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The Mean Green Scene Machine

Jay101 said:
If u wanted to bodge it, could you not wrap insulation tape around the hub lip to get your 0.1mm
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Other way round mate, theyre too big for the bore of the rim!

Re: colours, they'll be staying yellow. Nice and bright colour, gold is a bit too popular in my opinion and would look better on a more 'higher class' car.

@Ulrich, the tyres are 165/50/15, 7j rims, et20.

I fitted the front two spigs on the front earlier after some dremeling and hammering and swearing. Well the first on popped straight in but second was an arse so resorted to scraping it along the ground to file it down a bit haha. Gonna get some spacers for the rear not sure if ill need extended studs or not though, they dont stick out the nuts, more or less sit flush so would i need them to stick out 20mm to fit 20mm spacers? And how easy is it to replace the studs? I imagine theyre rammed in there pretty damn tightly

Also me being me (a forgetful bastard) i drove it round the block so i could park on the street behind my mums car as my dad wants the drive. Got to the end of my street and heard what sounded like a bolt falling off. Id only left the cunting locking nut on ffs. Anyway managed to find it. Left the car on while i got it, turned round and it looked so awesome parked under a street light especially cause the rear lights were illuminated and the lips of the rims were looking nice and shiney. Needs a photoshoot soon to do it some justice!

Thanks for the replies guys

Also... Some bad quality pics...
Before dremel

After dremel

After being annoyed that im a forgetful bastard.



Also need to sort my power steering belt out cause the squeaking is getting worse and its damn loud.
 
Any ideas on how to space out the rear wheels? Id buy spacers but im not sure the studs are long enough, and ive been told not to bother trying to knock the studs out and replace them.

I could get the more expensive spacers that have another set of studs on them but that will most likely mean ill have to cut my old studs down, and knowing me itll go wrong!
 
the stock studs will only safely stand 5mm spacers (tho some have fitted 10mm ones, and are driving around with the nuts on by about 3 threads :rolleyes: )
and longer studs are easy to fit
 
Well i went and measured and im gonna want 30mm spacers to get maximum poke. So ill take one of the rear wheels off and measure the studs, will they need to be exactly 30 or under to fit the hubcentric type spacers?
 
Jay101 said:
Just thinking.....Will too much poke have more strain on the wheel bearings?
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In a nutshell... yeah. Depends how wide the wheels are, if you have skinny wheels with a low et and you're poking them then there'll be a lot fo stretch, but if you have thicker wheels with a higher et it wont be so bad as there will be more of the rim towards the hub... if that makes sense :p
 
Barker said:
Well 40mm means i cant fit 30mm hubcentric spacers without cutting the studs
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nah, you either go for the grayston screwon extenders and spacers, or else fit longer studs and hubcentric or non-hubcentric spacers (you dont cut the studs unless you,re fitting adapters)
 
Barker, I honestly don't think you're going to need 30mm spacers... 20mm at max surely? You've already got a load of poke you just need the rears to match the fronts.

If I was you I'd get your springs sorted first and see how it sits. When you've got it lowered the wheels are going to be sitting a bit different anyway due to the natural change in camber that'll occur from lowering. And don't forget to get a panhard rod. Didn't do that with my first Micra and always wondered why the rear looked lopsided :D

Edit: Didn't want to sound patronizing in that, just read it back and wanted to clarify that :D Just trying to share some love.
 
Harlen said:
Barker, I honestly don't think you're going to need 30mm spacers... 20mm at max surely? You've already got a load of poke you just need the rears to match the fronts.

