Yin and Yang: The Black and White Super S dynamic duo

[guesstimator]

Hi guys, finally thought I should show my face here.

I've been lurking around loads over the last 2 years or so, trying to learn as much as I can about Micras, and also have a gander at what y'all up to. Safe to say, I'm pretty excited to be here at last.

This might be quite an essay, but I'm a sucker for a long car-related story. (Still yet to catch up in Paul's build, what a read!)

Anyway:

Hi, my name is Luke, I'm 23 and live in Norfolk.

I've been pretty fortunate to own, drive, build and ruin a multitude of cars over the last few years. Including but not limited to: Mk1 1.8 MX5, MK4 Golf GTI, P38 2.5d Range Rover and currently E91 335d currently stage 2 running 380hp... But despite all that... I've allllllllways wanted a Micra; more specifically, a pre-facelift 1.3.

I've always been a huge fan of 80-90's japscrap. The crapper, the better. No idea why. I never questioned it.

I didn't actually know the Super S trim was a thing, almost buying a few normal sub £400 ones that had been knocking about locally, but usually not quite what I wanted: Already been slammed and ruined... I wanted that satisfaction myself.

Just to mention, since then, I have got through my stance phase, now in favour of cars that are actually drive-able and dont deafen everyone... So dont worry!

Anyhoo, one day (July 2018 I think?) I looked on Facebook to see a certain Ed Storer (I believe he is on here? If so; Hi!) was selling a cheap white Super S.

I saw the bumper, saw the fogs, saw the interior, saw the sunroof, pop out rear quarter windows... and fell in love!
I looked up what the Super S trim was all about, and basically decided it was Super S or die. (Purely for that 90's rally car front fogs vibe pretty much).

Ed's (or mine now I suppose) had all the bits I would've wanted to do to it anyway: Mid-level boot spoiler, sweet euro reflector, exhaust, slightly lowered etc, and after seeing how rare and expensive some bits were if I was to buy them separately, it was damn inevitable I was going to buy it... So I did just that!

It's certainly rough, rusty and in need of serious TLC, but having my MX5 pretty much single-handedly taught me to weld, and I love working on older cars, so I had absolutely no issue with the work ahead.

I bought it, knowing full well it was various odds and sods he had lying about, and he was very honest about what he'd done, what needed doing etc. Very nice person and #noregrets!

Unfortunately, due to work, life and maintaining other cars, this poor nugget is still sat in dry storage, awaiting a proper revival!

On a slight tangent; my morning commute is only 4 miles, and any trips I do into town or round family/friends is no more than 10 miles, which for my BMW really isnt that long. Often Ill be nearly at work and my heater is only just warming up properly, and my stage 2 map isn't the cleanest (no smoke, no poke am I right?), so I'm still smoking out the roads pretty bad even when I get to work. On top of that, because of all that, I'm lucky to get 30mpg. Plus service/repair bills HURT.

So, for a while now I'd been looking for a cheap daily. But nothing really sat right.

I can deal with slow, I can deal with small and basic, but it has to have that ONE thing that makes it all worthwhile.

It was kinda tearing me apart that I didn't have the time to fix up my White one, as it would of fit the bill perfectly and would've made me hap- ... Oh look there's a black Super S for sale! Its only 50 miles away? Its great condition? I just got payed?. You're goddamn right I bought it! ?

Havent actually got my own photos of this so far, so these are the sale photos.

60k miles, MOT till March, hardly any rust and the cherry on top... 100% original. (apart from the wheels, urgh, HMU if you have a set!)

Been bombing around in it for a few weeks now, getting 41mpg, nice and toasty by just the end of my road and thankfully as my commute is so short, I'm easily preserving the low mileage, while also making sure the car gets used! Perfect.

So that's where I'm at right now. I'm hoping this blog will be a little motivation and log for the work I carry out on both these little 90's turd nuggets.

The name Yin and Yang came mainly because they're Black/White, but also as their conditions are so different, it's also inspired my plans for each...

Yin (Black one):
Promised myself to keep it standard and MINT. It's too good of an example not to look after it!
Could probably do with a chain and belt change, it's a bit rattly and belt looks worn.
Definitely going to source some original Super S alloys.
Has a few little rough edges to sort; Slight damage on NSF wing/bumper, passenger foot well gets wet under heavy rain, electric windows are a tad shot etc...
In essence, it will be a daily/lightly driven rolling restoration, not that I think Ill ever sell it, but for the first time In my life with a car, I feel like I've been something special I need to preserve and properly look after.

Yang (White one):
As I'm doing my bit of preserving the Super S name with the Yin, Yang's the one that's gonna GET IT.
Lots of bodywork fixing to sort; welding, paint etc...
Then I'm hoping it'll become a small pocket rocket screaming boosty boi.
It already got a few little mods done to it, but Im just going to do as I will with it. My MX5 looks pretty rad, but I never got round to making it fast, so I'm hoping Ill channel that modification itch into this car.

I also have a facelift 1.0, which I bought off a friend as "parts", although it was mainly to help them out and get rid of it. I understand the 1.0 is just a de-stroked 1.3? Either way, aesthetically the engines all look identical so I'm sure I can make use of odds and sods if I need them.

Updates are definitely going to be slow for now; currently restoring my mine and my wife's camper (it started a simple Sill patch....) and I sorta promised I'd get it done for next summer and part of the small print of me buying Micra #2. But once that's done, I'm hoping it'll be 110% fun-times!

Well that's about it for now.

Glad to be here, and hopefully might get out and about and actually physically join the Micra community instead of being my normal hermit self!

Oh, and as soon as I get the time, totally going to snap some pictures of the boys together!

For now, here's some of the squad before I got the Black one.

 

[guesstimator]

Last week, where I live we, had a small monsoon, which not only flooded my work, but also Yin. I looked outside after the rain stopped to see all the windows steamed up. Sh*t! Quickly ran out, checked inside and- yup, cold dank passenger foot spa. Not the optional extra I really wanted.

After crying a little, remembering how proud I was of owning a Micra that didn't leak (is it really a Micra if it doesnt leak?), I embraced my oath to look after this little thing, and started manically looking for the source.

After looking on google for the source, I found Polly's rebuild (again, WHAT a read!) and so I started carefully taking the dash out to inspect the offending grommet, fearing as what happened to Paul, my ecu could be at risk.

However, this was my first mistake, without checking, I presumed the ecu was under the passenger footwell, as it was on my MX5, and as my water appeared to be getting in behind the passenger A-pillar trim, I kinda just skim read, connected lots of ill-fated dots and presumed I had the same issue as Paul. Nah of course it wasn't. Hindsight is a poohead.

Anyway, pointlessly took out the dash (at this point I still thought I was doing god's work however)

I didnt have a torx bit that'd fit the steering wheel airbag bolt, so I just had to drop the steering column and "ease" the dash over the stalks, very nearly lost my wiper stalk... Not exactly known for my finesse, alas, it lives.

This is my first experience working on a Micra. I loved it!
Half this crap came out with a single screw driver! Only took an hour, going in completely blind. Didnt even break any plastic trims or clips! (A first for me; the king of glue and cable ties)

Also found some odd relics from previous owners:

"Various"... pretty ominous.
This fell out of the passenger side when the dash first came free. Not entirely sure how it got there. Might sort it out and give it a play.

However the prize for most awkward place to lose something goes to:

These were wedged HARD into the foam matting on the firewall, get this... BEHIND the fan motor?! Literally no idea... I popped the fan motor all out and they were still stuck there, I had to peel them off and they left a glasses shaped imprint.

I was so surprised to find them, I didnt snap a picture of them in situe! ):

They look pretty rad, shame they don't fit my head tbh.

