Just got a K11 :]

Ahoy! New here :)

Been lurking around here for a couple of weeks while I was figuring out what to get as a first car, and settled on a Micra fairly quickly :) I bought this rather snazzy little number last week, and after insuring/MOT-ing/taxing it today, it's now parked outside my house, woop! I almost completely lack the ability to drive it (beginning lessons soon, but it'll be really handy to have to practice in outside of those lessons) but still dead chuffed to have it :D

Lots of fancy stuff on it, it seems - rear parking sensors, air con, electric windows, the cup holders in the doors that a bunch of people seem to be after, headlight protectors (which it seems a lot of people are after too, I don't really fancy them so they're probably going on eBay) and probably something else. £1150, not bad I think. It's a 2002 2nd facelift 'Twister' spec one, it's done about 85,000 miles and has been sat still for the last year or two, but inside and out seems pretty much intact bar one or two very small scratches and dents, hardly noticable. The left rear brake was sticking on a little bit but me and my dad (mostly my dad) sorted it in a few minutes :)

So, a little to-do list for now:

-Air con needs regassing, and mmmight have a leak - radiator for it looks a little worse for wear
-Got some wind deflectors, was fitting them, but it started raining :( Was having trouble fitting them actually, they don't seem to fit that tightly, even with the little clips they come with. Hmmmm!
-Gear change seems a little stiff/not too smooth when moving the stick left to right - possibly that spring I hear about that seems to snap on some people, that could be seized up a little? Like I said that car's been sat for a year or two.
-Have bought a little rear spoiler for it, you know the little one that sits atop the tailgate. Need to spray it silver and fit it :)
-Need to fit the new CD player, the old one didn't have an aux input and looked a bit cheap!
-Needs new wipers - the rubber on the current ones have gone hard and are peeling away from the wiper arm itself. Might as well be rubbing the windows with bits of cardboard :p
-Got some new door handles on it to replace the really faded ones it has on now. Black, instead of light grey :) I think they're past the peanut butter treatment, hah. Speaking of which, I'll have a go at getting the faded plastic on the front/rear bumpers back to their original darker colour too with that idea.
-I'd bought and fitted the front foglights, but there's no switch for them on the stalk on the steering column. Need to figure that out, either getting them to come on with the lights, or possibly get some kind of switch for them? I vaguely remember hearing something about compatibility with Almera stalk things? (Yes, I am terrible at knowing the right word, bear with me :D)

So yeah, pictures. Sorry!

How it was when I bought it:

before.jpg



Weather was nice and sunny, so I gave it a good ol' clean. Then it started raining :(

back.jpg



The usual 'here's the engine bay' photo! Looks a bit grotty, but runs well enough.

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Previous owner had installed some aftermarket speakers on the parcel shelf. Haven't had a chance to properly test 'em yet :p

rear.jpg



Here it is with the foglights fitted! Looks a bit smarter, I think.

car.jpg


Sorry for the massive essay! Oh, and here's the headlight covers. I've cleaned them up since taking this photo, got rid of the wierd algae stuff growing/dripping down the side. They're in pretty solid condition, one has a very small crack in one corner, the other has a little chip out of the corner but doesn't interfere with the fit/function of them at all :)

lightcovers.jpg


Again, sorry for the massive post. I'm just really chuffed about it :D

/prepares for onslaught of "LOWER IIIIIIT" :D

Oh, before I forget - would it be possible to fit the rear bumper from a pre-facelift one? I hear it's a bit difficult to swap the front one, but what about the rear?

Cheers!
 
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Same as mine bud ( 1.4 ? ) if it is.......you're gonna love it. Cracking price, right on the money imo
Although there is another in Rotheram for £795, if I was closer....I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
Enjoy as the yanks say.
 
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Pete89
Same as mine bud ( 1.4 ? ) if it is.......you're gonna love it. Cracking price, right on the money imo
Although there is another in Rotheram for £795, if I was closer....I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
Enjoy as the yanks say.

Nah, just a 1.0 or the insurance would probably eat me. First car and all that :p Most of the others I could see for £700 and below were all a bit beaten up/scratched/dented/missing parts, so that one sounds like a bargain! Likewise, there were a couple I'd have loved to buy but were hundreds of miles away :\ I see yours has wind deflectors, did you have trouble fitting them? Mine seem really loose, to the point where I wouldn't trust them to stay in as they are, and the little clips they came with don't do the job properly, they're too small. Any tips? (Nice wheels too, BTW!)

Magpie: Cheers! I prefer how the older style back bumpers look, a bit more sporty :] I'd probably have to cut some holes for the parking sensors but that's likely an easy job.

Oh, and here's a before/after kind of thing with the peanut butter on the plastic parts, I did today. Quite a difference, though I don't know how long it'll last. Getting some paint tomorrow for the spoiler :)

peanutbutter.jpg
 
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Hello Pete. Welcome. My deflectors fitted fine with the little clips and are good and tight, don't know why yours are not !
The wheels are simply covers from Lidl....£13 that's the ones on my avatar, I run on Mazda mx 5 wheels now, had to bore the centres out, easy job with a rotary file.
The 1.o litres are fine, move up to the 1.4 when you can....and be amazed. Happy motoring.
 
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Pete89
My deflectors fitted fine with the little clips and are good and tight, don't know why yours are not !

Odd... Which brand are yours? Mine are 'G3' apparently, weren't particularly cheap or anything. The clips they've given me seem a little too big to fit where it says to fit them.
 

