is that Finland, judging by the tree's?
There's something nice about older cars, even the lights have a personality
There's something nice about older cars, even the lights have a personality
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Ryan's Micra Blog
- Thread starter flyboypuoi
- Start date
OP
OP
It sure is. And they sure do. Especially when you fiddle with the lights and make them extra nice.
I made the sidelights yellow, added side markers where the JDM indicators would be and gave it two extra tail lights (inner ones are tail/fog on a dual filament)
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
You wouldn't be able to recommend a bright t10 led (red) just I need something for my foglight as normal red bulbs go white quick and some red LEDs are just too dim
Sent from my moto g(6) using Micra Sports Club mobile app
Sent from my moto g(6) using Micra Sports Club mobile app
OP
OP
Your fogs use T10 bulbs? Can I see what they're going into?
Assuming it's a reflector housing with a lens, I guess the best option after a regular T10 would be one of those new COB LEDs. Not the cheapest but they're bright, work alright in a reflector usually, and can be red. I don't know if the red ones are as bright as the white ones though.
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
Yeah it uses the reflector and yeah cause it's a later facelift march light and I'm using the reverse ,
I've tried the 5 bit led dash/side light and they are crap , filiment bulbs go white really quick (it's uses the same fitment as a t10 but bigger bulb forgot the model lol)
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OP
OP
So are you using the right reverse light as a fog light? I'd be surprised if those are T10, that would be too small, you sure they aren't T20? My lights are.
When you say the bulb goes white, do you mean the red coating comes off?
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
OP
OP
My holiday became a lot more complicated due to a small disaster, hence no updates until now.
So, picking up from where I left off. Oh, and there will be a K11 after this post, to keep it valid. I just had to use a different post as I'm limited to 30 pictures. (I couldn't use all of them!)
So, we needed our car to pass the yearly inspection. This is just the equivalent to the MOT.
Despite it leaking petrol, it passed without any remarks. Very nice, will visit this guy next time.
I couldn't just let petrol leak from the line though, so I repaired it. Got myself some nice tools for home too, assuming they get through security tomorrow.
I noticed a sedan N13 shortly after. Looks like they have bigger windows on the rear doors. Damn, I knew I should've got a sedan.
Someone let us use their car pit to repair the fuel leak, which made it much easier. I just cut the rusted line and replaced with some hose which was very clamped in.
And so, we were off.
I had a great time driving on the country lanes, which are what get raced on in rally events, including the WRC (which I watched!)
There's still some dust settling here after pulling a little skid.
All of this dust, however, means that cars get very dirty very fast.
So that needed to change.
Much better.
Not bad.
I found out that someone has repaired this side indicator poorly. The lens doesn't really fit to the wing, and the bulb socket has been replaced with a generic one. What's worse is that it's all held in with some kind of sealant, which was coating the bulb. The bulb wasn't even in the lens properly.
So I decided that I would probably grommet off the euro indicators, and rewire the side markers to their JDM origins.
Warning: NSFW:
So, everything was going according to plan. We had made half of our journey. I went to overtake someone at 100+kmh, and suddenly, violent vibration happened from the rear left. The car was still stable, but it sounded like the wheel was trying to break free. We feared that it was a puncture, and stupidly enough, the wheel in the spare compartment is the original rear right wheel with a puncture!
Luckily, the tyre was fine.
But upon inspection, I noticed something was broken...
This is when the complications started showing.
Oh yeah. That's pretty bad.
Not many photos for a while as there wasn't anything to photograph.
We gingerly limped ahead to the nearby city we were aiming for, which was a bit precarious as motorways over here don't have much of a hard shoulder, if at all in some places.
I couldn't get the car any faster than 50kmh without it shaking.
Now, imagine being somewhere you've never been, in a foreign country, with nowhere to stay, no eBay or Amazon, heck, even posting items in general is so much more complicated.
So I reached out to the Nissan Club of Finland, which I joined when I got the car.
After a few days of last-minute hotel booking, and plenty of awkward language-barrier phone calls, one person found us a lower control arm. We gave him extra cash and a chocolate gift to come and drive to us to give it to us. We got really lucky finding this part, and I can't thank the guy enough for selling it to me, and for extracting it from his car (which I'm guessing by the body-cutting wasn't the most easy).
Now then, it wasn't over yet. I still needed to get the old one off and this new one in. Luckily the car shops around here are incredible. You can buy a million different types of tool for any purpose, so I was going to buy individual spanners.
Then we got lucky once again!
Someone who lived in the city we were in offered us the use of his garage and tools. Suddenly this started to look good!
