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1.2 Suntop

porkpie700

porkpie700

Buy & Sell Member
Micras seem to be breeding around here, my garden's full of them lol.
So another k10 has been taken in by my little rescue centre :p

1.2 GS Suntop;

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A suntop with two special suprises on the back door...

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A Foha top spoiler...

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With the matching bottom one (Y)
 
Work begins

As usual with elderly cars there is no shortage of rust-repair involved. On this particular k10 all the work is on the rear end;

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That and the nutorious cills...
It's all fairly straight forward repairwork, when the welding is done she'll be stronger than she was when new.
Other than the welding, the suntop (or "rag-top" as i call it) just needs a damned good bath, it's been a smokers' car for the last 11 years, turning the nice grey GS interior into a rather interesting shade of tan/beige. There are the colour-coded bumpers off my other red k10 which are going on to replace the stock black ones, and the GS wheel-trims off of my other k10 are going onto it too.
The door-strips came with the car, just not attached to it, so those are to go back on too. Should make a nice summer coastal cruiser i thinks :grinning:
 
karlj said:
noooooo i want one of those sun tops....... swap my ls for it you can keep the foha spoilers
Click to expand...

:laugh: (evil laugh)
That's right dude, the mad porkpie somehow always manages to find a gem every now and then :grinning:
Or do the micra's find me? Hmm, dark forces are at work :eek:
 
Very nice. I like the idea of a micra rescue centre. Would be good if you could leave misbehaving micras outside it covered in cardboard when you can't handle them anymore or even if you could phone up and get somebody else's micra taken away from them if they're mistreating it.
 
Yep i've seen that one, but the one on the car is a minter and i can buy a new one for under a grand so i don't need to go filling up the cellar just yet lol.
 
its top mate,,have to rub my eyes with you sometimes:grinning::grinning:
like what you do with em,,,,,,,,,what they deserve.look rare
 
Update 29/3

Some happy news to start with; i've finally had the time to swap the struts over and fit the colour-coded front bumper, which has taken years off of it's appearance.

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Next up; the brakes have been renewed, new disks, new pads. The calliper piston, the slide pins and slide bolts have been cleaned and greased, as have the slide clips for the pads. The missing hubcaps were replaced with a spare set of k11 ones i had stashed away, which were stuffed full of cv grease before they were fitted. (Y)

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The interior has now been stripped out for the welding and waxoyling work, aside from that i also wanted it out of the way so that i could inspect the floor properly and sure enough, the drivers side inner door step was rotten and had split from the floor.
So that's gonna get welded with everything else. (i had the same thing happen to my GS, so it's become a habbit to check the door steps on every micra i get, as it's the seatbelt anchorage point).

The front wing was also found to be rotten, (there is evidence of a long history of cowboy garage work, i've found no shortage of rubber sealant and gun gum where there should have been solid weld).
The wing is no problem as my welder can easily craft a new lower wing section, it'll be "like-a-new" when he's done his magic (Y)

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See that big blob of fibreglass on there? I hate cowboy mechanics, they're dangerous.
 
Update; Welding Completed.

The suntop is finished a week earlier than we origionally thought it would take, but nothing was compromised.

First up; remember that rotten rear end?
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She don't have two big rusty bumholes anymore..

Next up were the "pigeon #### weld" cills, all new metal work on there now.
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The doorstep was one of the most important things simply because it's the seatbelt anchorage point. Due to the botched jobs in the suntop's history, the drivers' side cill hadn't been draining properly, causing the inner doorstep to rot through.
In a crash, that step would have folded like paper, and whichever way you wanna look at it, that's bad...
Fortunatly that's all been rebuilt with new metal and is rock-solid. (Y)
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The two front wings have been sorted, the old rot was cut out and replaced by fresh steel.
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The man is an artist, and i'm a super happy mr porkpie (Y)
 
Bodywork Nearly Done

It was a very busy saturday...

