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Ryan's Micra Blog

Mine has a screen in 2017 and it's crap tbh, not hard to chip and gets wind noises half the time , the screw sits further out (there a gap in on the a pillar trims) and same seal
Tho I think the this deal design is.a bit better ,
 
I dry wiped the windscreen with the wipers and holy crap I wasn't expecting the absolute dead silence of the wipers now. Amazing.
Anyway I met up with a local fellow member tonight.
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Student loan is in so I can now grab myself some things.
Got a really cheap, really really poor quality car cover for Cassie. This allows me to keep the popouts open and the doors slightly open to air it out (it's gone quite stale in there).
This also means I can start removing parts like the glass and it won't get rained in. And it tidies up the driveway. So I can start removing panels ready for the engine swap at my own leisure and cover it up when I'm done.
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Shortly after, new wipers arrived. The old ones were SO rusted.
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They're cheap crap but they'll do.
I also got a new rear one as it was a little broken. It doesn't quite fit properly which sucks, and it's a little shorter. Because of the fitting issue it doesn't reach the top of the rear window, it skims over the glass.
It'll do for now.
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I'd be interested in seeing if the rear Nissan badge is the same as the front one. If it is, I'd like a first facelift one again, but on the back.

Just been wondering if I should keep my GTi wheels as winter wheels? The steelies are already rusting through. Might be superior grip in snow with more tyre sipes digging in, but more chance of planing over the snow. Either way the steelies are looking rough.

Oh. Also, I added a measuring jug of water to the radiator. It's still not filled to the correct point, but I noticed that the coolant expansion tank is already really full. Possibly more than it should be. Shaking the car quite hard still didn't get any of it to move. There was definitely air escaping when I opened the radiator cap. Don't know what's going on there. At least I'll sort it all out when I swap the engine.

I added a bunch of oil as it was getting very low now. It got very noisy. Now that I've added a load, it's happier. Though I'm noticing a slight hot oil smell occasionally. So oil is disappearing somewhere, but there aren't any puddles. Is it burning?


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i used to use a claybar on my windows every time i washed it, less abrasive than polish and no harm in overuse, then turtle wax (green bottle) put on in swirl pattern and taken off in vertical patterns, not too close to the edge and give it overnight (or an hour or two in the shade on a warm day) before you put the wipers back down. Inside use your bog standard household glass cleaner (green liquid, can't remember brand, smells the best) and a lint-free cloth and then there's a coating designed to stop the inside from fogging up that I use.

Do this and I swear if a juicy enough bug hits it there's enough water in the fly to have it whoosh off over the top without spraying the washers/wiper :ROFLMAO:
 
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as for the coolant, park on a steep hill headlights facing upwards and let it get hot enough to put the rad fan on then give it some revs... might be enough to burp any air out towards the expansion tank

if your radiator gets low there can't be much (if any) fluid in the heatercore. Could even be smelling hot for this reason

not sure why the expansion tank doesnt trickle fluid into the radiator, doesnt on mine either - i wasted a radiator flush bottle that cost me £7.50 thinking if i dropped it in the expansion it would circulate the whole system - it just sat there while I drove the 50 miles to get it to circulate felt like an idiot after... drained and swapped fluid anyway, used a hose to wash the gunk out of my heater core but never did get a proper flush. but that's how i learned the hill trick
 
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I'm not overly bothered about the health of this engine as at some point this summer I want to take it out and put my 1.4 in, as for the radiator I think it's been replaced. I've got a couple of others I can use from slightly older cars.
I'll have a look at the crank seal for oil. It's odd that there's no oil dripping anywhere. Like I said before though, this engine is temporary so I don't really care much if it's a bit low on fluids.

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It's been a while since I got some new bulbs. I've not particularly liked the interior light, and since adding it to the new car, it's been rotating in its socket every time I move the switch.
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So, I got some new, wider ones.
Interestingly enough despite being 4x3 diodes, the old 5050 SMDs, I think, are triple diodes per chip. So in the end these new ones have just as many diodes and seem to be just as bright.
The difference is how much more spaced out they are, and they're coated in silicone (seems to be the way new bulb types are going these days) to spread the light like a kind of lens. Protects it really well too.
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It certainly looks better, no longer do I have a line of lights down the middle of the unit. It does still turn a bit but not as much, and can't turn as far due to the dimensions.
I did notice one small problem though. When the indicators flash when the car locks/unlocks, this new bulb dims as they flash. The old one and the front one don't do that. If it bugs me enough I might need to look again for a new type.
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It's a 41mm bulb by the way, I don't know what type though.

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I wouldn't chance it with those flat diodes, but I know with the older type of LEDS you could use a bit of sandpaper to get a more diffused look. Maybe there's some sort of cover you could put between the bulbs and the actual cover on the dome light to spread it out a bit more

Not sure what causes it to dim, could maybe fix it with a capacitor?
 