So, off to his garage, wheel off, and here's the control arm.
But, there were complications again.
First of all, the new arm wouldn't let go of its bolt and bushing. We did eventually get the arm free, but at the cost of destroying the bolt and the bushing.
Next, of course, the inner bolt on the broken arm wasn't moving at all. I managed to at least get the nut off of it, but we had to cut the bolt and bushing free from the car, destroying those too.
Carefully I took the car back to the hotel once again, now with just one control arm holding the wheel on (along with the coilover and ARB). At least this time if I went faster than 50kmh, it would wobble but not rattle loudly.
At least I got some cool car park shots.
The next day or two consisted again of parts searching. This was happening on the weekend, which over here means every single shop or whatever is closed.
And without websites like eBay, finding a new bushing wasn't easy. In fact a Nissan dealership told me that there wasn't even one in the whole country! Importing it would take weeks, and, I forgot to say. I had a plane to catch back to the UK in a few days!
An additional obstacle here was that the bolt we cut through wasn't just a 33-year-old generic bolt, it was a camber bolt, for aligning the rear wheel. Our new garage friend turned out to be one of the committee members of the Nissan Club of Finland! So we went on a little road trip to the NCF headquarters, where an old-new-stock camber bolt was waiting for us. The box looked 30+ years old, but the bolt looked new.
I've seen many interesting Nissans, mostly from the 80's, but I can't dump all of the photos here. This one I had to add though. This is a rare Nissan Echo. From the mid 60's! This is the club bus, which is now a camper.
We went for a drive with it, to a motorcycle meet!
The NCF kindly gave me a magazine before I left, and they gave me an official NCF window sticker!
It was an awesome day with some awesome people.
While we were getting the bolt, we found what may have been the only new bushing for the rear control arm for a mid-80's Nissan. We paid extra to get it delivered ASAP to the local car shop. But... it wasn't there on the day.
We had to get the car back to where it stays when we're not there, which was 5 hours away, we had a taxi booked and tickets for a train. We really had only a couple of hours to get this done, and the bushing hadn't arrived!
After maybe an hour of rather painful waiting, it finally got there, and we all rushed to the garage (Well. Went at 50kmh).
So, wheel off again, showing the lack of control arm...
New camber bolt with the old nut...
Originally this was just so that I could see the orientation of the camber bolt, but hey, here's that picture.
We borrowed the use of a hydraulic press, got the new bushing in, got the bolt in (had to find a spacer that we lost), and, at long last, it was in.
No more shaking, wobbling, all good as new. It even drives straight too.
I've run out of photo space now, but we managed to drive to the opposite side of the country in time and get our taxi and train.
And it was all thanks to the Nissan Club of Finland, and a handful of people that I had only just met.
I seriously can't thank these people enough, especially the one who let us use his garage & tools, tirelessly searched for our parts, drove long distances for us and much more. There's only so much chocolate and fuel money I can give, but my pockets are pretty empty after all of this last-minute hotel booking. I promise to help all I can if you're in my country and have a problem.
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
So, picking up from where I left off. Oh, and there will be a K11 after this post, to keep it valid. I just had to use a different post as I'm limited to 30 pictures. (I couldn't use all of them!)
So, we needed our car to pass the yearly inspection. This is just the equivalent to the MOT.
Despite it leaking petrol, it passed without any remarks. Very nice, will visit this guy next time.
I couldn't just let petrol leak from the line though, so I repaired it. Got myself some nice tools for home too, assuming they get through security tomorrow.
I noticed a sedan N13 shortly after. Looks like they have bigger windows on the rear doors. Damn, I knew I should've got a sedan.
Someone let us use their car pit to repair the fuel leak, which made it much easier. I just cut the rusted line and replaced with some hose which was very clamped in.
And so, we were off.
I had a great time driving on the country lanes, which are what get raced on in rally events, including the WRC (which I watched!)
There's still some dust settling here after pulling a little skid.
All of this dust, however, means that cars get very dirty very fast.
So that needed to change.
Much better.
Not bad.
I found out that someone has repaired this side indicator poorly. The lens doesn't really fit to the wing, and the bulb socket has been replaced with a generic one. What's worse is that it's all held in with some kind of sealant, which was coating the bulb. The bulb wasn't even in the lens properly.
So I decided that I would probably grommet off the euro indicators, and rewire the side markers to their JDM origins.
