K11 Front Beam welded or bolt-on?

CMF_Tomlenn

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Hellow everybody,

I've not posted a lot on this forum since I'm not really tuning my Micra K11, I use it just as an everyday car and it's been great so far. I enjoy reading this forum, especially about all the turbo conversions and so on, however now I have an issue with my own K11 where I could use some help/advice.

I have a 1993 Micra 1.3LX wich has done 218.000 km now (135.458 miles) without any mechanical problems, no oil consumption whatsoever thus Japanese reliability rules!

However since I live in the Netherlands conditions for the car are severe in terms of moisture and rain (it really rains a lot here sometimes), especially in winter times when salt is used to keep ice from freezing the road deck. This means that after 15 years the front beam (behind the front bumper and also connected to the engine support beam) is starting to rust very badly and has to be welded or replaced in the near future.

In the Netherlands every car has to do APK (in English MOT, I don't know if there is such a thing in Australia) anually in which the car is checked on safety and emvironmental state. My Micra has had it's last checkup in February and the front beam is noted as weak in the inspection report. This means I have to do something about it before the next inspection, or my Micra can go to the wrecker's :(!

So a few days ago I started to disassemble the front of the car and I'm a bit puzzled about the whole front part. I can get a totally new front piece (including a new front beam) for juist abount 40 euros, (that's about 70 australian dollars). See the atached image in this post.

And now the million dollar question, is it easily possible to swap the part on the first image to my Micra?
I'm not sure if the part is welded anywhere to the lateral beams of the chassis, especially at the marked area on the photo in the second follow-up. I hope anyone here can tell me if it is.

I also removed the bumper supports but I still couldn't see if it's welded or not. I don't think so, but I have to be sure before I order a new front piece.

If it's bolt-on it's no problem for me, but if it's welded it makes stuff a lot more complicated as I've got to arrange a friend with welding equipment.

My Haynes K11 manual could not help me with this, If someone else could that would be great!

Greetings from the other side of the globe,

Tom

 

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CMF_deNs

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That bit you've circled there is just the bumper bar support.. not really a part of that whole thing as it's just bolted on by two or three big bolts.. But like sportsclassic said there's a bit of spot welding involved, too.

---dens
 

CMF_Tomlenn

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TY for all the quick replies especially asdame!
(@DeNS I know the part I circled is the bumper support but I mean what's behind it of course, the lateral chassis beam. I already removed the bumper support, but I forgot to make a photo of it.)

However since there is some spotwelding involved I'm going to see what to do. The front beam on my K11 has already been welded on the left and the right (this does not show up clearly on the photo) by my Nissan garage. The problem now is exactly in the middle of the beam where it meets up with the engine support beam. This is an easy, square part and thus easy to weld a new plate on. I'm just going to check how much arms and legs it'll cost me to replace it all, or just weld a plate to the beam. Especially since I'm not a welder myself, and a friend of mine is but I don't know if he has a spot welding tool.

Also (in the thread posted by asdame, is it necessary to re-align the car after replacing the beam? I'm not really sure, couldn't hurt of course...
 

CMF_turbo march-rolling shell

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you dont need a spot welding tool.. any old mig welder will do it. you'll find that most panel beaters will only use a mig anyway. not as pretty, but you won't see it anyway. if you take the old one of carefully enough and don't bend what is staying behind.. then you shouldn't need to re align anything.. allthough, obviously for the price you have said, the front radiator support or "beam axle" as you've called it, it won't be a genuine nissan one.. and will probably need custom mods to make it fit all over the place, which is normal for chinese panels.
 

CMF_solarice

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when i replaced mine, i just marked up where the old one went upto...then hammered/chislled if off the car, ground down the remaining welds then clamped the new one up to the old position and mig welded it back on.

The only thing i had to alter was some of the headlight mounting holes as they were off slightly and made the pass side light twist when fitting...apart from that all is good :) (and it wasnt a genuine nissan part)

To answer your welded/bolted question its both, though theres more weld than bolts (the main bolts are at both ends - 2 or 3 at toe hook side hidden behind the washer bottle & 2 or 3 at other end)...so you could bolt it back into place and then drive the car to a welders / your friends if you have to :)

Hope that helps.
 
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