Suddenly, dry, warm days. Time to get those popouts!
Didn't take too long to recover them from Cassie. Other than my ghetto fitting solution making it difficult to unbolt.
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I decided not to waste time with the seals on the new car, I tried to get them off for a few minutes but ultimately I was on a time limit (because when else would you do mods?), so I chopped the seals to remove the glass. You just need to trim off 3/4 of the inner seal, and about 1/4 - 1/3 of the outer seal and then feed the inner lip (what's left of it) over the shell. Always tape the glass to the roof just in case.
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This time I'm not doing the ghetto fitment. If you didn't follow at that point, I didn't have much tool-wise, so I cut out rectangles near the holes, and fed a nut in the hole with a spanner to do the bolt up into, then filled it with foam.
Now I actually have a rivet gun and ritnuts. So easy to install them too!
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I was happy to see that on this car the body under the seals looks perfect, not a hint of corrosion, unlike previously. I'm glad I took the old seals out though. They were holding water, definitely a rust zone to look for in the future for K11s.
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My time limit sort-of expired, so I had to drive with no rear side windows.
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Which was pretty cool. Except for some nasty pressure waves blasting my ears at 60mph+. I had to open the sunroof to balance it out, which worked pretty well.
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I didn't realise that the upper and lower mounts for the glass were different. If you put them in wrong it becomes very wonky. Each bracket is labeled, like "LL" for left lower and "RU" for right upper.
It was hard to figure out where the rear hinge/latch had to go as it can rotate as well as move back and forth. So I decided to fit the rear plastics so I could align them with those. However I had to cut some holes for the tabs to go into, which I started, but realised it was probably around 6pm and I could see patio doors open so I stopped making noise and packed up. Had to leave the popouts only 2/3 attached. When I closed the doors the windows flapped as the pressure thing did what it does. I was a little concerned about leaving it on the road (my friend's car is on my driveway) with two of the windows partly hanging, but it looks alright this next morning. Didn't put the car cover on Cassie either because there's no chance of rain now (actually it's because I only thought about it as the garage door was closing and it was inside...).
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Right then, time to finish off. It already looks so much nicer. And now I don't have the stupid number plate inprint on those windows (other places are door windows [will change] and headlights).
I just got extra shifts at work, so I bought some brand new Team Heko wind deflectors. Expect to see those in a few days. They'll go really well with the popouts and the grey colour, can't wait.
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Let's get down to business!
My pack of 10 COB LED bulbs arrived today! Chips On Board is that new type of diode encased in silicone, which is what I put in my sidelights and they worked really well (considering they were LEDs in a reflector housing).
So out with the old, hot, dim incandescent bulbs...
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And hello COBs! Just like the last pair I used, they're white and yellow depending on what part you look at. These are shorter so they fit in the number plate lenses, and shouldn't bend in the headlights. They're also not CANBUS "error free" so they have a polarity, which I think makes them much cheaper (at absolutely no cost to us driving proper cars).
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I tested them in the headlights, in absolute direct sunlight on a bright sunny day, and even then you can see them lit up! Amazing! Can't wait to see them after sunset.
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So then. On to the popouts.
I was thinking last night, maybe instead of chopping holes in the body of my new car, I would break off the additional tabs. So I chucked on some paint on the bare metal from where I started cutting, and broke off the tabs. It fits on just fine, I was thinking I might need to get some thick double-sided tape or something, but they hold on well. Later, other panels that are screwed in will hold them in completely. So no need to cut holes in your car if you're doing this yourself!
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I want to mix up the light grey and black/dark grey. I even used the dark screws at the top here.
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Side panels off. Got a chance to tidy up a wire (must be the boot light). Then I noticed something. What was that pipe running down from the back? I had a feeling I knew what it was, and was confirmed after I poured water from a jug into my sunroof. The drainage pipes for the sunroof just end... there? What was Nissan thinking?!
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So, I pulled the pipe loose and, because it was so long and coming from the C-pillar, I pushed it through the bumper pockets (the ones that equalise the pressure), and so that it wasn't going to rust the pockets up, pulled it out so it was just sticking out from the bumper. That's much better! Did the same on the other side shortly after.
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Now then, I hadn't extracted the pocket panels from Cassie, so I went ahead and did that.
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I realised my time limit was approaching, so I got on with the windows themselves. Drilling these holes wasn't that easy as the biggest metal drill bit I have is 6mm. So I had to use a 10mm stone/masonry drill bit after drilling a 6mm pilot hole...
Whatever, it worked. Rivnuts in place and looking nice.
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And there we go! A popout window!
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Same on the other side...
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Seatbelt in place. Used the black bits as they look nice. It's also easier to use what's already attached.
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I slightly ran out of time, hence the change in background, but I managed to get both belts on and all of the trim on the left side fitted. I had to pull the seal up to get the trim in. Which meant I had to take the window off again to get the seal off. That was fiddly and annoying.
I really like the colour combo currently. The little bit of plastic where the front belt comes from is the darker type too.
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Once home again, I finished. Finally, at long last, I have the holy trio of popouts.
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(Corner space as usual)
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Now was a good time to give the car a rinse and wipe down with a microfibre mitt, it was looking awful from where I sprayed it with water at work and it left water spots. I also blasted off what wax I could that was not coming off from seals etc. I blasted the windows and checked that no water got in, and none did. Which is nice. I think I aligned them a little better this time too.
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I've left the pocket lights disconnected for now, but I soldered on extended wires and left them trailing vaguely in the right way so setting them up won't take long.

Also, something blew my mind today as I was finishing off. The latches that hold the rear seat aren't level with each other. On closer inspection, both of the panels on the sides of the boot aren't the same. I had no idea!
Just like how the storage thingy on the top-middle of the dash isn't symmetrical. Have a look for yourself!

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looking great. The wd-40 perfectly fitting the door pocket made me laugh

seals holding onto water is annoying not to mention ironic

Well spotted, I had to blast some on the left seatbelt bolt at the top as it was being very stubborn. Those bolts have such short heads too. I rounded one on my donor car, that's why I have cut marks on the trim near it, which is now on my new car...
I better make the most of the can fitting in the cupholder like that as when I add the electric windows it won't have the height clearance anymore...
 