Warning: NSFW:
So, everything was going according to plan. We had made half of our journey. I went to overtake someone at 100+kmh, and suddenly, violent vibration happened from the rear left. The car was still stable, but it sounded like the wheel was trying to break free. We feared that it was a puncture, and stupidly enough, the wheel in the spare compartment is the original rear right wheel with a puncture!
Luckily, the tyre was fine.
But upon inspection, I noticed something was broken...
This is when the complications started showing.
Oh yeah. That's pretty bad.
Not many photos for a while as there wasn't anything to photograph.
We gingerly limped ahead to the nearby city we were aiming for, which was a bit precarious as motorways over here don't have much of a hard shoulder, if at all in some places.
I couldn't get the car any faster than 50kmh without it shaking.
Now, imagine being somewhere you've never been, in a foreign country, with nowhere to stay, no eBay or Amazon, heck, even posting items in general is so much more complicated.
So I reached out to the Nissan Club of Finland, which I joined when I got the car.
After a few days of last-minute hotel booking, and plenty of awkward language-barrier phone calls, one person found us a lower control arm. We gave him extra cash and a chocolate gift to come and drive to us to give it to us. We got really lucky finding this part, and I can't thank the guy enough for selling it to me, and for extracting it from his car (which I'm guessing by the body-cutting wasn't the most easy).
Now then, it wasn't over yet. I still needed to get the old one off and this new one in. Luckily the car shops around here are incredible. You can buy a million different types of tool for any purpose, so I was going to buy individual spanners.
Then we got lucky once again!
Someone who lived in the city we were in offered us the use of his garage and tools. Suddenly this started to look good!
So, off to his garage, wheel off, and here's the control arm.
But, there were complications again.
First of all, the new arm wouldn't let go of its bolt and bushing. We did eventually get the arm free, but at the cost of destroying the bolt and the bushing.
Next, of course, the inner bolt on the broken arm wasn't moving at all. I managed to at least get the nut off of it, but we had to cut the bolt and bushing free from the car, destroying those too.
Carefully I took the car back to the hotel once again, now with just one control arm holding the wheel on (along with the coilover and ARB). At least this time if I went faster than 50kmh, it would wobble but not rattle loudly.
At least I got some cool car park shots.
The next day or two consisted again of parts searching. This was happening on the weekend, which over here means every single shop or whatever is closed.
And without websites like eBay, finding a new bushing wasn't easy. In fact a Nissan dealership told me that there wasn't even one in the whole country! Importing it would take weeks, and, I forgot to say. I had a plane to catch back to the UK in a few days!
An additional obstacle here was that the bolt we cut through wasn't just a 33-year-old generic bolt, it was a camber bolt, for aligning the rear wheel. Our new garage friend turned out to be one of the committee members of the Nissan Club of Finland! So we went on a little road trip to the NCF headquarters, where an old-new-stock camber bolt was waiting for us. The box looked 30+ years old, but the bolt looked new.
I've seen many interesting Nissans, mostly from the 80's, but I can't dump all of the photos here. This one I had to add though. This is a rare Nissan Echo. From the mid 60's! This is the club bus, which is now a camper.
We went for a drive with it, to a motorcycle meet!
The NCF kindly gave me a magazine before I left, and they gave me an official NCF window sticker!
It was an awesome day with some awesome people.
While we were getting the bolt, we found what may have been the only new bushing for the rear control arm for a mid-80's Nissan. We paid extra to get it delivered ASAP to the local car shop. But... it wasn't there on the day.
We had to get the car back to where it stays when we're not there, which was 5 hours away, we had a taxi booked and tickets for a train. We really had only a couple of hours to get this done, and the bushing hadn't arrived!
After maybe an hour of rather painful waiting, it finally got there, and we all rushed to the garage (Well. Went at 50kmh).
So, wheel off again, showing the lack of control arm...
New camber bolt with the old nut...
Originally this was just so that I could see the orientation of the camber bolt, but hey, here's that picture.
We borrowed the use of a hydraulic press, got the new bushing in, got the bolt in (had to find a spacer that we lost), and, at long last, it was in.
No more shaking, wobbling, all good as new. It even drives straight too.
I've run out of photo space now, but we managed to drive to the opposite side of the country in time and get our taxi and train.
And it was all thanks to the Nissan Club of Finland, and a handful of people that I had only just met.
I seriously can't thank these people enough, especially the one who let us use his garage & tools, tirelessly searched for our parts, drove long distances for us and much more. There's only so much chocolate and fuel money I can give, but my pockets are pretty empty after all of this last-minute hotel booking. I promise to help all I can if you're in my country and have a problem.