MaxK11C

Micraless
Moderator
Social Brand Manager
Looking good!
Take care of those headlight covers, they're quite hard to find for facelifts.
Silver facelift crew.
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Odd... Which brand are yours? Mine are 'G3' apparently, weren't particularly cheap or anything. The clips they've given me seem a little too big to fit where it says to fit them.
I have G3 ones on mine. Fit fine but needed to reshape the clips a bit and took a lot of force to get in. Nice car mate I have the same facelift :)
 

Magpie42

Actual Magpie.
Nah, just a 1.0 or the insurance would probably eat me. First car and all that :p Most of the others I could see for £700 and below were all a bit beaten up/scratched/dented/missing parts, so that one sounds like a bargain! Likewise, there were a couple I'd have loved to buy but were hundreds of miles away :\ I see yours has wind deflectors, did you have trouble fitting them? Mine seem really loose, to the point where I wouldn't trust them to stay in as they are, and the little clips they came with don't do the job properly, they're too small. Any tips? (Nice wheels too, BTW!)

Magpie: Cheers! I prefer how the older style back bumpers look, a bit more sporty :] I'd probably have to cut some holes for the parking sensors but that's likely an easy job.

Oh, and here's a before/after kind of thing with the peanut butter on the plastic parts, I did today. Quite a difference, though I don't know how long it'll last. Getting some paint tomorrow for the spoiler :)

peanutbutter.jpg

You know a heatgun does the same thing to those grey bits....with 172% less effort?
 
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Pete89
I have G3 ones on mine. Fit fine but needed to reshape the clips a bit and took a lot of force to get in. Nice car mate I have the same facelift :)
Ah, that makes sense. I was trying to get them in yesterday and it just looked like they were about double the size they needed to be to fit... So I was thinking about what I could use in there instead, but I'll try it your way first. I really like how yours looks, by the way! Looks pretty neat with the dark silver/black colour scheme, and the yellow fogs :) Kind of considering yellow tinted fogs myself, but not entirely sure whether it'll suit it or not. In two minds about lowering it too, probably just a 30-40mm drop. It might need new springs anyway as it kind of sits to one side very slightly, at the back.

You know a heatgun does the same thing to those grey bits....with 172% less effort?
Oh, haha. I hadn't heard of doing it that way, oops! Still, how often do you get the chance to do something as bizarre as rubbing peanut butter onto a car? :D I'll try the heat gun method next time though if it starts to look a bit faded again, cheers!

edit: weyyyy, got the wind deflectors in. Just had to squish the clips a little bit with some pliers to get them to go in :)
 
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Nahh the peanut butter method is probably the best way, or any product that contains the oils which moisturise the plastics. Using a heatgun works for a bit, but then fades the plastics further (that's how they get like that in the first place).
 
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Pete89
Prefacelift all the way! ;)
Haha :D To be fair, I don't know which version of the K11 I like more. The facelift ones look a bit better while stock (or near-stock) IMO, while the pre-facelift ones are a better base for modding/look better modded, I'd say. But they're lovely cars, and each one (on here at least) is unique :)

Haven't got round to getting the paint yet for the spoiler on this, oops. Should be doing it on friday and spraying it over the weekend if all goes to plan :)
 

Clodo

Club Member
Nahh the peanut butter method is probably the best way, or any product that contains the oils which moisturise the plastics. Using a heatgun works for a bit, but then fades the plastics further (that's how they get like that in the first place).
Don't use cooking oil.... xx
 

HASAN

micrarri power!!
Haha :D To be fair, I don't know which version of the K11 I like more. The facelift ones look a bit better while stock (or near-stock) IMO, while the pre-facelift ones are a better base for modding/look better modded, I'd say. But they're lovely cars, and each one (on here at least) is unique :)

Haven't got round to getting the paint yet for the spoiler on this, oops. Should be doing it on friday and spraying it over the weekend if all goes to plan :)

Yeah id have to agree with you on that one mate
 
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Pete89
So, I painted the spoiler over the last couple of days! Because I'm an idiot, I messed it up somehow so it's sliiiiiightly patchy in places as you can see (why, why did I choose a metallic coloured car?), but I'll fit it at the weekend, along with the new door handles (old ones are very faded, even with the peanut butter treatment) and the pre-facelift rear lights (don't like the newer ones as much) :)
 

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Pete89
Did some more work on it this weekend :)

Switched out the old, faded door handles, for one. New shiny black ones! Comparison:

handles.jpg


Though after fitting them, I used some leftover paint from the spoiler to spray the old ones silver, and think I might actually prefer silver ones instead, doh. I'll have to spray the new ones as well anyway, as the new ones have a smooth finish (since they're not genuine) that'll be a lot better for silver, as the old ones have a kind of slightly textured/bumpy feel to them which doesn't look as right when sprayed. Ran out of paint while spraying the old ones too, so they're not done amazingly well. But yes, the new ones! Shiny.

Aaaand switched the rear lights for the pre-facelift ones, which I prefer. Seems the bulb for the reverse light's gone, so I'll have to sort that out quite soon :p Gave it a wash too, it's quite dirty in this picture (it's parked over the road in the layby under a ton of trees mostly, so it was covered in tree sap and presents from the birds).

newlights.jpg


I was going to fit the spoiler, but it turns out I was dumb to buy a fake one, which doesn't have the bits to screw it in with, so I'd have to glue it, but it's slightly too wide and doesn't fit well enough to be glued securely. Disaster! Just bought an actual Nissan one off Ebay for £25 though, weyy! Hopefully I'll have more luck with that one.
 
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