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Red Celebration Revamp

Alright guys, guess best place to start is to introduce myself. I'm Jonny, 22 from Durham, England. Hello to everyone taking the time to have a look at my car and my progress along the way. My car is a K11, 1 Litre, 3 dr, celebration model with 82000 miles on the clock. Which i have named Matilda. I've been passed my test less than a month now and she is my first car. I actually got her 6 month ago and was driving her when learning to drive but there was nothing i could do until i passed. So here i am, i apologise in advance for the fact that i don't have many pics from the start, i wasn't really going to make a blog but i got persuaded by my mate Craig. He's on here as CraigIC, some of you may be aware of his build. So i suppose i better get some pics up and show you where i started really.
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Back of Matilda so far, at this point really the only thing that's been done is the removal of the celebration badge, the blacking of the Nissan badge and new back lights courtesy of CraigIC and his dad, they're Taiwanese imports as i'm sure you're all aware, i think they suit the car. As a little extra there's a snail in one of them, how he got there i do not know!
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And this is the Front, blacked out Nissan badge and matt blacked my grills. Chrome wasn't really my thing. I don't think it looks too bad right now. And yes, that is a dent in my bonnet, it's actually quite a funny story. Had bonnet up doing some tinkering work with CraigIC's brother, he had his tools on the top, i stupidly shut my bonnet to let his Dad out and dented it from the tools on the engine. Then, his dad decided to try and take my dent out with a hammer, missing and causing a dent next to it. Guess that'll be to sort at some point.

I've also got some cheeky alloys added to the car, started off with some bad steely's i didn;t have any pics of, they were tie wrapped (tie raps??) on and looked awful, so anyways here's some pics.
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So these were the rims i received, for a swap of my steely's and 20 quid, bargain really. Yes they're shoddy in the middle and all that black stuff? that's 13 years of break dust and grime literally baked on, it took me SO long to get them cleaned again. I don't care though, they're my rims now and to be fair, they're not a bad set.
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and this is how they turned out. looking nice and fresh (ish) again. They've had a spray in the middle centre hub thing, and i cleaned the spokes up. It took me a good hour or so to get them like this. Some may be wondering how i did it and to be honest you guys will probably cringe at how i did it but here goes. I had a bucket of hot water and added some household cleaning stuff, some washing up liquid (for grease) and a good glug of vinegar for acidity. I then used a floor scrubbing brush on em to get some of the thick off, followed by a normal sponge and scourer to get some of the finer dirt off. Eventually i resorted to a metal pan scourer which really got the dirt off. After this thorough beating i finished with a nice micro-fibre alloy cleaning brush and clean water and i think they came out beautifully.

Interior wise there's not much to say and right now i haven't got many pics of it, ALL SHALL BE REVEALED... i hope.

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this
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And this are really the only two pics i have of my car interior. Yes i know, they're awful, grotty and quite frankly embarrassing, they're one of the next things on my list to do, when i actually get a chance to do anything on them. First a good clean and hoover i think, generally though they don't look too bad when i actually am in the car.

Well i guess that's the first post for me, i have more to add, but maybe i'll do that tomorrow :), cheers for reading thus far, hopefully you'll like what you see! x
 

SirChris

Educated Bodger
Welcome mate . hope to see a lot from you.

signature...please ignore anything I say...when using my phone it is either bad grammar or rubbish spelling.
 
Hey Guys, thanks for replying, especially at this time in the morning. I do have a forum post lined up for when i finish work today, so hopefully you'll like what you see. I can't promise it'll be a quick build, it'll probably be anything but, but hey, it's only my first car :)
 
Finally! :D

Can't wait for the next update ;) get the rest done today!

Coming down ours later? I'll be back for half 5 after work, gotta go for petrol.. might swing by your way and you can come down same time?
 
Alright guys, i promised an update so an update you get. Today, parcel shelf and door cards :). I've been doing these with CraigIC and Chogy, massive massive props to them for letting me use their time, resources and knowledge for this. Going chronologically i started with door cards. I initially wanted to do just the fabric part of it, however after finally realising how much of a mess on these were we decided that a whole door wrap could be done instead. Below are some pics of before and after.