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
Last edited:
OP
OP
Now for those K11 photos, because after all, this is Ryan's Micra Blog.
On the road trip with the NCF friend, we spotted a heavily modified rat-style preface. Too bad I couldn't get a photo.
There was this first-face at the NCF HQ. Second-face headlights, with the indicators desaturated, some alloys with NS2 tyres (everyone seems to have them over here), and smoked side indicators.
At the rear it had JDM facelift tail lights, which I had not seen in person until now, and they look much much nicer in person. It had some kind of custom exhaust too.
I had a look inside the interior, I should've got a photo. LHD cars don't seem to have a foot rest for your left foot! That sucks!
The Scandinavian cars have heated seats, and the switches are in the centre panel, where we have an empty compartment.
They also have a headlight washer switch next to the headlight aim switch (either a blank panel or literally empty space on our cars). It looks really out of place, it looks like a preface switch, which of course is different.
We also checked out this customised first-face on the way back. Nice.
Anyway, that's all for now.
I have a plan ready for when I get home. Eddie and I are going to be leaving for JAE in the early hours on Saturday.
So, I get home on Friday afternoon/evening. I need to:
Change my rocker/valve cover screws for some nice bolts that should be on the other side of my letterbox at home,
go to the hand carwash assuming it's still open,
get back and cover my car in wax,
clean grease off of the interior and other areas, and assemble the interior which is still kind of in pieces,
buff off the wax,
and get an early night as we're leaving at like... 5am.
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
On the road trip with the NCF friend, we spotted a heavily modified rat-style preface. Too bad I couldn't get a photo.
There was this first-face at the NCF HQ. Second-face headlights, with the indicators desaturated, some alloys with NS2 tyres (everyone seems to have them over here), and smoked side indicators.
At the rear it had JDM facelift tail lights, which I had not seen in person until now, and they look much much nicer in person. It had some kind of custom exhaust too.
I had a look inside the interior, I should've got a photo. LHD cars don't seem to have a foot rest for your left foot! That sucks!
The Scandinavian cars have heated seats, and the switches are in the centre panel, where we have an empty compartment.
They also have a headlight washer switch next to the headlight aim switch (either a blank panel or literally empty space on our cars). It looks really out of place, it looks like a preface switch, which of course is different.
We also checked out this customised first-face on the way back. Nice.
Anyway, that's all for now.
I have a plan ready for when I get home. Eddie and I are going to be leaving for JAE in the early hours on Saturday.
So, I get home on Friday afternoon/evening. I need to:
Change my rocker/valve cover screws for some nice bolts that should be on the other side of my letterbox at home,
go to the hand carwash assuming it's still open,
get back and cover my car in wax,
clean grease off of the interior and other areas, and assemble the interior which is still kind of in pieces,
buff off the wax,
and get an early night as we're leaving at like... 5am.
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
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Hi mate, loving the engine swap!
Did you use the CG10 ECU or the CGA3 ECU?
Did you use the CG10 ECU or the CGA3 ECU?
OP
OP
Hey. I used the CGA3 ECU. Apparently the CG10 ECU underfuels under load. You can use it though.
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
OP
OP
Right! Back in the UK. There's no time to waste!
Some stuff had arrived while I was gone. The bottom two I had sent ASAP while I was away, the top one is for a later mod.
The engine was pretty gross from the swap, so I cleaned it up a bit, and swapped over my new bolts for the cam cover. Looks good! Probably should've gotten myself some washers too as the bolt heads are small. Maybe some time later. They're M6x25mm I think.
Time for a wash... The bonnet, bumper, both doors and other various areas were caked in grease and oil and stuff from the engine swap. Oh and I had Eddie with me.
Cars looking nice, tyre shine and all. Time for some wax. Except. It's kinda raining. Hmm.
Well, we did a little interior work, then I went ahead and waxed most of my car.
Meanwhile Eddie finally sorted out his floppy door card fabrics.
What I thought was a good photo actually required some censoring. Too bad the wiper arm in the foreground didn't quite do it.
Securing the ECU was such a pain. In fact I didn't even bother with one of the bolts.
Car buffed off and looking quite tidy. Of course we'll need to clean them up again when we arrive tomorrow. But for now it's good, and hopefully the wax keeps the dirt off a bit.
Interior fully assembled, and LCD backlight changed for a fresh white one. Still needs cleaning in here because of the engine swap, but I may not have time for that.
I kept forgetting that the rear right mudflap was looking crap! I ghetto-ly chucked some vinyl paint on it, which promptly all ran off of it (carwash might have left some waxy stuff on it). It's looking pretty dire now, but better than before, hopefully nobody notices it.
