Rouge 5(077) Redux (The start of a love affair)!

[Andy5077]

My acquaintance with Rouge 5 began 3 years ago when I was looking for a stop gap car after my Toyota Hilux Surf died and I was looking for a cheap runner to bide me over till I could find another 4x4. I was chasing around forecourts and scouring the local paper for a bargain to no avail, then a mate who worked at a well known local garage called me to say a Hilux had been traded in and perhaps I should take a gander so I did.

The Hilux was over priced and needed a bit of work (rusty) so I took a wonder around the back yard and spotted 3 Micra's hiding in the corner, one was a white 1998 GL the other was a blue twister but both had seen better days and then there was this dirty sorry looking Red 2002 SE advertised as a 1000cc and priced at £850 which attracted my eye. I asked to test drive her and was amazed at how nippy she was, it felt and sounded like the nearside wheel bearing needed attention and there was a few scratches on the front and rear spoilers but nothing major and under the hood the engine bay looked clean and the cross member looked sound. When we got back to the garage I put in a cheeky offer of £700 and to my amazement they accepted.

After sorting out the paper work (insurance/Registration change to my previous of 5077) and she had been valeted I picked her up 2 days later she looked great and thus the love affair begun! A week later I received in the post the log book and change of ownership documents and guess what it stated that Rouge 5 was a 2002 (nov) 1.4SE! There have been a few surprises in our relationship for example a snapped clutch cable and new clutch, new cv's and 2 spots of rust but Rouge 5 does get pampered (regular services) etc.

This year Rouge 5 is a very lucky girl she is has having a big make over (upgrade) thanks to her sister Le Petit Vert (2002 CVT 1.4SE+) who is donating various body parts before she goes to the big garage in the sky!

Rouge 5:

Rouge 5 and her sister Le Petit Vert (minus some body parts)!

The next instalments will include the Redux of Rouge 5!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

The Redux of Rouge 5 began with the easiest "rubbed" part from Le Petit Vert the rear parcel shelve which included the standard Nissan speakers (Rouge 5 did not have them), it couldn't have been easier simply unplug the parcel shelf refit to rouge unclip the rear right side boot liner and hey presto there was the speaker cable and plug screwed to a bracket, connecting to the Nissan Radio/CD Player was easy as well unscrew the central facia surround then un screw the Radio/CD Player pull it out and there was the rear speakers plug/cable waiting to be plugged in! I must admit I was impressed by the Nissan rear speakers power and quality (there again I am tone deaf)!

Flushed with achievement and success I proceeded with the task of "rubbing" the fog lights for Rouge 5, I jacked up Le Petit Vert and (health and safety) placed my axle supports under her and proceeded to remove both front (alloy) wheels so I could remove the inner wheel arch liners for better access to the rear of the fog lights. I first wiped away 13 years of dirt from the plugs and then carefully unclipped the units from the recesses and before refitting them to Rouge I splint them open and gave the lenses and surrounds a good clean and polish.

After re fitting the wheel arch liners and before re fitting the alloys I checked over the brakes including the pads, callipers and disc's so I could gauge there condition to see what new parts I would need before re fitting them to Rouge. I then moved onto to Rouge and removed the fog lamp blank and nearside wheel and wheel arch liner and loads of dirt and grim and there clipped up on the chassis was the fog lamp plug and cable, the plug was tapped up so it was nice and clean I inserted the fog lamp (greased up the clips for easier insertion) and connected the plugs and tapped them up re fitted everything and repeated the process for the drivers side but the access to the plug on the chassis was a lot harder due to the position of the windscreen washer reservoir bottle after the re fitting of all components I had a cuppa before moving back to Vert to rub the light/fog light switch stem.

