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White Super S - Whiskey's Blog

Love_Whiskey

Super S Restorer
(Please bear with me - I am writing this from mobile phone so it may look ugly on a computer)

Hello hello hello, I'm Eddie Storer, and this is my blog for my '94 Super S. (K11, 1.3)
I'm going to try and start from the beginning with my photographs and try to describe every modification in a "DIY guide" style. This should help anyone with questions, although if you have any, feel free to ask. Your thoughts and opinions are welcomed from the viewpoints of engineering and scene points :p

I purchased the car in approximately May 2014. I bought it after viewing pictures on facebook, with no test drive and no physical inspection. I also bought it in the dark. This breaks a few rules, but so far it hasn't stung me too badly. Here are the pictures I was sent via facebook.
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There was also a photo of the front crossmember, which was immaculate, however I have lost that. All in all a fairly clean and honest looker, so I promised to pay when it was delivered. (I did not get my driving licence until I was 22!)

So I paid the man the money, and hopped into my car to go and park it out of the way (off the public highway, I hasten to add...) and first thing I noticed was that A) a headlight was out and B) either the clutch was worn out or not adjusted properly on the cable. Nevermind.

So I parked it up, all running smoothly and forgot about it for a couple of months.

The reason I bought the car was because I already have a 1967 2.5 petrol Land Rover, which is not an economical daily, and I also have a 1972 2.0 petrol Triumph GT6 which is not an economical daily either. So I wanted a nippy hatchback with a reliable, rugged engine and a heater that worked and lights that lit up the road at night. The Micra seemed an obvious choice after I had my ear talked off about how great they were by a friend. (And of course playing Gran Turismo as a kid on playstation and racing Nissan Skylines)

Other things that swayed me to Clan Micra were the fair fuel efficiency, interestingly designed engine (all aluminium alloy, twin cam and chain driven being the main points) low cost and huge spares availability in the scrap yards.

So anyway, I had parked up the car with no intention of driving it until I considered it "complete". So that gave me a luxury of being able to decide just what to do. My background is a diesel engineer with the RAF, so I'm not shy to engines and tuning etc. I was first presented with the dilemma; engine - to swap or not to swap. I considered the usual. GA16 was too heavy and not tuneable enough. SR20 I personally felt was a little overdone. I wanted something crazy. Mad. I hunted about (Still in the Nissan stables) looking at importing an X-Trail and doing a 4x4 SR20VET conversion. Soon, cost added up to over £15,000 so yeah, I had to stop dreaming and get real. A new RB26 direct from Nismo was also considered, but I don't think I've got the ability to mid-mount it like I wanted. And that would have cost around £15k too. So I've made my decision, which is to keep a modest budget and run a N/A high compression, High revs CG13, with as much power as I can manage without too much low end torque sacrifice.

Worth mentioning here I carried out every service and maintenance I could think of when I got the car, Oil, filters (oil, air, fuel), spark plugs, tyre pressures, checked wheel balance and all sorts. Oiled hinges, locks and catches. You name it, I did it. The interior was a bit messy (stains, crumbs, fluff and such) so that was washed, scrubbed, hoovered and cleaned with detergent sprays to lift 20 years of grime from the corners and stuff. Now it all seems brighter and the colours in the weave of the seats stand out better.

So having settled on an engine and a method of tuning, I did a few things. Firstly I went a bit eBay mad and just bought loads of tacky, cheap rubbish. A lot of that did not get fitted. But in the process I was learning about what kind of wheel and suspension options there were, as well as brakes. As far as exterior modifications go, I wanted this to be a subtle yet visibly "not stock" kind of car.

In my first ever copy of Banzai mag that I bought many years ago, there was a skyline GTS-t that I thought had been really tastefully done. Lots of complex work and betterment underneath, without spoiling the comfort of the car by ripping the interior out, or making it too stiff to drive normally. The guy had designed it as a tribute to the legendary Nismo models, the 270R, S-Tune and 400R to name a few. He'd even had custom decals made to name his creation "340S" or something like that (where 340 was the BHP of the car)

I decided this was to be a major influence. I wanted to focus on a factory-level of quality and design to the modifications, whilst still aiming for performance.

So, as aforementioned I bought lots of cheap stuff off eBay. A red alumite "momo" gearknob which seems a little lacking in quality... Probably fake. Generic cheap suede rim, red alumite, 3 spoke, deep dish steering wheel, and a "Sparco" quick release steering wheel boss adapter (this too was cheap, lacking in quality and has a lot of play in it, not ideal in a steering mechanism, probably fake) as well as a short boss for adapting the column splines. I bought a "Carbon fibre Nismo" horn button too, from America. No idea if it's genuine or not. And of course a red Oil Filler cap.

