my attempts at squeezing the panel in.

Without the SRS module, it went in with no problem though.

But I chopped off the lip from the dash anyway.

And it went right in! Win!

It fits well!

Just to be sure, I cut down the panel where it was clashing with the SRS module. There was a bit of space between the panel pocket and the switches pocket, so there isn't a hole at the bottom where things might dissapear.

With parts taken apart, I checked out how my backlighting was doing, as it has been flickering and patchy. After hitting some of the LEDs, some cam back on, but many have died. I've got big plans for this, but I'll need a lot of time to progress on them.

With everything back together, the extra switches look great.

Maximum use of space for functions.

I also wanted to check out what was going on with my ignition switch being so out of place. I've got a spare black panel to go around this (actual black plastic, not paint).

Sadly I found out that the ignition pokes out more than the original one! The column must be different somehow, otherwise the old one would have been in the wrong place too. That's annoying!

I also adjusted the driver airbag, as it's been off-centre to the right since I last took it off. I'm very glad I put normal bolts on it last time. I had to disconnect the battery as it was sounding the horns when I was undoing it.

Since the battery was off, it was a chance to sand the terminals and wires down and put lots of copper grease in them!

I replaced the AC switch light as it was flickering. I sanded this one down less than before, so it does get a little stiff. But hopefully it's good for brightness.

I also added a grab handle on the driver side! So now I can grab it to swing my weight as I get in or out of the car. The holes were already there.

Another thing I want to tackle is the steering wheel radio buttons. I've had it for like 3 years now and haven't gotten it working. It was very complicated to figure out.

I lost my two diagrams that I found on the internet, and couldn't find any useful documentation anywhere!

Back to the seats, I managed to pull off the fabric from one of them.

These seats use a lot of hogrings to hold the fabric on. They were all in fair condition, but I've bought new ones.

And again I've run out of image space!
One more post should do it...

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[flyboypuoi]

Continuing one final time from the previous post!
I had a look at the fabric of the seat once it was separate. It's sewn together quite simply. So I ran a blade down the seam and split the fabric down.

I also drew around myself on the foam as I'm going to be adding a little extra foam to hold me in a bit more.

I pulled the top half of the fabric off too. I'm starting to like this pattern, but it doesn't suit my car.
I stopped there, not just because it was late, but because I've got a couple of fabric samples coming in the post. I want to see them on the seat with the fabric on. I may also get more of the same fabric for my door cards. I like the fabric on there now, but my interior is starting to be very mis-matched, so matching them up would be nice.

Finally!
Today!
I found out that Eddie has made it onto Google Streetview!

It was before we fitted his mid-spoiler, which sucks.

I got this nice photo while getting supplies (including a voltmeter). Having a passenger makes the suspension sit a bit better.

With my new voltmeter, I started to figure out this annoying button module.

Slowly I figured out how it all works...

And (photo taken while editing this blog just now, as I forgot to take one), I finally understood exactly how it works, and exactly which resistors I needed. I've bought them already, so when they arrive, I can get a step closer to getting these things working!

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[flyboypuoi]

Hogrings and the fabric samples arrived. I'll see what I can do without hogring pliars. As for the fabric, I like the charcoal grey more, as I expected. I'll need to see them against the seat and in the car. Like I said, I might get more fabric for the door cards just to match it up better.

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[flyboypuoi]

Finally, some rain.

Today, my resistors arrived for the steering wheel buttons.

Some other stuff arrived too. Including a free dashboard mat. Which I would not have gotten if it wasn't free. It actually works really well, it's quite amazing how well things stick onto it .It would look better without the red logo, and probably without the top white one too.
I'll probably use it on my garage table as a soft surface.

So let's see how the fabric samples look on the actual seat. I'm definitely liking the charcoal grey more here.

Outside on the loose fabric.

Ignore the old crusty foam on everything.

And on the inside, I like the grey on the door cards. The fabric already on there is pretty nice, but this would match the seats. And it'd be nice a fresh and new.

The blue looks okay here, but it doesn't suit my interior style.

Look at all of the Chinglish on the back of the mat packaging!

So, I tried fitting the door latch covers.
They've got two little bits of tape on the back which, especially after spending ages fiddling around trying to get it on, didn't stick well. In fact, the cover isn't tall enough, so I cut and bent the bottom out to allow the latch to poke out of the bottom.

After that though, and with the help of some hot glue, it went on and looks great! These were available in a few colours.

While I had the hot glue gun next to the left door, I glued the wind deflector in as it keeps sagging on this side. I'll tidy up the glue some time.

And the other side, I purpousefully left last, so I'd fit it better. This one will be seen much more often, of course. Looks great!

Then it was time for the aluminium cap-cap. This isn't a cap itself, it fits to the existing cap with a couple of grub screws. I had to do it fitted to the car as the coolant was still warm. Not sure if it went on exactly, as the screws felt like they were bending the actual cap inwards a bit. But, I'll see some time if it stays on when I open/close the radiator.

It does look quite nice though. And this time the bootleg Nismo logo is lined up, which is a bonus.

Looks good in there!

Now, the radio!
I couldn't find any continuity after trying for ages with the existing wires on this lead. So in the end I took them off and decided to attach my own wire.

Didn't do too bad. The multimeter really helped check that the connections were good and nothing was bridged. I of course later added some electrical tape.

I borrowed my friends soldering kit, which has an iron that is much thinner and more precise. It also has the solder remover tool, which I needed for a neat job doing this.
So I got the old resistors off.

And the new ones on! Did pretty well, I think!

After some testing, I found which wire is responsible for each function on the wheel. I realised that the radio needs just two wires, but the wheel has three. But it's fine to bridge the two button wires after the extra resistors that need to go on the outside.

Temporarily, I'll hold this together with connector blocks. Because, most of the buttons work! But two are a little off. I measured the total resistance of these and they are a little low. So I've bought some little resistors, which will go on one of the wires coming out.
But, I have volume up & down, attenuate, and track down working now on the wheel!

I forgot, some foam arrived today too. There isn't a lot of it, but it was pretty cheap. It's actually quite soft, but I'm not trying to reshape the new seats.

I was going to finish for the day, but I got curious with this foam. I cut out shapes to fit around the leg area. This foam is quite soft, so it'll squish down when the fabric is fitted.

I also started to experiment with the top half of the seat, with the little foam I had left.

I just about had enough to make these shapes, plus the same again for the other seat. As I said, this stuff is quite soft, so it'll hopefully just give a little smooth bump over those areas. I might also smooth the edges down in case they look a little pointy when the fabric is fitted.

I'm just waiting on the seat heater pads now, but they're coming from China so they'll be slow.
Time to buy more seat fabric!

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[flyboypuoi]

Oops, I've got to do another double post!
So, the heating pads arrived. Faster than expected. They're nice and soft, and very long. They've got one end of a plug on each of them. Which is very useless.

They came with some sticky foil strips. After a little research, I found that these are partially for keeping the seat temperature controlled, but mostly serve the purpose of reflecting heat towards the seat occupant and not wasting it out of the back of the seat. I sanded the surface of the seat to remove some of the gross-ness, and remove the hard outer layer that has developed.

I tested out one of the heating pads with my 12V tester. It worked fine.

So, after some trimming to fit, I stuck them on. They still worked after being trimmed.

I poked a hole on the bottom half and fed the wire through this hole.

If a relay was needed, I could refer to my new sorting draws.