To remove the right side switching stem you first must drop the steering wheel using the lever on the right side and then proceed to remove the two screws holding instrument cowling and then you can remove the steering column cowling removing the two securing screws on the bottom cowling. Once the cowling is removed you can locate the two small screws securing the switch stem and also the two electrical connector plugs. This stem has the extra front fog light switch on it thus giving you the option to independently switch the front fog lamps on without the rear fog lamp on. It was a straight swap for rouge's stem switch. Once everything was re fitted all that needed to be done was rub the front fog lamp relay from Vert's fuse compartment on the drivers side, this was the hardest job of the process because the relay is located above the top right of the fuse board with not much room to manipulate the relay out but after a few swear words and red raw knuckles I managed to wriggle the little XXXXXX out!

After re fitting the relay into Rouge 5 I tested the fog lamps and to my amazement everything worked perfectly JOB DONE! In my opinion apart from the obvious advantage of the fog lamps they really look cool in the spoiler!

In the next instalment the refurbishment of the ventilated front disc callipers and the re fitting to Rouge 5!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

The last few days have been a bit hectic yesterday with the help of a mechanic friend I decided to replace the clutch cable which had stretched and made selecting 1st gear and reverse a crunching affair! We did it but we had to add packers to set the bite properly (see thread Clutch/Cable or Pedal Problems) in K11 Tuning section and thanks Frank for the advice the clutch cable is good now.

The first refit and easiest I did was the swapping over of the parcel shelf which contained the factory fitted speakers to Rouge 5 here are some pics:

Here is the parcel shelf after I cleaned it up looks brand new now!

I even cleaned the underneath! The connector plug on the right

The rear speakers plug was hidden behind the right side liner! (the speaker is my reversing sensor buzzer)

Job done!

Next on the agenda was repairing my remote central locking key fob which had not worked for a while I did price a new one up but the price was a rip off but I did obtain a new body for it at £6 from a locksmith! The un-locking button worked but the locking button had broken off the circuit board so with a little apprehension I decided to try and re-solder it and to my and everybody else's surprise it worked!

Dismantling the key fob

Re-soldering the button

The button re-soldered to the circuit board (I know the solder joints are messy) but it works lol!

Next time I will as promised include re-furbishing and retro fitting the front ventilated discs to Rouge 5!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

Hi it has been a busy weekend working on Rouge 5, I decided to replace the clutch cable it has been playing up for a few months now especially crunching into first and reverse gear this process didn't go as easy as I thought! Also started to refurbish and ready for painting Le Petit Vert's (LPV) donated rear roof spoiler which is metallic green and I also removed her roof liner and sunroof shade.

Rouge 5's front disc brakes had started to grind a little bit so I knew they would have to have a little bit of TLC lavished on them so I decided to replace them with the donated upgraded"ventilated" front disc brakes from LPV. I did this over a weekend with my mechanic friend after we removed them from LPV we noticed the disc's looked pretty worn so I decided to buy new one's. When I got the callipers on the work bench and cleaned and disassembled them I noticed the seals and gators could do with replacing as well.

I removed the pistons with the air compressor gun and they popped out easily and removed the inner seals with a pic tool, the inside of the piston cylinder was thoroughly cleaned especially in the seal grooves and there was no damage to the cylinder housing sides. The piston head which makes contact with the back of break pads had a little rust which was easily removed with wire wool. I then prepared the calliper castings and arms for painting with red heat resistance paint, I coated the callipers twice. Using the two types of grease provided (one for the seals and one for the gators) I greased up the seals which slipped into the groves and then with a G clamp squashed the piston back into place. The next job was to reassemble the outer calliper arm with the new greased up gators, then a thorough clean of the brand new ventilated disc's with brake cleaner.

Refitting the new disc's and the refurbished callipers was straight forward so was the bleeding of the pipes which was made much easier with the help of my mate. I know the original disc's could have lasted another 12 months and the seals/gators were in reasonable condition but since it was an easy process to strip and check the whole calliper it would be a false economy not replace the components with new for what it would cost.