So I like red, red is a theme for this car, with the "o" in Nismo being red, why not? See below for cheap tacky stuff fitted photo;
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Also when I purchased the car there was no radio of any description fitted. A good friend of mine provided a "period" (read: old) kenwood unit complete with cassette tape player. That was a simple plug in, however, I would later learn my battery feed was not working and the radio memory did not work as a result.

Around this time I also bought NodSpeed's range of items - front brace, panhard and rear brace. When I bought stuff they didn't yet do DeCats, but I'll probably get one in the future for off-the-road purposes. Only the front has currently been painted (Nissan AJ4, halfords) and given a NodSpeed decal and lacquered. I've fitted it but so far neglected to take a picture. The others await painting and fitment.

I bought myself a preface grille and followed a guide on this forum to cut it out Nismo Style, this is awaiting paint and some mesh. Here it is as it stands...
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I also bought a set of SR clocks to fit, though I had to adjust the mileage and removed the airbag lamp. Here's a guide thread I made on the subject;

https://www.micra.org.uk/threads/guide-how-to-change-your-mileage.60955/

So while I had been pottering about doing these few bits, I also learned quite a lot about the car's brakes and suspension and how they work in particular relation to the Micra. A lot of reading suggested that standard brakes with good quality and condition discs/pads such as Mintex or EBC would be more than sufficient for spirited road use, given that this car is without ABS. One thing I absolutely abhorred though was the amount of roll in the standard suspension setup. Andy Gray at Bright Spark Racing (of H701 Micra fame) did me a deal on a set of performance gas adjustable coilovers. Below is a picture of the set (not yet fitted) plus a couple of general pictures of the car in stock glory.

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I am now well into the planning/acquiring parts stages. I've bought some tasteful stickers, but not too many. But mainly, I recently had a chat with Matt Humphris at the Humphris Oxford Nissan dealer. He provides and runs a great service for a lot of Micra Rallying enthusiasts. The result was I spent hard dough on a few bits.

A set of forged 1.0 pistons with valve recesses including rings - I went forged because they are lighter and I wanted to be sure of the quality and wear of the item as well as an investment - if I get bored of this build I could boost a 1.0... (picture below this list)

A "Group A" airbox - which I bought mainly for the ram air effect I thought it would offer

An entire engine rebuild kit with all gaskets, seals etc.

A set of four NGK iridium spark plugs - I have read that these work well in boosted applications but to my mind with a high compression NA setup then cylinder conditions would be similar to a low boost engine (more compression, denser and higher temperatures) but we'll see if these plugs are too hot or not.

A set of four Magnecor KV85 (Red cable) HT leads - I use a set on my GT6 and they are great, as well as being red!

Also there was a donor Engine, because I wanted to be able to work on the engine very carefully and slowly and not do a rush job, so it will sit on a stand in my garage for a while. It's just a normal CG13.

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While I waited for a few bits to turn up, I also fitted a set of clear side repeaters (the indicators in the front wings) which really blend in better with this being a white car. I also gained an interior fuse box cover, as the car lacked one when I bought it. I changed the header tank after I poked a hole in mine trying to check the level.

So I already have a lot of pieces to be working on. Future plans/ideas include;

Exhaust. Full stainless JanSpeed system, 4-2-1 and a sports Cat. Hoping that will be emissions legal.

Cams. I want a 270 Degree set of cams. Any wilder and I will likely lose low end torque and idle terribly. Seen a set by Piper Cams which sound great but are lots of money.

Valves. Lighten or machine valves for better flow and higher revs. Try to source dual springs.

Nistune ECU daughter board and Map by Fusion Motorsport.
 
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Hit the 10k character limit in first post. Here goes a continuation.

At present I'm still away for the time being. I've gone mad on eBay through boredom and ordered more junk. A few trim and dress-up bits for the engine like Nismo radiator cap and oil cap, also the Hyper-Rev March book to drool over, as well as an original manual/wallet and maintenance log. Just to make the car's portfolio a little bigger as there was nothing when I bought it.

Also bought some OE Nissan extras like A-pillar tweeters and a speaker parcel shelf to fit. Before I left I was in a major rush but managed to mount my engine and move it. Although it's mounted nice and dodgily via the alternator housing as I had no time to be taking the clutch off!

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Was it sponsored by the cheap lager?

Was thinking of removing the stripe. Is it actually some sort of rare add on or are you joking hah?


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We misunderstand each other :)

Or rather, I misunderstand you...