One job I did "while I was in there", was fix my fan speed resistor. Although I could've done this as the car was all together it seems... So far saved myself £8 thanks to the parts car... yay.

Anyway, this is where I found out the ECU was actually in the center, not footwell, and then one revelation lead to another making me realise the suspected grommet isnt where I thought it would be and thus Paul's fix was not my fix...

Did a little touchey feely with some foam. Found the source.

The dreaded sunroof drain. (Reeeeeally could've not gone through all that hassle to find that out). I was always aware this was a thing, but stupidly didn't connect the right dots to figure it out first thing.

That being said though, I'm not 100% sure this is absolutely it, but the foam was wet, the pipe was wet up the sides (as if It had been submerged within the sill) and everything below this area was damp, while everything above was bone dry. There is absolutely no evidence of current/previous water ingress anywhere else around that area of the dash, firewall, door seals or windscreen.

Can only presume, under that heavy rain, the Sill drain was blocked/obstructed and actually overflowed into the car? It REALLY rained that day.

Either way, as previous owner of the white one did before me; I'm going to reroute these drains into not-stupid places. As well as unblocking my Sill drains and maybe throwing some cavity wax in there too, as far as I could see the inside were still pretty mint so I feel the need to keep it that way.

After wasting my time taking the dash out, I'd ran out of time to fix this. However Ill post when I get round to finishing this all off, and hopefully no more leaky boi.

 

[Tommysmicra44]

How good is the black super s mate
I’m after a really good example in white or black if you know of any

I recently put up a post and got no response

I’m looking for a low owner low milage well maintained example

Fair play by the way

 

[nissan boy]

Sweet to still the white one is still Alive , I'd recommend stripping the whole underseal off the underside may find hidden rust .and respraying them , don't underseal or re underseal it what kills them sadly and all Jap cars ,know from experience , ,
The sunroof drains I've done two ways , first is out the sill bungs or second is the a pillar gromet , then rear out the vents , (I chopped mine and fitted better vents and drilled and sealed the pipes out the bottom , the. Waxoil /dirty engine oil the sills,
Also do the scuttle clips , green and while bits on the scuttle on the n/s they leak,
But shame super s are so rare cause of idiots and banger boys

Sent from my moto g(6) using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[Tommysmicra44]

Sweet to still the white one is still Alive , I'd recommend stripping the whole underseal off the underside may find hidden rust .and respraying them , don't underseal or re underseal it what kills them sadly and all Jap cars ,know from experience , ,
The sunroof drains I've done two ways , first is out the sill bungs or second is the a pillar gromet , then rear out the vents , (I chopped mine and fitted better vents and drilled and sealed the pipes out the bottom , the. Waxoil /dirty engine oil the sills,
Also do the scuttle clips , green and while bits on the scuttle on the n/s they leak,
But shame super s are so rare cause of idiots and banger boys

Sent from my moto g(6) using Micra Sports Club mobile app

I hate the banger boys myself
Seen a group of the muppets from Ireland here the purchased a k11 march box and wrecked it in banger racing

I also know another muppet who done the same with a mint condition march G# and wrecked it also

 

[guesstimator]

How good is the black super s mate
I’m after a really good example in white or black if you know of any

I recently put up a post and got no response

I’m looking for a low owner low milage well maintained example

Fair play by the way

From the one's I've seen over the 2-3 years I've been looking, this one is the best I've seen yet, hence why I jumped on it!

Same time as I bought the black one, there was another black one for sale, but he wanted £500 for it looked... a tad swiss cheesy, and that was body shots so I dread to think how the chassis looked.

Prices haven't seemed to shift much, MOT'd should be around £1000 depending on miles/condition and probably no more than £400 for anything else, again, depending on condition. Although they're rare, they are still only really a spec'd out 1.3 with cool bumpers (and an interior??). Which you can probably piece together for less than a grand with potentially a cleaner donor? Idk.

Personally I don't think I'll sell anytime soon, don't really care for the rarity and "investment" aspect, more I want to work, preserve and actually enjoy them aha.

Sweet to still the white one is still Alive , I'd recommend stripping the whole underseal off the underside may find hidden rust .and respraying them , don't underseal or re underseal it what kills them sadly and all Jap cars ,know from experience , ,
The sunroof drains I've done two ways , first is out the sill bungs or second is the a pillar gromet , then rear out the vents , (I chopped mine and fitted better vents and drilled and sealed the pipes out the bottom , the. Waxoil /dirty engine oil the sills,
Also do the scuttle clips , green and while bits on the scuttle on the n/s they leak,
But shame super s are so rare cause of idiots and banger boys

Sent from my moto g(6) using Micra Sports Club mobile app

Though it needs a lot of work, I'm still well up for doing the white one! Makes me feel like I'm continuing a lineage when I see pictures of it in the main page photos on here.

Haven't had chance to have the black one on the ramp yet, but that's definitely on my mind. After some looking, I reckon I could easily straighten out the slight front damage and I'll probably respray all the front panels (bumper, wings and bonnet) off the car and "while I'm in there" do a deep dive on the front end, cleaning, repairing and sealing anything. The body should polish up alright, the rear is especially good. So once I've done that it should be looking pretty swish.






Going back to the leak...

I've been rammed with work (hence huge delay in posting on here), but I managed to sort it (not 100% prevented, but I've stopped the water ingress for now)

I quickly poured some water into the sunroof water gallery things, and lo-behold, the front passenger one didn't drain away.

So as a quick first-off attempt before doing anything drastic, I shoved the air nozzle in there and gave it a squeeze. At first nothing happened, but I gave it some beans and there was a loud pop, followed by everything, including myself getting wet (the sunroof was open), but... then water came back down the pipe! (...and right back into my foot well)

I thought this was a bit odd, because when I stripped it back I couldn't find any dampness or evidence of water any further up the A pillar than the entrance to the sill. So if the pipe was fully blocked... I guess it was leaking down inside the A pillar?

I know the sill drains are a notoriously crap rot-box design, so just to check, I poured loads more water into the sunroof drains and thankfully, it appears either A: This is one of the few Micras with actually functioning sill drains... or B: Previous owner drilled some more holes...

I do plan to re-route all the drains, as I know I bloody well should, but given that at this point I now knew the leak was fixed, and I didn't have much more time, I had to call it day.

Treated it to a wash first though. Got some beauty pixxx.

My next job, is to find some original, or at least some better wheels.

Idk what the hell these things are, but they're gash, oxidising everywhere and missing center caps. The missing center caps is the bottom line for me.

I was going to use my old 14 inch MX5 wheels with some new 185/55's to get close to the original rolling radius, but I have a gut feel the MX5 center bore is smaller than Micra? Idk I havent looked into it beecccauuussseee...

...I think I'm soon going to look at at hopefully come home with 5 original Super S alloys with hubcaps from Ed, the person who I bought the white one off.

They'll need tyres, a lick of paint, and maybe a tad of refurb but I have all winter to get them ready so I'm game.

For now that's it. Car is running sweet. No knocks (although the spare wheel squeaking on the chassis is driving me insane) and loving every second!