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It's starting to look like a car again, yay!!!!
All that's left to do on the bodywork side is just cosmetic work. Masking off the underseal and spraying good old red 526 onto the exposed primer. Then we're back onto mechanicals & electrics, and while the interior is out of the car i'll be fitting the alarm and cenral locking modules. Should be a lot easier to do with everything stripped out.
 
Finally got around to painting the sections that needed some red on them, mainly along the cills and the wing. While the laquor was drying i cleaned, prepped and backed the side stips with double-sided adhesive foam, got those back on at last. I put the GS wheel trims on there while i was at it to replace the cheap crappy ones that it came with.

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That's almost it for the body except for a little section at the front of the wing (needs painting red) and the lower spoiler needs to come off again for some paintwork doing to it. The next step after that is the alarm and locking modules but in the mean time i'll be giving the interior a good bath!!! It can dry out in the sun :grinning:
 
What a long arse day. Took all 4 wheels to have new tires on, gone for 165/65 rather than standard size. So she's sitting on new rubber at last.
Took the dash out (what a ball ache man) and fitted the new central locking system, which works beautiful. The next mission (and it will be a mission) is to the fit and wire up the alarm system next weekend.
This baby's gonna damn hard to nick when it's all finished coz i've also had some solid bar welded into the doors to re-inforce them (try and bend that back you ####### criminals lol).
 
I will try give it a go when i get chance, but all i did was follow the instructions make a few wiring extentions. I got the modular type kit with the relay module (little brain box) and all you do after you install the motors is match up the colours on the wires and plug em in.
The motors were a bit of a trick to install because of the window clearance and the general shape of the inside door panel, but on the first door i just sat there for say 10mins looking at it and just holding the motor in place by hand. That's how i figured out the best place to put em and once you figure out where to mount em the rest is easy.
 
It's a very tight fit, there is only a hairs' width clearance from the window (on one side) and the lock linkage bar (on the other side). The bracket needs to be fastened on at the bottom so you can bend the top to sit flush with the door skin. The drill the top hole, secure the bracket and adjust the hight before you tighten it up. Then just a tiny tweak of the door skin is needed, because there's a lip around the cut-outs and the cutout at the bottom back corner (where i mounted the motors) that lip pushes the motor over just enought to make the window hit. So you need to tug it back a tiny bit, not too much or it'll push against the door card.

Machi; the entire roof panel is specially built and strengthened by nissan to have that suntop there, the cills are also double-skinned for extra strength. I wouldn't advise trying to fit an aftermarket job unless you are prepaired to reinforce your car in the same way. Best option is to buy a genuine k10 suntop and save yourself the work.
 
C/L Fitment (especially for Karl lol)

Ok dude these are all "after" pics not "before" but i think they show what you need to see to fit them yourself. The wiring is pretty much fool-proof as all you do is mach up the colours on the wires and plug them into each other, so there's no need for me to go into that side of it.

Placement
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You can just see the location of the screws in that photo. The corner of that cutout where the motor is visible from is already the right shape (it bends out a little bit) but it just needs a little tug to pull the motor clear of the window once it's all mounted up.

Bracket - Bottom
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The wires have been tidied up and wraped in electrical tape since this picture was taken.

Bracket - Top
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That screw is nowhere near as close to the motor as it looks in the picture i just wanna point out. You can see the way that the braket has had to be bent to fit the door.

Window Clearance
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Loads of room dude :grinning:
 
porkpie700 said:
Ok dude these are all "after" pics not "before" but i think they show what you need to see to fit them yourself. The wiring is pretty much fool-proof as all you do is mach up the colours on the wires and plug them into each other, so there's no need for me to go into that side of it.

Placement
228327_10150185353734872_839509871_6600422_7403373_n.jpg

You can just see the location of the screws in that photo. The corner of that cutout where the motor is visible from is already the right shape (it bends out a little bit) but it just needs a little tug to pull the motor clear of the window once it's all mounted up.

