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My Nan's Micra build.

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Sooo. This is how the Micra currently sits. It's been neglected for quite some time. It was the micra I passed my driving test in (March last year), and being a CGA3DE, inevitable oil starvation led to it eating a bottom end. RIP.

But first, introduction to how my micra obsession came about.

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Introducing Y279RPP. My first micra. £250, Boxing Day 2015. 1.0 S, bit rough around the edges, but one of the most solid micra shells I've ever seen. Currently owned by my friend Ben's little brother Tim. Ben is the owner of a CG13 swapped K10.

Needless to say, my driving test was coming around fast, and I hit a high kerb with it one night. Bent the front cross member and made the exhaust leak at the manifold-downpipe joint.

Bought the black micra at the start of March 2016.

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Quickly found fame locally as 'My Nan's Micra', after someone shouted at a car meet 'Your nan is going to be F*****g Livid' after I did a chavvy burnout in it. Hindsight tells me this was childish. I was on L plates after all. Passed my driving test 12 hours later with 2 minors.

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Started using it as a bit of a workhorse. Was a good car, carried my tools about for me as I needed it to. Then one day the bottom end went.

Onto eBay I went, and bought another micra cheap. There was a 1.0 nearby for £250.

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Workhorsed that as well.
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Yes, you can fit an engine crane in a micra.

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And 3 propane tanks at a festival.

Shortly after, I got my first rented garage. Just somewhere to store tools and keep stuff. This was August 2016.

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My friend George volunteered to pull the trailer with the car up to newport for me. He's been my best mate ever since.

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Got the engine out. Took about an hour, engine was being thrown out, so I wasn't picky about it. Pulled the engine loom from in the car and left that on, and lifted the engine out minus driveshafts.

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Introducing unit 2. Moved up to a bigger unit in November 2016.

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And that brings us fairly close to where we are now. I was planning a B204 conversion and threw various ideas around, but the cost of B204s has gone through the roof of late, so I threw that idea out recently. I chanced upon £100 of 1.8 manual MX5. Hmmmm...

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Before I ripped the engine and 'box out though, I was determined to have some fun in it.

£35 of spray paint, £10 of stickers and £40 of welded diff later, voilà. 16 tyres in 2 weeks.

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Sadly, I've blown the clutch on it. So this basically forces my hand to get the engine and box out and start making some kind of progress on it. So this week the micra will come back to the yard out of long term storage (My mates farm), the mx5 will come off the road, and well make a start on making some kind of Frankenstein's monster.

Rules.

No shortcuts
No twin ignition switches - one wiring loom for engine and car.
Car must be genuinely MOT'able before going on the road. Not taking any chances.
No cut and shut. Not welding mx5 floorpan into the micra. Modify whats in the micra now to accept the new running gear.

Bonus rule. I'll consider it a job well done if my mother would happily get in it and drive it without complaint.

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Started the day by cutting out the floorpan in the back of the car. The engine location is determined by the length of the propshaft, and so getting the diff as far back in the car is a must.

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Decided I'm going to run 17s. On 14s it was sitting at over 3.5k at 70mph. I'd like it lower than this if possible, so 17s it is

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Way too high, so... here we go.

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As it sits now

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Vs old

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120mm drop. Hehehehe.

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How it sat this morning.

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I built the frame to go above the diff subframe and will level out the car, and build to it.

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Drivers front chassis rail upright is going in. At this point I realise how little structure there is in these chassis rails, so I'm going to run box section down the sills and across the car and brace the entire bottom end of the car.

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Today's progress. Welded the rearmost panel of the car (boot shut) to the horizontal beam in the rear chassis.

Got it rolling.

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Got the strut top mounts welded in.

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And just a cheeky taste of how the wheels may sit. I may lower it further yet, I haven't decided.
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Not a huge amount of progress, but had to cut the strut top mounts out and move them 40mm to the rear as they were fouling the lower arms on the rear.

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Jobs for the weekend include dropping the engine and box out of the mx5. If i can get clearance on the steering rack (Ben Wilde/Fujiwara_ben) is being kind enough to donate the rack hopefully this weekend. If i can't get clearance on it, the mx5 engine has to go in with the front subframe, And ill have to cut the lower arm supports off the micra. This will also give me an excuse to drop the car an appropriate amount to make the front sit level with the back.

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Progress was slow today. Mainly because we spent a good chunk of the day laughing at Will for losing his bumper last night. And we had to facilitate an oil change (payday yo)

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Couple of friends popped by, including Fujiwara_ben (Ben Wilde). They're pulling the engine loom from the mx5. Turns out that the engine loom isn't the 'engine' loom so much as the 'engine bay' loom, so most of the car had to be stripped. Fun fun fun.

Engine ran for the last time today for a while till its in the micra.

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In other relevant news, we bought a new toilet. £47.99. Bargain.

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Today was hot. Too hot. 30 degrees outside, probably more inside. Got through half a crate of fizzy drinks. Fujiwara Ben showed up for a bit

I had to butcher the bottom of the boot opening for various reasons, so that's being plated over again.

Also got the captive bolts in for the rear subframe. Subframe sits square to the car +/-2mm, so any little corrections can be done on 3d alignment once the car is finished

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Had to work out a way of making the wheels sit inside the arches.

So i moved the entire panel out.

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From the front.

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It's almost like it's meant to be there...