The perfect time of day for photos in my opinion is when it just starts to get dark, but it's not dark yet. Then you can still see things well enough and get good colour, and at the same time any light sources are a little exaggerated but not so much that it's glaring.
The number plate lights look excellent. Definitely the best I've ever had. They're white, but not quite pure white.
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Sidelights look just as they did with the previous bulbs. They sort of light up a halo around the outer edges of the glass. I think the glass just needs a very deep clean.
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And yeah, the colour temperature is quite similar to the actual headlights. I might consider adding just a tiny bit of the clear orange paint I had for my model March, just to tone the white down a little. I bought a pack of 10 bulbs this time so I have room for experimentation. Heat won't be an issue like last time with the incandescent ones.
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Looks like I need to sort out these bits of glass. Maybe the wax has filled in little pits in the glass and I haven't been able to get it out. Maybe I should get a purpouse made headlight restore kit. I wouldn't expect I'd need to as these are actual glass and not plastic... I would change the glass for one of my spares but both sets have chips, and at least one set is missing lots of the outer glass where I was stupid and inexperienced trying to pry the glass apart without heating the gasket up.


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Hey, look who came over today. We are really missing a third car in our group, that would perfect it.
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I decided I couldn't get the car clean enough so we both went to a local hand wash. Never been to one before, they got both of our cars cleaned in minutes, they even cleaned the inside of the doors and added tyre shine. Amazing for £5!
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I've never seen our cars this shiny. Now would be a good time to add some wax, as long as I don't put it on the black plastic bits and the seals again.
After returning from the wash, I helped Eddie re-route his rear sunroof drain pipes the same as I did on mine.
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The COB LEDs in the number plate lights already failed. It looks like they were squashed, so I'll probably cut down the bottoms of them (since these are nice and simple). For now, some new ones, as I have so many.
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Now that looks good.
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Wind deflectors are en-route. Should be here tomorrow or maybe the day after. I'm very excited.

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Felt like fixing that awful paint situation on the left side. As is tradition, the moment I stepped outside with a can of paint the wind went crazy, regardless I got on with masking up with whatever I had left (I need a newspaper or something). A nice single thick coat of underseal paint applied that will resist getting hit by stones and stuff. Tactically I put the car on the curb to get a better angle and turned the steering so I didn't have to worry about painting the front wheel.
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Final result looks awesome so far. Let's hope it stays on this time. The car is nice and clean so I don't see why it would peel off. I'm also not bashing it with snow before it's fully cured again.
I made sure to peel off the masking before it got too dry, otherwise doing so can pull the paint up a bit.
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I once painted my black plastic trim pieces a blacker black, and being the first time I had ever masked before got it a little wrong in some places, and tiny bits of black paint got behind the newspaper and maskingtape and onto the red right near the plastic, not noticeable from far away but enough to bother me when I bend down close up to wash it. I never fixed it, but the black paint remains there today 4 years later - so no, I doubt it'll peel off

Also as physical newspapers stop getting bought masking materials are gonna become rare :ROFLMAO: there's gonna be backstreet deals over old newspapers going down behind the pub all the old lads drink at, car guys hanging out on the carpark at meccabingo waiting for it to turn out see if Doreen has finished her crosswords
 
I got my wind deflectors. I couldn't wait to fit them so I did it on my break at work.
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I'm glad I bought them brand new. They arrived so quickly and unlike Eddie's ones they have adhesive that stops them from sagging at the backs. And the metal clip tabs are tight.
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Like I guessed, looks great with the popouts and dark colour theme.
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Ignore the mess inside. It's the deflectors wrapping. Okay and maybe a Greggs.
I got to try them out a bit on the way home. Even though they're translucent, the bend bends the light passing through so it does make it a little more difficult to see around the A-Pillar. Also ironically a small wind noise is generated by it at speed. However this noise stays the same with the window open a bit.
Also the left one slightly covers the mirror which is annoying. These things I'll need to get used to I suppose.
I noticed today that a very very large amount of cars in this area of Bristol have Team Heko deflectors. Like, you can easily see one or two every minute or two.
My KY5 paint has arrived so I might look into the paint stuff when I have time.
 
Yesterday I took the pressure washer to Eddie's and he bought a hose and some adaptors. I got myself some car shampoo and a pack of new microfibre cloths.
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It was nice and sunny so we got washing.
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Mine came out pretty good.
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I wish my paint was in the same condition as Eddie's. I have so many bits of missing paint on the bonnet and loads of scratches and little missing paint bits all over.
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After a wipe down with a couple of cloths.
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Today I added the seal paint on the other side, finally. I noticed a little bubbling at the back, some of which I could pop and water escaped, the rest was solid. I'll keep an eye on it.
I ran out of masking tape and the crappy shop we have in the area didn't sell any, so with the lower line of tape masking the edge, I just held some cardboard up and gingerly sprayed thickly. Only had to wipe off a little bit. This paint takes forever to dry!
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My final exam of the year is tomorrow. After that I have some quality time for my car. That is, after work...
I got myself some supplies for all of the painting missions I have lined up.