I then glued the extra sponge to the seat, and trimmed them a bit in case they'd be a bit pokey.

So, now I had to figure out this switch. I took it apart once more so I got a photo this time.

I actually blew up my 12V tester trying to figure out the switch! Stupid me didn't put anything after the switch so it shorted, and blew off the spring on the end! A quick bodge later and it was good as new.

So I started drawing out possible diagrams that the switch might follow, and tried measuring resistances, assuming that that was responsible for high/low (it's not).

It was easiest to figure it out with a bulb connected to it!

I decided to adjust the cuts I made on the panel where the switched are fitted. I needed to move the bottom one over a bit as the switches weren't in the middle. I also put some glue on the bosses as one broke off and the other was loose.

One hole on one side.

And on the other side. Some more cutting is required to let the switches get in to place.

Now for the power going to the switches! I decided to do it properly. There is a fuse slot already in the car for seat heaters. It's connected to the ignition relay.

And the fuse outputs to these two pins either side of the probe. Interesting that it has two outputs.

So, I decided to use them individually, for each switch/seat. Not that that really makes a difference, as they join at the same fuse. There aren't wires coming from there on the UK model, so I had to add some.

I had no luck getting the plug out of the back of the fusebox, so I tackled it again the next day. This was a horrible task, but I got it out.

I separated the plug and slid in the two new wires, and sealed it again.

When turning the key to ON, the seat heat fuse now delivers 12 volts to these two wires!

A quick test, and it works with the switches.

I then needed to figure out how to work the high/low. At first, I was thinking of having a resistor inline on the low feed. But then I'd need to figure out what resistor, and would need to figure out where to put it, so it doesn't heat up and burn something.
I found out on a Mercedes forum that their factory heated seats actually switch the top & bottom from parallel to series connection, so 12V on high and 6V on low. So, I had to figure out how this would work.
I drew this idea, the diodes may not be needed but I'll figure it out later. Using a SPDT relay, the grounding of the top heater is switched between straight ground, and through the lower heating pad. The high feed also goes into the bottom when it's activated.

I pulled off the fabric from the other seat, and it's in better condition, which is nice. There are now hogrings everywhere. Including somewhere high in the garage, not sure where it pinged off.

I spotted this, 26|94 likely means 1994, and, maybe week 26? This is actually printed on one of the headrests too, I missed it.

So, I added the foam and foil.

And on went the trimmed pads.

The next step, then, was the fabric. I separated everything out.

The new fabric arrived! There's loads of it.

So I traced...

...and I've run out of photo space. Hold on..!

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[flyboypuoi]

With the fabric traced, they were ready to cut. Stupid me wrote L and R on them and realised that, because the fabric is very thin, the ink is visible on the other side. So I did them much smaller on the right two. Not that I even needed to specify which side as I'm sure they're the same, and the red/green is for which half they fit.
The odd assortment of tools was to weigh the fabric down as it was blowing away.

Nice!

There they are, all four.

I decided to get the headrests done, so I sanded them a little too, one took it a little worse than the other.

It was then that I realised, the fabric I've bought isn't the same as the sample! I must've selected the wrong colour. Whoops! Well, this colour is fine too, and I don't want to stop now.

The headrest fabrics were super tight, but they're on and they've been cleaned a bit.

So now, I pinned the fabric in place, and it looks neat!

It took a couple of attempts, I found that pinning the curved edge first and doing left and right alternately let it go on right.

Looks okay! I cleaned off some of the ink.

So here I go... Very inexperienced but I'm keen.

A bit sloppy, but it went on slowly.

That actually looks pretty good!

Now for this metal band. This holds the middle fabric bit down on the seat.

So on went that, but I stitched it a little sloppily.

Not bad.

I pulled it over the seat.

It was very very hard to get the fabric tight.

But that doesn't look too bad.

I tried to straighten it out a bit more but it was being a pain. Some of the stitches are showing at the top, where I've been clumsy, that sucks.

Today!
I noticed that when pressing the seat, or test-sitting in it, a crinkley noise like a plastic bag or something could be heard. I took the fabric off again and found that the foil sheilds were making the horrible noise. These aren't exactly required, so I binned them.

The heating fabric needed some glue to help it stick again.

Fitted again, this time I did it much better, and it's okay. The extra side bolstering was being difficult, though. It was curving around, and may be responsible for the fabric not being tight. The wrinkles look worse in the photo.
I may need to remove the extra bolster padding.

Something small arrived today, that was a replacement USB drive for the radio. The old one still works, but it's really worn, and it's lost a lot of plastic on the end, bit by bit. This meant that a slight knock would disconnect the drive and the music would pause, which was annoying.

They're the same, down to the volume label. I've formatted it as FAT32 so it'll work with my vintage computer.
Actually, the new one is double the capacity, though I didn't get close to filling the old one.

Small things add up to make it look better.

So, time for the bottom fabric! I first sewed in the metal rod that holds it down, then pinned the fabric in place. This also took a couple of attempts.

This time I've done much better! Much more neat, and I haven't really stitched too far out making the thread visible like on the previous one. I had to unpin it halfway through as it wasn't lined up quite right still. I only got this far and had to stop, but I was going much faster this time.

Nearly forgot again, I could hear the steering needed a bit more oil, and I was right. This was all I had left, which should do it.
I then noticed that there was a wire quite loose near the exhaust.

So I tidied it up, first I got a standard cable tie, but decided to flash one of my MCM ones.

I've got loads of work coming up so I'll have very little time to do stuff. But at least I'll have some money for stuff!

One last thing: The 200Ω resistors arrived and I fitted one to the steering wheel radio buttons. The source button still acts a bit iffy, but I almost never use that button anyway. But now, "Track +" works! So my steering wheel finally has functional buttons for controlling the radio. Awesome!

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[flyboypuoi]

Well, I again didn't upload for ages...
So, here are the relays for the seat heaters. I only need 2, but I got one for free.

Again, the welded bosses holding the coilpacks on broke.

Really annoying, this time I'm going to swap the heads over, which will be a big job...
At least that's an opportunity to paint again, and do it better.

Quick wash...

One reason I haven't been uploading, is that the car is broken. That clutch that went in last time was not new and was making a nasty sound the whole time, and now it's about to break... This time, I got a brand new Aisin clutch.

For now though, I got my bike on the road again.

Everyone's out on the road while I do a deep driveway clean (from oil spills...).

Looks good from above!

I got new window switches / arm rests! These are from the Super S, the same one where the seats are from.

Extra functions, nicer switch shapes and an auto function on the driver side.

Other side is similar to the original set, just a nicer shape and feels nicer to use.

Here's how they compare. The colour is a bit different. The shape is also different. It bumps upwards around the extra switches which feels more secure when your hand is resting there. It's also wider so your hand doesn't slip off, definitely more of an arm rest.

The seat didn't turn out great. It looks better in person, for some reason the camera really exaggerates the creases. I've got new fabric for these, though, and I'm going to get them sewn professionally.

Time for some measurements for the door cards...

And later, the new fabric arrived. Quite a lot of it, too! There's another one underneath the one you can see here.

Test fitting the trim. They attach quite differently to the second facelift trim.

I need more of these coloured plastic bits for it to fit fully. It actually needs two more. Preferably the white ones that point slightly down. The blue ones point slightly up which doesn't work, but I've wedged them un upside down here.