I already had the brake cleaner and new brake fluid so the cost was:
2 x new ventilated disc's = £50
2 x pairs of new brake pads = £14
2 x packs of calliper seal kits = £34
Total cost of the upgrade of new/refurbished ventilated disc brakes = £98

Sorry I did not take pics of the disassembled callipers but here are a few of the new "shiny" disc's and red callipers fitted to Rouge 5!

A few days after fitting the new disc's it didn't take long for surface rust to appear!

The callipers for ventilated disc's are noticeable wider then callipers for solid disc's

The new ventilated front disc brakes do give a measured improvement in performance and they do improve Rouge 5's looks lol!

Next instalment the "dreaded" clutch cable and a few pics of the "disrobed" Le Petit Vert!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

Early last year I had a new clutch and clutch cable fitted but during last December it was getting harder to engage 1st and especially reverse gear which when trying to select produced a loud "clunk" noise. My mechanic mate reckoned the clutch cable had stretched so I decided to replace it with a new Blue Print cable. Removing the old clutch cable was straight forward due to removing the shelf below the steering column and also removing the battery and some air filter ducting in the engine compartment.

The new cable was compared with the old cable and it was a few mm longer, the refitting of the new cable was a bit more tricky trying to feed the new cable around the engine and through the bulkhead to clutch pedal, once fitted it was adjusted fully on the screw thread (no adjustment left) but when tested seemed ok with no problems engaging 1st or reverse gear. Everything seemed alright but later on it seemed to get worse trying to engage any gear, so next day my mate checked it out and found that the adjustment screw/knurled wheel had come loose so to rectify this we added another nut which tightened onto the adjustment wheel seem to do the trick but there was no adjustment left to set the clutch bite. I then posted a thread asking for suggestions to rectify the problem and thanks to fellow forum members especially Frank we added packers/washers to the cable to gain extra adjustment which cured the problem!

How many washers do I need to add??

That's better!

Job done and no more groaning/grinding noises from Rouge 5!

Thanks again guys for your help in rectifying the problem.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

Next phase of my project Rouge Redux was to check her front end and where necessary treat any corrosion found, I knew there was corrosion on the T Bar that supports the bonnet catch to the cross member and also the 2 metal legends that connect the front spoiler to the chassis but I wanted to thoroughly inspect the cross member. Removing the front spoiler was a bit of a task but armed with my trusted Haynes manual for reference I started with easy removal of the wheels, wheel arch liners, disconnection of fog/driving lamps and the plastic belly splash plates but on the drivers side was a different matter because to access the 2 legend bolts you have to remove the windscreen wash reservoir bottle which was a bitch!

Once everything was removed I could see that the metal legends that were connected to the spoiler were covered in corrosion so set about removing them from the spoiler.
A wee bit of corrosion on the metal legend is it salvageable?

After a squirt of WD40 I got them off and they did look bad but most of the corrosion was on the underneath side of the legends!

I set about cleaning them up with a wire wheel attached to a cordless drill also used a wire brush and emery cloth! I treated the corrosion with Hammerite Krust solution which worked a treat!

Next I coated the legends with Hammerite rust resistant smooth red paint which you can apply directly to rust without a primer then re-attached the legends to the spoiler. I also cleaned the inside of the spoiler!

Next I paid attention to the rusty T Bar.

After treatment with Krust!

Sprayed up!

Next was the cross member which had only surface corrosion where the T Bar was attached so treated that!

Underneath of cross member

Cross member looks brand new!

Rouge's face with Autoglym makeup on lol!

Rouge 5 back together is that a smile on her face!

Next will be fixing Rouge's sagging bits!

*Being not satisfied with the refurbished legends I have now sourced and bought brand new genuine Nissan metal legends!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

The brand new genuine Nissan front spoiler legends (connectors) arrived today only took 2 days to arrive great service from Nissan Westway in Southampton! I have also ordered new chrome door handles the black plastic ones had faded badly and also new alloy wheel centre covers the original ones had become brittle and were not fitting very securely. So now have plenty more work fitting the new bits to Rouge 5, I am also going to remove and clean up the rocker cover might bead blast it or spray it up but not sure what colour would look good maybe matt black, light silver or red??