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I gave my SRi alloys a wash today, ready to get repainted. Since I'm not keeping these tyres, I won't bother masking them up. I'll just paint over them. If the wheel weights are going to get re-balanced, should I take them off before painting, so the tyre shop doesn't take them off and leave bits where I haven't painted? Also, is the tyre stem & valve part of the tyre, that'll be replaced? If so I won't pay much attention to masking those up either.
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Not sure if I wrote on here yet, but the tyres I'm looking to get are Nankang NS2s. I can get them on the internet for like £35-40 each.
I was a litte concerned about the available sizes as none are the same as the tyres currently on the SRis.
The tyres that are on the SRis currently are a bit too big. I was worried the NS2s would be too small and stretched, so I went on WillTheyFit.com:
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and out of interest..:
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I gave my SRi alloys a wash today, ready to get repainted. Since I'm not keeping these tyres, I won't bother masking them up. I'll just paint over them. If the wheel weights are going to get re-balanced, should I take them off before painting, so the tyre shop doesn't take them off and leave bits where I haven't painted? Also, is the tyre stem & valve part of the tyre, that'll be replaced? If so I won't pay much attention to masking those up either.
View attachment 63717
Not sure if I wrote on here yet, but the tyres I'm looking to get are Nankang NS2s. I can get them on the internet for like £35-40 each.
I was a litte concerned about the available sizes as none are the same as the tyres currently on the SRis.
The tyres that are on the SRis currently are a bit too big. I was worried the NS2s would be too small and stretched, so I went on WillTheyFit.com:
View attachment 63718View attachment 63719
and out of interest..:
View attachment 63720

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Take off the wheel weights if they're on the face of the wheel, that's an awful practice that should've been left in the 90s with steel wheels and just get stick on weights put on inside the barrel. The valves will be replaced with the tyres so paint away if you're getting all the tyres changed. I had both 165s and 175s on those same wheels when they were on my car, I'd probably go with 165 and good compound as they'll be skightly lighter tyres and help with braking and acceleration (although those are very heavy wheels from my experience compared to lightweight jap ones I have on now)
 
valves arent included with tyres but they're only like £2.50 each to have swapped when the tyres are fitted

playingcard trick involves putting playing cards down in the bead to prevent overspray, have seen that in combination with one of those draw-string bin bags over the wheel

no idea with sizing I always preferred stock with wheels, like to keep it simple
 
valves arent included with tyres but they're only like £2.50 each to have swapped when the tyres are fitted

playingcard trick involves putting playing cards down in the bead to prevent overspray, have seen that in combination with one of those draw-string bin bags over the wheel

no idea with sizing I always preferred stock with wheels, like to keep it simple

I haven't heard of using draw-string bags to mask, that's a great idea. I'll try that some time in the future when I next paint some wheels. For now though, these tyres are heading straight to the bin, so I won't bother masking.
 
I haven't heard of using draw-string bags to mask, that's a great idea. I'll try that some time in the future when I next paint some wheels. For now though, these tyres are heading straight to the bin, so I won't bother masking.
I got the idea from those JD bags everyone used to bring their PE kit to school in lol, they turned out not to be big enough to fit a wheel in but i found one that was
 
Yesterday I spent some time prepping the spoiler and rims.
The spoiler sits quite well on the chair I have in the garage.
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After some sanding, I got the filler primer out and used a whole can. I utilised a bin bag, not a tie-top but it stretched over the chair well enough. This made it pretty easy to spray the whole thing, but very hard to do the lower part of the lip in the middle.
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While waiting for that to dry, I started getting my wheels ready.
I got this one nice and clean, it's too bad some of the others have rough paint on them, otherwise I could almost consider keeping them how they are. But I do want that slightly darker grey/silver. I managed to get all wheel weights off, and had a go at seeing if I could pull the tyres off (I could not).
It's also a shame about these tyres. They've all got so much tread on them (especially the Dunlop one, almost new, but has a puncture (repairable though)). They're all different brands and they're all cracking. I know they've been sat around for ages.
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As the spoiler started to dry it started to look pretty good.
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I left it overnight and just now gave it a sand down and wipe with some fine paper. Feels very smooth now. I looked at the broken piece of my old spoiler up close. I can see where I initially sanded it. It was too coarse and the primer didn't fill it in. Good thing this time it should be better!

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Cleared out the garage a little and took the cover from Cassie because I'm painting in there today. Properly this time! My bike's out of battery again which sucks. Should really get around to fixing that up and selling it on for a different one, I just lack the motivation all the time.
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I'm thinking I want a preface boot handle. Obviously the badge (which is already too big) would need to change to suit it. But then I took that badge off of Cassie, and found that the rear one doesn't have the two holes that the badge holds into (at least on second-face). Nice!
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I added a little regular primer to the spoiler as some of the primer from before wasn't particularly thick. It's ridiculously windy today (it's because I'm painting), so being in the garage is brilliant. Now with much less chance of paint dust settling on things.
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While that was drying a bit, I took off the badge from "new car". Managed to do so without scratching anything, despite using a metal screwdriver. Very good!
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After scrubbing off the glue with some acetone, and using one of the badges as a plastic scratchy thing to get the tough bits off (a small scratch from that, damn!), I no longer have a Nissan badge on the back. I think it looks pretty smart, I may leave it off or try to get a preface badge glued on as central as I can. I'm just glad there's no badge holes.
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Starting to accumilate quite a few of these now. All second-face ones, which are huge.
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Felt like testing out my centre brakelight that I plan on using on the future track car, since I've never seen it working.
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Quite a lot of light leaking from this angle, I'll make some kind of reflecty shield when the time comes.
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Time for some KY5 "Techno Grey" paint! Some very gingerly-applied coats at first...
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Followed by a thicker one.
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While that was drying a little, I took off the door handles from Cassie. I'm going to have a go at painting these KY5 too, if I have enough paint.
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I put some primer on those then retreated inside for things to dry and to get some food. I was too excited doing all of this stuff to remember to eat. Making myself some tofu/salmon sushi/onigiri as I type.
I'm going to go out there after to put the spoiler on the chair again so I can paint the unpainted bits, and do a final base coat. Excited!

