So, it begins.
I sit here with a cup of tea, watching my wife play Lego Marvel: Superheroes. on my Xbox 360 whilst I think what to write.
This time yesterday I was just getting just back from Newbury, after a 7 hour mission from Barnsley to Newbury and back, to pick up Layla, as most people know, the Micra which was owned by Max, painted with a roller, and sat in a garage for however long.
After a 200 mile driver back in her, with no backbox and blowing all the way up the motorway, it made it back in one piece and with a smile on my face, happy that this is a project that I actually looked forward to doing and getting on the road with. I had owned cars before, a ****roen AX, a L reg Micra, a 2004 K12 and a 1980's Honda CG bike, but this is the one I most looked forward to doing.
I spent all week thinking about it, looking at it and wondering what could be done to it, to make it unique. Yeah you can do lows, alloys, sticker-bombing, big exhaust, but it needs something different, I just long to find what.
I woke up this morning, practically punched the wife in the face and told her it was time to wake up and go and 'do ****' to the car. Fueled by a cup of hot caffeine, I traveled to a friends to obtain some tools, ramps and assistance. We traveled to the place where the car is stopping, make another cup of tea and the work begins.
Up the car goes on the ramps, I NEED TO SORT OUT THE BACK BOX. Luckily, when Maxwell handed over the keys to the car, he was a gentlemen to have a back-box to hand, so that saved some pennies. I reversed the car up onto the ramps, slid underneath and started undoing bolts. Two very rust bolts removed and the remainder of the rear pipe and gasket popped out and dropped on the floor. I removed these and offered up the new back-box. WOW, no nuts.
The hunt for nuts continues...
Next, the common gear stick spring issue.
Pulled the car down the ramps, spun the noisy bugger around and drove up onto the ramps. Unfortunately the front of the car isn't as high as the rear, so now there is a HUGE gash out the bumper plastic, but that shall be repaired.
Time to remove the heat shield. 10mm socket at the ready and off we go, 3 at the front for the heat shield, 3 at the rear, surprisingly these came off pretty easy which was good news, as i thought these would have just split off and broke inside the thread.
Whipped of the front, middle and read and located the offending part, removed, straightened her out and fitted it back on. Tested the gear stick to make sure it will re-centre and it does! Big win.
Next it was time to sort out the window and why the hell it had came off the runners..
Off comes the door card, after not being able to find a pozidrive for the life of me, whip off a few screws, a couple pops of suicide clips (none broken, thank god!) and removed it is.
Removed the speaker from the door and wind the window down, undo a few nuts from the window grabber things and pull them off.
Slip the window glass out the top of the door and glue on the window to the arm things (I really don't know what they're called), pop it back in and hope for the best, couldn't even try it, as it hadn't dried when I wanted to try it.
But this is the end of part one. There will be a continuation to this, there will be parts I buy, modify and change, then get bored of and change again and again.
But ahh well.. that's what we do
Things done:
I sit here with a cup of tea, watching my wife play Lego Marvel: Superheroes. on my Xbox 360 whilst I think what to write.
This time yesterday I was just getting just back from Newbury, after a 7 hour mission from Barnsley to Newbury and back, to pick up Layla, as most people know, the Micra which was owned by Max, painted with a roller, and sat in a garage for however long.
After a 200 mile driver back in her, with no backbox and blowing all the way up the motorway, it made it back in one piece and with a smile on my face, happy that this is a project that I actually looked forward to doing and getting on the road with. I had owned cars before, a ****roen AX, a L reg Micra, a 2004 K12 and a 1980's Honda CG bike, but this is the one I most looked forward to doing.
I spent all week thinking about it, looking at it and wondering what could be done to it, to make it unique. Yeah you can do lows, alloys, sticker-bombing, big exhaust, but it needs something different, I just long to find what.
I woke up this morning, practically punched the wife in the face and told her it was time to wake up and go and 'do ****' to the car. Fueled by a cup of hot caffeine, I traveled to a friends to obtain some tools, ramps and assistance. We traveled to the place where the car is stopping, make another cup of tea and the work begins.
Up the car goes on the ramps, I NEED TO SORT OUT THE BACK BOX. Luckily, when Maxwell handed over the keys to the car, he was a gentlemen to have a back-box to hand, so that saved some pennies. I reversed the car up onto the ramps, slid underneath and started undoing bolts. Two very rust bolts removed and the remainder of the rear pipe and gasket popped out and dropped on the floor. I removed these and offered up the new back-box. WOW, no nuts.
The hunt for nuts continues...
Next, the common gear stick spring issue.
Pulled the car down the ramps, spun the noisy bugger around and drove up onto the ramps. Unfortunately the front of the car isn't as high as the rear, so now there is a HUGE gash out the bumper plastic, but that shall be repaired.
Time to remove the heat shield. 10mm socket at the ready and off we go, 3 at the front for the heat shield, 3 at the rear, surprisingly these came off pretty easy which was good news, as i thought these would have just split off and broke inside the thread.
Whipped of the front, middle and read and located the offending part, removed, straightened her out and fitted it back on. Tested the gear stick to make sure it will re-centre and it does!
Big win.Next it was time to sort out the window and why the hell it had came off the runners..
Off comes the door card, after not being able to find a pozidrive for the life of me, whip off a few screws, a couple pops of suicide clips (none broken, thank god!) and removed it is.
Removed the speaker from the door and wind the window down, undo a few nuts from the window grabber things and pull them off.
Slip the window glass out the top of the door and glue on the window to the arm things (I really don't know what they're called), pop it back in and hope for the best, couldn't even try it, as it hadn't dried when I wanted to try it.
But this is the end of part one. There will be a continuation to this, there will be parts I buy, modify and change, then get bored of and change again and again.
But ahh well.. that's what we do
Things done:
- Gear selector spring
- Back box removed
- Interior cleaned, hoovered and polished
- Window repaired
- New radio and fascia fitted
- New boot carpet fitted
- Buy a Super S front bumper
- FULL RESPRAY IN WHITE
- Alloys
- Lows
- Clean all window seals
- Full set of locks and ignition
- Rear window tints
- New floor mats
- New comfortable seats.