If I was you I'd get your springs sorted first and see how it sits. When you've got it lowered the wheels are going to be sitting a bit different anyway due to the natural change in camber that'll occur from lowering. And don't forget to get a panhard rod. Didn't do that with my first Micra and always wondered why the rear looked lopsided :D

Edit: Didn't want to sound patronizing in that, just read it back and wanted to clarify that :D Just trying to share some love.
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Yeah no worries mate, but i wouldn't have had the tyres stretched so much if i wasn't going to poke them out a lot ;) I don't like settling for something mediocre, i want it to look hot. But yeah i agree im going to concentrate on lowering it for the minute then see hwo things play out. Need to get it lowered asap as im not declaring the rims untill its lowered so i can do both at the same time. (about £17 per change of policy!)
 
Barker said:
Just had a look at these, look like a good solution. Although it doesn't say how thick they are?

Have you used them before and are they any good?
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I used these on my K10 before fitting superlites. They were 25mm thick and to be on the safe side I also fitted them with spigot rings as they have a large bore on them to allow them to be universal. They've gone now, to another micra owner and unfortunately I have no pics of them fitted but I had no problems with them. :)
 
Why are you only getting 2 springs? what about the other end? Also something thats confused me for a while.. when i was toying with lowering i was told matiz rears all round, but arent you meant to have different spring rates? Just wondered how you're getting around this!
Rims look awesome btw :) gonna be even better lowered
 
JoeK11 said:
Why are you only getting 2 springs? what about the other end? Also something thats confused me for a while.. when i was toying with lowering i was told matiz rears all round, but arent you meant to have different spring rates? Just wondered how you're getting around this!
Rims look awesome btw :) gonna be even better lowered
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Thanks mate. Regarding springs dont take this for gospel but i think the rear springs are bigger than the fonts so matiz ones wouldnt seat properly in the rear. For the rear im getting corsa b shocks that are shorter than the micra ones, and cutting the micra springs, the shorter shocks keep the springs captive in their seat (i think!)
 
Delboy84 said:
post some pics up of front end when fitted mate (a before and after)
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Will do, although went out and measured, 45mm drop is still gonna leave some arch gap :( if the tyres were a higher profile it'd maybe look a bit better :/ will still inprove it from what its at now anyway!
 
Barker said:
Thanks mate. Regarding springs dont take this for gospel but i think the rear springs are bigger than the fonts so matiz ones wouldnt seat properly in the rear. For the rear im getting corsa b shocks that are shorter than the micra ones, and cutting the micra springs, the shorter shocks keep the springs captive in their seat (i think!)
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all correct :) tho the matiz rears fit the rear ok (but they are a bit too small for the seating rubber, IF you fit it)
 
I got these exact ones and fits nicely! Plenty of thread. Make sure you buy the m12 x 1.25 version

Edit: the pic does look a bit silly. They are longer in real
 
Starting to hate this car already.

Right so got home form work and thought right ill have a look at the drivers side foglight. Someone on here mentioned raching up underneath but that wasnt happening. SO went to get the rachet and sockets as there's 2 bolts on the front next to it. Anyway on both of them i tried undoing them and somethign snapped off the back of them. The first one a weird tiny bit of plastic and second one a tiny bit of metal i think, didn't pay much attention to them. Then the whole nut and the plate thing on the back of them were just turning as they were rusty as hell just like the rest of the bloody bolts on the car. So they were'nt coming off no matter how much i tried and swore. Thought id pop the hood to see if i could get at it that way and after trying to get the bolts off again i realised i could just get the bulbs out from the back. So i found out the bulb was gone. Then spent literally must have been an hour trying to get the little b*stards back in. That annoyed me.

Then when testing them out after putting thme back in i realised the drives side side light was out. So i thought okay im not going to try take it out while the headlghts still in the car this time so i popped a clip off that i didn't even need to, too a bolt out then tried to take anouther out... Surprise surprise it seizes and just starts turning the screw with it, and i cant get to the other side of it cause its in the headlight. So i did all that for nothing and have to leave the headlight in there and also cant tighten that bolt back up. managed to get that out alright anyway.

Then tried to take the airbox off just to have a look about the TB etc but that wasnt happening because i couldnt get to the screw that holds the clip on to the bottom of the box to fix it to the TB. Bloody brake fluid thingy in the way. So that failed. Then i considered sawwing off the end of the reasonator pipe for a laugh but went against it.