I am 110% sure something will either break soon or some weird gremlin will show it's face, I look forward to trying to fix it with all the time I dont have

 

[nissan boy]

Tbh k11s you can go upto 22inch dia, I'm running 185/60/14 and it runs , drives ect alot better and kinda corrects the Speedo problems k11s have,
And yeah the k11 have larger center bore then a mx5 , tho a router and a metal cutting bit can open the center to fit, (it's legit ways other then getting a machine shop,)
Almera GTi wheels are a direct fit , along with all N15 and sunny alloys of the early to late 90s ,
Yeah the drains can easily block or in some cases seen the pipes come off or split , or mine the sunroof moved (4 bolts Hold the glass) and leaked lol,


Sent from my moto g(6) using Micra Sports Club mobile app

 

[guesstimator]

Tbh k11s you can go upto 22inch dia, I'm running 185/60/14 and it runs , drives ect alot better and kinda corrects the Speedo problems k11s have,
And yeah the k11 have larger center bore then a mx5 , tho a router and a metal cutting bit can open the center to fit, (it's legit ways other then getting a machine shop,)
Almera GTi wheels are a direct fit , along with all N15 and sunny alloys of the early to late 90s ,
Yeah the drains can easily block or in some cases seen the pipes come off or split , or mine the sunroof moved (4 bolts Hold the glass) and leaked lol,


Sent from my moto g(6) using Micra Sports Club mobile app

I was thinking that... 185/60's were cheaper and we're like X% over original (or w/e it was according to tyre size comparer) and my first though was: "Oh maybe my speedo will read right"

I'll bare those wheels in mind for the white one possibly, really want to stay period correct, but I'm dead set on going stock on the black one. I mean I'm so keen to get rid of those things and going original was my plan so it's win win haha.

Yeah I'm going to go back an redo the drains, but I am also thinking "If it aint broke, dont fix it" for now.

 

[guesstimator]

Another thing I've been thinking about:

I love pressed plates, and both my micras came with a pair on... But for the black one I really want it to look 100% stock and "pure".

It's subtle, but I really want to get a plain, 90's period plate, and I found a website that offers just such a font.

For comparison, here's their options for the current legal UK font:

aaand imo the most retro looking retro option:

I cant decide if this is more 80's or 90's. They do have other retro options but this one is my personal fave.

Also in the designer it seems to space the 7 and the 2 oddly, does it for all numbers/fonts so not sure if that's a glitch or for some reason if that's how it is. I'm going to ask before I buy anything.

I think this is a bit too "Ford Granada" for a Micra, I also have the option of a nice border:

Without the odd spacing, a set of these bad boys would be perfect. Probably going to treat myself to a set for Christmas.

Even more pedantic... I would love to get a dealer logo to have printed on the bottom!

 

[guesstimator]

Good news.

Yesterday I drove out to pick up some original Super S alloys from Ed. 5 of them to be exact.

As per British weather standards; it was tipping it down all the way there, all the way back, and for the 5 minutes we were loading the wheels in, it felt the rain and wind both turned up to 11. Was nice and sunny by the time I'd got home and unloaded...

The alloys are all in reasonably good nick. My plans are to do some light refurb, paint them and get a brand new set of actually decent brand tires on them. Currently I'm sat on a mish-mash of budgets and it handles awfully. I'm sure an alignment wouldn't go amiss either.

As for tire size, Im considering moving up to something a tad larger diameter than 175/60's. As Nissan Boy pointed out, the speedo is reading off by about 5 mph nearer 60-70mph, and that's adding adding more mileage than I'm actually doing! Bah! I'll have to see how ridiculous the chunkier side wall looks.

The other good news; since I cleared the sunroof drain pipe, the car stayed absolutely bone dry during the entire trip. Not even steaming up the windows

Bad news to report, is I think my passenger side central locking solenoid/mechanism is sticking, or has worn. The interior handle flips as if it is locked, but the door can still be opened externally. However, after a decent slam, it then locks fine. I have also thought this could be something to do with the door sagging a bit on the tired hinges? Maybe it's not closing 100%? Idk Ill save that for a rainy day... just not this rainy day.

 

[LiamC]

Hi guys, finally thought I should show my face here.

I've been lurking around loads over the last 2 years or so, trying to learn as much as I can about Micras, and also have a gander at what y'all up to. Safe to say, I'm pretty excited to be here at last.

This might be quite an essay, but I'm a sucker for a long car-related story. (Still yet to catch up in Paul's build, what a read!)

Anyway:

Hi, my name is Luke, I'm 23 and live in Norfolk.

I've been pretty fortunate to own, drive, build and ruin a multitude of cars over the last few years. Including but not limited to: Mk1 1.8 MX5, MK4 Golf GTI, P38 2.5d Range Rover and currently E91 335d currently stage 2 running 380hp... But despite all that... I've allllllllways wanted a Micra; more specifically, a pre-facelift 1.3.

I've always been a huge fan of 80-90's japscrap. The crapper, the better. No idea why. I never questioned it.

I didn't actually know the Super S trim was a thing, almost buying a few normal sub £400 ones that had been knocking about locally, but usually not quite what I wanted: Already been slammed and ruined... I wanted that satisfaction myself.

Just to mention, since then, I have got through my stance phase, now in favour of cars that are actually drive-able and dont deafen everyone... So dont worry!

Anyhoo, one day (July 2018 I think?) I looked on Facebook to see a certain Ed Storer (I believe he is on here? If so; Hi!) was selling a cheap white Super S.

I saw the bumper, saw the fogs, saw the interior, saw the sunroof, pop out rear quarter windows... and fell in love!
I looked up what the Super S trim was all about, and basically decided it was Super S or die. (Purely for that 90's rally car front fogs vibe pretty much).

Ed's (or mine now I suppose) had all the bits I would've wanted to do to it anyway: Mid-level boot spoiler, sweet euro reflector, exhaust, slightly lowered etc, and after seeing how rare and expensive some bits were if I was to buy them separately, it was damn inevitable I was going to buy it... So I did just that!

View attachment 65826

It's certainly rough, rusty and in need of serious TLC, but having my MX5 pretty much single-handedly taught me to weld, and I love working on older cars, so I had absolutely no issue with the work ahead.

I bought it, knowing full well it was various odds and sods he had lying about, and he was very honest about what he'd done, what needed doing etc. Very nice person and #noregrets!

View attachment 65827

Unfortunately, due to work, life and maintaining other cars, this poor nugget is still sat in dry storage, awaiting a proper revival!

On a slight tangent; my morning commute is only 4 miles, and any trips I do into town or round family/friends is no more than 10 miles, which for my BMW really isnt that long. Often Ill be nearly at work and my heater is only just warming up properly, and my stage 2 map isn't the cleanest (no smoke, no poke am I right?), so I'm still smoking out the roads pretty bad even when I get to work. On top of that, because of all that, I'm lucky to get 30mpg. Plus service/repair bills HURT.

So, for a while now I'd been looking for a cheap daily. But nothing really sat right.

I can deal with slow, I can deal with small and basic, but it has to have that ONE thing that makes it all worthwhile.

It was kinda tearing me apart that I didn't have the time to fix up my White one, as it would of fit the bill perfectly and would've made me hap- ... Oh look there's a black Super S for sale! Its only 50 miles away? Its great condition? I just got payed?. You're goddamn right I bought it!

View attachment 65828

Havent actually got my own photos of this so far, so these are the sale photos.

View attachment 65829
View attachment 65830

60k miles, MOT till March, hardly any rust and the cherry on top... 100% original. (apart from the wheels, urgh, HMU if you have a set!)

Been bombing around in it for a few weeks now, getting 41mpg, nice and toasty by just the end of my road and thankfully as my commute is so short, I'm easily preserving the low mileage, while also making sure the car gets used! Perfect.

So that's where I'm at right now. I'm hoping this blog will be a little motivation and log for the work I carry out on both these little 90's turd nuggets.

The name Yin and Yang came mainly because they're Black/White, but also as their conditions are so different, it's also inspired my plans for each...

Yin (Black one):
Promised myself to keep it standard and MINT. It's too good of an example not to look after it!
Could probably do with a chain and belt change, it's a bit rattly and belt looks worn.
Definitely going to source some original Super S alloys.
Has a few little rough edges to sort; Slight damage on NSF wing/bumper, passenger foot well gets wet under heavy rain, electric windows are a tad shot etc...
In essence, it will be a daily/lightly driven rolling restoration, not that I think Ill ever sell it, but for the first time In my life with a car, I feel like I've been something special I need to preserve and properly look after.