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Some more paint on the spoiler. Starting to look good. Only one bad spot, where I applied the filler primer too thickly and it dripped (it dried in a cracky way).
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Another shot of the trio. Just need my N13 preface in the picture but that's 2000km away.
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The doorhandles look great! This is before I even added lacquer. One cool thing about this repaint is that I've painted the hinge under the handle too. So when you lift the handle you don't see a pale grey part, it's all KY5.
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I began adding lacquer...
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Got a nice shot of it while still wet. I'm not going light on the lacquer this time. Need a nice thick coat for that metallic paint.
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I'll continue tomorrow.
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I finished off lacquering my spoiler and handles today.
A quick test fit to see how the colour matches, and for the studs to put little scratches where I need to drill the boot.
The colour is good, but just like last time it's still a bit patchy. Well, it's better than before at least.
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Drilled some holes in Cassie's boot to try and find where the studs would be. Wasn't very successful, but I'm sure they go there.
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After polishing and waxing, they're looking good.
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I'm especially happy with the handles. The photos don't do them justice. Can't wait to put them on, but it would make sense to do that when I do the big mirrors/windows/dash swap.
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Can't see very well here but the undersides and the inner hinges are painted too. So even when you lift the handle, or if for some reason you look up underneath it, there's no grey bits.
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Right. I went out and bought myself some sealant. I got the same stuff as last time, "Sticks like Sh*t". This time I actually got a caulking gun to get the sealant out. Last time was such a mess and very difficult. It also made far too much come out.
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I began drilling holes. Unfortunately this one wasn't in the right place.
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Whoops.
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So I put the spoiler on, measured how far forward it had to go, and re-drilled. On the other side I made an educated guess based on the scratch marks from the spoiler being on there and a quick measurement. I had to open the hold out a little but it was close enough.
All holes or cut metal were sprayed with zinc primer to keep rust well away.
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The holes needed a very slight widening to make sure it was aligned properly. When opening the boot, it mustn't catch the spoiler on the roof.
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Didn't get any photos of the sealant as it required being fast. This time around I gave it a nice small bead all around the spoiler. Last time I put far too much on and it actually raised the spoiler up too much. Same as last time, I put my old toolbox on the top to weigh it down (this dirtied it up a little and even did some scuffing, which I'll have to undo some time).
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After it dried for a little while, I opened up the boot and began having a go at adding the nuts that hold the spoiler on. I had to cut some rather large holes to access the studs inside the panel. Very ugly ones. Eventually I got the nuts on with a washer each, and got them tight, which assures the top of the spoiler is as close to the boot as possible. Then some zinc primer on the bare metal (after folding in the jagged bits), and to finish, I was going to put some foam in the hole but I figured I may as well seal them with... sealant.
End result;
Very happy. I've been waiting for this for so long. I've not liked how the car has been looking with the curved back. The paint was a little better than last time (it actually looks better in person, ignore the patches in the photos). The finish is far better than last time.
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There's that square top I've been missing so much.
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So happy with this now on.
Next up, paint and tyres on my SRi wheels, and then with the mirrors painted, adding the mirrors, power windows, and dash (and other things).

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I got myself a preface boot handle.
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There are a couple of differences. Of course first of all the shape. And that the second-face is painted.
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But one key difference is that the preface uses metal tabs to hold the lights in, whereas the second-face uses these square plastic inserts. An interesting difference, I didn't really want to use the metal tabs as they were rusted to hell.
Another note, the preface handle actually has a seal around the top edge. The second-face doesn't, and I think water can collect there (as both of my current K11s have a little rust at the top of the boot handle!). It's also got 3 foam bits at the base which I guess seals it and prevents rattling.
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To get the metal tabs ready for use, I gave them a coarse sanding then let them sit in a bath of that rust converting liquid (they're in the blue cap, submerged).
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After masking off the seals and sanding smooth, I prepped the boot handle.
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While things were drying, and on the topic of repainting, I had a look at the grille, which is starting to show silver bits where stones have chipped away the paint. Sanding was a pain so I figured I could separate the pieces. Turns out they clip together like most similar parts, and the silver outside bit is a totally different plastic.
Also I'm glad I split these. It was like a little swamp in there between the parts.
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I cut some of my COB bulbs down so that they'd fit in the number plate lights, while I was doing that I figured I could check on the sidelights, as it looked like one had partially broken. Turns out, they were also being squashed a little, so I got some new ones and cut them down too. Since I was doing that, I wanted to see how they'd look if I gave them a coat of clear orange paint, from my model March. Looks alright in the photo but I'm not convinced yet, we'll see at night. Still, they're bright. And now they shouldn't break due to compression.
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After what felt like an eternity of sanding the silver grille bits, I gave them some paint. I didn't bother with primer with the main bits, they're already black even without paint, even after sanding. So I just gave them a fresh thick coat. As for the silver bits, it seems that the actual plastic itself is shiny silver, even with coarse sanding, the silver doesn't go away. So I sanded them down fairly clean (I ran out of patience in the end!), and primed them.
I had an idea!
Why don't I try something slightly different with these parts..? Since I have them separate.
I'm waiting on another can of KY5 paint (mainly for the mirrors). Obviously I'm going to paint the boot handle in body-colour. How about I try painting the outer trim of the grille body colour too? It'll be a bit like the JDM ones that are entirely body colour, but a little more subtle. Not sure if it's been done before. It will only use a little paint too.
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So for now I'll leave the car with no grille. It seems to be getting hot a lot lately (obviously not overheating, just the fan is often on) anyway. I had to reattach the second-face boot handle in order to have number plate lights (the paint could still take a few days, and I'll be driving tonight after/at sunset). I only loosely attached it for now.
The metal tabs look like they'll be good to go after a rinse.
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But one key difference is that the preface uses metal tabs to hold the lights in, whereas the second-face uses these square plastic inserts. An interesting difference, I didn't really want to use the metal tabs as they were rusted to hell.
Another note, the preface handle actually has a seal around the top edge. The second-face doesn't, and I think water can collect there (as both of my current K11s have a little rust at the top of the boot handle!). It's also got 3 foam bits at the base which I guess seals it and prevents

