A Black 1.4 from North Italy

[oldcrow]

Hi Guys and Gals!

This is my 2001 1.4 K11 that I bought some months ago as a daily drive:

Is in very nice conditions overall.. it needs just a full interior cleaning and a hood repainting because the paintwork is all cracked.

First of all I took off the wheel trims, so now I just have black steelies (that I'm planning to powdercoat white maybe and use with the winter tyres).

Then I did an oil and filter change (Shell Helix HX7 10W40), coolant change and I installed a new air filter and new sparkplugs as well.
And finally two days ago new front discs and pads.

The only thing remained to do now is a complete brake fluid change.. hope to do it as soon as possible!

This will end the routine maintenance phase.. so the upgrade phase can finally start!!

 

[oldcrow]

The first upgrades that I planned are 4 lowering springs and the adjustable Panhard Rod that I already bought.
I also already bought a Super S rear spoiler.

But last week I had the opportunity to buy a really nice upgrade (or downgrade.. it depends on the point of view ).

I don't like too much the first facelift look, but I can tolerate it.
Is the second facelift my problem.. I really hate it!! But I bought one!

So as I need to replace a front light, my first idea was to buy both first facelift lights, the first facelift bumper.. and eliminate those horrible chrome trims on the front grill.

But then came a real deal.

I met a guy that has a 1995 K11 that wanted to scrap.. so I went to his house and took all is needed to convert my ugly 2001 in a pre-facelift K11.
In detail:

- hood
- front lights
- front bumper
- wings
- grill
- hood latch
- rear lights
- rear bumper

but the most amazing thing is that i paid 70€ for all the parts!

Now I have to find the time to paint all the stuff and bolt it on...

 

[r-reg-sr]

crow bar technique good idea

 

[Belly93]

looks good mate , is that an s200 i spy in the pics?

 

[oldcrow]

Yeeep... is a 2001 S2000. Is the reason why I had a Fiesta and now the K11 as a daily drive!

 

[Belly93]

nice , and you could probably sell the fogs from the facelift front and maake some money back, the housings alone sell for around £40 eeach on ebay

 

[oldcrow]

exactly!
My plans actually are to sell all the facelift front end after I finished the conversion

 

[Belly93]

i see i had a red k11 second facelift, didnt have fogs tho kinda miss it was like a lil go kart

 

[MicraItaly]

benvenuto!

 

[oldcrow]

benvenuto!

Grazie!

 

[oldcrow]

Yesterday I completely changed the brake fluid, so for the time being I think I've finally finished the routine maintenance!

 

[oldcrow]

And here we go!
Finally the lowering springs from Vogtland:

and the adjustable Panhard Rod in place:

Here is the final effect... not bad at all I think!

Now it sits on Bridgestone Blizzak winter tyres in the classic 165/60 R14... but I think the general look will improve a lot with summer tyres in 185/55 R14 on 6x14 rims and a more nice offset

 

[oldcrow]

So.. I've got some leave days, and in these situations if there's around an airbrush and an air compressor I can be very dangerous!

So I started the downgrade with the hood interior:

And now let's be arrogant:

 

[Huggy444]

Some mighty fine spraying

 

[oldcrow]

Now let's spray a little bit of primer...

And the license plate lights holder... the very first version finally!

 

[oldcrow]

Ok... time to spray some Nissan Black Z11 and a clear coat!

...so shiny the license plate light holder!

 

[r-reg-sr]

go on old crow show us how it go,,,,,,,,,grade a listed spray job





the good crow always go,,,,,,,car,,car,,car,caar with a big apple in the mouth

 

[oldcrow]

So, the summer season is coming.. and is time for summer tyres
I bought 4 Toyo Proxes CF1 185/55 R14.

But now the rims!

I bought from eBay 4 Volkswagen steelies 6x14 ET38 that have some trapezoidal holes instead of the usual rounded ones.
Here's one along a stock:

I then rebored them because they were 57,1 mm instead of the required 59,1.
After that I had them powdercoated in white:

Once they were home again I did some masking

and then sprayed some red and a clearcoat to obtain this:

And finally on my K11!

As you can see they have a much much nicer offset than the stocks!
I'm thinking anyway to go further and install extended studs in order to fit some spacers

 

[Jen319]

Nice job on the wheels, they look very classy

 

[r-reg-sr]

almost can taste that flavour looking at em! makes a nice change to the eyes

 

[r-reg-sr]

Me personally. ....The wheels and under hood color have knocked the heck out

 

[oldcrow]

Unfortunately I have not much time to spend working on my Micra.. and the downgrade to the first version is still far to be completed.

But anyway.. I really hope to finish the sprayjob soon in order to bolt everything on.

 

[Huggy444]

How'd you adjust the centre bore? Just grind it down? Looks brilliant

 

[oldcrow]

They have been turned by a friend of mine!

 

[Huggy444]

They have been turned by a friend of mine!

Ohh, is there still a decent amount of material left? Guess there is

 

[oldcrow]

Sure it is! Just 1 mm has been grinded away... and anyway the center bore has just a "centering" function, nothing structural

 

[oldcrow]

I'm trying to finish as soon as possible the paint job.
Here is the front bumper.. and now that is painted is time to install the brake cooling intakes:

and some rivets 'cause no questions they look cool

 

[oldcrow]

Well I forgot this picture.. because of course you can't rivet directly the bumper soft plastic, so you need some washers:

 

[Huggy444]

Well I forgot this picture.. because of course you can't rivet directly the bumper soft plastic, so you need some washers:

Tell that to the guy who made my car... Every single rivet had to be drilled and redone

 

[oldcrow]

Tell that to the guy who made my car... Every single rivet had to be drilled and redone

 

[oldcrow]

Just a little detail... because the grey plastic handles are so ugly!

waaaaay better:

 

[oldcrow]

But now some serious stuff.. I did her ass!