Yang (White one):
As I'm doing my bit of preserving the Super S name with the Yin, Yang's the one that's gonna GET IT.
Lots of bodywork fixing to sort; welding, paint etc...
Then I'm hoping it'll become a small pocket rocket screaming boosty boi.
It already got a few little mods done to it, but Im just going to do as I will with it. My MX5 looks pretty rad, but I never got round to making it fast, so I'm hoping Ill channel that modification itch into this car.

I also have a facelift 1.0, which I bought off a friend as "parts", although it was mainly to help them out and get rid of it. I understand the 1.0 is just a de-stroked 1.3? Either way, aesthetically the engines all look identical so I'm sure I can make use of odds and sods if I need them.

Updates are definitely going to be slow for now; currently restoring my mine and my wife's camper (it started a simple Sill patch....) and I sorta promised I'd get it done for next summer and part of the small print of me buying Micra #2. But once that's done, I'm hoping it'll be 110% fun-times!

Well that's about it for now.

Glad to be here, and hopefully might get out and about and actually physically join the Micra community instead of being my normal hermit self!

Oh, and as soon as I get the time, totally going to snap some pictures of the boys together!

For now, here's some of the squad before I got the Black one.

View attachment 65831
View attachment 65832

So that's where that car ended up. You seem to have really caught the bug and want to look after these terrible economy cars that we all know and adore. Look forward to seeing lots more about both cars, but they all rattle on start up for a couple of seconds so I wouldn't worry, just a standard service. And yeah, 1.0s have different cranks, rods, pistons, cams and flywheels. The gearboxes are shorter ratio, but that being a facelift it will fit your 1.3 engine and give much better acceleration if you're wanting. The crank pulley is lighter on the 1.0, as is the fly, so swapping them over will give a bit less rotational mass.

Sent from my LG K11+ (yes I did buy the phone specifically to have a K11 phone, I'm that sad)

 

[guesstimator]

Well well well... Been a while.

Hope you're all keeping safe.

Naturally with the current climate things have been quiet and stressful.

The Short Story: I didn't have access nor the money to properly tackle either Super S over the last year. But I had a bit of a mad moment with a complete turd my Dad happens to own...

The Long Story:

Meet, The Green Turd. I think I mentioned it's existence in a previous post but here it is in all it's glory.

As with all great forgotten rust buckets, this was completely covered by overgrown bushes. After cutting them back, it revealed the lovely patented "Sh*tbox Crud" paint that most ratted out cars simply cannot replicate. This paint is earnt, not given lol.

It's a 5 door 1998 1.0L GX sitting on about 60k miles.

The story behind this, is that a colleague of my Dad needed to sell it to get a new car as this "wouldn't pass another MOT". He bought it pretty much sight unseen for £200 with the knowledge he's massively helping a friend out, and worst case I might have some bits off of it.

It had a chronic misfire, it clunked, every panel was dented and it was evidently rotten. Cherry on top; mouldy as hell... Pure bred banger racing material IMO.

Originally I was going to steal a few ancillaries and maybe suspension bits if they're good nick, but during lockdown, I honestly got so batsh*t crazy I had to do something as soon as I was able to go back to the garage. So what was originally a parts car, now became centre of attention.

Limped it onto the ramp, went straight for the sills with a hammer, and found this...

Very interesting use of scouring pads and body filler, with a rust stained rag. I'll give them 7/10 for creativity.

I knew I was in for a treat but at this point, but alas, lockdown induced insanity made me do it.

I lopped off everything "rear sill" related to get a proper look.

Tasty!

Thankfully for this car, I have lots of sheet steel, free time, and two Super S's that will need welding. I needed practice and on something that really didn't hurt if I messed up or "learnt the hard way".

Dreaming and pretending that this was in fact a worthwhile car, I kept going.

I cut back to as clean metal as I could, then treated steel which was mainly surface rust with converter.

Everything got zinc primed. I wouldn't expect this repair to last too long, but at least the primer should buy me an extra year or two.

If you're a professional welder/restorer, sorry, there's a LOT of dodgery ahead. You gotta start somewhere. Just don't look too hard.

I'd say I'm an "acceptable" level of welder. I have my triumphs, I have my fails. Definitely need to put more effort into finishing and flatting welds back off. I have a habit of doing too much too soon, slightly warping the steel and then being unable to get a proper flat surface; there'll then be small steps where the two bits move from after being butted up.

As for fabrication, I've seen maybe 1000's of hours of it on YouTube over the years, so I was in that weird rut of knowing almost everything about how to do it, but having no actual experience. It feels great to finally give it a shot though, albeit badly

Oh another spawn of lockdown; A chaotic scrap sheet bender. I've used this for most of the bends your seeing on the panels.

It works okay, a bit of deflection. Perhaps could've braced the pivoting angle iron a tad more, but it was made from scrap (aside from maybe 3m of box section I had for another project) and can bend roughly 1.5m of 1.5mm thick steel which is fine by me!

The hinges are fairly heavyweight door hinges my dad had. No idea how long they'll last but worst case is I can chop them off and work on something else.

No on to the passenger side. Which was 10x worse, being the receiver of curb side puddles and mud.

I admit I was getting impatient at this point, so my cuts and measuring got even worse from the already low standard of guessing. Also left maybe a bit too much rusty metal behind, treating it and priming it as if that'd make it go away... Might stop it for a few months. Who knows...

I was quite chuffed with the arch repair I done on this side, I'd traced the shape onto card, cut a block of wood with the negative of that profile, then used that as a dolly to hammer the sh*t out of some steel until it conformed. A bit rough and ready but after it got ground back and painted it honestly looked pretty good!

Unfortunately that's as much as I got photos wise of rust repair. Being on the home straight, I pretty much went into a trance and got it all done as soon as I could. I might snap some pictures at some point of the complete finished repairs.

Overall I'd describe the job as a "Chaotic Neutral" job. I like to think I did a perfectly acceptable job given the original state, but I did cut corners and really just guess and approximate panel shapes and sizes. It's solid AF but maybe that 20% extra effort should've been put into making it properly decent.

There was a few small patches on the underside and cross member, as well as general recommissioning... and a LOT of hoovering and antibac.

Next up was a cheeky CG13 swap, paired to the original CG10 gearbox, clutch and flywheel.

I was actually chasing a huge misfire, it just refused to run right unless you were 75% throttle or more. Long story short, I'd used the injectors and fuel rail off of the CG10, which must've been blocked and the cause of the original misfire.

Took me a tad too long to realise it was an identical misfire to the CG10 and the fuel rail was the only shared engine part *facepalm*.

I stole the fuel rail off of the White Super S (forgive me, my child) and it runs mint now.

Then stolen the Janspeed 4-2-1 and Sportex system off the White Super S as well while I was at it.

Sent it for MOT, and boom. (I caved in and washed it, actually scrubbed up really well given the years of crud on it)

Finished off with only the FINEST(cheapest) hubcaps Halfords had to offer on the day.

Start to finish took about a month of weekends welding.

Was it pointless and a waste of time? Maybe about 70% yes. After all that this car is now probably actually worth the £200 it cost........ forgetting the material costs of sheet metal, wleding wire, gas, primer etc.....

29% I'm treating this as a surrogate mother for mods and engine for either or of the two Super S's. As aside from facelift gearbox having a digital speedo drive I believe this engine is a straight swap into either of them?

1% It's great to be back in a Micra again. ANY Micra again.

I also learnt a huge great amount doing the rust repairs, let alone the engine swap. Which has really pepped me up for digging out the White one, which is in FAR better condition than this was. It just needs "proper" repairs, and not what I originally was capable of doing.