In order for the trim to fit, the front dowel needs to be trimmed. It clashes with the window motor otherwise. I might have trimmed a little too much off on this one.

Now for the door cards...

I marked out the extra holes that are needed, but this didn't help. I kind of wanted to keep the vinyl at the bottom, and it does separate, to keep the bottom clean. But then there's that hole in the middle. I can't use that middle bit of plastic now with the preface trim, so I needed to cover the entire card.

Off it came, quite easily.

Time to trace out the new one. I realised after marking this with pen that I was doing it backwards here, but luckily, the two doors are mirrored, so I switched to the right door.

First time using spray adhesive. A little messy but it went on alright.

Then I went around the other side, pinching the fabric down. It's a lot thicker than the previous fabric, as it's got 3mm of sponge on the underside.

Looks good! The photo seems to make it look more rough for some reason.

Bottom trim fitted. Looks good. I had to pull the fabric upwards a bit on a few areas as it wasn't quite enough and I could just about see the card when the top trim was fitted.

In the end it looked good though! These night photos really make it look a bit rough though.

The colour transition is actually really nice!

Especially with the door handle trim.

I ran out of photo space on this post, more to come...

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[flyboypuoi]

Continuation of last post...
Test fitting and looking good.

It looks really shiny in the photos.

Time to do the left door, and this time I did it much better. One of those little plastic clips was broken but I found a couple in my stores. The Nissan anti slip mat worked well here.

Looks great!

I can't wait for this to go on!

From today...
Daylight shot. That looks better.

Time to tackle the switch conversion. Sadly the switches are completely different. But I'm keen.
Don't try disassembling a passenger side facelift window switch! This took ages to reassemble (and figure out how to) when it exploded. There are a pair of ball bearings which are compressed on two tiny springs, and some loose contact bits like in the seat heater switches.

In the prefacelift, the switch is entirely different. Instead of being a really simple switch for sending power straight through (it even had burn marks on the contacts), there's a whole PCB with many components on it.

Even some kind of controller chip.

As for the driver side, it's again a whole big unit compared to the facelift ones. I can see that Nissan saved some money making the newer ones. This one is even equipped for rear electric windows! It looks like the whole setup is there. It also looks like it's not possible to give other switches the auto functionality.

All of the output pins are there, so I'd say this could be retrofitted for rear windows too, you'd just need the switch plastics and the little pads that go under them.

Eventually, I got both windows working. On the Haynes diagrams, prefaces and facelifts have the same wire colours. In reality, the Super S loom didn't have quite the same. Most colours matched, despite having different thicknesses.
I did use some of the existing wire to send volts to the other side, as shown below. Where the facelifts just send 12V over to the left door on demand, the preface seems to send either a +5V or +12V to tell the controller to go up or down. It also seems to need the small white/red wire, which is +12V when the window disable button is off. I wired up the white/red wire to the existing red/white wire, so almost the same.
Then there's the green wire which carries the +5/12V, I used the remaining red/black wire for that.

Then finally, the left door needs a ground, which isn't there on facelift cars. Lucky for me, I could just use the ground wire on this plug that I'm not using. I think it's for electric mirrors (but I have the custom wired JDM ones so I don't need it).

So, both windows worked. The passenger window lock works. And the auto function works too. The last thing to do is the door lock switch, which is two thick wires, one grey and one grey/red. When the lock button is flicked up, a relay clicks on and off and the grey wire gets a +12V pulse. When the button is flicked down, the grey/red wire gets a +12V pulse.
I had a look on the wiring diagram for the door locks for the facelift cars. By testing, I found which wires got a pulse when locking and unlocking. One even gets a pulse when deadlocking.
I figured I could just send the pulse from the switch to these wires, but all it did was make the relay buzz. So I took it off and went inside.

I'm wondering if the locking control unit is being a problem. If so I can use some diodes to control the direction of the power. Or, perhaps, both wires need to be connected for it to be complete. I'll try both tomorrow. It doesn't seem to be damaging it either way.

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[flyboypuoi]

I tried to put the two wires from the arm rest in with the two existing wires that send power to the locks.
Again, the relay in the arm rest switches just buzzed. Out of curiosity, I tried to manually lock/unlock the door while it was plugged in. The door locks quickly jumped back and forth between locked and unlocked, and the extending wires going to the new switch caught fire! So don't do that, because you'll burn your carpet and possibly your underwear.
After a lot of thinking (it took 2 or 3 days, while doing other garage projects!), I figured out the solution, with help from my K11 and electronics expert.
I found that it was actually the small yellow/red wire that I needed to fiddle with to get this working. It didn't look like it, as it's at +12V when the doors are locked and 0V when they're unlocked, coming from the control unit. But snipping the wire caused the doors to unlock.
What I found out was fairly simple, if you forget that it's got a voltage under certain conditions:
If the signal wire is broken, the car unlocks both doors.
If the signal wire is grounded, the car locks both doors.
As long as the signal wire is connected, both doors will respond to eachothers states.
So, to do this, I needed a pair of relays. One to break the wire, one to ground the wire. I had one extra from the seat heater project, so I used that. This one has two outputs, so one is grounded and one keeps the signal wire connected. The only other relay I had that was useful was a 5-pin from the engine bay of one of my cars. Again 2 outputs, one keeping the signal wire connected, and the other not connected to anything at all, so breaking the wire. I chose to use this one with the open pin, as it's small and very easy to short pins to eachother (so I also wrapped each spade with tape and taped the open pin entirely, then taped all of the wires tight so they wouldn't move as 3 of the pins were a slightly smaller spade than what I had, allowing some wiggling movement).

I finally got it working though. I actually gave up with this original plan and started doing it so that the lock flick-switch would just lock the doors either way, but when I was almost finished installing it by that method, I realised what the problem was.

I got a dent from the electric box on the house, thanks to the wind. Couldn't access this dent from inside the door either. Really annoyed, but I guess I can try using my dent puller kit.

The arm rests needed deep washing before installation, they were, this one in particular, filthy.

Now that the electronics were sorted, I had to get the thing mounted. It turns out that the preface uses six mounting points! The door of course already has these holes, but I'll need more of the plastic things to attach the left side.

I had to drill out the extra holes once I knew where they were for real. This was tricky and requried that I took the card off again to make the holes better, and adjust some of the plastic things.

I also forgot to fit the foam again. Now I had to make little holes in it for the plastic things. I also turned some of them around. It actually seems that the downwards pointing ones are best on top (blue), and the kindof-flat ones are best on the bottom (white).

Some adjustments were needed on the card fabric. I screwed up cutting the fabric around the door handle, so I had to glue and pull it a bit. I also noticed that the fabric didn't seem to go high enough across most of the door. My only option to make it look at least a little better was to add a new strip at the top. I think, actually, the top plastic is slightly arched.

With the top plastic back on, it looks a bit better with fabric hanging rather than seeing the card underneath.

I also put some black ink on the sponge of the fabric that was showing, and behind the door handle. Now it's starting to look good.

I got it back on and this time, all 6 screws held the handle well, so it's solid. I then started to tidy up the glue marks on the fabric.

On the other side, I marked the holes where the plastic clips need to go. The two small circular ones are just where the dowels poke through to line it up. Blue ones go on the top, white ones on the bottom.