Then because im an absolute stupid idiot decided the prod the bubbling paintwork around the rust on my arch, then thought fvck it and starting picking the paint back and prodding the rust. So im going to need a new arch sharpish....







This is why i dont want to lower it myself because ill just fvck it up beyond the point of return.
 
Starting to hate this car already.

Right so got home form work and thought right ill have a look at the drivers side foglight. Someone on here mentioned raching up underneath but that wasnt happening. SO went to get the rachet and sockets as there's 2 bolts on the front next to it. Anyway on both of them i tried undoing them and somethign snapped off the back of them. The first one a weird tiny bit of plastic and second one a tiny bit of metal i think, didn't pay much attention to them. Then the whole nut and the plate thing on the back of them were just turning as they were rusty as hell just like the rest of the bloody bolts on the car. So they were'nt coming off no matter how much i tried and swore. Thought id pop the hood to see if i could get at it that way and after trying to get the bolts off again i realised i could just get the bulbs out from the back. So i found out the bulb was gone. Then spent literally must have been an hour trying to get the little b*stards back in. That annoyed me.

Then when testing them out after putting thme back in i realised the drives side side light was out. So i thought okay im not going to try take it out while the headlghts still in the car this time so i popped a clip off that i didn't even need to, too a bolt out then tried to take anouther out... Surprise surprise it seizes and just starts turning the screw with it, and i cant get to the other side of it cause its in the headlight. So i did all that for nothing and have to leave the headlight in there and also cant tighten that bolt back up. managed to get that out alright anyway.

Then tried to take the airbox off just to have a look about the TB etc but that wasnt happening because i couldnt get to the screw that holds the clip on to the bottom of the box to fix it to the TB. Bloody brake fluid thingy in the way. So that failed. Then i considered sawwing off the end of the reasonator pipe for a laugh but went against it.

Then because im an absolute stupid idiot decided the prod the bubbling paintwork around the rust on my arch, then thought fvck it and starting picking the paint back and prodding the rust. So im going to need a new arch sharpish....







This is why i dont want to lower it myself because ill just fvck it up beyond the point of return.​
Click to expand...
​
we all have bad days fella,some more than others.keep working at it!;)​
 
Well then what you need is some 32mm spacers on the front and 60+mm bolt on spacers on the rear. A pm to rangerbob, a very reasonable paypal payment later and a set of bolt on arches will be winging their way to you.

A side effect of that action will be that you win. At everything.
 
markbognor said:
Well then what you need is some 32mm spacers on the front and 60+mm bolt on spacers on the rear. A pm to rangerbob, a very reasonable paypal payment later and a set of bolt on arches will be winging their way to you.

A side effect of that action will be that you win. At everything.
Click to expand...

Best comment ive seen yet!
Wish i could afford arches and lows though.
 
So i fitted my new sidelights and foglight bulbs. The foglights are absolute bastards to get back in and theyre still not in properly ive just managed to wedge them in place without the bulbs disconnecting (finally). Sidelights look quite good lit up but in the day the blue bulb makes the headlights look a bit turd.
Anyway pictures...


Foglight not working when jammed in

Finally working but neither f them are in the holder thingys properly i just cant get them to screw in right.


Literally went out about 20 mins ago to take the pics of the bulbs in the dark and a bloke came from down the street with a parcel for me. It's my shocks.

Erm... yeah...











£25 for the both of them. I knew they were 2nd hand, but do they look safe?! Will try get as much surface rust off as i can before my dad see's them or hell go mad and not let me fit them, rightly so to be honest. A lot of it looks like surface rust im just worried about the joint between the main piston and the bottom bushing area.
 
Took this at Tesco earlier, bear in mind its slightly uphill towards my car, always had a feeling mine seemed a little bit lower than normal. Although i suppose the white one is pre facelift.