I know this sounds like a classic excuse; but I only put in as much effort into this as I needed to get it done. I will be putting my all into the other two: Fully prepping metal (mainly to aid welding), properly measuring and probably using as many proper repair panels as I can instead of biting off more than I can chew. This one is solid though!

I also finally got pictures of the two Super S's together while I was rearranging. Unfortunately looking a tad sorry for themselves, but thankfully now both are in secure, dry storage.

Here's a picture of the Black one during a trip to Whitby back in January.

Lil' champ mashed 80-90mph and still got 40mpg.

IN SUMMARY

I think I'm now rolling again, I mean, literally now in the Green Turd, but I'm now pricing up panels needed for the White one, and hoping to use Winter as a huge welding sesh.

Alongside that, I'm seriously considering building up a turbo kit for the Green Turd, and building on that as a base. Then once the White one is up and running, breaking up the Green one and transferring all goodies over to that.

For now though I'm loving smashing around in a CG13/CG10box combo in a shell I ultimately don't give a crap about. So much fun with no regrets!

 

[.Maarten]

Yes the engine will swap over. You can also swap over the gearbox and swap the speedo drive.

 

[guesstimator]

Yes the engine will swap over. You can also swap over the gearbox and swap the speedo drive.

Eeeexcellent.

 

[hoodedreeper]

Great to see another Norfolk member, I do remember seeing your black Super S months ago

 

[yoeddynz]

I love seeing a rusty car rescued - good job and thanks for taking time to share

 

[guesstimator]

Well, been a while.

Short while after my last post; living the dream in the green turd, I bought a pair of Fiesta RS Turbo Recaros on Micra rails. Fitted them up and although I'll likely redo the rails when I get round to finally putting them in the white one, they're a huge upgrade from the wonky mould ridden (cleaned up obviously, but I have my doubts) seats that where in there originally.

Felt a bit rude not to; so I stole my Nardi from my MX5, bought a hub (along with a £7 horsepower amplifying alloy gear knob) and made it a bit more homely. Lost auto cancelling indicators, but round 'ere no folk use 'em anyway.

I've been driving it about here there for a few months, although the sportex system is L O U D and I think my days of loud exhausts is over. Not straight pipe loud, but it's impossible to be subtle. I would put it back to standard..... if only I could remember where I put the original system...

Later, I got an email from my insurers saying I'd had a claim against me. 120 miles away, during a national lockdown, on a day when I'd been sat with my wife all day... Long story short, thanks to many factors, the process of sorting this out was long, slow and stressful (and still inexplicably ongoing) and although all is looking well for my policy, it's killed the enjoyment I was getting from it.

I was also having welder's remorse; I wish I'd put effort into my white one instead of this piece of poop.

Moving on.

After the above, lockdown insanity creeping in, and the first glimpse of 5pm sunshine, waking me up like a crazed Russian sleeper agent hellbent on welding up rust; I finally pulled myself together and started stripping the White Super S *hooray*

Bonnet and wings will need replacing, but luckily the crossmember has been adequality repaired (or at least appears so behind the stone chip and a good tap with a hammer). Everything else is just surface treatment so far.
I'll likely drill out some spot welds to check under some of the panel seams in the engine bay as there's a bit of rust leeching through.

The rear is as expected, sills, rear corner drains, slight hole on floor under rear seats etc... Nothing I didn't already know.

Onwards to the interior...

Now... no real judgment here, I'd have done the same if it was my car (when I was 17), but bloody hell who uses half a tube of hard setting sealant to fit decent lights?! You know who you are

Thankfully, a bit of patience, psychology and extreme violence lead to me getting the lights out unharmed.

Overall there's loads of goodies on this one. From the rear pocket trims, dash pod, mid rear spoiler etc. Prices have recently rocketed up, so I wouldn't have been able to predict how much money I've saved having these bits on the car, but I did quite well to buy it when I did! Sometimes the best decisions are spontaneous, financially ruin you, and take 4 years to pay off.

Bad news is, while in "dry" storage the seats became a tad exotic and pungent.

The mould doesn't appear to have eaten into the fabric, but I'm absolutely gutted nonetheless. They had been safe and sound in the car for 4 years storage and within a few months of me storing them (ironically to keep them safe while I work) this has happened. They were clean and dry upon storage, but unfortunately the, once upon a time trustworthy unit decided it wanted to become a sovereign ecosystem, and make it's own water cycle, with the help of an army of loyal bacteria.

I'm in the process of deep cleaning them. They appear to be scrubbing up, but my mood is still sour haha. These seats were one of many casualties of mine, let alone my dad's stuff.

I'm about halfway stripping. Last job will be engine and suspension as I need it rolling and driving right up until last orders, due to shared space.

Now the good news

I'd been seeing a lovely blue preface 1.3GX driving about round where I live.

Wasn't an old driver, nor had I seen it about before, so I knew it wouldn't be a bargain, likely a local guy doing the ol' rip off the local granny and make absolutely filthy profit. Luckily for him, and unluckily for my wallet (and the old gal he originally ripped off); I f**king wanted it.

Was working up the courage to ask the guy if he'd sell it, when next day I see the ad on Facebook.

1996 1.3GX Auto, 27k miles, 1 previous owner, half year MOT. Garaged its whole life. It's cleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen.

£850 quid later. (this was down from £1150.....)

Interior is as new, not a scuff in sight etc. Original Radio, with code and entire set of owners books etc.
Aside from surface rust on side sills (hammer confirmed surface rust, although inner sill yet to be confirmed) and a few OAP induced scuffs, every other panel is spotless of rust and dents. Engine and nearly all mechanicals are lovely and shiny.

Now, £850 is a fair chunk of change, even I, a self proclaimed Micra-ck addict would admit it.

Although, I'd say arguably in today's climate, it's what this car is worth. Especially as the 1.3's, let alone autos, are s a v a g e l y sought after for breaking purely for the engines if nothing else, for racing or profit.

With how prices are (for the parts I want) and as I basically need a whole car's worth of parts, it simply makes more sense for me to buy an entire mint condition car.

So as much as it breaks my heart, as it's so clean, this is the perfect candidate as a donor car, for both parts, panels and in drastic cases maybe even body cuts (rear corners and the first solid examples I've ever seen).

Man's got two Super S's that in my opinion deserve such sacrifice, and to have a pool of original, mint condition parts and steel available is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Plus, auto engine. For um.... research into pressure induced horsepower increases.

It won't die forever though, don't worry, I now have enough Micra parts in circulation, and enough screws loose in my brain to keep this on the road, albeit in a frankenstein/patchwork state. It'll likely get the dregs of the Super Ss while they get all the good bits.

Being completely honest, I'd say this was 30% Micra addiction and 70% actually good idea. Maybe 40/60 but we'll see how I feel after a few weeks living off baked beans.

SO

For now I'm probably going to keep badgering on with the white one and see where I get to. Then when push comes to shove and I need bits. Parts will get swapped in this order:

Mint Blue GX Parts -> Black Super S -> White Super S -> Now not so mint Blue GX

Naturally this will take way longer, but it'll yield the best result.

I will be drafting up a spreadsheet of all parts I swap, to calculate if the total cost of those parts (prices off eBay and reputable breakers) actually cover the cost of the car. Think of it as an experiment.

Interesting to know what your opinions are on this plan. Sacrilege? Worthy sacrifice? Stupid? Bonus points for guessing what the wife thinks.

I'm still midway through stripping but looking up for now. Giving this little nugget a long overdue one-way ticket outta brown town.

 

[guesstimator]

With the extended daylight hours and eeeeever so slightly warmer weather, also comes the jobs around the house I'd been putting off over winter. As much as I enjoy keeping my other half happy, it's been hard to see the weekends roll by with little progress for the Micra cause ?