I finally bolted on all the bits and pieces from the first version.
Everything is pretty much straightforward, you just need to do some re-wiring inside the tail lights.. but I think you already know it.

Here they are:

At the end.. from this thing:

...to this:

one more...

It's a complete different car!!
I really can't wait to bolt on the front end. In theory everything is painted and ready.. so finger crossed.

 

[Huggy444]

Looking good

 

[r-reg-sr]

Its black and flying low,,,,,, THE CROW












i never seen a bad crow yet this year,,,,,,,well ok maybe a few new ones

 

[oldcrow]

LOOOOOOL!!!!

 

[r-reg-sr]

oldcrow,,, are you ok? you could pop a lung hanging round in places like these

 

[oldcrow]

Ok... say goodbye to this ugly thing:

.......

.......

......waaaay better!

 

[cgten]

Minimalistic. I like.

 

[oldcrow]

So.. here we are! After 2 days of disassembling and assembling again, some swearing, now finally I see a proper K11!

I must say that everything was pretty much straightforward.
I had to do some rewiring in the headlights for turn indicators and parking lights.
I also lost the electric aiming adjustment. The aiming motor is present even in my old headlights, but the system should be completely different because they need 6 wires while the new ones only 4.
I had no time to sort it out... I can live without it!

As here in Italy is nearly impossible to find a Super S bumper, I cut 2 big holes and fitted the standard one with a couple of foglights from Ring.. and put a Nissan sticker on them.

Here's a picture before primer:

I fit both the headlights and foglights with super white bulbs and they look superb:

I really really like the final result! Now is a pleasure to turn my head back and look at her while walking away..
The only thing is that is very odd to see a completely different car with the same licence plate! Very funny indeed!

Now I think I did more or less the 70% of my planned mods, but anyway there are still a lot of minor changes and details to finish the project.

Some B&W shots:

And a couple made with the iPhone:

Anyway... what is really freaking me out is that somebody has even been paid to do this:

(I like the first facelift.. but the last one for me is horrible. You can't try to make a round car square!)

Now 2 bonus pic:

Hope you like it as much as I do!!

 

[Huggy444]

Looks bloody lovely

 

[Jen319]

Excellent work
Looks fantastic ^_^

 

[chiba_kun]

Wow! Your Micra now looks great.

 

[freeze19]

Nice !

 

[oldcrow]

...I forgot to post a pic with the hood opened!

 

[McMicra]

prefer those fogs to the actual ones haha!

 

[oldcrow]

Ok.. the end.

This one:

Happened last Sunday during a track day.

I usually go on track with my S2000 but she is sitting in my garage on jackstands since October 2013 'cause I'm doing some work on her but I really have no time to finish as I'm currently working abroad.

I was really missing the track and as there was a track day in a relatively short and slow circuit I took the chance to do it with the Micra and see how it would have worked between kerbs.

Ok not so well considering the outcome!!

But now the story.
It was the beginning of my 3rd lap.. main straight.. then there's the track hardest braking for a right corner.
At around 135 km/h I hit the brake pedal and nearly immediately the car pulled hard to the left.

I was still on a straight line and my wheels were straight when I hit the brakes.. not mentioning that the asphalt was perfectly smooth.
And anyway.. In the past I did the same hard braking at least another 30 times with my S2000 (at around 180 km/h), not a big deal.

If you brake hard in a straight line with your wheels straight.. your car must go straight, period.

Doing some web research I found this on Cisco's Micra website:

LEAKING REAR WHEEL CYLINDERS
"Was a common fault on drum brake models built 1995. Car pulling to one side under braking"

But then I discovered that this problem is common to all K11 with drums, not only related to 1995 cars.

A later inspection revealed that both my rear pistons were leaking, one just a little, but on the other the situation was bad.

This is the only explanation I can give to what happened. If you guys have other suggestions you're more than welcome.

Now what happened after the crash.
Both radiators (water and A/C) were badly squeezed together and were touching the exhaust manifold.
With the help of a guy from the track staff we pulled all the front end with the hydraulic arm of the recovery truck, so the radiators were no more touching the header.
They were still squeezed together, but no leaks from the water one.
I disconnected the battery for about 20 mins to reset anything that maybe could need a reset.. meanwhile I checked the front suspensions that seemed ok.

Battery reconnected, ignition key turned... and the 1.4 litre Nissan engine came smoothly alive!

I grabbed all the pieces I found from the front end and sticked them to the car with about 40 zip locks (never attend a car event without them ).

So.. the Mighty Micra, badly injured, took me back home around 200km away from the circuit!
And it drove very well, the only bad thing was a sort of loud grinding noise coming maybe from the gearbox in 1st and 2nd when accelerating from still.

Here's a picture on the way home... looks like Terminator!

Even better:

...."I'll be back!"

Well... maybe not this time.

 

[McMicra]

Sad times, was one of my favourites just because of those foglights !

 

[r-reg-sr]

when crow met windscreen

did you attempt hand brake when back went un even?
you will be back.

 

[oldcrow]

Good point! I thought about it only later on.
The main problem was that the car caught me completely unprepared because it abruptly reacted in a way it shouldn't have done.

Anyway, my car won't be back 'cause I'm scrapping it... but probably I will.

Maybe a Super S is on the way to my place

 

[MaxK11C]

Wow, what a fantastic three pages of blog! Seriously wanting to "downgrade" my facelift.