The fabric needs a little more cleaning and tidying up. I poked the extra fabric upwards into the plastic, which worked well on most of it. While removing the glue marks, I seem to have also pulled a bit of the fabric off, which might need some attention. But, from a normal viewing angle, it's not really noticeable. I quite like the black! I've noticed already though that my arm hair is sticking up against it, so I need to remember to hold the body of the car whenever I exit to avoid electricution.

As for the new switches, they feel so much nicer to use than the old ones. The old ones were so clunky. These are much lighter to use. The shape is nicer, with an upwards flick at the end of them and little grippy lines on the tips. The auto function is awesome. It's great to just click it up or down to the second stage and let go and let it do its thing.
Speaking of the right window, it was struggling to go up at the top few centimetres. I fiddled with the adjuster rail... and now it goes up and down easily, and fast! I adjusted the rail as low as possible and kept pressure on it downwards while tightening.
The passenger window lock is a very cool feature, though I doubt I'll use it often or ever. But it's cool to have.
And the lock switch is great. Flick it forwards and both doors lock. Pull it back and both doors unlock. The manual handles still work, on both sides. Also, the car is now not allowing me to lock the doors if the driver door is open and the key is on ACC (and probably ON). That wasn't working before.
One last thing I need to do here, some time, is change the feed wire that powers the unit. It's on at all times, from the battery. This means that I can deadlock the car with the windows down as always, but it can now be opened by this new switch... I need to change that.
Also, I found out that if you consistently lock and unlock the doors, the control unit stops responding to it, that's interesting.

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[flyboypuoi]

I tried out some blue headlight bulbs that I found in the cabrio. As I expected, they made the light more white, but at a cost of brightness. So I took it out again immediately.
While my friend was over, I borrowed one of his wheels. It looks pretty good. I couldn't lower my car as the jack was still holding his up. I think this could look better on a preface.

We swapped over the wheels between the two K11s again. I really missed these. They could do with some air, and a thorough clean.

My car is now definitely lower. About 1 doorhandles-worth.

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[flyboypuoi]

Later in the day, from the previous post, I did some more stuff.
The LHD tail light for the track car got some more cleaning. Still full of Finnish dirt, I sprayed water into the light and flushed out almost all of it. I also noticed that the reflector was missing some chrome on the bottom one, I hope that doesn't reduce the brightness much, otherwise I might need to import another one of these... I also forgot that one of the studs is missing.

I got curious with a late prefacelift steering wheel I happened to have visiting my garage. It had a thin control box inside. So I opened it.

I looked up Ascotec, it's a steel distributor in Germany (for Bosch, I suppose).

The part number on the outside of the case was the only one that led somewhere, this unit is the SRS module! Inside the steering wheel!

This arrived. This is a weird two-part putty thing. Like two sticks of playdough, but when mixed together and left for a few hours, becomes very solid. I'll need this for something later in this post (That's my new soldering iron in the photo, my old one belongs in a museum).

I got the track car bumper down from the ceiling racks. AKA Cassie's rear bumper. I gave it a bit more sanding. There are a few little craters in the filler.

But I got impatient and painted on the filler primer anyway. I did it quite thick.

Yesterday, I had a look at the paint. I sanded it all down so that it was a bit more smooth.

That looks great! There are still a few imperfections, but for the track car, I don't really care.

So the bottom was removed entirely, and the bump strips and line connecting them was covered over with filler. I think I did quite well!

Then I decided to paint. This time, I covered the area (and wore a mask) because some things in my garage have a yellow dust on them now.

I emptied a regular sized can on it, and didn't have enough. So I bought four cans of Simoniz satin black to finish it (and whatever else) off some time.

Today, another care package arrived from nissan boy! And with it, some clips for my left door.

The package had a pair of headlight protectors, with minor damage. I wanted these for a project. I deliberately asked for a set that weren't in great condition as what I'm planning on doing would, in some ways, ruin them. So best save the good ones to be used like they were intended for.
Also in the package was a second facelift middle brake light, two coilpacks, a MAF sensor (I think a bootleg), a wiper stalk, and a first facelift badge, fully intact!

So that's how these clip on. I can see why they all get damaged at the clips.

I then realised that I couldn't close my bonnet. I didn't know it was so poorly aligned. So I tried them out on the cabrio first. Pretty cool.

I realigned my bonnet latch. Which is a little difficult, as that bottom bolt tightens into a nut under the spring, because the original thread was stripped. Additionally, my 10mm spanner is on holiday, so I did what I could with a 9mm...

Now that it was sitting a little better, I could fit the headlight protectors and fully close the bonnet.

If I'm honest, though they're cool to see, as they're an optional extra, I don't really like how they look. At least, on second facelift headlights. It's less clear.

Time to use that putty. I mixed some together, and applied it on the missing bits. The left protector had less missing, but a crack was threatening to grow in the corner. This stuff was already hard, a couple of hours later, but I'll leave it for a couple of days (busy tomorrow, at least).

Now for the door. I added the clips. I only had blue ones, for the preface electric window trim, 6 clips are needed (I was short by one), ideally 2 white ones and 4 blue ones. I think. Or the other way around. The blue ones point down (unless you force them in flipped around), and the white ones are pretty much flat.

Door card on. This time I did well with the handle.

And there it is. Sadly I had a drilling accident which tore a chunk of the fabric under the handle, so I glued on a patch and pen-d the grey sides.
I might actually redo these cards soon. This was a good learning experience. Plus, I got a professional to sew my Super S seats, and they're using a different fabric to the one I bought. So I might try to get the same fabric. It would be a good time to remove my mirrors and repaint them too. I did get a quote to get those done professionally as well, but the price was astronomical!

Last thing for the day, my foam backings on the rear speakers didn't stay tight for long. But a few cable ties held them in place, for now at least.

I decided to use the MCM cable ties.

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[flyboypuoi]

So, the Miliput was dry on the headlight protectors. So I sanded one down, luckily it acted just how I hoped it would.

Got that side quite smooth.

Then I did the other side, which needed much more sanding. I got it as smooth as I could be bothered to.

I then painted some VHT black on the insides. I chose VHT not only as it was pretty much all I had, but because the bulbs to produce a lot of heat, in case they're on while these are fitted.

The next day, these looked pretty cool.

Looks good on the inside there too. I of course didn't bother sanding down the Miliput very much on the inside, just enough that it wouldn't be touching the glass.

That looks quite cool!

Yeah. I think this is going to be awesome when it's done.

With the headlights on high beam, some light gets through, especially on this side. I realised that the paint wasn't very thick.

So I put some more paint on them, along with the track car bumper. This time is was regular satin paint.

I tried some MIliput on the coilpack too. It did dry hard and it does support it in place, but it hasn't stuck to the black bottom bit. Probably too oily.

I learnt, after all this time, thanks to nissan boy, that these unwind and adjust upwards. How did I not realise? I thought they just popped into the metal.

So now the panel gap is correct.

This side needed qutie a lot of adjusting upwards (and I did a little more the next day, though it kind of broke, but I found a replacement). The bonnet now pops up like it's supposed to. Though it now requires more of a slam to close properly.

Back to the headlight covers, this was all of the filler primer I had left! Not as much as I'd hoped.

I found one of those rubber strips that clips into the bonnet. Second facelifts don't seem to have these. It's too bad that the later cars seem to have cost-cutting sprinkled about all over them.

Again I sanded back the covers as much as I could be bothered. The paint was barely dry so it wasn't the cleanest job.

Then I realised that I barely have any regular primer. Well, I had no regular primer, but I had two cans of zinc primer for metal, which were both practically empty.