I've been loving life with the GX I bought. Still pretty set on using it as a parts mule, although it's genuinely quite nice to just bimble about in. As it's in great nick there's no untoward rattles, knocks or lurches like I got from the Green Turd, which I'm sure was one bad pothole away from losing the rear axle entirely.

Only complaint is the drivers seat has worn in ever so slightly wonky. So I feel like I'm leaning into the centre of the car. Such a small complaint. But my god it's wearing me down.

If it wasn't for the fact I wanted to redo the rails, I'd have whacked the recaros in already. But time is better spent elsewhere atm.

Beauty Shot with another economy ****box.

Didn't see that small dink on the boot before, but it's on my hit list to sort

Fun fact; got the Focus off of Copart for £90 (after fees; we were the sole £30 bid lol). Only needed a lower suspension arm and front wing.

Now, it's 35,000 miles in to me ragging it about and still going strong. Gets minimum 40mpg even if you bash the limiter every where, and can easily top 55mpg if you just drive normally.

Seems like sub £200 cars off copart are thing of the past. Fees and starting bids are high enough you can easily top over that even if only yourself bid. Or the cars just get put straight on Cat B. But it was fun while it lasted. What's crazy now, is somehow you see these crop up for nearing 1000 cash moneys...

I just wished I'd scooped up Micras on there tbh... Missed that opportunity well and truly. Pains me to think of the oddballs I could've saved.

Mmmmmmm unspoiled, unmarked and still perfectly textured interior. Bonus full set of proper Rubber mats too.

Only shame is the darker grey centre console, dash cowl and steering wheel compared to the Black and White ones.

I know I'm fussing over small details, probably far too much, especially at this stage. But what can I say? Definitely past the point of return on these bad boy cars now so might as well double down and go full crazy....

...

...like buying spares that you don't really need.

Picked these up, off of hoodedreaper.

I've already had a mad homicidal hunt for my towing eye cover once so far just moving the damn thing out of storage, and after that stress I'll be damned if I wasn't going to get a spare one pronto.

Also, knowing my luck, on the way back from MOT I'll likely get a stone chip on a fog light or something bulls**t like that. I'm hoping me in X months/years from now will thank me for being prepared.

The way I see it: spare set of fog lights, spare toying eye cover and the bumper is a bonus. He's also conveniently local to me so more than happy to swoop on an opportunity to be lazy and also get decent parts for "stock".

I was thinking of perhaps experimenting with the bumper... Unsure what I want by that at this stage though. I just want to try something new.

I forgot to mention last post, but I also scooped up his E30 Bmw bottletops. Because r e t r o. Just need to either bore out the centres on our mill, or get spacers. I'll likely get spacers but that's future things to do.

Anyway. Onto the progress made, not that there's much:

This old reciprocating saw blade made the perfect tool to remove the little caps on the dash. I think I'm a tiny minority here, but I usually struggle with these, without marking them anyway. Never seem to have the right tool to hand.

Continuing to strip.

Ew.

The door cards look fine, however these handles look like someone's tried to clean them with 40 grit sandpaper, then left them for 10 years in direct sunlight, soaked in vinegar...

A small project I've got for a rainy day; is figure out what this car's mileage actually is, or near about, and correct the clocks.

I'd like to have believed it's on about 85k and the 9 has just flipped round by some means....

But a look at the MOT history of this car shows it approaching 100k miles back in 2007, then up to 938k in 2009, back down to 52k in 2012, then it increments naturally... Right up until the 9 flips back in 2013 haha...

I'll probably plot it out, to map the changes in mileage over the years between MOT's and guess what exact miles this shell is on.

I mean what's another mileage discrepancy between friends right? At least this should end up being the true-ish mileage of the car.

The door cards, although dry, appear to have been damp in the past. Meaning some clips have torn out, and overall rigidity wasn't great.

No idea how much of a chore it'll be but I might try to reskin the Green Turd door cards for practice, then try and put these skins on new backing board.

The carpet is actually quite decent. A good hoover should buff this up nicely. Heel wear is minimal and there's no significant stains or marks.

Due to the tropical storage issue I mentioned last post, the safest place for all by bits is currently inside the Black one.

Moments like these I really appreciate these rear flip up seats.

It pains me to see this one covered in dust and SORN, but it'll get it's turn soon enough hopefully. When it comes to reassembling the White one I'll likely be playing "part hopscotch" to get the different levels of condition parts into the right car between the three.

As I already knew, I had some holes.

I'd clocked these underneath before hand, so thankfully wasn't really a shock.

Can only presume the floor was water logged for a period of time, as these aren't really salt catching areas like the rear sills and bottom front wings etc. The black suggests this isn't the first time this rust has been tackled, but I can't actually make out a patch.... I guess spray paint works, right? ?

I don't have pictures, but looking inside the rear wing cavity area doesn't show any obvious rust near the seams or corners, so I'm hoping the Sills and Arch area won't be too bad. I know they're rusty and need doing, but looks like it wont cascade into an entire reconstruction like welding the green turd turned out to be.

This picture is a decent glimpse into how chaotic life is in the garage. Having my bits in a moving car is actually quite beneficial as weekly shunting around is common and having a pile of bits sat in the way really hinders that.

Unfortunately that's all I have to report at this time.

I was about 5 minutes away from actually getting the grinder out for some automotive biopsy; after all these years, finally starting the job I've been longing to do... but I ran out of time. Classic.

Just need to drop the headlining, maybe take out the sun roof then it's sparks away.

I know I could've started work without faffing about like I have, stripping it out etc. But last thing I want is for a stray spark or hot weld to burn or melt into, what is now pretty darn rare interior or mark some glass. And as weird as it sounds, I like stripping a car out and reassembling it, as it kinda feels like you get to know it better...

... and on that spiritual note...

Hopefully have an update in the next few days. I'll finish off with a picture of the GX reunited with it's previous owner(s).

I joke. I think they were cremated.

 

[hoodedreeper]

Was great to meet you on both occasions, its nice to see another local member

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the Super S bumper. Are the BMW Bottlecaps staying the same colour?

 

[guesstimator]

Was great to meet you on both occasions, its nice to see another local member

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the Super S bumper. Are the BMW Bottlecaps staying the same colour?

Likewise! When meets are back on we'll have to gang up and annoy everyone aha.

Unsure exactly what yet, I'd like to try take a mould of it at least. So we'll see.

For now yes, as I think they'd look quite dashing on the Blue one. Although maybe a lighter shade if they go onto the white one.

 

[guesstimator]

F in the chat boys

Nah just kidding... Although my findings are grim.

Viewer discretion advised...

Warm you up with a first serving of filler and paint... Okay, okay, this isn't so bad yet-..

-... Oh okay hey there. Saw you coming but never mind.

Do you want to see me do a magic trick?

Do you want to see me do it again?

Okay joking aside, this is all grim and depressing, although at this stage I'm not too worried.

I did similar rebuilding on the Green Turd, and although I aim to do this way more professionally, I still think all this is within the realm of repair so far.

My main concerns while poking about, were structural points such as suspension mounts, seat belt mounts and large important panel seams, as these are likely to be the "slightly to crazy to fix" areas.

This is from the drivers rear arch.

The seatbelt mount looks FUBAR, but holds up to a hammer blow fine, as does the suspension mount in the background.

Although that surface corrosion is making me hella anxious. At what point is surface corrosion considered too excessive? We shall see.

What makes me more anxious though, is looking as what appears to be solid panel, peeling off underseal, and finding a panel of brown... Solid brown is still brown and thus is rust and therefore, bad.

These types of reinforcements and mounting points can be remade or patched in most cases, but is that surface corrosion makes up most of that whole panel then I think that's where I might be forced to draw the line...