Look what arrived in the post shiny new legends!

The driver's side door card material was sagging so I re-stretched and stapled them.

That's better!

Next job will be removing the front spoiler "again" and applying waxoyl to the new legends and re-fitting the spoiler! Hopefully the shiny new chrome door levers will arrive soon also looking at the possibility of motorising the rear windows?

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

Hi it's been a funny few days did some work on Rouge 5 and then today the "bloody" clutch cable played up, the rubber grummet slipped off the bracket that supports the cable by the clutch lever! I managed to re-adjust the cable and refit the rubber grommet to the support bracket but I am still peeved that a "brand new" Blue Print clutch cable had to have washers/packets added to it for it to work I am going to order and fit a genuine Nissan clutch cable!

Yesterday I removed both front seats and cleaned them thoroughly and also cleaned the car carpet and plastic bits as well!

My brand new Nissan shiny "bit's" arrived today it was like Christmas lol! New alloy wheel centre covers (the old ones were brittle and damaged) and also shiny chrome door handles arrived.

Today I bought stainless steel hex head new rocker cover bolts and also a tube of very expensive Loctite574 flange sealant which I was told is the best stuff available!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

Today I took the prepped rocker cover to be bead blasted and also got it back today and what a difference it looks better then new lol! I also ordered the genuine Nissan clutch cable and was promised it will be here Tuesday and hopefully it will not need any packers when I fit it! I also unpacked a parcel from Davyboy and out popped a shiny wrap around rear spoiler cheers for that mate I will now have to find time to get it sprayed up and fitted to Rouge 5!

Rocker cover before!

And after!

And painted up waiting for a coat of lacquer!

Not sure what job to do next remove the front spoiler again and fit new connecting legends or fir the new shiny chrome door handles lol!

Cheers
Andy

 

[huntr_micra_sport]

ive seen chrome corner strips for the bumpers somewhere before, would look well with your chrome door handles instead of the grey bits currently on them

 

[Andy5077]

ive seen chrome corner strips for the bumpers somewhere before, would look well with your chrome door handles instead of the grey bits currently on them

I agree they would, funny thing is a guy on the MSC Facebook group page posted a pic of his Micra with chrome inserts on his bumpers I asked him where he got them and he said they came standard on his SE+ model? I have a top spec CVT 1.4SE+ and it didn't have them!

The search is on for them shiny bumpers lol!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

It's been a busy weekend for me, started off by ordering from a scrappy recommended by Davyboy a replacement drivers seat and front and rear door cards which I will pick up in Cornwall when I go and collect a March Cabriolet which I am buying off Davyboy happy days!

I also stripped down each door starting with the front and replacing the faded door handles with new shiny chrome one's whilst the doors were stripped I waxoyl the insides and I replaced the drivers side window (which was scratched due to mirror smashing against it) with one from doner Le Petit Vert! Everything was going ok till I started to strip the rear doors and found the vertical window guides were rotten so I stripped out Vert's and refurbished them by removing the paint and recoating them with rust resistance paint they look like new now!

Stripping Rouge 5 I hate the sticky stuff gets everywhere lol!

Out with the old and in with the shiny new!

Shiny new blink lol!

Oh no rotten window guide!

Refurbished guide alongside rotten one notice newspaper headline above refurbished guide lol!

Cleaned the window glass!

Removed the rear quarter lights and cleaned them and the rubber guides!

Put everything back together and forgot to take a pic lol! Next job was to sort out Rouge 5's derriere which I knew had a bit of corrosion behind her near side rear light cluster which will be in my next instalment.

Thanks for taking time to read this and I do welcome any suggestions or comments?

Till next time
Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

When I first met Rouge 5 I did know she had a problem with her derriere and I did do a quick makeover on her more cosmetic then corrective surgery but the time had come to take emery cloth in hand and apply a foundation of Hammerite Kurust finished off by a rouge blusher lol!