I did have half of a can of KY5 paint though. And I painted it really well. Other than quite a bit of dusty stuff that got into the primer layer, the metallic paint looks great.

Then some lacquer. I decided to go very thick on this, as I wanted it shiny, and I know that these will receive a lot of road damage if used while driving.

I'll put one more coat of black on the bumper, and do it better.

It was time to get the car working again.
Very very gingerly, Eddie and I drove to my friend Andrew who has many K11s (3 off-picture) sat around. The clutch felt and sounded like it was going to explode at every moment. As we got close, the gearstick started to move position and I was losing gears. The car was rattling insanely and the clutch wasn't fully disengaging. But it just about made it.

While I was here, I got some metal grilles for my rear speakers! They might look just the same, but they feel much nicer. These are really scratched up though, so I'm going to probably paint them. The problem is, they have a plastic base and fabric under the grille that doesn't look easy to separate.
I also broke a speaker wire so I lost this one for now.
Eddie fitted a boot light to his car, finally.

The plastic grille left a cool imprint on the foam ring.

Side by side comparison. Obviously the metal one on the right is much higher quality. I think they were only available on prefacelifts, so obviously Nissan cut costs here too. You can see the fabric on the right one, it probably protects the speaker cone from getting wet, but it means that you can't see the nice chrome bit on the new speakers anymore.

They look about the same from the top. Just the feel of the metal one is much much nicer.

So. Let's have a look at why the car is falling apart.
Ah, yes. That's because the gearbox literally started to fall off near the end of that drive. Excellent. It's hard to see in the photo, but at a certain angle I was able to see light from the top, all the way down to the bottom. In areas, the gearbox was around a centimetre away from the engine. Hmm.

And so, here we are again.

The new clutch going in. This time we were able to get the brand new one in, and not resort to a spare that was lying around. I also changed the release bearing again and this time applied grease to the gearbox input shaft and release bearing sleeve-thing.

One of the top bolts for the gearbox wouldn't tighten up fully, however, this time, we were able to tighten down every one of the others, including the two lower braces. I also bought some threadlock to ensure that the bolts wouldn't find a way out this time.
I also found some rubber spacers for the main lower brace, where mine had deteriorated last time and I was bolting it in without them. Now there are less vibrations and rattles in that area.
I didn't get a chance to investigate the oil leak further this time. But some time soon, I hope to.
It didn't take as long as the previous times, but we did still finish in the morning.

And I've run out of photo space. Continued below...

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[flyboypuoi]

I forgot, on the way to the garage, my battery ran out of charge again. It's probably because it's not been driven in like a month. But, a new battery would be good soon. I can use the existing one as a jump starter (as my current jump starter is about dead).

Back on the road, though. Work is needed, much cleaning is needed, but it's driving and feels great. I'll take it easy for a while while this new clutch settles in. Damn headlights are fogging up. I guess soon I can just put the covers over them and pretend it's not happening, though.

Annoyingly, I need to put this tarp under the car now to contain the leakage.
Speaking of leakage, the power steering started leaking quite rapidly during the work. Found the problem, was a clip missing its screw on one of the reservoir pipes.

Today I'll probably do some lighter stuff. Sanding the headlight covers and polishing them, soldering the broken speaker, maybe investigate the rear speaker grilles to see if I can separate them.

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[flyboypuoi]

I sanded the covers with 2000, 5000 and 7000 grit paper. Then polished a bit, and added a little wax. Those bumps from the primer layer are not helping at all, but I can't repaint it now. Some more lacquer just arrived though, so I could add some more to then sand and polish down quite aggressively.

Starting to wonder if I should have just painted the inside and left the outside shiny and clear. Well, they don't look too bad. They just need more work. They're kinda cool.

I repaired the broken speaker wire. The plug was also being faulty. I might buy a different one, one that isn't waterproof as it's far too fiddly to get right.
It went from very sunny to what appears to be another lightning storm fast approaching, and I'm still exhausted from the clutch thing, so I'm stopping already today.

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[flyboypuoi]

I wasn't quite happy with the headlight covers. So I added more lacquer. I in fact emptied an entire can on them both.

That's much more like it. I was prepared to see this wetness go more dull when they dried though.

But the next day, they actually still looked like that!

I polished them to reduce the horrendous orange-peel from agressive thick coating, then added two layers of wax. Though, they only became a bit more shiny.

That's already looking better.

As usual, they look a bit out of place when they're perfectly clean and dry compared to the dirty wet car.

But that's definitely better.

High beams on again, this time no light is escaping. And you can see that the foglights still function and the forward facing indicators on the mirrors still function alright. The covers did get quite hot, quite fast though, so best not to leave the highbeams on while they're fitted.

Just like when I painted the grilles, and the boot handle, the colour didn't look quite the same at first. But they do now, so I expect that the headlight covers will be the same.

So, the car is fully functional again! Of course, there's still a leak. The wet ground really exaggerates it when the oil disperses over the water surface.

Got a cool shot while setting up the tarp. Had to be quick as oil drops come quite quick when the engine is warm. Took a buch of photos to try and get the indicators in it, but didn't quite get the mirror ones in time.

I got some goodies today, including suspension top covers for the fronts. Looks a bit neater with them. The strut brace doesn't get too much in the way either.

Today, I had a little look at the headlight covers, and now that they are synched with the wetness of the car, they already look better. Just the dirt level to get the same now. And perhaps the paint itself needs some time in the sun or something.

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[flyboypuoi]

I seem to have obtained a little collection of tail lights now too.

One of which was this prefacelift right one. It's broken, as the car had been crashed into.
I wanted to see how the lens came off, and this broken one was perfect for practicing.

So, prefacelift lenses have two parts. The lower part came off with only the usual hair dryer pointed at it and a flat screwdriver prying it gently. I didn't even break it any more than it was already broken. Peeling it from the boot side then sliding it rearwards from the outside-side.

And the top half came off quite easily too.

The reflectors are detachable too. Some only partly. I wonder if it's due to how it was made.

There we go then. For some reason only the foglight reflector is chrome covered, the rest are just silver painted.

I wanted to see what might happen to the colour if I left bleach on the lenses. Nothing really happened.

I split a preface bulb holder open. Interesting how these ones are made.

I got my LHD tail light out, which always looked really dark and rough compared to the rest. A clean, polish, and wax really made it look better!

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[flyboypuoi]

I realised that I had bought a magnetic sump plug that was M12x1.5mm, when it should have really been M12x1.25mm! That can't have helped with the whole leak situation. The thread did look a little mangled when I took it out. So for now, I've got a standard one in there. There's a properly sized one with a magnet coming in the post.
I also used the magnet plug washer with the standard plug that had the better looking copper washer, for now.

I took the sump off and inspected the seal around it. Or rather, the lack of seal. It came off of the block with no trouble at all too. Though, I had to remove the lower brace and loosen the exhaust at the cat.

But I got it resealed and on. I also got a new PAS/Water belt as my old one had had a rough life.
I tried again to get the PAS pulley off to fit one with holes/spokes as it would be lighter, but I again couldn't.

Sadly, it turned out that the leak is still happening. I still think it's coming from the sump. I couldn't tighten down any of the bolts much, as they all felt like they were stripping the thread (one already had). I at least threadlocked them and put more sealant around the sump edges where I could. I lost my motivation to do anything for a while though.
Today was really sunny and nice. I went for a little drive into Bristol. It was good, the car feels great.