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Before (with handle removed)

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And after! Personally i think these came out awesome, was dead cheap to do and to be honest after the initial thought process relatively easy.


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so Above are a few pics of what went on. basically, remove plastics, cut fabric to size, glue, fold, and on the edges put some extra cuts in just to make it easier and neater. It took probably 2 hours to do both door cards and the end result looks awesome in my opinion. Amazing what a duvet cover can do. for those of you wondering, the arrows just point to screw holes to make em easier to find for plastics.

The next order of business was to do my parcel shelf, i still had a load of the red fabric left over so i figured it would be the best thing to do with it. To be honest for anyone who would think about this it's hard to do. It took us a good few hours and to be fair it's still not complete and we're still not completely happy with it. Anyways on with the pics.

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This was my parcel shelf before, looks shoddy, and i know this. holes badly cut to fit my 6x9s i was given off a mate, surround holes where the grates go over from standard parcel shelves, even 2 circles marked where i was gonna cut out and fir the standard micra ones before i realised i was being a ****. Thank god it got covered.

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So start of the process, glue on the undersides, then stuck and folded over

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Yep that's all glue, because of the flock/fabric stuff it needed loads on to get it to stick. if you note dip in the middle with loads on, it needs it, it will sag and look awful.

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And this is what it looks like at the end of it all. it's still not completely finished though, the centre bit where it curves in hasn't been stuck to the back, but for now it will do. I reckon grills over the top when we get round to it, took a mock up of it just to see what i thought.

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i definitely think grills will go over eventually.

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And that's it through my back window, looks pretty sweet if you ask me. I'm very, VERY happy with how it turned out. Will try and get more pics when it's finished. On another note, i have one final piece i want to do and that's the sun roof cover, does anyone have ANY ideas how to remove it and replace it?

Cheers guys
 

Belly93

to turbo or new lump :/ hmmm
Welcome johny youv got a good pair helping you there im localish im in Gateshead, might see you about chogy asked me to pop over some time
 
Good morning again people! Hope we've all been enjoying this sunshine, i know i've used it to good effect. Well to start i've done more on the interior of my car once again. This time to my headliner, we all know how boring the inside one is, mine also had a few shifty looking brown stains from the previous owner. The duvet cover i had for the doorcards and parcel shelf had another side covered with old comic book covers, may as well use it for the headliner. Me and Chogy started by unclipping everything, and i mean everything. every bit of plastic, every little clip and bung that was in the roof. We then opened the boot and it slid right out, surprisingly easy to take them out to be fair. To stick on the fabric we used some spray glue this time, a cheap 3.98 can from BnQ was our weapon of choice. we sprayed it all, waited a few seconds for it to go tacky and set to pushing it into all the recesses and bumps that are on the headliner, folded it over the edges and then cut the excess. Let it dry and then slid it back in from the back. Re clipped and all was done.
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so this is what it looks like all finished. It's not to everyone's taste i know but i think it turned out really well. You may notice my sun roof visor is the same as my door cards, we decided that with the pillow case we had left we would cover that as well, this was as simple as we thought to cover, however getting it in and out is a problem, you need to take headliner out, remove screws holding it in place, remove clips that stop it sliding back to much and preserve the runners. Then cover, dry and replace in reverse order. Problem we had is that the runners snapped when we attempted to put it in place. Meaning that for the moment, i don't have a sunroof, but meh, i have windows right? Either way, i've done my entire insides minus seats for 18 quid.

The next part i'm going to show and tell is my headlights. Chogy, me and Craigic had been wanting to do my headlights since i first started, chogy had been practicing to get em done, in the process broken one light but finally sussed it using the oven setting on a microwave. He had some nice lights kicking about that had an orange indicator panel and a lot of chrome around the lenses etc. Chogy did the painting when i wasn't there so can't really say how he did it, but he's explained that he used scotch bright to scratch it up and simple matt black to go around the chrome. I got to his house early and we removed my lights, which took ages and weren't as simple as i thought they'd be, and then swapped my old chromed up inserts to the black and orange ones. The lights were then all re-inserted and i'm very happy with how it's turned out.
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And this is my front end now, with chogy included, it's he only pic i have of it for now, but it looks like a mean front end i reckon.
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Just because i haven't done anything from the side yet, this is her at the moment. I am in two mind whether or not to get rid of the bump strips etc. I kinda like the stock look and everyone seems to take them off. I know i need to replace the wings and arches but that's a time and money constraint at the moment. i'm stuck for what i wanna do next? Any opinions or suggestions would be awesome, and as always any feedback about so far is always nice.