The seats are rainbow-ish on the fabric, I see what you mean about it looking stripy. I however, was referring to the red stripe across the bottom of the boot hatch :)


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it all cleans up well.worth a wait till summer so it dries up well.
red stripes got potential do you get the good fuel eco ? and heater work ok?
 
Fuel economy is ok I would guess, I've only just started using it properly, I drive it hard and get about 250 miles per tank of petrol. Heater works lovely on all speeds, no issues with the control card. Just recently the interior light has stopped coming on when you open the doors, yet to investigate that.


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hi mate
welcome to MSC and all things Micra. I dont think the red stripe on your tailgate is from the factory, and your interior looks pretty tidy, though i have never seen a super s without a tacho dash.
 
For a 20 year old girl the interior has scrubbed up well. I bought a set of SR clocks, the greeny blue ones and played about with those. I kind of wish I had gotten black ones instead, but can't really find any and I didn't know they existed at first. The mileage was all messed up too, it showed over 900k miles on the clocks, so I changed the mileage on the new SR clocks to show exactly the same, as I have no real idea of the car's true mileage. Not that it matters, a new (rebuilt) engine is in the pipeline...



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Where's the riddles at?

And then a riddler comes along With the riddles to carry on and you cast your weak riddles aside and you know you can riddlerize so when you feel like riddles is gone look inside you and be strong and you'll finally see the truth that the riddles lies in you.
maria made that song for the riddlers in us:)
 
Depends on how much of my planned budget I get to keep, unfortunately I seem to be growing up and this is quite a silly way to spend money, hah. I've already bought and planned quite a few goodies, but I'll reveal those in due course :) until then I'll keep editing the first three posts in a story style.


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Thanks man. Just updated the first post with a lot more explaining of my current situation at the bottom. Unfortunately I'm away for six weeks soon so progress will halt for that :(


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Here's a video from a while ago of the car being revved. Nothing special, was just messing around in the workshop. Completely standard but with the intake pipe behind the battery removed (only because I sheared the bolts and it was tapping on the inner wing as the engine vibrated)




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That's one of my favourite roads!!! :D

I went to university in Swansea for 4 years and used to take frequent trips into the Brecons just to drive on that road; more so when I got my Super S in my final year. It's a lovely drive because for most of the road you can see what's coming far ahead and can therefore use the full width of the corners (when there is nothing coming of course) ;)

Nice to see another K11 owner enjoying it.
 
@Love_Whiskey where you from in Wales? :)

Roads around my house are similar to that road, although my favourite road is the Abergwesyn Pass that goes past Llyn Brianne reservoir :D


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Well, sorry to disappoint but I'm not!

I was born and bred in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. I joined the RAF in 2009 and spent 18 months in South Wales at MOD St Athan for a technical training course. As a result I got to know the area fairly well :)

It was a really good drive. I'll be coming back when I have better suspension and a new engine.


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So while boredom is still in force I decided to try and repair one of my car's "niggles". The fuel filler pipe has been leaking slightly for quite some time, running down the plastic splash guard and onto the floor each time I fill up. So I went to halfrauds and bought some hose clips, araldite, hose repair tape and a few other good bodging bits. I jacked the rear passenger side up, removed the wheel to get a better look and removed the plastic cover. Man, it's dirty in here. There's basically a layer of soil all over the filler pipe, glued together with gummy petrol. Cleaned it all off with a wire brush. Can you spot the leak?
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So this was bodged with araldite repair putty (great stuff, currently holding all my oil in the sump covering a pinhole from a stone)

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I figured it *might* stand up to the solvent nature of petrol. It still leaked on testing :(
Today I attempted the bodge Mk2, and as soon as I had the wheel off again I felt a hole I didn't find yesterday, behind the rusty bracket. I had some putty left so have bodged that one over too. We'll see how it goes, giving it a couple of hours to set and then testing.

It hasn't really sealed brilliantly as I couldn't clean the affected area well (haven't got the right gear to take the pipe off down here) but I am hopeful and crossing my fingers haha. As soon as I'm back in Lincolnshire I can take off the pipe and have one made out of stainless, proper fix :D


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Oh and also, while out on a drive today this happened :)

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I've also had the dash apart recently to correct a bit of wiring. When I got the car no radio was fitted, though a good friend of mine donated an era-appropriate kenwood tape deck unit. I hastily connected it to the existing ISO Connector and thought nothing more. However, the battery/ignition feeds were incorrect and the radio would not keep it's memory.

I found that the ISO connector had been spliced onto the existing loom quite badly, and so did a bit of rectification.