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Still have to move it further back. Or make a spacer. Or something.

And for those of you at the back heckling 'buy a custom prop'... Kiss my ass. I plan on giving this car absolute hell, so anything that can get broken I need to keep spares of or be able to make myself in a matter of hours.

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Another shot

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Till tomorrow guys.

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Managed to get the front subframe mocked up today, had to cut the remainder of the original lower arm mount out. Had a spontaneous 2am drive with some of the Newport JDM guys (and girl) and didn't get in till early hours. Also had to unsieze some FTO brakes before midday. Also watched Fujiwara_ben change his HG on his sunny. Watching other people work is hard work, don't you know.

Anyway, here's a teaser. Front wing borrowed from Willsta3000 for an idea of where the wheel sits.
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Where the lower arm mounts used to be

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More to be cut out and boxed in for the front subframe, rear mounting bolts.

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Wont be much in the way of updates now till thursday, I'm on a course with Network Rail this week (PTS/IWA)

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Honestly. Don't run 17" wheels on a 45 profile tyre unless you want nothing but trouble. Honestly.

Subframe is in. Haven't got photos of it just yet.

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Moved the centre point of the wheel forwards 45 mm. Various reasons including clearance on the arches for the 17x7j wheels. Also to do with mounting points etc etc. Custom engine mounts to be made that the engine sits 130mm further into the car than if the micra was the same wheelbase as the mx5. I think.

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Oh, and were considering a micra pickup for the shop. Because reasons. And we got hold of a 1.4 activ and a 1.0S for not much money. And given the 1.4's tendency to chew through oil rings, it's getting a 1.4/1.0 hybrid.

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Oh, And meet the latest arrival to the family. My niece Olivia (first grandchild of my parents). If I put away £1/month, when she's 17 ill be able to buy her a povvo-spec K11. Although, knowing how much people spend on 35 year old sh*tboxes at the minute, might need to whack that monthly saving up a bit.

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Area being prepped for new crossmember to go in. Measurements taken before we cut it so that we can minimise distortion on the shell. 50x50x2mm box going to be the new crossmember and will tie into the sills as well

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Engine crane being used alongside 5t tractor axle stands. Ghetto spec but have to make do.

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Oh yeah, And clutch is a little bit fuchéd.

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Fluffy.

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Spent an hour and a half trying to work out where the hell I'd managed to end up with one sill 10mm longer than the other.

An hour and a half later, I found the answer. Wasn't quite 42.

Propose side 1 and side 2. Side 1 is driver side, on a RHD car.

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Propose that 1 and 2 refer to the uprights which should be perfectly vertical.

Propose 2 isnt. It's ever so slightly off, 3mm at the bottom further back than 1.

There's then a beam, 1625mm long going from side 1 to side 2 and is pinned to those uprights. 2 Being 3mm away from the correct position of 1, causes the passenger sill to be 6-7mm further back from the front than 1.

And obviously the drivers sill 3-4mm further forwards than 1.

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If you're still with me, and understand it, congrats. If not... I'll try better next time.

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Before we can start adding more metal to the engine bay, there was more to take out. Engine mounts were drilled out, and we filled some of the holes with weld. I was busy doing an x16xe swap into a corsa B today, so my friend george was busy getting on with the Micra and some other bits he's working on.

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Still haven't pulled the loom out of the mx5. Need to drop the strut tops to meet the front shocks, and I'm hoping/praying that this makes enough room for a master cylinder for the brakes, even if it sits above the throttle cable grommet. I'd quite like to keep a brake booster too if possible.

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This little sh*t got in the way this week, X16XE (1.6 twincam petrol) swap into a 1.2 corsa B for someone. Man's got bills to pay. The micra is sat in a £200/month unit taking up a lot of space, so I'm wanting to get it done

Also, did a mod to fujiwara_ben's K10 today ready for Japshow at Pos this weekend. Little sod wont let me borrow his sunny for JapFest finale at combe in october, I daily drive a ford CMax

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Making good use of the original chassis legs. Only problem being that some genius bought M12 bolts... When the MX5 used M14 bolts for the subframe.

Tomorrow I'm working on a Mitsubishi colt (4G92 MIVEC conversion I'm doing).

Also blew out a brake line on my father's Mk4 astra. So I've got to make a new line for him. Deep joy.

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Subframe is in and bolted up

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Got to make some gusset plates (?) To bridge the front crossmember to the original chassis rails.

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Better view of the subframe mount spreader plates. 60x60x3mm box section cut down and welded in with an m14 captive nut.

That's all for today. Hoping to get the engine back in this week and get some engine mounts made up.

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John_D

Club Member
Radio Code Guru
Well it looks super strong, built in the style of IKB;) How did you arrive at 60x60x3mm steel box section for the chassis? How many metres of 60x60x3mm steel box have you got in the build? Have you calculated the weight? (one metre weighs 5.13 Kg):eek:...
 
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I raided my mates dad's yard for something that would fit. The majority of the box is actually 50x50x2mm. Given that a lot of his steel stock is just bits and pieces left over from other jobs, there's lots of random sizes to choose from.

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Sooo. This is how the Micra currently sits. It's been neglected for quite some time. It was the micra I passed my driving test in (March last year), and being a CGA3DE, inevitable oil starvation led to it eating a bottom end. RIP.
what do you mean?
do the 1.4s have oil problems
 
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