Getting her rear light cluster off was a game and a half and there was only 2 bolts the 3rd one had been sheared off, but the sealant had done a good job of welding it to the bodywork and it took ages to clean it off the paint and off the light cluster as well.

Here's Rouge 5 all prepped for surgery the black patches is the rust turned to black by the Kurust!

The makeover products!

Foundation applied (rust prevention paint)!

She looked rough so I applied 2 foundation base coats!

Need to wait 24 to 48 hours before cured enough to apply top coat so I temporarily fitted the light cluster and sealed with tape!

The light cluster caked in sealant!

After a lot of elbow grease!

Nice clean and shiny light cluster!

Now have to wait for a replacement light cluster from the big rock!

To be continued.................?
Cheers
Andy

 

[infinity]

You need the sealant!! If not water will get in

 

[Andy5077]

You need the sealant!! If not water will get in

Hi mate,
I am waiting for a replacement unit this one has a bolt sheered off so I have put it on temporary and sealed it with electrical tape.

Cheers
Andy

 

[infinity]

Mines missing a bolt too still fits though

 

[Andy5077]

Hi,
Still waiting for the replacement rear light cluster to arrive so I decided to remove the front bumper and replace the metal legends that I refurbished with genuine Nissan ones. I was not happy knowing there was corrosion still in the box section. It only took me 2o minutes to remove the front bumper (used to it now) and I Waxoyl the new ones before fitting them and I also recoated the cross member with stone resistant paint again.

I also removed the battery and refurbished the battery support tray and also the front tow loop and cleaned up the manifold cover!

The old and the new metal legends

New legend in place

Recoated the cross member again!

Battery tray before!

Refurbished battery plate/support and front tow hook

Battery support plate refitted

Front tow hook refitted

Also cleaned the manifold cover very shiny now lol!

Manifold cover refitted

Engine bay is looking a bit more tidy now!

Also received the genuine Nissan clutch cable!

And some 1998 Nissan Micra alloys for the "new" family member?

Next job is to fit the replacement rear light cluster if it ever arrives and to clean up the lower manifold cover!

To be continued........

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

I have decided to spend some more time with Rouge 5, since meeting my new "sexy" Island Girl cabriolet I have neglected Rouge and she has become jealous so I gave her some TLC today I decided to present her with the shiny jewellery I purchased for her and boy does she look refined and elegant not blingy at all!

Next time a closer look at Rouge 5's derriere!

To be continued..........

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

Hi just a quick update and a few pics on Rouge's derriere uncovered to check for corrosion and what a surprise none found not even on the valance, her bum was like a brand new babies me's a happy chappy lol!
There's electrical on the driver's tail light cluster (broken fixing bolts) due to me being a lazy "C--T" and not replacing it with a good one I have lol!

The derriere region with a tad of rust above the boot seal!

Rouge smelling the flowers!

To be continued.............

Cheers
Andy

 

[Andy5077]

Hi guys I really appreciate some suggestions or input to this on going project, I know bringing Rouge 5 and changing her appearance from standard spec is not acceptable to the purists but she is a SE who should have been a SE+ mechanically wise she is perfect the only bit of attention she needed was around her rear drivers tail light cluster and the same side rear wheel arch! Her engine is so tight it's like driving her out of the franchise showroom. I have Blinged her up with chrome door handles and bumper trims and also upgraded her brakes to ventilated and added front fog lights and SE+ alloy wheels I would love to add headlight wipers (cannot find no info on this)?? I have a wrap around rear spoiler should I fit this to Rouge 5 who is one of the very last of the 2002 K11's (Nov)??

Cheers
Andy

 

[huntr_micra_sport]

Yes definitely get the spoiler on, and you should also look into chrome spray paint for the rest of the grey plastic or else just remove the bump strips and colour code the bumpers red, just an idea

Looking mint though

 

[Zazee]

Very cool stuff! I would fit the rear spoiler. It will really improve the look of the car