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When I have more time I'm going to trim all loose ends and crimp the connections rather than twist 'n' tape like one of my predecessors has.


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Ok so I'm back home, gave her a wash and made a start on repairing and refitting some stuff.

Oiled all the locks and the ignition as things had been stiff and catching for a while. Just held the flap open with a thin screwdriver and used a little machine oilcan to apply a good dose of engine oil. Much better and smooth operation.

Also fitted the panel to the rear of the boot, with some new clips from eBay. (I found it under the boot carpet with no clips when I bought the car)
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I installed a boot release cable and lever from another car - mine had at some point broken and the lever been removed. The cable remained in a broken state so the boot had to be key unlocked all the time and the fuel flap didn't lock.

This was a pain in the arse but has made things so much better! Big thanks to @P-3 for finding me that!

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Big thanks to @Zazee and his bro for selling me some other nice bits - preface headlight covers and a March dash pod.

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And here's a picture of the workshop- I know which car you'd all rather have!
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It's my friend's E30. Started life as a 1.6 auto shell, now a fire breathing Turbo 2.8 monster with 450bhp at the wheels. It's hella fast when it works.

Loads of shiny bits. Great car.


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The other day I was off work and it was sunny. Made the most of it, swapped greeny blue SR Clocks for some original black ones and sprayed the surround white (two coats halfords plastic primer in grey, two coats Nissan 326 Arctic white the same as the car.)
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Also applied red electrical tape to some OEM Nissan headlight protectors and fitted those to annoy the serious track guys.

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Currently in the workshop doing a little bit of rust killing, hopefully going to write a bodywork for dummies guide with lots of pictures based on this.


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Are you tackling the rust on the rear arches? I'd love to see how thats repaired properly as I have rust in the same areas.
 
Well, I'm tackling it but not "properly" depending upon your definition.

To me, properly would be to weld in clean fresh metal and treat all the joints and spend ages smoothing the welds and respray with proper airline equipment etc.

I'm grinding away the bad metal, treating the leftovers with Kurust by Hammerite, a rust conversion liquid, bodyfillering the hole and then sanding back flat, waxoyling the inner arch and then painting the bodywork.


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I would consider what your doing as "properly" to be honest haha. I've attempted a rust repair on my front wing. It had holes so cleared up the rust, used aluminium mesh and fibreglass filler behind the hole to bridge it. Then slaped on some body filler, sanded, primer and tried to "blend" the base coat and lacquer as I didn't fancy painting the whole wing. The blending didn't turn out too well, I probably should have done the whole panel but work is still in progress. I'll hopefully update my thread soon with pics.
 
Yeah I bought the wrong stuff - I bought the stuff for inside doors and sills and ****. Will have to get some proper hard coat underseal or stone chip tomorrow.


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man I remember when my super s looked like that :D

Sounds like a good project you've got going. Your fuel filler leak is usual fault, for the very reason you've found, it's designed nicely to collect mud, salt, moisture etc all the good things to cause rust :)

You'll not stop using the dash pod, it's crazy how useful that piece is. haha.
 
Clutch change starting tomorrow evening, messed up on the topcoats this evening, bit too much and got some runs :(


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What a weekend.

Started 1700 on Friday, went back to bed at midnight,

8:30 start saturday, only just had the driveshafts out by 1030, hours break to go parts shop and get sausage and chips as well as a meal for later, then back to it for about 1200. It was around maybe 1900 the gearbox came off and out the car. Worked until 2300 fixing the problems that had been created and cleaning stuff up. Then spent a few hours drinking and eating pizza well earned.

9:30 start on Sunday because I was hungover, finished prepping g/box and flywheel and fitted clutch. Gearbox was back in by about 1030. Then decided while I was here I could fit coilovers and decat the manifold. After piecing it all together again it was about 0200 on Monday and I was close to 18 hours in the workshop that day alone. The car wouldn't start so I had to push her out and abandon her. Gutted.

Track rod end nuts were impossible to remove, took ages to grind neatly off, new ones fitted. Fitted a pair of new driveshafts as the old ones were a touch worn and needed new gaiters, and since I was this far it made sense. Fitted new BSR Front coilovers, snapped the two studs at the bottom of the exhaust manifold to had to drill those out and fix it, took ages. The gearbox dowels were horribly seized, took 5 people doing various things to shift it. Hours.


Now it's all back together but the starter doesn't turn and the main ignition switch fuse under the bonnet keeps popping. Don't know what I've missed or done wrong.


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Working nights this week so can't really get in the workshop either, she's just sat outside looking all sad.

Just wondering what I could have left off or unplugged or wired wrong.


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