Top tip, you can use clear bathroom sealant on plastic/metal auto-body safely

When I got my micra 10 years ago it was leaking rainwater due to a poor accident repair job where it had been hit on the rear left side. The previous owner no doubt knew it was leaking and had sneakily parked it in a garage before the sale and it seemed fine, but when it was out in the rain my boot carpet and rear seats were all soaking wet. Fixed the problem by drying the carpets and seats out inside the house and then sealed the tops of the rear light clusters with bathroom sealant, as well as the left-bottom side of the boot lip where the wires and latch are. You can't see the top of the rear light cluster with the boot shut (which is a good job because I wasn't exactly neat with it at 18) but it's held the entire time I've had the car and hasn't gone moldy like it would eventually do in a bathroom I guess because it's not warm enough for spores to set in
 
Today I tackled the front wiper issue I've been having for... too long!
I really studied the wiring diagram this time. Couldn't find anything useful online so I just went with what I had.
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So it seemed that the separate blue wire really was responsible (good as it was the only remaining one!). I've noticed a few minor errors with these diagrams in the Haynes manual. For instance, apparently the wipers only work with the ignition in the ON position, which we all know isn't right.
So anyway, that blue wire. I can see now why it's separate to the rest of the controller. A small additional module within the entire block controls the intermittent timing. Looks kinda like an after-thought to be honest.
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It then came to my attention that the wiper relay hadn't been checked. Turns out, the wiper relay doesn't even exsist on this car. Then how do the wipers work? Well, you'll see soon. I went to Cassie and stole the wiper relay from next to the battery. I knew it was the right one despite them not being labeled, because it had the correct wire colours and the right amount, as per the diagram.
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Then I suddenly had a eureka moment! I finally figured out what each and every wire and component did.
The functions that already worked are simple, power from the fusebox goes into the wiper motor and comes back out to the switch, and then grounds somewhere when the switch is activated. The motor also gets grounded if the sensor in the motor is active (if the wiper blades aren't down).
The relay comes in when you want an intermittent or temporary (in the case of wash/wipe) signals. The little extra box where the blue wire comes from completes the end of the circuit by transistors working on a timing-based circuit. That activates the relay which activates the wipers also. But when the relay is off, the wipers are still powered until the sensor breaks the circuit otherwise they wouldn't return down.
There's no relay for the same reason there isn't a rear one on these 2002-2003 cars. The disgusting Renault stalks do all of that within the stalk.
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With that in mind, I then had to figure out how to organise this. Where the relay would be was one issue, but first of all I needed power to go to the relay, preferably from the actual wiper fuse in the fusebox. But that's really not easy to access, then splice, as it's all behind the dash. Then I realised, the power to the relay is split at the fusebox to the wiper motor power. So of course, I could just intersect that in the engine bay. I had to join the orange wire which connects the relay to the wiper sensor, so that's two wires in the engine bay. The other three were interior wires. One ground wire, which can go on any black wire, the relay trigger wire (that blue one) and the brown wire, which depending on the relay position, either sends the power to the wipers until they are down, or triggers them.
So I just had to feed two wires into the engine bay. Luckily, the wire I buy is coupled into two wires, so that keeps it neat. I'll tidy it up later when the dash is removed, but for now it's fine.
I trailed them over to the left side and out through the door grommet. While I was there, I got side-tracked. I found the sunroof drain pipe! So I pulled that out through the grommet too.
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I found a small hole in the splashguard, which I made bigger and fed the pipe through (it was a pain). I then sealed it up with my new sealant, and gave it a test. And look at that, water!
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Back to the wipers. I successfully soldered everything in and blanked off the redundant wires. I decided that the relay could sit in the steering coloum shroud.
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And... it worked! Finally! I now have intermittent wipers, and they wipe when I wash the screen. And, there's a nice relay tick sound now which is cool. So now I have the fully functional Terrano wiper stalk. Which has all of the standard features that the K11 has, plus variable intermittent front wipers, and the ability to set the rear wiper to both intermittent and on fully (some only go intermittent, not full). This has really made me happy, I had totally gotten used to not having those functions and now I feel spoiled.
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I took a look at those number plate bulb clips, they've changed quite a bit. I had to scrape some of the stuff off of the clips as it was starting to cover up the holes. They look pretty good! Paint didn't arrive today so they'll have to wait.
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And, of course, I added some paint to the sunroof drain.
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Later on, I decided to also re-route the final sunroof drain. It's pretty important that I do this now as I've sealed the sills with the underseal paint. So there's nowhere for water to leak out from. On the other side I got away with using a much smaller hole for the pipe (so less sealant), and this time drilled two holes and fed a cable tie through the guard to hold the pipe back. Looks much much better.
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Not satisfied with the other side, I did the same.
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And now for the ultimate test, of all four of the drainage holes!:
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And there it is. That's definitely extended the lifetime of this car. With the sills in such good condition as it is, and now they aren't getting filled with water every time it rains a lot or I wash my car. I highly highly recommend you do the same if you have a sunroof. And consider buying a sunroof car with this in mind! It's totally worth it with all that extra light from above, and the ability to open it up!
 