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[flyboypuoi]

Been a while since I did anything car related. Still really annoyed about the oil leak.
I noticed that my boothandle was looking ****ty. The paint is peeling up at the corner, and it looks like this weaker paint has not enjoyed my occasional reversing up against a hedge at certain places. Damn, I'm going to have to repaint it. But then, I'm going to redo my mirrors anyway, so at least I can do them all together.

Some bulbs arrived. I thought I'd try out some dual filament T20s for the rear indicators. The plug sockets look about the same for single and dual filament. So they should technically work. And I would assume that when the 5W and 21W filaments are combined it would be similar to having a 26W bulb.

Well, it turns out that while they do fit, sortof, they don't fit amazingly and need a lot of wiggling to get in securely. So I don't know if they'd stay secure over time.
I tested with the right indicator and left the left one as it was. It seems to be less bright, interesting. I suppose the second filament interferes with the light coming from the main one.
The colour is also not as nice. It's a more orange hue, but it's far less saturated. This must be because the bulb is only painted at the top and is clear underneath.
So, I reverted to the ones I had in there before. The orange dual filament T20s might come in handy one day, and it's not worth sending them back to China as they were so cheap.

My new sump plug arrived, this time the thread is correct, and this time the colour that I wanted arrived. This'll go on then next time I do oil stuff.

Yesterday, my seats were finished! First of all, the camera once again really exaggerates the creases, but this time they're much more smooth, so in reality there aren't really any.
The fabric in the middle is really nice. It's no extreme quality fabric, but it's definitely a good quality fabric which is fitted really well.

These look awesome, just how I wanted them to. I can't wait to get them installed, but I want to hire a wetvac on a warm day to clean the carpet while there are no seats fitted.

Some day I'll go back and get the rear bench done the same. But at the moment I'm unsure if I'll use the existing one. I like that it's not a split seat, and has no headrests, but the curvy pattern is a bit ugly.

I got some rolling shots from the place at the end of my last post. It's always cool to see your car in motion.
Though, I must say, I think it was a bit cheeky of them to take the photos without my permission, and especially to send them to me first and then charge me before I could decide if I wanted them. If I knew the quality was going to be a bit grainy I might not have paid so much.

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[flyboypuoi]

So, a little while back, I took out the left seat to start the swapping process. Here it's quite easy to see how terrible the standard seats are in comparison to the Super S seats.

I had to reuse my old seatbelt buckles. For two reasons, firstly, the preface ones are different and as such incompatible, secondly, I modified the bracket on these to fit around the arm rest. I realised later that the buckle needs to go on after the side trim.

Speaking of trim, it seems that all euro K11s have the same! So of course I'm going to use the ones that were originally in my car. It was a Tempest model, so the interior trim is all a blueish black. I didn't bother with the screw that was on the preface seats.

The adjuster wheels are the same too. I again went for the dark one. These have been missing from my car since I fitted the arm rest.

I had several shades of trim. The left one is the dark one, the middle is the light second facelift type, and the right one is the preface colour. I actually couldn't use this trim in the end anyway as you'll see next.

The side with the adjuster wheel hole is normally the side with the belt buckle on it. I'm swapping over the top halves of the seats so that the adjuster wheel is on the outside of the seat, since the arm rest is in the way. So I had to go and get another pair of the hole-side trims in the same colour.

I noticed that one of my corner lights wasn't working. It was a faulty wire right by the bulb socket. I've had to be quite rough with the wires to get the bulb out on many occasions so I'm not suprised. Might need new ones then.

Later, the seat was assembled! It looks great! The dark plastics at the bottom really look awesome, I'm so happy.

The other side has a hole in the trim in order for the belt to go on. So I've bought some 70mm grommets to cover these holes, but they won't be here for a while. At least for now, the hole is on the arm rest side so it's not really visible.

A comparison of the other trim colours. Dark definitely looks better here. It goes with the new fabric.

It would be incorrect for me to say that this photo was before I started tidying up. I got very lazy recently, what with the car being worked on a lot and me knowing that the seats would be changed soon anyway. Quite disgraceful.

I had the left seat removed for a few days, which resulted in a good weight reduction.

Yesterday, I hired a WetVac. Borrowed this one from Tesco.

Firstly I removed the right seat too, then removed the stuff that was in there, and vacuumed with my car vacuum. It already was looking nicer.

After a quick go with the WetVac, it started to look good.

I also went over the new seats, but had to be careful as the fabric is a little tender now.

After I was done with the WetVac for a bit, I moved on to the seat heater wiring. I decided to test my design with a couple of T10 bulbs in place of the seat heaters, to see if it worked.
On low, for some reason only one bulb lit up, dimly. It's odd, because the current is flowing through the other bulb to get to the lit one.

On high, the dimmer one remained dim, and the other one lit up fully. This isn't exactly what I was hoping for, but I had a feeling that the bulbs were acting a bit strange. In the end I thought that it was good enough, so I went for it.

My idea of putting the relay inside the seat, using the zips in the cover, wasn't particularly neat. It's quite hard to have 3 wires attaching to the seat that allow it to move forwards, backwards, and fold down. I figured I could look at this again later.

Because, the new seat was in. And it looked awesome.

I started the wiring for the right seat, but decided to stop there for the day.

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[flyboypuoi]

Today, I WetVac'd the boot, as I had somehow forgotten. That looks much better. I developed a better technique, and since I had to return in in under 2 hours, I used all of my remaining detergent.

I quickly put the right seat in after doing some more interior WetVac-ing. Without doing the heater wiring. It looks so good with both seats fitted!

That's awesome.

So, they definitely feel different to sit in while driving. Firstly, they are way, way taller. I could see much more of the bonnet, everything felt really low down, and I had to adjust my mirrors. But the seats feel much nicer. The bolstering is much better, without being like a racing seat, they look much nicer, and they feel like they are better quality. Look at those squared headrests too! I've always loved how they slot into the seats.

Stupid me had my first wheel curbing incident! I was rushing, as to not hold up traffic, and threw it onto the side of the road, but I caught the curb. The tyre is a bit marked, and there is a deep chip in the wheel. Well, at least it's hard to see in this photo.

Later, I wired in the right seat heater pads. It took much less time this time. Both seats are now heated, with high and low functions.

I also tried tidying the wiring in a different way. This way looks much much nicer, though the relay is now strapped under the seat instead of being hidden inside it. Still, that seems much better.

So, I did the same on the left seat. That's better.

Then all I had to do, was put the interior back together. It's been months since it's been in one piece. This is awesome.

I'm so happy with how it all turned out.

It was then time for a wash. A proper one. I bought a bucket, so I hand washed it with very soapy, hot water. I'm rewaxing it so regular soap is fine.

And now I had to try out my new stuff. Compound polish, basically polish but more harsh. As soon as I buffed off the left side of the bonnet, I could see how good it was.

So I continued, this is after doing the bonnet, wings, bumper and headlights.

Then the left side, and rear...

After doing that (it took quite some time!), I needed to wax the car since I removed the existing wax layer.

And there we are. That looks better. I even found a little tyre shine.

That reflection is really good now. When I first bought the car, it had terrible marks on the bonnet where an old lady tried to clean it with wire wool.

Nice.

And the interior is all awesome now too, and clean. I still need to wipe the interior plastics as they are still dirty, but the hard part is done.

