Some decent progress and weekend tinkering

[cisco]

Yay. Left work early today and ducked straight into Autobarn to pickup some goodies just before they closed:

- Can of spray on bitumen sound deadening underbody stuff. Going to use this after deadening the doors to attend to any hard to get to areas, general loose weird spots, and probably spray a heap inside the rear hatch cavity thing.
- Can of wax/grease remover. Need this to remove all the crap from my doors after removing the trim panels. I.e. all the sticky glue stuff that the clear plastic sheet was held on with.. This stuff will ensure that the sound deadening mat sticks on properly.
- Packet of 5 spare 10amp fuses. I have no spare fuses, this will come in handy just to have, and a lot of them are 10amps, I'll put a couple of them in the spare fuse clips next to the micra's fuse panel.
- 2 x H4 headlights of correct 55/65 (I think) wattage. Previously I installed some crazy 110W H4 bulbs and the insides of my crystal headlights have ever so slightly started to MELT. Don't do this!! Plus I think the extra power consumption is drawing too much current when the headlights are on, because the car stalls really easily when its cold and the headlights are on. So going to put factory rates H4 bulbs back in.
- 4 NGK spark plugs. Can't be bothered waiting a week to order Iridium ones in. These will last 30,000-40,000Km and they had them in stock. I'm a big supporter of buying things in stock!!! They will just go and order more in more, which is great.
- Big sheet of 6mm thick MDF. This will be used to cut out templates to fill the service holes in both front doors. I'm putting in some serious sound deadening.

Already have a new Shell Helix Ultra oil and oil filter ready to go too..

Blue 8mm Magnecor leads coming first thing next week by COD.

Also looks like I've sourced a replacement gear shifter surround with all the clips intact. Yeah!!!

Car should be a bit better off after this weekend.

 

[CMF_Alex_B]

sounds good bloke,

let us know if the noise reduction works out,

Alex

 

[CMF_Tony]

Would have been good to see a before and after db reading,Just to see the difference.

 

[cisco]

What a job, just to remove all the sticky stuff from the driver's side door. Haven't even touched the other one yet.

Just about to get out there and cut out the MDF templates and stick them on, followed by the sound sheeting..

Anyway, door looking MUCH better and smoother just from having all that sticky crap removed.

 

[cisco]

Also: Gee some of those locking actuator rods are quite rattly if you give them a tap aren't they. Will see what I can do.

 

[cisco]

Finished driver's side door completely, trim panel is back on.

I am already impressed with the solid and dense feel of the door now.

I did everything really properly and it took me a long time just to do one door.

I will tackle the passenger side door tomorrow, but I already have the MDF filler pieces cut out for it, so it will be quicker.

A few decent cut MDF filler pieces in the driver's side door now, all secured in tightly, bitumen spray inside the door a bit on the back of the outer door panel just to do what it can. Lots of tape wrapped around any rattly actuator rods, grease and bitumen spray on the driver's locking mechanism which was a bit loose. Now it doesn't make much noise.

Then the finishing touch, painstakingly slow process of cutting all the sound mat sheets to fit the door perfectly. Made some tunnels out of cardboard to lay over the door opening rods so that the mat doesn't stick to them and stop them from moving. Then laid the mat over the cardboard. Worked a treat, the entire door just looks like a big piece of silver lined sound deadening mat. I'll take a photo of the result tomorrow.

Now with the trim back on, opening and shutting the door feels a bit heavier. Tapping and banging on it now gives you a solid feel like hitting a piece of wood. While touching the passenger door which is fully stripped and bare sounds like a can full of marbles - yukk.

I can't wait to go for a drive and feel the improvements, I can tell already its going to sound a lot better. The door just feels so dead and solid now.

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Some pics Cisco.

 

[cisco]

Eww sorry I was a bit lazy today. Didn't bother getting the camera while I had dirty hands doing the work.

Well, made heaps of great progress today.

