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My first car! And my second k10

I have decided to start a thread before I pic up my second k10 in a couple of weeks so first will give you the history with my first car.
I bought a 1988 k10 LS in december 2015 saving it from Autograss, I intended to get a 1.3 k11 as a first car but when I saw this for sale I fell in love. (Photos to follow as they're on my old laptop)
Before I had bought the car I had organised to buy some lowering springs, bikecarbs on a k10 manifold and a 4-1 manifold so the week after buying the car I traveled 2 hours to get them. Fitted the springs the next day which were 35mm with 2 coils chopped off all round. 2 weeks later I got the bike carbs on the day before a 2 hour drive to go away for new year. After this not much happened for a few months until the headgasket failed so I bought a gasket set and in 2 nights me and a mate got it done along with a headskim. Then a month later a set of k11 banded steels came up for sale not far away so i went and bought these, 13x8 and they didn't fit on the rear. The arch sat on the middle of the tyre so the next day i bought an arch roller, and managed to get them to fit. However any kind of bump and corner meant they rubbed on the arches. At the time I couldn't afford coilovers so it stayed like this for a month or two until on the way to my physics A level exam my cambelt snapped at 70mph, luckily my friend drove past and gave me a lift to college. The k10 then sat in a layby on the A40 for a week while I had exams and was so annoyed with it. The headgasket was going too so I thought why not get a complete engine. I messaged the friend who I had bought the carbs off previously and he said he had an MA12 with an 18b head I could have. This was a Dave Walker engine with everything lightened and balanced, reprofiled cam, 50thou headskim, ported and polished, 3degree valve cut and a lightened flywheel. I was lucky enough to pick this and some bolt on arches for £80 and a wrap around bucket seat which is now in his supercharged k11. He chucked in some rear coilovers too. I managed to get the engine out and in in a week with the help of a few friends. I also fitted the 4-1 manifold but didn't have an exhaust the same diameter so ran it without an exhaust which was interesting, while the engine was out the rear coilovers went in and stopped the rubbing issue and I had just crashed my girlfriends k11 and was stripping it so stole her front coilovers. In the space of a week I ripped the clutch to pieces so to get it driveable I used the k11s clutch and it just slipped but it was enough to get it to my friends unit. I then bought an LUK clutch and a 5speed box and got that in as I would soon be doing a lot of motorway miles. My mate also fabricated an exhaust for my out of 2 inch pipe with a cherry bomb to make it legal and have a silencer, then fitted the bolt on arches to the fronts and chopped the standrad wing as they were rubbing occaisionally with the coilovers. Then I started Uni and not much happened with the k10 until the MOT in October where the floor and sills needed welding.

Before

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Part way through

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Final result

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It also needed a handbrake cable and then it passed.
All was good until a couple of weeks later when one day the passenger rear tyre started rubbing on the arch again, I raised to coilover up on that side and it still sat lower.
Then I took all the plastics out to find this...
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And that is where I bought a new car to daily and started looking for a shell.
the last pic I took

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I have found a shell which is again from my friend in northampton where my engine originally came from and should be picking it up in a couple of weeks, hence starting this thread :)
 
Looks like you've got yourself a nice project on your hands, man. Your anti-rust treatment looks the business, so you obviously know what you're doing. Your K10 will look smart as a carrot by the time you're done with it.

My favourite generation is the K11, because that was the family car when I was a bairn. I have to admit that the K10's objectively look better, though.
 
Hey Connorstew, I was just reading your post and looking at your pics when I saw the background and realised that I pass your K10 every day on the school run. ......been admiring it for a while. ....love the wheels
BTW

Hope she's back on the road soon ...

Sent from my SM-A300FU using Micra Sports Club mobile app
 
Hey Connorstew, I was just reading your post and looking at your pics when I saw the background and realised that I pass your K10 every day on the school run. ......been admiring it for a while. ....love the wheels
BTW

Hope she's back on the road soon ...


Thanks I've lost the motivation with it at the moment, was planning to pick up the new shell last week until I had a crash in my corsa daily. By your picture I'm guessing you have a k10, should meet up since your local, not many k10s round here.
 
I know the feeling. .....I've got a bloody heap of projects and sorn'ed cars that I've either lost patience or interest in, something always seems to get in the way and I have to say I've always found time consuming bodywork and welding a chore unless the weather is nice.....and yeah, I've not seen many K10s around our way.....I live about 5 mins away in town, so it'd be cool to meet up, hell I'd even be up for giving you a hand with anything you needed to do on the k10....as for mine, its bog standard so I'm not sure you'd be inspired by the performance.....lol

Sent from my SM-A300FU using Micra Sports Club mobile app
 
I know the feeling. .....I've got a bloody heap of projects and sorn'ed cars that I've either lost patience or interest in, something always seems to get in the way and I have to say I've always found time consuming bodywork and welding a chore unless the weather is nice.....and yeah, I've not seen many K10s around our way.....I live about 5 mins away in town, so it'd be cool to meet up, hell I'd even be up for giving you a hand with anything you needed to do on the k10....as for mine, its bog standard so I'm not sure you'd be inspired by the performance.....lol

Yeah it would definitely be cool to meet up! have you got facebook? Never seen your k10 around what colour is it?
 
Ha. ....very rare that a car is actually cheap ....hell, my car cost less than the suspension mods in planning for it ....lol

And yeah. .....a meet up would be awesome. ....are there any other k10 lads within a shortish distance ?

Sent from my SM-A300FU using Micra Sports Club mobile app
 
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