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[flyboypuoi]

One of my headlight covers snapped while I was putting it on. Damn. I see why everyone's always got broken tabs. I guess they're meant to stay on (when they are clear of course) instead of constantly be clipped on and off.
Since this one has broken quite a lot off, I'll probably have a go at fixing it some time.

My 70mm grommets arrived. They look as cheap as they were.

They fit the holes quite well though. At first I put them this way around. The left seat seems to not want to fit as much.

Looks much nicer on the right seat. The middle is doming because the shaft & nut is pushing against it.

Well, they didn't last long. The next time I sat in my car I noticed that they had both popped off. I think the hole is smaller than 70mm anyway. Maybe 69. Nice.
So I'm trialling them inverted. That way the middle isn't being poked. I'll see if these stay on.

It's starting to get a lot more wet. I might try again soon with the sump reseal. This time I've got the two semicircular crankshaft seals as well. I'm trying to organise doing the work and leaving my car for a day or two to let the seal cure properly. In the meantime I can use my bike if I need to go to places, though at the moment I'm not leaving the house much at all.

If this weather continues like this, I might have to switch to my winter wheels! The Nankangs (especially now that they're a bit older, and have less tread) are going to start struggling when it gets colder.
Speaking of cold, I am absolutely loving the heated seats.

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[flyboypuoi]

It rained for many days without stopping. My headlights are letting in a bit of moisture, so I'll need to reseal them. I think I'll just go around them with some gasket goo.
For now, I can hide the moisture behind my headlight covers. I've at least pulled the vent caps out and have rolled back the gaitor around the bulb, so it doesn't stay wet in there.

A nice cat joined me in my car!

Didn't seem to be leaving fur on the freshly wetvac'd fabrics, but I'll go over it with the car vacuum anyway.

I hadn't considered that it could have kneeded on the seats.

Oh, to sum up the courage to pull the sump off again and seal it properly.

I decided that I'd get around to selling my extra seat heater switches. I put them up on Facebook and almost instantly they were spoken for.

Too bad one of them doesn't have the plug sockets, but some small spades should do the trick just fine. Especially if they are wrapped in tape and squeezed to make them tight.

Some snazzy photos of the switches in action, keeping me warm as it's autumn now.

Yesterday, I parked next to some kind of tank, or something.

I was suprised that the tread on the front tyres is still hanging on quite well. I've deliberately not been too gentle on these tyres are they're getting old now, and this is probably the last year I have them. The compound is quite hard, and only getting more so as it ages.

Some new bulbs arrived for my indicators, too. Yes, I'm putting LEDs in a reflector housing, but I think this will work well. Usually, the bulb only really reflects on the sides.
Today, my new side indicators arrived. These are Taiwanese aftermarket ones for the N15 (and probably all Nissans of that generation).

They have the same kind of fitting as my old ones, just shorter. They've also got an actual chrome coating on the reflector too!

They take the same plug as my old ones too, so it just plugs right in. This isn't the same for the usual euro car though.

Hmm, just as I thought. They're short enough that they don't even fully cover the hole in the wing. But it looks great, so I must get creative and find a solution. Perhaps a 3D printed bracket could slide onto the wing, then the light clips in as normal.

The bulbs I am using are really bright SMD types. They're very short compared to most, so they comfortably fit inside the lens. They are really really bright! They also don't need a resistor to keep the relay happy. Which not only makes it easier to install/remove, but should still alert me if it breaks, by flashing fast.

Not really a good photo, but I tried out a bulb in the existing light. Very good.

It's very directional based on where you look at it from, which is what the incandescent bulbs were doing too.

It looks even better with a nice fresh light with a clear lens and a proper chrome reflector. I just need to mount them better.

I left the new bulb in the light on this side, but I should probably put the old one back in, in case this light lets in water and ruins the new bulb.
I couldn't even take the light off on the other side, the lens is just coming off.

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[flyboypuoi]

Yesterday, I finally got the courage to reseal my sump. I'm doing it outside my house rather than at my friend's garage for a few reasons, one being that I want all the time I need, and I don't want two oily-clothed people sitting in my new seats.
So, first of all, oil out. Good condition oil as expected, as it's probably only been in the car for a month or two.

I'm working on the road this time while the driveway continues to get oil removal care.

I decided to make things simple for myself and remove everything that would get in the way. The gearbox mount bolt was, as usual, difficult to remove. The exhaust was very forgiving, as the front bolts had already been removed the last time I did this, and the rear ones were brand new when I got the resonator cut out, they were still shiny. I also removed the two small gearbox braces.

And off it came, eventually. Took me some time to clean up the surfaces of the block and the sump, but that's something I didn't really do a whole lot of last time and could have contributed to the leak.

That's where the magic happens!

New crankshaft seals and magnetic sump plug, this time with the right thread. I noticed that the crankshaft seals are different sizes, that's worth noting before sticking them in.

New plug in, looks nice.

Dangly-dong exhaust is just sitting on the floor. I didn't realise it wasn't supported by the hangar by the gear linkage so it fell and spooked me realy good when I took the other piece off.

It started to get cold and darker, so I left my car draining like this overnight, with the oil cap off to help let the oil run out. I just had to hope that it wouldn't start raining again overnight.

But it did. Quite a bit. The sun is back out as I write this, so I guess I'll suit up and go continue in a moment...

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[Kirkynut]

Wow Ryan, you look like you like getting your hands dirty. I've just joined here after buying my another K11, having owned one a few years back.

You remind me of how I taught myself car mechanics in my younger days when I re-shelled and re-built a Nova GTE.

It's good to see how much you've done and taught yourself through research.

Kirkynut

 

[flyboypuoi]

Wow Ryan, you look like you like getting your hands dirty. I've just joined here after buying my another K11, having owned one a few years back.

You remind me of how I taught myself car mechanics in my younger days when I re-shelled and re-built a Nova GTE.

It's good to see how much you've done and taught yourself through research.

Kirkynut

It's never a dull moment when you own a K11! I'm certainly an ameteur with this stuff, but I really have come far from when I first started writing this blog, and the only tools I had were some curved pliars, an adjustable spanner, a screwdriver & my own fingers.
I'm glad you've had a look, I fully expect this blog to go unnoticed. But it's very handy for myself to look back on and find old photos when I'm explaining something to someone else on the club.
Good luck and have fun with your new one!

 

[flyboypuoi]

So, yesterday, I continued after the sun had dried the floor a bit.
The two semicircular seals that go around the crankshaft are a nightmare to work with! According to the Haynes manual, you should slot them in place on the block, hold them in with some sealant, and then put the sump on.
The outside seal (the bigger one) wasn't a problem, it somewhat stayed in place, enough to let me go seal up the sump and bring it under the car. But the smaller one, on the gearbox side, wouldn't stay on. It kept falling off and even threatened to fall behind the engine plate a couple of times. It's so fiddly to even get the seal in place up in there, it would be much easier to do with the gearbox removed. I had to take off my gloves and get sealant all over my hands just to get it in place quickly before throwing the sump at it.
I really hope that that inside seal stayed in place while I was applying the sump, I can only tell once it's too late.