I reeeeeally dont want to. I can at laugh "economical" and "reasonable" in the face, but rebuilding large portions of structurally important panels is kinda down the road of "too far gone" for me. Although I do like a challenge, even I have to admit the limitations of my skills.

I think the logical next step is to strip the underseal off in its entirety and have a good long hard proper look at what I'm up against. Otherwise I could start a patch then likely cause another huge section to reveal itself and before you know it, you have a patchwork quilt of patches.

I'm looking into getting a rotisserie for it as that'd make stripping and blasting the underside oh so much easier. And I already have too many scars to boast from hot drips of underseal and blobs of weld falling on me while working overhead.

I'm staying optimistic, but I'll keep my cards close until I can have a proper look underneath.

Slightly ominous ending I agree.

Being upfront, if it is dead, I can always reshell into the Blue GX, although I'll forever know it isn't "the one".

But I will sincerely do anything I can to get this done.

 

[Kirkynut]

You have made me chuckle with this thread, which I've just read from beginning to now. There's just something about these little cars that grabs you! My Mrs has a 2.0t petrol Octavia VRS with 200 bhp, yet if it's just myself or even the 2 of us and not our 5 year old son I'd rather take my Sh*tbox 1L Micra out for a spin!

We've been BMW owners until the Skoda and then I sold my Beemer to drive my Jimny off roader daily then get my K11. So I've gone from driving a fast leather armchair to sn off roader and now a 1L K11 Sh*tbox! Yet I'm happy!

I'm 42 and I'm past my load exhaust phase by a long chalk but do still like super low! I want to put BC Racing coilovers worth more than my car on it with some nice wheels that will contrast with the patina it's "earnt" as you rightly put it!

Keep up your Micra antics, they make a good read to someone like minded!

Kirkynut

 

[guesstimator]

You have made me chuckle with this thread, which I've just read from beginning to now. There's just something about these little cars that grabs you! My Mrs has a 2.0t petrol Octavia VRS with 200 bhp, yet if it's just myself or even the 2 of us and not our 5 year old son I'd rather take my Sh*tbox 1L Micra out for a spin!

We've been BMW owners until the Skoda and then I sold my Beemer to drive my Jimny off roader daily then get my K11. So I've gone from driving a fast leather armchair to sn off roader and now a 1L K11 Sh*tbox! Yet I'm happy!

I'm 42 and I'm past my load exhaust phase by a long chalk but do still like super low! I want to put BC Racing coilovers worth more than my car on it with some nice wheels that will contrast with the patina it's "earnt" as you rightly put it!

Keep up your Micra antics, they make a good read to someone like minded!

Kirkynut

I'm glad you enjoyed the read! Nice to know there are sympathisers with my cause haha.

Rocket-ship armchairs just don't have that "edge" you get from driving a tin can. I still have no idea why I'm so drawn to Micras specifically; sometimes wish I felt as much for older Fords or Minis, could have probably actually make money while having fun... Never mind, maybe in 10 years from now I should get 0.01% return on investment ? Who needs an ISA?

Update

After some brainstorming, I've decided the only proper way forward is to get it on a spit and strip off all underseal. I'll also need to start taking patterns and make repair panels while they're all still intact and in shape so my going gun-ho and chopping/whacking it all out will make the rebuilding even slower and less accurate.

Thankfully my dad has a spit, although it also currently has a large chunk of Italian rust on it, so I just measured the metal needed and I'm just going to copy it like for like. Saving me a lot of money and time designing my own or buying one. ?

We have a shot-blaster which we haven't much joy getting working reliably, so I'll try and get that up to scratch. Other than that I'm starting an exercise regime readying my self for a hell of a lot of scraping and blitzing it all off haha.

We're also guns blazing building another garage, which we had started back in 2017, but with the cars stacking up and another spit coming into the mix, we're hoping to get it done asap. Also the weather's nice, it does things to us...

So likely slow progress on the White one for now.

There's a few tid bits I want to do on the Blue one, and I'd really like to do some R&D with that spare bumper I have so I'll likely post about that.

I know this is a Micra forum but I might keep posting about miscellaneous things I get up to, as it's all part of the journey I guess ?‍ Steel should be here for the spit this week so will post about building that.

 

[guesstimator]

Recently got a new job which although it takes up more of my free time, actually made me respect what free time I have more making me spend it wiser... So been cracking on with the garage and other shenanigans.

Car wise; I treated the GX to a big ol' clean, minor detail and seal. Feat: Patchwork Garage.

The more I stared at it, the more dinks there are in this poor old gal. Guess it's to be expected from a 25yr old crap-box but nonetheless I love it all the same.

Not really a detailing freak, but took my time and tbh I think a machine polish would bring it out as new, but I just don't have one nor fancy going down that route for now.

Earlier in the year I'd bought Chris' old E30 bottle tops, albeit for the Super S (naïve I know).

My initial idea was to invest in a boring head for the mill and enlarge the spigot to 59mm from the ~54mm they are now, but I didn't really want to "ruin" them in case I got bored of them at a later date an fancied reselling them to a BMW owner etc.

Using spacers to adapt the spigot would be a conveniently perfect excuse to get some better fitment, and maybe lower it a cheeky 50mm lowering to seal the fitment deal so to speak.

My commute is now all nice main roads so I'm all game for a bit of low back in my life.

Not that I'm a complete tight arse, but I knew I had (from memory) 15mm and 20mm pairs of spacers from my MX5 build, of which I'd broken for parts. So machining the spacers out would be miles easier and cheaper than both adapting the BMW wheels and/or buying all new spacers.

~5mm was a fair chunk to remove from an already cheap spacer so I only took it back half the width in case I risked blowing out or compromising strength to the front chamfer where the front facing spigot is. I know the spacers don't really take a load on the spigots but, idk, couldn't shake the thought...

The rear wheels are sat a few mm proud from where they should be as the Micra studs sit proud of the spacer (spacer has its own studs style of spacer) and I hadn't trimmed them yet, so I'd imagine this would be spot on once I've remedied that.

I imagine the front would tuck a smidge more once the suspension is compressed.

The only major snags for this so far is:

• The front require the existing studs, so I need extended ones (wheel was propped up for photo, couldn't get a nut to even catch for a test fit)
• Rear spacers have studs, but they're Mx5 pitch.

I think if I'm having to buy extended studs for the front, I might as well remove the Mx5 fitment studs off the spacer and run extended studs through it like the front. This way I'd retain Micra thread pitch all round so I wont have to run a Frankenstein set of nuts.

I'd managed to do a good job on the spigot fit so I'm happier running extended studs on this rather than on those generic multi-pcd spaceframe style ones...

So that's where I'm at right now. Just looking at extended studs and hopefully these spacers should be a perfect fit first time. Skill, not luck, I swear!

Also thought I'd show progress on the garage.

ME and my dad spent our Bank Holiday weekend being sketchy as s**t getting the roofing done.

Glad to report it was 100% fatality free! (Bar a few drill bits)

It's built from some lock-together fridge panels my dad got given for free, steel inner frame and the inside will be lined with plywood/chipboard.

Fridge panels are 3-4inches of foam insulation with steel linings each side, designed for quick assembly of temporary buildings that require temperature control. The manky green you see on the back wall is old adhesive; some panels had a stainless steel lining on the inner face. From what we've been told they used to use these for temporary egg storage on farms and thus needed sterile food-grade spec. Good news for us as stainless has a decent scrap value so off they bloody came!

They're a complete PITA to dispose of, as they're 90% flame-retardant foam and the steel is all glued on, so unless they're a complete set or really good condition people often throw them out.

It's a bit of a patchwork quilt, as above, they were free as it's not complete set, more of a collection of oddments. But credit to my dad, the mad-man figured it out...