Bracket - Bottom
228327_10150185353749872_839509871_6600424_7068905_n.jpg

The wires have been tidied up and wraped in electrical tape since this picture was taken.

Bracket - Top
228327_10150185353739872_839509871_6600423_8078874_n.jpg

That screw is nowhere near as close to the motor as it looks in the picture i just wanna point out. You can see the way that the braket has had to be bent to fit the door.

Window Clearance
228327_10150185353754872_839509871_6600425_3343778_n.jpg

Loads of room dude :grinning:
Click to expand...

Where you get the kit from mate quite fancy that myself
 
Well if you decide to get another k10, go over it with an eagle-eye and make sure you get a good solid one that's already what you want. You're in a good position at the mo because you can just keep your eye out for the right one, then again i didn't pick my cars, they picked me :grinning:
Hey if you've got a little one on the way look out for a 4door k10 then you can say you've bought a "family car" to keep he mrs happy.
 
Unfortunately I can wait for the right one, I need a new car by tues (the missus insurance runs out and her premiums have doubled) wouldn't mind a more door k10 but there ain't that many around not at a price I can afford (unless someone buys my nismo stuff)
 
Half way there at last!!!

Well finally the alarm/immobiliser is fitted and wired up the the central locking system. While the dash is out i'm gonna get myself a few add-ons for the alarm to jazz it up a bit more, want it super secure you know (Y)

Once all that stuff is buttoned up i can start piecing the interior back together, although i think i'm gonna wash them seats one more time. They look clean but they still stink of ciggys, the chuffin water was running out yellow whilest they were drying!!! And i drowned them suckkers in hot soapy water... Hang on just had an idea, involving a paddling pool, and lots of soapy water... i'll submerge the little ######s. :devil:
 
Update 24/05/11

When i said was gonna give the thing a bath i meant it!!!

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:laugh:

Nearly there at long last, it hasn't been easy to make progress with this car because of my job taking up my time. But it's 95% done and now i can back things off and rest a bit.

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I've got new grey steering wheel for it so i can replace that brown one for it, so i'll be putting that on tomorrow, yay!
The only other jobs are a full new exhaust with mounts, underseal the floor and rear end, and finally a full major service including gear oil and coolant change plus a new battery. Then all is well, and hopefully i'll be taking it for an mot on sat, no worries there, it'll fly right though, as all my micras do (Y)
 
:laugh:

To break even on this car i'd have to charge a grand for it and nobody in thier right mind would pay that for a k10 :laugh:
But no i couldn't sell it not after all the work that's gone into it, besides this car has a mission to be my little war-horse while i restore the super s and gs special to show condition.
Those two cars i'll be doing at a much steadier pace than the suntop, otherwise i'll end up giving myself a stroke or something.
 
Just the wiper blades coz i haven't changed em yet. The guy said even if it was a mint piece he'd have to put something down as advisory coz if they give an old car a straight pass with no advisories, they end up getting a visit from vosa to make sure they're doing the job properly.
vosa believe that it is impossible for a car over a certain age to be perfect, even if it was dry-stored, never used and in the same condition it was when it left the factory. Pretty narrow minded people over at vosa.
 
Holy crap that is amazing, I've never seen a fuel filler pipe with a hole in it like that before! Quite worry stuff!

Car is looking excellent though! :)
 
porkpie700 said:
Just the wiper blades coz i haven't changed em yet. The guy said even if it was a mint piece he'd have to put something down as advisory coz if they give an old car a straight pass with no advisories, they end up getting a visit from vosa to make sure they're doing the job properly.
vosa believe that it is impossible for a car over a certain age to be perfect, even if it was dry-stored, never used and in the same condition it was when it left the factory. Pretty narrow minded people over at vosa.
Click to expand...

Seems unfair specially as I'm an mot tester an haven't been told that one! I'd be careful of that, as if it were my car and I'd just fitted new wipers and they said that the blades were knackard, I'd be ringing VOSA and reporting them for ripping me off and improperly testing my vehicle :)
 

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