Cheers for reading x
 

Seb_

Give me some frogs.
Site Supporter
oh-my-god.
Awesome!!! Marvel X K11 = Mind blowed! Keep up the good work, I really like your concept!
 
I'm getting a crazy Deadpool vibe from the front on view :D

Edit:
Also think the front lights would look better if the chrome behind the orange lens wasn't painted black.


We should get those seats upholstered in a different fabric, find some more and we'll work out how best to do it im sure :)
 
Instead of removing the doors bash guards why not just color code them with the car? Keeps it stock (ish) but less noticable and still practicle.
 
Being at work sucks! Cant wait for the update if you get it done today <3

(Should've also looked for a bung for that rear wiper while you were out and about so you can go ahead and remove it if you have definitely decided you want to?)
 
How did you get the door cards off along the top edge? I can get all mine unclipped and then they just don't seem to come free from tje seal by the window ? :/


Sent from my sofa eating lasagna and watching tv
 

skymera

Brutal Honesty
How did you get the door cards off along the top edge? I can get all mine unclipped and then they just don't seem to come free from tje seal by the window ? :/


Sent from my sofa eating lasagna and watching tv

When I did mine it needed some wiggling and a good tug!

I ended up pushing from underneath and pulling from the top. It gives eventually.
 
How did you get the door cards off along the top edge? I can get all mine unclipped and then they just don't seem to come free from tje seal by the window ? :/


There are two screws behind the inside armrest/handle, and one screw behind the door opening mechanism on the doorcard.

Have you got both the armrest handle, and opening mechanism backing/surround, off?

Remove those screws, then pop off all the clips from along the bottom and up the sides, then the top should pop up and off..

...a good tug!

I ended up pushing from underneath and pulling from the top. It gives eventually.

As skymera said, might take a little bit of gentle persuasion! It should all come off as one piece!
 
There are two screws behind the inside armrest/handle, and one screw behind the door opening mechanism on the doorcard.

Have you got both the armrest handle, and opening mechanism backing/surround, off?

Remove those screws, then pop off all the clips from along the bottom and up the sides, then the top should pop up and off..



As skymera said, might take a little bit of gentle persuasion! It should all come off as one piece!

Yeah ive got all the screws and clips out but it just swings about on the top edge , looks like ive just gotta put a bit more force into it :) cheers guys :)


Sent from my GT-I9070 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
 
Yeah ive got all the screws and clips out but it just swings about on the top edge , looks like ive just gotta put a bit more force into it :) cheers guys :)
Sent from my GT-I9070 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

Yeah it should be coming off with a bit more force.

What do you planning on doing to them once they're off? :D
 
Yeah it should be coming off with a bit more force.

What do you planning on doing to them once they're off? :D

Well i was going to replace the speakers but to be honest their not that bad but really just want to spruce up the varying faded shades of grey :D

Sent from my GT-I9070 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
 
Well i was going to replace the speakers but to be honest their not that bad but really just want to spruce up the varying faded shades of grey :D

Wrapping your door card then? And/or painting the plastics? :D I replaced mine with OEM black plastics and some random door cards I found from a facelift interior.
 
Alright guys, well as CraigIC and Chog have been saying there's stuff in the works. I didn't wanna really updater until i had more, but well with you all being update whores i figured i'd share a little swap over i've done.
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from this
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To this bad boy.

So now i have a lovely rev counter. (with slightly less miles). If someone had told me i'd be adding a rev counter and only unscrewing 5 screws i woulda told them to shut their butts, but it literally is 5 screws and putting a block into a slot in the back, seriously easy and look MUCH MUCH better. Only a small update for today, and sorry for not replying sooner, it seems no one replies according to my emails. Cheers Chog and CraigIC for picking up the questions.

Peace Out, and tomorrow there'll be a bigger update x
 
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