- New headlight bulbs are in.
- Found a missing nut making the right headlight loose, fixed that.
- Moved an intercooler pipe's hose clamp around so it wouldn't possibly rub/vibrate on the front bumper when the engine rocks.
- Finished sound deadening both doors and all back together. Man they sound like wood now and feel much heavier. Really happy with it, but haven't even test driven yet. Doors came up 110%. Both packed full of MDF pieces to fill any service holes, heaps of tape over all holes, sound mat pressed in tightly fitting all nooks and crannies in the doors. Bitumen spray sprayed inside the doors to whereever I could get it to damped the back of the outer panel.
- Also added some front plugs onto the wiring for both tweeters, because before they were just soldered on (stupid) which meant cutting the wires just to remove the door trims. Well nice spade plugs now for easy removal in the future.
- Sound deadening matt in the back of the car a fair bit now. Added some decent sized pieces to cover a large area formerly occupied by the rear seats. Covered some existing empty bolt holes with it, should be heaps better now.
- Put 3 spare fuses in micra's fuse panel holder as spares.
- Removed the service panel in the rear hatch and coated the entire back of it very tidily with adhesive sound deadening bitumen mat. Now its about tripled in weight and zero chance of it vibrating around but most importantly will filter out HEAPS more sound coming in from the rear of the car now.
- Added some more of the stuff inside the engine bay where the former rubber grommet from the ABS wiring was. Now that that has been removed, I couldn't find the correct sized grommet from clark rubber, so I just stuck a small square of bitumen mat over the entire area, should be heaps better (Seano, now you won't hear my BOV so much from inside the interior when driving hhehe).
- Man what else, Oh yeah.. Found out that the oil leaking from my turbo is definately coming out of the K&N air filter. The turbo has been sucking a lot of oil out of the filter, and its dripped down the air filter pipe and there's an area which could be sealed better with rubber gasket maker, but its not, so the oil is pooling up in there just pre-turbo and seaping out the join and hence the oil leaking out from under there. So phew, no leak form the turbo. Its dead obvious to me now, so eventually that oil will go away, but I might add some rubber sealant to make it a perfect seal anyway, but not now, next weekend.

Blue Magnecor leads will arrive Mon/Tue, will install those along with the new NGK plugs. Replacement plastic gear shifter surround about 5 days away, so will install that end of next week also. Only other thing is to re-grease the rear swaybar bushes as they are bone dry, to stop them squeaking. And new window tint soon..

Getting there. Allright, about to go for a test drive and see how loud or quiet the car is.. Here's hoping.. fingers crossed.

 

[CMF_Sean]

Sounds like its all coming together now!

This will be the best part of building up your car. Finally getting to enjoy it and ironing out the little bugs.

Can't wait to hear what the inside of the car sounds like without the feeling that the engine, road, suspension and the BOV sitting on my lap!

Sean

 

[cisco]

Yeah thanks dude.

Just got back from a spin. Its heaps quieter, you can really notice it.

Now the doors are dead silent, and feel heaps solid even when you touch them. Its great. Highly recommended and glad I did it.

Now I can hear a couple of other rattles clearly are not coming from the doors. Some more minor sound deadening required in the pillar thing that the deatbelt hanger is on, so will get some more stuff sometime and pull those apart and see what's doing there.

Also going to spray all 4 wheel archies heavily with several coats of the bitumen under body spray. I think that will be highly worthwhile.

Also fixed the rattly clutch pedal earlier, just a fraction of adjustment.

Car driving really great, starting to get that refined feel which makes it all the more worthwhile.

Also going to pickup a big sheet of that adhesive under bonnet heat/sound insulator. Should further improve things again.

 

[CMF_Tony]

Sounds great mate, Why don't you seal up where the seat belts comeout of the pilar? and buy yourself some harnesses and racing seats.

 

[cisco]

Funny you should say that, I'm seriously thinking about getting a pair of seats pretty soon. Just have to chase down some of those ready-to-go rails from Japan.

 

[CMF_Yom]

FYI cisco, those seat rails for aftermarket seats are not quite 'ready to go'. JPN K11 have different seat mounting points so they won't bolt in on the door sides.

Hehe looks like you had a nice relaxed slow weekend... Bit the opposite when it came to the micra for me... *giggles*

 

[CMF_Toma]

God, i remember that stick door crap. I took off the plastic to sort out my central locking and ended up getting that glue all over the place. SUCH a pain to get out of the door trim. *sigh*

 

[CMF_mighty mouse]

yo cisco th guy at intune know a guy that does em for prettycheap its bound to be cheaper than gettin custom rails from japan

just a thought..

 

[CMF_micra-man]

Cisco, if you are getting a set of custom seat rails made in Canberra ,I'd be interested in a set.

That's if making 2 or more sets saves him time and you money in the long run ;-)

 

[cisco]

Thanks guys for the heads up.

Ok will suss out Ben's mate. I have some other work for Ben to do sometime, so I might just drop it in sometime and say "do the lot" kind of thing including the rails..

Sure thing Micra Man, will see what I can find out re:costs etc.

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Its all looking good Cisco.You must be happy now the way its all coming along.Getting to the stage of just enjoying. Good stuff.
Bluey all pimped and primed.
Fire it up !!!

 

[cisco]

For sure.

The pimping is the most fun out of everything.

Sound deadening is my new hobby. I love it.

 

[CMF_solarice]

sounds like you've been busy wish i could get that much done on mine...i soooo want it back up and runing.

 

[cisco]

Allright.