I was waiting all day hoping that my KY5 paint would turn up, just as I gave up, it arrived! Pretty late in the day, but here it was!
I got right on with painting the parts I prepped. You know how it is by now, I grab a can and suddenly severe weather winds pick up. Well this time (perhaps because I keep sheilding myself in my garage now) it took it a whole step further, and we had a lightning storm for the first time in aaaaggges! You shouldn't paint in damp conditions, but I did anyway because I don't want to wait (I'll be at work all weekend anyway!).
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Starting to look pretty good!
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After the first bit of lacquer...
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I went outside in the gaps where the rain was lighter. Look at how bald the old tyre looks when it's saturated with water. No wonder they're so ineffective in the wet when the tread is low. Almost looks like a slick.
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A little pic of the rain picking up. I had to partially close the garage door to keep the rain out, but still wanted to see the sky lighting up. That's a live lightning map on my GF's phone, took this picture just as 6 bolts struck nearby.
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A little later, I decided it was enough lacquer (I need to save some for my mirrors and wheels!), and went onto polishing and waxing. You can see the difference in the shape here, the second-face one is so much more pokey even before the black handle part.
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Remembered to pull off the masking tape before the paint gets too hard, otherwise there's a risk of it flaking off as I pull the tape.
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Hopefully the intense rain didn't get into the boot too much through the holes that were exposed. At least there are drainage holes in the boot door.
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Metal clips added. Looking much better than they did before.
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And the lights and bolts added. Unfortunately one of the end bolts isn't very secure as the plastic it locks into is broken. I believe the preface had slightly different lenses to the second-face, so this might be a little upgrade for the handle.
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And there we go! It's fitted. Annoyingly, it's not exactly that secure, but then I don't think the original was either. It's tough enough to lift the boot open. I overtightened the far right bolt as I was installing it and it popped out of its broken holder bit, but I got it back in. I hope that's not the root of problems later.
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That looks good! It'll look more in-place when it's the same wetness as the boot itself, stands out a bit here because it's dry. I gave it a fairly thorough polish to make it more reflective, but in the end, it's a different material to the surrounding metal so it's not so bad if it's a little different in texture. I'll polish it in the future too, one day it'll look just right.
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So, before it gets dark, the grille! These looked so good in reality, the photos don't show it properly.
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One last look without the grille... (and the sidelights look pretty good in this light)
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There it is!
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They look good! I'll have to check them tomorrow in more light. Looks kinda like the JDM body coloured ones, but they're two tone as the main part is still black. I haven't seen anyone do this before so this might be another feature that makes my car stand out. I managed to find another nut for the grille (I only had 5/6 nuts), but it's a 10mm where the others are 6mm. Whatever, at least they're all properly secure now.
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Keen to see this tomorrow in fresh light! I hope the front hasn't gone too light, I want a dark tone on this car, but I'm starting to go more body coloured. Either way it looks awesome!


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Got a quick look at the grille at work today. I'm not entirely convinced yet whether I like it or not...
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But close up it does look good.
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A look at the boot handle... needs a clean up, wax that got into the edges has gone white.
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After work, little photo. Looking all small and stuff.
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Also unsure how I feel about the boot handle. I think it just needs cleaning up and some time to adjust.
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I like it though, it took a few refreshes to get the pictures to work for me. It looks strange without the badge and with the rear wiper resting horizontally, I think just because mine is one of the first facelift ones with the wiper resting on the window. It definitely works though, following it in traffic you'd notice something was off (it looks wider somehow? :unsure:) and then see the Japanese writing and it'd sort of make sense, looks very clean though for a 52 plate. One of the cleanest Micra's I've seen

One thing I have seen though is the bolts on the front number plate, even in the distance shot you can see them. Mask around it and give it a quick blast with some white spraypaint it'll blend in much better
 
I like it though, it took a few refreshes to get the pictures to work for me. It looks strange without the badge and with the rear wiper resting horizontally, I think just because mine is one of the first facelift ones with the wiper resting on the window. It definitely works though, following it in traffic you'd notice something was off (it looks wider somehow? :unsure:) and then see the Japanese writing and it'd sort of make sense, looks very clean though for a 52 plate. One of the cleanest Micra's I've seen

One thing I have seen though is the bolts on the front number plate, even in the distance shot you can see them. Mask around it and give it a quick blast with some white spraypaint it'll blend in much better

If you ever see it in person you'll see the scratches all over it that aren't picked up in the photos and the paint chips on the bonnet and reconsider..!
I had kinda forgot about the front plate, however I plan on getting some metal pressed plates made, then it'll look awesome.
I'm having some issues with the forum right now with photos... especially on mobile. For some reason all of the photos are being shown again at the end of the post, but it doesn't show like that on desktop.
 