Also adjustable panhard rod bushes came today in case of any axle shift when it goes a bit lower

Oh yeah also got my first bit of bloody curbing today. Always hang out my window when pulling up to the curb to watch the wheel but still ended up going into it. Possible one of the worst noises known to man.
 
Nope i like the wiper! may change them to flatter ones but i dont see why so many people dewiper the rear. I like where it parks and i use it a fair bit to wipe the rear window obviously! Also not keen on those LED lights if that's what you meant, but if i can find some all red ones it'll be something to consider.
 
Really liking the wheels with the green here, once its lowered it will look the shizz :cool: shame about the rust but don't let it put you down!
 
I am an idiot. Why i didn't check this before is beyond me. Oh yes because im an idiot.

Just rang my insurance. For those of you that have read everythign ive been writing i have two options to choose from. Lowering less than 5cm, or lowering more than 5cm. I can't lower it more than 5cm as it will cost thousands more to insure. Now, the only lowering springs available for the Micra are 35mm and 50mm. I presumed i wouldnt be allowed the 50mm springs. I just rang up to check what class they'd fall into and she said less than 5cm which means i can insurance them for around £100.

So i guess i now need to sell my Corsa shocks and Matiz springs :/!

Also are lowering springs fine on the stock shocks?

Edit: Oh yeah someone sell/give me an offside wing please!!
 
Seems youve wasted some time then, but 50mm drop will look pretty good and you know you can do it. I cant lower mine at all till next year as my policy wont allow it :(. If you're looking for a wing check your local scrappy, i got a new one for mine for 12 quid from U pull it :)
 
Barker said:
I am an idiot. Why i didn't check this before is beyond me. Oh yes because im an idiot.

Just rang my insurance. For those of you that have read everythign ive been writing i have two options to choose from. Lowering less than 5cm, or lowering more than 5cm. I can't lower it more than 5cm as it will cost thousands more to insure. Now, the only lowering springs available for the Micra are 35mm and 50mm. I presumed i wouldnt be allowed the 50mm springs. I just rang up to check what class they'd fall into and she said less than 5cm which means i can insurance them for around £100.

So i guess i now need to sell my Corsa shocks and Matiz springs :/!

Also are lowering springs fine on the stock shocks?

Edit: Oh yeah someone sell/give me an offside wing please!!
Click to expand...

Awesome news for you, man! Always pays to ask, huh?

Now get your butt in gear and get the springs ordered :D

I'm running 60mm on my SR and was really worried about using the stock shocks but it's fine. The Matt Humphris springs are still the best lowering springs I've ever had on a car and that's with the standard shocks. If you're going track driving, get shocks, if not, stick to just the springs.
 
Well matt humphries charge extortionate prices from what ive seen so might go for Apex which are fairly cheap but still a well known brand.

Just pretty annoyed ive wasted £50 on shocks and springs and know ill probably never end up selling them.
 
JoeK11 said:
:(. If you're looking for a wing check your local scrappy, i got a new one for mine for 12 quid from U pull it :)
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Considered this but knowing my luck ill have to take it off the car and ill be there all day or will have forgotten the right tools etc. Will man up soon and go though haha.
 
Barker said:
Considered this but knowing my luck ill have to take it off the car and ill be there all day or will have forgotten the right tools etc. Will man up soon and go though haha.
Click to expand...

I took the one for my car off myself, all you need is a 10mm socket/spanner and a screwdriver if i remember rightly. remove the plastic inner lining then just unbolt from the body and the bumper. Theres one bolt hidden under the corner of the bumper (i think your probably supposed to remove it to do the replacement properly) but i just got a mate to bend the bumper back so i could reach it and it came clean off :)
now im just waiting to be back home at easter to swap it onto the car.
Anyway it should be no trouble for you
 
If you want cheap lowering springs, search for FK automotive. German company, was around £71 for mine and the drop is about 40mm, also they are quite firm :)
 

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