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The Unnamed Pre-face

So the coilpack has gone to a good home (My mum wanted a reliable car to get into driving again as she's not driven for about 6 years) and I've picked up my second Micra. Took me a while to find the right one but in the end I traveled about 5 metres across the room and bought the Mrs' ;)

Yes I bought the girlfriend's Micra. She's been wanting a change for a while so I gave her £800 for it and we went out and bought her an immaculate, one owner Pug 206 2.0 HDI. Full service history with 155,000 on the clock. She loves it so I'm happy. Paid over value for the Micra but I wanted her in something decent so there we go.

Anyway the new girl is a burgundy 1998 1.0 preface GX. Leccy windows, central locking, sunroof, no power steering. Perfect. Comes with a genuine 30,000 on the clock with FSH and one previous old lady owner (girlfriend's family) before the Mrs. I'm not even kidding when I say she used it to go to church and Tesco. Current plans include:
  • 1.3 cams (Have the kit, just need to find the time)
  • Frankspeed Mani (As above)
  • Play with the timing a bit
  • Get those damn coilpack trims off and paint the steelies silver
  • De-bumpstrip and badge
  • Fix the mark on the front bumper
  • Bumper re-paint
  • Fix the misc bits of trim around the windows, sunroof etc
  • Get the paint looking a little better. (Less bloody scratches)
  • General clean and tidy. Especially the engine bay.
I started by swapping the old bits off the coilpack and onto this one. Swaps included my steelies (Brand new tyres all 'round so I'm keeping these) and the Almera airbox. The day after I jacked her all up and went to town on getting the underbody sealed. Did a fairly good job of it I'd say considering I had some jackstands and a brush. Should keep the salt off this winter.

Unfortunately whilst jacking her up on the rear drivers jack point I heard a bit of a crunching. Scraped away the old underseal with a screwdriver to have a look and ended up going straight through. Nice Swiss cheese sill there for me to sort out . The back side of the wheel arch is also the same so I'll have to get that sorted, the girlfriend didn't know but I still like to tell her she sold me a ****ebox to wind her up. We live on a farm with all the associated machinery and gigantic workshop to house it all so getting it welded wasn't a problem.

I really need to get 'round to getting these cams in and the mani on but I have a few questions. What's the procedure for removing the cams. I presume the chain won't just lift off so will I have to undo the tensioner to get them free, and are there any tips for keeping the timing whilst the cams are out? I've worked with rebuilding pit bike engines before and doing valve adjustments on my old (bigger) bikes but this is a little more serious. As for the manifold, is it worth getting some new bolts to bolt it into the cat and block afterward (The originals look a bit crusty) and will there be anything else I'll need besides a new gasket and some exhaust paste for the cat?

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OP
OP
Bonner
I'm not 1.3 swapping it most likely, I don't really have the time and generally can't be bothered. I'm not looking for massive power (Hence why I own a Micra ;)) but something I can drive daily that makes me smile. Due to it's condition and low mileage it's quite spritely for a 1.0. I've got the cams and the Manifold lying around so I may as well fit them.
 

Enuo

Glorified Electrician
I'm not 1.3 swapping it most likely, I don't really have the time and generally can't be bothered. I'm not looking for massive power (Hence why I own a Micra ;)) but something I can drive daily that makes me smile. Due to it's condition and low mileage it's quite spritely for a 1.0. I've got the cams and the Manifold lying around so I may as well fit them.
Fair enough. Just seems to me that if you go to all the effort of putting 1.3 cams in to make it more like a 1.3 just make it a 1.3
 
OP
OP
Bonner
Fair enough. Just seems to me that if you go to all the effort of putting 1.3 cams in to make it more like a 1.3 just make it a 1.3

There is that to it I guess and I see your point. Another reason I don't want to get rid of the CG10 is because of it's condition. Everything is solid and it's worlds apart from the CG10 I had in the coilpack (As well as much, much faster). I know I'd probably re-build a CG13 I'd be transplanting from the ground up but it seems like a lot of effort to do when I'm happy with what I have for now. ;)
 
OP
OP
Bonner
Sprayed up the Steelies for my winter tyres today. Is it worth adding a layer of lacquer to them for added protection, or is the sheen from it going to look a bit daft?

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MaxK11C

Micraless
Moderator
Social Brand Manager
Looks great!
Those 206's are fantastic, my mum has an 03 1.6 and she loves it to bits.
Good luck, I hope you get that rust sorted.


'Sent from my bed using paper planes'
 
OP
OP
Bonner
Ordered a couple of cans of a clear lacquer, hopefully it should keep a decent finish on the wheels. I wasn't a massive fan of the colour originally to be honest but it's really grown on me since I've had it. It comes up really nice when I've been over it with the orbital buffer. The girlfriend really likes her 206 and I do as well actually. The pedals are a little too close together for my clown feet but I tend to forget that when the turbo kicks in at 2.5/3k ish as it's surprisingly quick!

As for the rust we've had it in the workshop, cut the cancer out and welded in some new plates. It just needs a bit of underseal on it to finish it off but other than that she's all good. I'll probably touch it all up when I get it back over the pit to do the oil change.
 

MicraPRO

Part Of The Furniture
How did you do that to your lights, I quite like the effect and wouldn't mind giving it a go :p Any problems encountered with MOTs and such like due to beam pattern interference?
Lights apart paint black inserts.
Put them back together.
Light blue tinting film to headlights.
Then carbon vinyl for the badboy gangsta look haha
Passed 2 mots with them on mate not even an advisory :D
 
OP
OP
Bonner
Lights apart paint black inserts.
Put them back together.
Light blue tinting film to headlights.
Then carbon vinyl for the badboy gangsta look haha
Passed 2 mots with them on mate not even an advisory :D

Nice one, might look at doing that I quite like it.

Managed to get a bit more done last week, not much though. Lacquered the winter wheels with a set of very annoying 'assistants' looking on

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I also managed to finally get rid of the facelift wheeltrims and get the steelies painted and lacquered. Two of the wheels weren't great due to some quite heavy rust that I wasn't able to perfectly sand out, but you can't really see it when they're on the car. Besides, it looks loads better now.

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I take Tuesday and Wednesday as my days off as I work weekends, but I also had Monday off this week. This means I've got a free day tomorrow to tackle something or other. I'm considering doing the cams but I'm worried about losing the timing when I do so. Someone posted a clever way of locking it once but I can't find or remember it now. Anyone got any clever ideas?
 
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