- Blue Magnecor leads are now fully installed.
- Gear shifter surround arrived super mega quickly and is installed. Wow what a feeling for it not to slap around when changing gears!!
- Also found and removed a brittle/shattered seatbelt guide on the driver's side..

 

[cisco]

Just re-greased my rear swaybar. Yay no more creaking when going down the driveway.

Also put the 14" pulsar plus wheels on. They do fit over the AD22VF brakes, but only *JUST*.

Went for a drive, car feels slightly different:
- More give over bumps and slightly more comfort/body roll.
- Feels a fraction slower or less responsive before full boost is made. But when on full boost still pulls just as hard.
- Front right tyre just rubs on the guard when cornering now.

They have some crappy old firestone 195/60s on them with not much tread left. Not exactly what you would call high performance, but the thing I love is that the car is heaps more well hidden and doesn't attract anywhere as much attention.

In the long run though, I think I will invest in some decent tyres for my other 15" rims and put them back on and leave them on. Lightweight rims do so much for a car, especially a car with a small engine.

Allright, that's enough car mucking around for today. Going for a cruise.

 

[CMF_White Knight]

You are starting to inspire me Cisco to get stuck into Whitey. Like to rip the back seat out and make a nice 2 seat van out of it.
Get rid of some weight and it can also become the family van for carting stuff around.
Could fit the barbeque in it as well !!!

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Cisco how about some pics of the back of Monster to give me some ideas. I want to utilise the space as much as possible.
Barbeque van, fishing van,general haulage van ( at speed)etc.

 

[cisco]

Allright sounds like a plan.

I'll take you some better pics soon of inside the rear end.

I must say, the rear end is ultra handy. I love it.

We bought a new washing machine 2 weekends ago, don't even think of putting it in the fairmont (which is supposedly a large vehicle). Took down the Nissan VAN and straight in the back no worries at all. Washing machine in the back and drove it straight home. You can't beat that..

Also last week had to go and pick up a large network printer packed in a huge box. Wouldn't fit in the fairmont's boot or back seat, had to squeeze it in the front and then I could hardly see where I was driving. Would have been a piece of cake in the back of the micra van!!!

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Good stuff. Excatly what I want to do with Whitey.
Fast delivery vans all the go!!
I want to leave spare tyre where it is but have a latched section so I can get it out.Where to relocate the rear speakers so they do not get knocked about.

 

[cisco]

Doh still didn't take any photos! I'll get onto it.

But made some good progress this weekend also.

- Fixed gear shifter rattle that had come back - 3 bolts had come a bit looser, now its silent once again.
- Fixed clutch pedal rattle, some further slight loosening of the clutch cable adjustment, now its sweet.
- bitumen under body spray all 4 inner wheel arches. Looks a nice factory clean black now and hopefully slightly contributes to overall lower NVH.
- Rotated tyres, front ones were very worn, and plenty of tread still on the rear. Rotated them and now its heaps better.
- Backed camber off a bit. Was too savage before, causing bad front tyre wear on edges, now reduced it a bit, made both sides equal. Can feel a lot more straight line traction already from that.
- Raised front suspension by about 1cm both sides. Left rear the same, rear was perfect, front was too low. Steering geometry was a bit tight, bit too much bump steer, and tyres slightly rubbing on inner guards. Now car is more well balanced and better responsive to steering and less responsive to bumps. Better traction because of the camber.
- Removed those pulsar plus wheels. I am going to sell them. You can really notice the benefit of lightweight racing rims and low profile tyres. Wow glad to have those back on. They are worth the money ten fold.
- Found the culprit causing this long-term rattle I've had. Bottom hinge screws for my rear left window were dead loose. Causing the whole hinge to rattle like buggery. Completely gone and fixed now - Good riddens!!! Had that one for so long I can't remember. Gee, so simple.
- Found a dangling and rattling heater pipe mount when I got under the car up on the ramps. Screw completely missing. Found a suitable screw, and re-installed the guide, just beautiful.

Went for a cruise and car feels a million bucks. Really lovely to drive, nice and responsive, great power delivery, great brakes. Just awesome. I love it when you fix about 10 small things at once, and the car just feels better overall because a little bit of everything is better.

Oh I forgot, got to quickly fix the petrol flap spring. Its not springing open.. The metal spring is caught on something and falling out.. The remote latch works perfectly (I replaced that completely 1 year ago) its just the spring this time, gone loose and gotten jammed or something. Will fix now.

Car going great.

 

[cisco]

Petrol flap fixed! Yay. Spring just slightly bent out of shape and was getting caught. All done.

Ok going for a decent cruise now..

 

[cisco]

Car driving REALLY REALLY well. Had a great arvo of cruising.

Stereo sounds heaps better after the recent sound deadening of the doors.