I got the brakelight lock switch from the old dashboard in the garage. I figured this time I could just use the panel that I already have, that doesn't have the extra switch slot. Perhaps this would look neater. It would at least be much easier to cut without the switch panel in the way. Oh and this time, you might remember I had to cut into the lip between the radio and the lower parts previously, I would lower the switch down so that that wouldn't happen. Well, it fits nicely:
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Then I figured I may as well just do it here and now. So I made a mark.
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It took a little drilling (because the hole is much bigger than my biggest drill bit, I should really get some larger ones), but yeah, it's in and looking good.
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But then onto the task of soldering... It was raining so heavy that I decided that taking the extension lead and soldering iron out there wouldn't be good.
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Until then though, it's in and looking nice. I don't mind the lower offset switch, it's great that it fits properly this time.
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A little later on, with the rain a bit more manageable, I went for it. This time of course it was soldered in and I kept the wires extra neat. I borrowed some ground from the cigarette lighter negative.
It's nicer to solder inside the car with the wind deflectors, I can have the window open a reasonable amount without too much rain getting in, and the solder smoke gets out easier.
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And it worked, just like before.
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There we go. Very handy to have this function. For a start, it allows me to check the brake lights easily. Also in the past I used it fairly often as a safety feature. If I'm at the back of stopped traffic on a motorway, I flick the switch. If I'm coming to a stop on the motorway, I do the same. I use the brakes so little so I imagine it can be difficult to notice me slowing down quite often. Also, if I have to leave the car just around a corner in a risky location, I want cars to notice it immediately.
I nice side effect is that the switch lights up when I press the brakes, so passengers can better see my input when we're... driving slowly and carefully around the backroads at night...
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I've noticed that the spoiler and the boot handle just need some rubbing down as they've got dried wax in areas, so they should look better soon. Also the boot handle is popping off on both corners. I might have to take it off again, and glue in those bolts properly to get it tight.

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Forgot to add. Having some issues with those COB bulbs in the front. Used up my last ones now, might need to get more.
I filled up the radiator with water now. The fan was on so often, even when it wasn't a hot day. Even after adding some water a while back (because then it was super low), I still managed to add absolutely loads today until the water reached the cap. For some reason the water was frothy. Like soapy. But whatever. Engine swap some time.
 
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That's interesting, I briefly had a car where the previous owner had put something similar onto the end of the indicator stalk, always wondered how it was wired up
It took me a moment to figure out how the wiring was set up on this switch again. It has 3 pins, marked positive, LED, and ground.
I recall while taking it off of my last car the switch and the wires were very... Sparky.
Turns out you just treat positive and LED as the in/out like normal, just with an additional ground wire.

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It took me a moment to figure out how the wiring was set up on this switch again. It has 3 pins, marked positive, LED, and ground.
I recall while taking it off of my last car the switch and the wires were very... Sparky.
Turns out you just treat positive and LED as the in/out like normal, just with an additional ground wire.

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where does it get the signal from the brake switch?

It does get confusing because the brake pedal is always pressing down on the brake switch unless your foot is on it. So brake-pedal-up the switch circuit is energized which de-energises the brake lights circuit, and brake pedal down the pedal-switch-circuit is gapped but the brake lights are on. But the LED on your added switch are essentially doing the opposite. And then further, the handbrake switch is on with the handbrake pulled up and off with the handbrake down (like the red light on the dash) but the handbrake doesn't turn the brake lights on in any position.

I hate electronics o_O:ROFLMAO:
 
where does it get the signal from the brake switch?

It does get confusing because the brake pedal is always pressing down on the brake switch unless your foot is on it. So brake-pedal-up the switch circuit is energized which de-energises the brake lights circuit, and brake pedal down the pedal-switch-circuit is gapped but the brake lights are on. But the LED on your added switch are essentially doing the opposite. And then further, the handbrake switch is on with the handbrake pulled up and off with the handbrake down (like the red light on the dash) but the handbrake doesn't turn the brake lights on in any position.

I hate electronics o_O:ROFLMAO:

I simply spliced into the wires at the brake switch. The switch on the brake pedal itself is (I assume) a "push to break" switch as opposed to a "push to make" switch. So yes, it's pressed in while the pedal is resting, but when it's released, the contact is made. Effectively what I have here are two switches that can close to complete the brakelight circuit.
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So the power can either go through the existing black wires on the picture, or it can go through the grey ones that I added. It can also go through both with no problems.

I'm sure the handbrake switch works in the same way. When the button is pressed in, the contact is lost, same as in the picture.
 
Had a little tinker around in Cassie today while a friend was over giving a hand.
I ended up undoing bolts and one thing lead to another, ended up undoing engine mounts and stuff.
I got curious at the state of the cams. So I peeled off the cover and was very happy to see that they were shiny and smooth. I could tell as I was taking the picture that it wasn't going to show very well in the photo, but these looked amazing in person. I guess the oil flush worked well.
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On top of that, we took out the radiator. I flushed out the radiator and even (not that it matters now) the heater matrix. Turns out, of the three radiators I have, they're all different slightly. I'll have to decide on which one is the best for when I swap the engine into my new car.
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Had a good blast on some of the nice roads around where I live yesterday and today. I can't wait to get new, much better tyres. And one day an axle that allows my rear anti-roll bar to attach.
I've thought about this new boot handle, and how it's not attached well at the sides. I think I'll take it off again and hot glue the stud bolts into it so I can tighten them down properly.
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I was going to start prepping my mirrors for painting tonight but I seem to have entered a food-coma state.

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Flushing the heatercore is a fun job, I did mine and it was night-and-day difference how much heat I was getting out of the vents afterwards, to the point I worried about turning it on with the windscreen frosted incase it cracked

Your last post reminded me of this youtube video I watched years back too (youtu.be/f1QL9veQaNg) as a way to test how much heat each can dissipate. The summary is that they're painting intercoolers black in the video, which increased the amount of heat they scrubbed away stationary by quite a bit, but then a video debunking it showed that the extra layer of paint actually made the performance worse while the car was moving, defeating the point since the car is never under boost while idling anyway. But the set-up is a good one for working out performance of any radiator or intercooler using the calculations in the video. If you have a few radiators that fit and you need to work out which one scrubs away the most heat, you could try a similar set-up with a heatgun, a bit of plumbing and a rad fan to simulate wind moving.
 
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