Ripped off a bunch of skin pulling off Eddie's doorcard handle.
JAE Here I come! See those of you who are going (or are there already) tomorrow!
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
Some stuff had arrived while I was gone. The bottom two I had sent ASAP while I was away, the top one is for a later mod.
The engine was pretty gross from the swap, so I cleaned it up a bit, and swapped over my new bolts for the cam cover. Looks good! Probably should've gotten myself some washers too as the bolt heads are small. Maybe some time later. They're M6x25mm I think.
Time for a wash... The bonnet, bumper, both doors and other various areas were caked in grease and oil and stuff from the engine swap. Oh and I had Eddie with me.
Cars looking nice, tyre shine and all. Time for some wax. Except. It's kinda raining. Hmm.
Well, we did a little interior work, then I went ahead and waxed most of my car.
Meanwhile Eddie finally sorted out his floppy door card fabrics.
What I thought was a good photo actually required some censoring. Too bad the wiper arm in the foreground didn't quite do it.
Securing the ECU was such a pain. In fact I didn't even bother with one of the bolts.
Car buffed off and looking quite tidy. Of course we'll need to clean them up again when we arrive tomorrow. But for now it's good, and hopefully the wax keeps the dirt off a bit.
Interior fully assembled, and LCD backlight changed for a fresh white one. Still needs cleaning in here because of the engine swap, but I may not have time for that.
I kept forgetting that the rear right mudflap was looking crap! I ghetto-ly chucked some vinyl paint on it, which promptly all ran off of it (carwash might have left some waxy stuff on it). It's looking pretty dire now, but better than before, hopefully nobody notices it.
Ripped off a bunch of skin pulling off Eddie's doorcard handle.
JAE Here I come! See those of you who are going (or are there already) tomorrow!
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
Last edited:
OP
OP
Early next morning we set off. So early that we were alone on the roads. We went and got some fuel from a 24/7 card-only station.
It was a very long but somewhat uneventful ride there. Somewhere around 240 miles I think, but our trip counters differed because of our wheel radius difference.
Eventually we were there. Eddie tried to sneak some last-minute Sharpie repairs to his paint but was busted.
I haven't got a lot to say about the event really, the pictures say it all!
The next morning...
As we were about to leave. nissan boy came with us so we were a trio. We drove line abreast in the field, looked like Top Gear (or GT). Damn, we really need to convince someone else to get one and ride with us, three is awesome.
Obligatory Maccas shot.
Halfway home, a little more of an interesting ride. Had to share the outside lane breifly with someone who thought that he'd move into my lane despite me approaching much faster.
We stopped to cool down, and Eddie forgot his Fanta on his spoiler.
There were some amazing looking skies on the way home (at the top of a massive hill too) and other than some congestion at a few exits, it was pretty clear, and we could drive next to each other. We had handheld radios for the trip which really adds to a road trip with someone.
Our cars looked pretty low with this curb.
It was an awesome time, and I'll do my best to go again next year. Nice to finally meet people that I'd only heard of for all these years.
Good photo of me sitting in the shortie:
Maybe there will be more K11s next year?
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
It was a very long but somewhat uneventful ride there. Somewhere around 240 miles I think, but our trip counters differed because of our wheel radius difference.
Eventually we were there. Eddie tried to sneak some last-minute Sharpie repairs to his paint but was busted.
I haven't got a lot to say about the event really, the pictures say it all!
The next morning...
As we were about to leave. nissan boy came with us so we were a trio. We drove line abreast in the field, looked like Top Gear (or GT). Damn, we really need to convince someone else to get one and ride with us, three is awesome.
Obligatory Maccas shot.
Halfway home, a little more of an interesting ride. Had to share the outside lane breifly with someone who thought that he'd move into my lane despite me approaching much faster.
We stopped to cool down, and Eddie forgot his Fanta on his spoiler.
There were some amazing looking skies on the way home (at the top of a massive hill too) and other than some congestion at a few exits, it was pretty clear, and we could drive next to each other. We had handheld radios for the trip which really adds to a road trip with someone.
Our cars looked pretty low with this curb.
It was an awesome time, and I'll do my best to go again next year. Nice to finally meet people that I'd only heard of for all these years.
Good photo of me sitting in the shortie:
Maybe there will be more K11s next year?
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
Last edited:
OP
OP
Adding text on PC
... Later
Come back for actual info in this post
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app
... Later
Come back for actual info in this post
Sent from my F8331 using Micra Sports Club mobile app