so around this time last year, i bought my second Micra. I'd not had one for a few years and the feeling of joy i had coming back to one was immeasurable! i thought £600 was a bargain.
As with any car, the first thing i did was drive it home and oh dear. the car barely drove, with the brake pedal nearly touching the floor before any pressure was felt. the car picked up slack in the steering system, and the ashtray was jam-packed full.
A transplant of brake fluid was enough to keep her going temporarily. that got me to Andrew Page's and home, to do an oil and filter change. the oil was like sludge. On the internet that night it was parts ordering time.
Some days later (bloody post office) i started to fit new hubs, wishbones and brake pads. I also removed the back seats and seatbelts.
Another few days after this, my brand new track rod ends arrived. Everything is siezed and filthy on this car. It took more than a day to fit the track-rod ends, by which time new ARB drop-link sets had arrived. Fitting these was the proverbial doddle in comparison to the siezed track-rod ends.
From this point, the car went on a crash diet. I vowed to take some weight out of her every day, even if only 10g.
I removed the airbox inlet tube and resonator pipe, and created an inlet trumpet from the port from an "ebay special" subwoofer. I left the mesh in, in consideration to EBBdudes posts.
Next, i painted the wheels white. they weren't a great job, but did very well for chipping etc. eventually these were sold (at the extortionate price of £26) to another forum member. i hope you're enjoying them Jon!
I replaced the standard 14" alloys with some Almera GTi alloys, running on 205/50/15s. big balloon but not much chance of damaging a rim!
Next, again following EBBDudes advice, i created custom copper cored HT leads, and mated them to gapped Bosch super4 spark plugs.
The next thing on the list was the exhaust. I live on a quiet road, so a "loud" exhaust was not an option. eventually, i decided on creating a custom side-exit system. I removed the back box and pipe work around the axle. i removed the exhaust at the intersection between mid-silencer and 2nd cat, to weld straight pipe on. the pipe doesn't quite stick out te side and so is quite hidden.
I then bought an adjustable (up to 10Bar it says) fuel pressure regulator. This wasn't exactly easy to fit, but once complete looks great on a custom adaptor and mount. I started with 5Bar pressure, 200% of standard fuel pressure. there were severe running issues here, so i brought it down to 4Bar, and eventually to 3.25Bar. This is still a 30% increase.
Weight-saving update. The car at this point had no rear seats, no carpet at all, no radio, no interior plastics, door cards etc. a few weeks later, the dash came out.
I then bought poly-bushes for the wishbones. It took literally hours to fit both pairs (well ok the car was off the road for 4 days) but once on the difference was astounding. I immediately ordered a mix of hard and softer bushes from strongflex, poland. I was sceptical about buying such long distance on ebay, but the parts turned up only 2 days after payment cleared. thats service!
Having fitted the wishbone bushes, at a hardness of 80A, i fitted front ARB bushes of the same hardness, and drop-link bushes of 90A hardness. The rear ARB also has 90A hardness bushes.
I also lowered the car the clever pikey way. i measured the spring length on the car with and without static sag, and then off the car full length. working out the ratio of extention, the car has been lowered 35mm all round, with an extra 1/4 turn of spring removed on the front (equivalent to approx 2.5mm).
I have relocated my power steering reservoir to the bulkhead, and i have a remote crankcase breather filter.
Thats about it for now. the car weighs 103Kgs less than when i got it (to be weighed on March 2nd) and is significantly quicker. will get decent pics at some point but cam is playing up.
Next set of work to be done is engine work. Increase compression ratio, cams, lightweight flywheel, bike carbs gutted out as throttle bodies and an unique inlet plenum, but thats a secret!
Theres an engine transplant on the cards as well, but again, i'm keeping it a closely guarded secret!
As with any car, the first thing i did was drive it home and oh dear. the car barely drove, with the brake pedal nearly touching the floor before any pressure was felt. the car picked up slack in the steering system, and the ashtray was jam-packed full.
A transplant of brake fluid was enough to keep her going temporarily. that got me to Andrew Page's and home, to do an oil and filter change. the oil was like sludge. On the internet that night it was parts ordering time.
Some days later (bloody post office) i started to fit new hubs, wishbones and brake pads. I also removed the back seats and seatbelts.
Another few days after this, my brand new track rod ends arrived. Everything is siezed and filthy on this car. It took more than a day to fit the track-rod ends, by which time new ARB drop-link sets had arrived. Fitting these was the proverbial doddle in comparison to the siezed track-rod ends.
From this point, the car went on a crash diet. I vowed to take some weight out of her every day, even if only 10g.
I removed the airbox inlet tube and resonator pipe, and created an inlet trumpet from the port from an "ebay special" subwoofer. I left the mesh in, in consideration to EBBdudes posts.
Next, i painted the wheels white. they weren't a great job, but did very well for chipping etc. eventually these were sold (at the extortionate price of £26) to another forum member. i hope you're enjoying them Jon!
I replaced the standard 14" alloys with some Almera GTi alloys, running on 205/50/15s. big balloon but not much chance of damaging a rim!
Next, again following EBBDudes advice, i created custom copper cored HT leads, and mated them to gapped Bosch super4 spark plugs.
The next thing on the list was the exhaust. I live on a quiet road, so a "loud" exhaust was not an option. eventually, i decided on creating a custom side-exit system. I removed the back box and pipe work around the axle. i removed the exhaust at the intersection between mid-silencer and 2nd cat, to weld straight pipe on. the pipe doesn't quite stick out te side and so is quite hidden.
I then bought an adjustable (up to 10Bar it says) fuel pressure regulator. This wasn't exactly easy to fit, but once complete looks great on a custom adaptor and mount. I started with 5Bar pressure, 200% of standard fuel pressure. there were severe running issues here, so i brought it down to 4Bar, and eventually to 3.25Bar. This is still a 30% increase.
Weight-saving update. The car at this point had no rear seats, no carpet at all, no radio, no interior plastics, door cards etc. a few weeks later, the dash came out.
I then bought poly-bushes for the wishbones. It took literally hours to fit both pairs (well ok the car was off the road for 4 days) but once on the difference was astounding. I immediately ordered a mix of hard and softer bushes from strongflex, poland. I was sceptical about buying such long distance on ebay, but the parts turned up only 2 days after payment cleared. thats service!
Having fitted the wishbone bushes, at a hardness of 80A, i fitted front ARB bushes of the same hardness, and drop-link bushes of 90A hardness. The rear ARB also has 90A hardness bushes.
I also lowered the car the clever pikey way. i measured the spring length on the car with and without static sag, and then off the car full length. working out the ratio of extention, the car has been lowered 35mm all round, with an extra 1/4 turn of spring removed on the front (equivalent to approx 2.5mm).
I have relocated my power steering reservoir to the bulkhead, and i have a remote crankcase breather filter.
Thats about it for now. the car weighs 103Kgs less than when i got it (to be weighed on March 2nd) and is significantly quicker. will get decent pics at some point but cam is playing up.
Next set of work to be done is engine work. Increase compression ratio, cams, lightweight flywheel, bike carbs gutted out as throttle bodies and an unique inlet plenum, but thats a secret!
Theres an engine transplant on the cards as well, but again, i'm keeping it a closely guarded secret!