Just got another load of carstone today and should hopefully be all spread and tamped out for concrete floor within a month.

Taken us about 4 years to get to this stage, been spending dribs and drabs on it and doing work on it here and there. But now we both have projects stacking up thanks to "covid induced insanity", we're hauling ass now.



So likely going to be quiet again for a few months until I can have a grand opening for the garage; shoving all 4 Micras in there and actually start having some proper, unrestricted, possibly NSFW fun.

 

[guesstimator]

Woweee been some time... again...

Had a mad rush as we exited 2021. 2022 has quite the foundation.

Garage is usable!

Classic case; "Friend of friend's uncle's dad's mate's nephew twice removed" tipped us off of a two post ramp that was going to scrap from the local college (they'd discontinued their car mechanics course). Whatd'ya know the tip-off bore fruit and thankfully got the ramp absolutely free minus the beers we shared for the delivery fee. Lottery win would've been nice but a ramp will do

Rest of it is a furnished by means of scrapheap challenge mixed with Facebook marketplace bargains. Took it's merry time to get it together but now ready to start haulin'.

BACK TO MICRAS

I'll admit I'm taking my merry time starting repairs on the White Super S, but I swear down I want to do it once, and do it right. I simply do not that the equipment and skills on said equipment required to create the shapes I'll need to satisfyingly repair elements of the car... So I did what any sane, logical, down to earth car restorer would do...

...I'd got myself a 3d printer.

Not going to lie it made a mockery of me and I was unable to get the damned thing to print at all for the life of me. 12 year olds were just yeet-ing filament into these things and getting huge, perfect huge models of iron man whereas I was struggling to even get my print to stick to the bed...

Turned out I had a warped bed and the firmware was buggy as hell... So the centre of my deck was 0.1mm lower than the outer edge, and my Z-axis was homing anywhere between +/-0.5mm where the end-stop was!! Drove me mad. I'd spend ages levelling it perfectly with a feeler gauge to get a true 0 and then when it homed before starting a new print it'd through it all out!

New bed + community made firmware (Creality can do one) and runs mints now. Glad to know I'm not entirely incompetent

WHY

I know could easily just order a set of panels online, but where's the fun in that?! I need to justify me buying this printer now!

I've been fascinated with the idea of 3D printing metal form tools.

I've seen it done on youtube in smaller examples. In essence you print the form, leaving it hollow so you then fill it with resin. The whole thing should be good enough to withstand forming a few panels before wearing depending on the harshness of bends, thickness of the steel etc.

My skillset steers heavily to 3D modelling and CAD so being able to use those skills put's me in a stronger position.

As a test, I made a the "John Smith" of wheel arch repair panels. It's subtle, but I made it asymmetrical to make sure the form presses the arch form and also captures the compounds curves right too.

My printer is only 220mm square and I couldn't be bothered to print them separately so the form came out as ~100mm square overall. I just scaled the panel section to suit so It'll likely be a 1/10th model repair panel but oh well Not like I was going to use it anyway.

Just on a side-note, being limited to 220mm means panels will either be limited to that area, or I can look into binding multiple 220mm forms together to create a larger one. The only limitation to that would be overall strength and I imagine as a certain size a cheap, smaller 16ton press might not good enough to get a large form to press down uniformly? Idk, Ill be looking into this at a later date.

Anyway...

I then printed these out, using about 20% triangle infill, allowing me to pot them with resin. I used some fancy 2-part epoxy we had at work. I didn't look how much I'd used but I dread to think how much that actually cost. In future I'll be looking into what the best resin would be to use, given it will have to set at room temperature and not give out too much heat as to prevent warping the PLA print filament.

The print took about 11 hours (I left it on overnight) and cost about £3 of filament. The printer is 600W and with the 11 hours run time we can guess the electric was around £1.50 worst case. So let's just call it a round £5 to make this form.

Didn't get too many pictures as I wasn't sure it'd work. But after potting it, I trimmed a plate, shoved it in the press aaaannnnddd

Did a slightly smaller panel just to test the water, then committed to a full capacity. Worked mint!

Only wear to the form was a tight 90 corner I didn't radius on the digital model so it took the full grunt of the force. I reckon it would've been okay if it had a 1mm or so radius on it.

Only broke the mould in the end because I'd slightly misaligned them and the two pieces jammed, but obviously didn't have much of a fight against the 16 ton press.... It could easily form more panels but with the edges gone the two pieces might not align right.

Needless to say I'm pumped.

SO WHAT NOW

I need an offside upper arch section for the White Super S. Thankfully the nearside arch is good to go.

With the magic of digital modelling, I can model the nearside arch and just scale it along the Y axis by -1 to get a perfect symmetrical patch for the other side.

So I keyed the car roughly just to whack some primer on to try help get rid of the shine from the lights and really roughly penned some grid lines on the car to try help the next stage see the curvature a bit better:

I took various photos around this corner and plugged all ~20 of them into a free software called Meshroom.

I have no idea what I'm doing in this program, but I hit "Start" and after half an hour of my laptop sounding like it was about to break the sound barrier I got this:

Ironically the lines I'd added to help see the curvature had actually created dents in the model -.- Lesson learnt; don't doubt the dark arts. They know what they're doing. Know your place.

Other than that though this had me stoked for a first attempt.

I brought the model into Blender, deleted surplus geometry and did some other magic to reduce the poly count from something like 400k vertices to just under 70k.

I did some smoothing to even out the surface, plugged in the texture and got this:

A bit rough and ready, but the curvature is all there, just a tad noisy...

What I'm doing now, in-between as I type here is rebuilding the arch with new, cleaner geometry that I can then fashion my 3d form from.

I created the arch shape as a line, then extruded faces up from that line and snapping the vertices to the faces of the scanned mesh.

This is far from perfect and the scanned mesh still has lots of noise. But the resulting new mesh is looking spot on:

I'm completely guessing at the radius on the lip right now, I'll go measure it when I'm at the car to hone it in.

Although the scanned mesh is noisy, I'm hoping this mesh will be close enough to the original curves that at worst case it needs some light massaging before tacking to the car.

Something that caught my eye while scanning is how well the rear moisture trap bit came out:

I didn't even concentrate the camera on this bit but it picked up quite well.

These are completely gone-zo on the White one, but the Blue one's are intact, more than intact enough to get a scan...

I'd hate to cut these flush to the floor and cap them off, but I knew it'd be a pig to repair without a body-cut but this scanning/pressing might work out.

SO THATS WHERE I'M AT

Other small bits:

• Now I have the pallet rack, it's easier to store a car's worth of bits rather than a car for bits so the Green Turd is now in the garage ready for stripping of usable/sellable bits and off to scrap she goes. Sorry not sorry.
• Blue Micra is nearing 30k miles and I intend to remove the 1.3 Auto from it as soon as it reaches that and put in the 1.3/1.0 Engine+Box combo from the green turd in once that's out.
• Black Super S is now back in storage, covered and kept safe. I wanted to maybe drive it a bit in 2021 but while it's been sat it's gained a few more creaks and clunks I want to sort before. But with the garage taking up most of last year this didn't happen. It will return I swear!

I'm going to push into this form printingidea and try to find the limits of it.

I will try forming from chassis-esque panels our of some thicker steel and then work on combining forms into larger moulds and see what's possible.

Being able to scan and press any shape of convex panel means inner sill, inner arch, floor sections etc can be recreated perfectly provided you have a good reference. Which thankfully as far as I'm aware the Blue one can be used as, albeit for some surface rust in places.

This also means I can potentially bypass the need to shell out the money for all the fabrication kit you'd otherwise need to make these panels consistently and accurately... But we shall see. I do want to learn the art of panel beating both with and without the kit but I can't seem to get the money for it just yet.

Anyway, till next time!