hey everyone. has been awhile since me last post.
massive update coming.........
* SPOILER
I dremeled off the bolt brackets and side brackets, scrape off the original sticky foam strip on the edges and decided to bond it to the boot. found my local partco shop sells their own branded PU sealant.
The inner corners had split cracks which i glued and body filled. after hours of sanding i primed the part
then patiently painted, sanded & laquered
closeup of laquer
to bond it to the body i first roughened up the boot surfaces
applied PU sealant along the mating faces of the spoiler and then very very carefully align and sit the spoiler onto the boot, the PU stuff gets everywhere.
important to smooth the exposed bead of sealant with finger before to cures. held it down with sticky tape overnight. thankfully the cured excess sealant can be scraped off or wiped off with alchohol/petrol
finished. proper mint now.
* Boot Handle
had some paint to do the bumpers but decided the boot handle needed doin instead
now that bit's not an eyesore anymore
* Windscreen Edge
the rubber strips along the windscreen were in tatters after 10yrs so i ripped it all out to either replace or sealant it as some ppl have done.
i rang nissan bout cost of new strips and it woulda been in the £100's !! they're having a laugh
so i guess i'll use sealant instead
at first i used this B&Q gutter sealant, twas utter crap cos it never cured at all
so had to scoop it all out, clean off with petrol (amazing how strong petrol is. I accidentally poured some in a polystyrene cup which was instantly destroyed, used plastic cup afterwards), and used the PU sealant.
trimmed off the excess with craft blade
neat job
* Brakes
took off me old tatty rear discs
replaced the pair with new discs from partco for £62
* Intake
i thought the entire inlet pipe n port were quite tiny compaired to the 70mm port of the TB so i dremeled off n enlarged the airbox inlet port, bonded bit of 70mm gutter pipe to it.
attached a flexible Alu tubing to gutter pipe with 90deg piece
feed it down between the ABS module n clutch bracket, tis a tight squeeze
scoops cool air from below
sand blasted n painted the airbox clips
bypassed the TB coolant pipes. now the TB barely gets warm which is good for keeping inlet air cool
to further improve breathing i cut off the TB screen n smoothed the edges
tis more responsive n revs easier now
* Sway Bar
the car use to understeer unpredictably when conering hard with the rusted original bars so brought a front n rear whiteline sway bar from demon tweeks for £200
installed front
the rear bracket bolt snapped off, replacing it with nut n bolt anyway
the seized drop link bolts were a pain. didn't wanna destroy n buy another expensive droplink, plus it's the weekend n needed car soon, so i carefully dremeled the nut edges the chiseled it off
regreased n retapped the droplinks
the rear bracket nut was just corner welded on, so i dremeled the lower corners n pryed of off
attached droplinks
bushes n bracket bolted on
the sway bar occasionally shifts to a side where the bar ends would catch on the trailing arms causing a knocking noise while the exposed grease also dries and seizes the bar over time. so i clamped a piece of PU pipe near the bushes to keep it centred
the result is incredible. with the droplink set at middle or hard it's a lil too oversteery especially in wet. but its set a lowest stiffness now and omg the car is a friggin go-kart. the sluggish response is gone. move the wheel and it just turns hard n flat n well balanced & predictable. i'm certain this mod has caused my recent increased fuel usage lol.
* Seats
now that the car corners hard, keeping seated n comfy is difficult in the old seat so n got these for £70
just comes with rails. the original subframe didn't fit so i had to mod my own.
cut the bracket off the frame
i wanted to retain the original brackets n weld em to the rails but the new rails were a tad short so i got a garage to weld an extending square pipe under the new rails, then weld the original brackets onto the entension. painted em black later
seats fitted in
seatbelt buckle anchored to the pivot
it's well comfy now and hugs nicely during cornering
* Sill Rust
just MOTed me car and it failed cos of sill rust under both rear doors, bah. i wonder, did the prev MOTer not poke hard enough? i scrambled around local garages and a small company repaired it for £70. other dealers n big repairers quoted £130-£250 !! no thxs
guy welded n undersealed the sills. now it passed the test
Phew Thank God
NOW
on the 27th i'll be starting my mega UK micra trip holiday from england to scotland to wales to london and back home which is well exciting. will be pretty wrecked in the end i figure but to cheer me up on the 30th, i'll be going to silverstone where i've booked myself a Ferrari Experience Event !!
omg i'll first be driving the lotus exige then a 360 Modena :wow:
looking forward to it, will be mind blowing i'm sure
i'm preparing a small box of essential tools incase summin goes wrong (or i could ring me breakdown cover)
i just hope the micra's up for the trek
thx for reading.