But the sump went back on without any drama. I cleaned it up much more before adding my new sealant, and found that it has channels along the top for sealant that needed scraping clean. Two bolts have stripped the thread in the block, two next to each other near the oil filter and PAS bracket. Hopefully they've held it in place well enough, but the others went on fine this time, with some threadlock to secure them a little more.
I may add more sealant around that area in case. I also would like to add sealant around the outside crankshaft seal as it's easily accessible. I would want to do the same on the inside one but I can't access it.
I got the central brace back on without too much of a fight. One of the two bolts at the front stripped, but it seems secure still.
But by this point, it had started raining again. I finished up where I could, but I got wet legs for about half an hour.

About one minute after putting my tools away and getting inside, the rain really picked up.

And then it really picked up! The floor was shiny in no time. So, I wasn't able to finish.

Today, I'm still waiting for the rain to stop. But it's not happening. This is great for giving the sump seal time to cure properly though, one thing I did not allow for last time.
While I wait, I had a go at making a bracket that will allow me to fit N15 indicators. My friend has a printer that can make these.

It's a really tricky shape to make, working around two existing designs. If this design works out well, I might get a few made so others can have N15 indicators.

Fun anecdote: While I was walking back into my garage, opening the new packet of engine sealant, it slipped out from the packet and I stood on it.
My trainers, and the pavement outside my house, are now fully sealed against oil. This also made using the sealant tube very very difficult. I wrapped the tube with brown tape approximately a million times, which for some time, worked.

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[Kirkynut]

It is a good read Ryan. I'm 42 with a house, a Mrs, a 4 year old child slave (nothing could be further from the truth, I'm his slave) and loads of tools in a garage with a press in etc.

I started just like you, with a basic tool kit I cobbled together and then built a car from the ground up and have since built several to varying degrees. You'll save yourself a fortune over the years!

The sump gasket sounds like a nightmare. Did you use RTV or something else?

Sometimes Haynes can be a book of lies, so be prepared to go against their methods and try your own.

Sometimes you can save a thread with a tap. Otherwise, is there enough material to go up a size in thread and tap a new thread?

Kirkynut

 

[flyboypuoi]

So. Eventually, the rain paused.

I got the exhaust back on, as it was the last thing to do. I thought it was odd that the bolts would both tighten different amounts, but that's the only way they'd go, perhaps one is a little shorter.
You can see where someone (almost guaranteed to be me) has cut the old bolts off and got the hanger bracket a bit.

So everything was back on and cleaned.

And at last my car was on the ground again.

But, it turns out after a couple of journeys, the oil still leaks just as much as it did before.

I lifted it up again and really coated the trouble areas with sealant. I could at least see where the oil was coming from, now that the rest of the underside was clean.
A little bit comes from the front at the middle, which I can't really explain. Even with extra sealing. But I think most of it is coming from the gearbox-side crankshaft inner seal. I really filled that area with sealant and yet it continues.

So, that was a pretty large waste of time.

I got a bit fed up a few days later and went for a drive, with some new music.

I managed to see Eddie at uni.

So, it seems that he also has a leak. Which started when his PAS belt exploded.

So, since it was so wet, we unintentionally painted the town together. In this photo, we both reversed into that space, the left trail is mine and the right trail is his. It's nice that our dots are equidistant and the same size.

My friend gave me this Nodspeed panhard rod for free, the only issue is that it is totally seized. But I really need one of these for when I use my winter wheels. Which I need to swap into soon, as the Nankangs are both running out of life and struggling a lot in the wet and cold.

He also made me this replica bracket for my arm rest, which was missing this.

I just found out that I was taking photos in 8MP when I could have been taking them in 20MP. Expect to see more scratches and chips on my car from now on...

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[flyboypuoi]

It is a good read Ryan. I'm 42 with a house, a Mrs, a 4 year old child slave (nothing could be further from the truth, I'm his slave) and loads of tools in a garage with a press in etc.

I started just like you, with a basic tool kit I cobbled together and then built a car from the ground up and have since built several to varying degrees. You'll save yourself a fortune over the years!

The sump gasket sounds like a nightmare. Did you use RTV or something else?

Sometimes Haynes can be a book of lies, so be prepared to go against their methods and try your own.

Sometimes you can save a thread with a tap. Otherwise, is there enough material to go up a size in thread and tap a new thread?

Kirkynut

I'm giving up with the leak for now. Luckily I only use my car for going to uni once a week, I can walk to the shop or take my bike (even though that has been running on 3/4 for a long time now)...
I'm now looking for another CGA3 engine, I'm a bit fed up with all of this CG13 stuff and just want to start fresh and do things right.

 

[flyboypuoi]

For some reason, if you're viewing this on a web browser, the images might just be links.

It was time for the winter wheels. The Nankangs have had about enough, and their tread is about done for. Temperatures are getting low now and the hard, thin tyres are starting to struggle a little bit.
I also considered fitting the Nodspeed panhard rod. I lined it up with the stock one to see how the length compares, and it's just a little shorter. Since the rod is seized up and doesn't want to be adjustable anymore, I wanted to see if putting it on how it is would be better than the stock one. It would probably be better than scrubbing the right tyre on the mudflap, and it would be stronger than the folded steel stock one.
View attachment DSC_1751.JPG
Sadly, the stock one didn't want to budge. My breaker bar is only little, so I'll need to borrow one from someone. So for now, I'm going to stick with the stock one and remove the wheel spacer on the right, like usual.
View attachment DSC_1752.JPG
On go the chunky bois though! I decided to try out the scissor-jack jacking points on the sills for once, since I left the car in an awkward place to jack it up. I put one of my old rear floor mats on the jack to make the contact a little softer. They didn't bend!
View attachment DSC_1753.JPG
There it is. The wheels were filthy still, so I figured I'd go and wash them a little. The fitment is quite chunky now.
View attachment DSC_1754.JPG
So I went and gave the wheels a scrub at a local jetwash. I didn't scrub the rest of the car as it should still have a wax coat, and I think I'm past the days of scrubbing dirty public brushes onto my paint. I did rinse off the entire car though, it needed a little clean.
View attachment DSC_1755.JPG
After this, I drove a bit to check that there were no odd vibrations, noises or feelings. I also took my tyre inflator with me so I could balance the pressures.
The tyres all held almost as much air as I left them on, so that's a good sign. Only one of them had gone down to maybe 25. I decided to trial out 33 on the front and 36 on the rear. I know that sounds a little odd, but the big snow tyres on the front can't get too inflated. Besides, I want the rear to be a little skippy, as per preference.
Now that I've got these wheels and tyres on again, it feels very different.
First of all, it takes more energy to get going, so I nearly stalled a few times. It's a lot more sluggish. The steering also feels much heavier and less responsive. The speedometer is now under reading, if I remember right, by about 7%. So these tyres are slow and cumbersome, but they have considerably more grip, meaning that cornering at any speed is quite easy. Though, now, cornering feels spongey and less precise, but that's just the compromise for having grip in the cold and wet. Plus, if we're lucky and get snow this winter, it's going to be a lot of fun.

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[flyboypuoi]

Photos are still not showing on desktop browsers...

Looks like this is it for the year now. No more driving this car until next year. A new CGA3 has been found, with only 41k miles, so that shall be put in place when I have time. Until then...
View attachment DSC_1757.JPG
The driveway order has been adjusted. As for the car, the radio is removed, the sunroof shutter closed, cabin air set to recirculate, sun visors down, handbrake on gently and first gear engaged. Fuel line depressurised and battery removed. Doors deadlocked. Was considering locking the clutch open but had no way of doing it. My car and bike are also chained together.
View attachment DSC_1760.JPG
See you next year, car!

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