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Nice one- looks like quite a fun build, some nicely put together modifications despite sticking to a budget and a good write up too. So, when’s the first trackday? Reminded me of a Micra I saw at a trackday a couple of years ago with a couple of brothers in it- so the story went it was their Gran’s car and after she’d given up driving they’d been given it. I seem to recall all they’d done to it before taking it to trackdays was put bigger wheels and tyres on it and rebuilt the brakes, perhaps they’d lowered it too... anyway, they drove it like it was stolen all day and were clearly having a lot of fun. Bookmarked for updates  Thank you I'm aiming for Spring if Covid allows it but there's no immediate rush. Although I have been planning ahead and have a few things on my to-do list which would make track days safer |
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tom13
Part of things
Posts: 571
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Having never driven or even been in a 1.3 or 1.4 are they worth the investment over a 1.0? I have been looking to get one recently and I am toying between the two options mainly the 1.0 and the 1.3.
The 1.0 cars are obviously cheaper and I did own one a while back and I remember it being decent. The added 20bhp is a nice amount extra though. I don't think I will have it that long, more of a little stop gap car?
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mk2cossie
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 3,060 
Club RR Member Number: 77
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hoodedreeper's K11 MIcra v3mk2cossie
@mk2cossie
Club Retro Rides Member 77
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Any reason for the removal of the EVAP system? And is there a good improvement with just the Gizfab manifold? Looks very nicely made  |
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Jan 11, 2021 21:48:18 GMT
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Having never driven or even been in a 1.3 or 1.4 are they worth the investment over a 1.0? I have been looking to get one recently and I am toying between the two options mainly the 1.0 and the 1.3. The 1.0 cars are obviously cheaper and I did own one a while back and I remember it being decent. The added 20bhp is a nice amount extra though. I don't think I will have it that long, more of a little stop gap car? With the 1.0 gearbox it's made such a big difference in not just acceleration but all round driveability. Long gone are the days of the engine screaming its nuts off just to reach 60mph on a dual carrigeway haha If its a stop gap car and you're not wanting to spend mega money, the 1.0 will be fine |
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Jan 11, 2021 21:50:58 GMT
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Any reason for the removal of the EVAP system? And is there a good improvement with just the Gizfab manifold? Looks very nicely made From what I can understand the EVAP system helps with emission control. With the exhaust system inc decat I don't think low emission is the top of the list haha Although the manifold is a big cost, it was certainly worth the wait. The pickup in acceleration has greatly improved and no longer feels sluggish. Its added alot of extra exhaust noise which was to be expected with the cat removal but I'm still young at heart and it doesn't bother me haha |
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Jan 11, 2021 21:51:39 GMT
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There comes a stage with every car build I have where the car is looking really good (perhaps perfect in some eyes) and nothing needs to be changed or altered. Then I get an idea in my head, become determined to carry out said idea(s) thus ruining the car completely. Sometimes it works in my favour and it works and looks good, other times not so much and I live with regret until I do something about it. For example, I admit the Purple MX5 looked its ABSOLUTE best when the wide arches,garage vary taillights, mazdaspeed bumper and Work Meister S1s were installed. It was simple, stylish and looked stunning. Then I got bored and decided to do the aero and chassis mount wing (cue the idea in my head) Anyway.... its now got to that stage with the Micra build  I decided to fit a prefacelift front end haha   Lets rewind to the fitting process With all of the facelift panels removed, I started with fitting the bonnet (hood) along with the front wings (fenders). With these in place the headlamps bolt in and you'll always have great fitment around the edge of the headlamp.  I couldnt resist a comparison photo between the two  Removal of the original wings was straight forward until it got to the bottom where it bolts to the sills. Both sides had suffered severe corrosion and there was no chance of removing them with a socket. With the help from the angle grinder I cut the wing off leaving the flat piece with the bolts still on the car. A little while later I got the bolts off and was left with two holes ready for the new wing to be bolted on. To fit the bumper the front mount block box things needed trimming on the outer edges The prefacelift bonnet catch was fitted and the aerocatches removed for the time being (unsure whether to refit them or not) Next job was the headlamp wiring. The facelift units have seperate bulb holders for the indicator and sidelight. Where as the prefacelift uses a single plug to feed power to both lights.  I used some waterproof plugs we sell at work to make an adapter loom   I also copied the same wiring to the facelift lights so they're both interchangable (not that I plan on swapping back, but you never know) The side repeater wiring needed swapping too which is just 2 wires each. And there we have it, a front end swap This isn't the final form, theres more to come  |
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Feb 21, 2021 21:51:55 GMT
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With the hope of attending a couple of track days this year, I wanted to help prepare the car abit better. The first add on were some aftermarket gauges. A friend had 2 sets of 3 gauges for sale, 60mm Pro Plus with smoked lenses and 52mm Motor Meter Racing with white faces. I originally went with the 60mm purley because they're larger and easier to see. I didn't get off to a great start, first I snapped a sensor in the sump plug adapter so ordered a replacement from eBay. That arrived so I installed the inline radiator hose as it was easier to access than the two oil sensors. The gauge would power up but wouldn't show any reading. I tried wiring it differently, nope still nothing. I swapped the eBay sensor with the other sensor supplied and it worked. I'm guessing the replacement has a different ohmn rating and/or the scaling is different. I turned my attention to the oil temp and pressure gauges. With the oil drained and the filter and OE pressure switch removed it was time to fit the T piece. Access was limited and I could only turn the spanner a 1/4 turn, flip the spanner around and do another 1/4 turn, it felt like forever. My hands were cramping up because of the cold and I was getting fed up of it not tightening. I checked the T piece and it had slight side to side movement....oh no! I removed the T piece to be greeted with some aluminium on the threads....curse word!  I knew I had damaged the thread on the block and fixing it was going to be a real headache. Knowing it would leak with oil on the first start up I refitted the pressure sensor and fitted the sump adaptor instead. Got the temp sensor fitted and wired in, filled the engine with oil and crossed my fingers a puddle of oil wouldn't appear as soon as I turned the key. RESULT! No leaks! After letting the car idle for some time the gauge hadn't moved at all. I understand the sump will read a cooler reading, but surely the needle would move at least a millimeter?! The next day I put the car on the ramp at work and cleaned up the earthing point, hoping it was a bad contact, and it was. Hurray! My friend dropped off a replacement sensor he had ordered online along with the 52mm gauges. This time I tested it externally with a cup of boiling water and the 52mm gauges connected to the car battery. I then did the same to test the new sensor with the 60mm gauge to make sure that read fine too  Now it was a decision of which gauges to use. The 60mm were already wired in, but the wiring was messy because each gauge needed to be wired indivually. I used a 6 way fuse box which also allowed me to have all of the earths share the same point. The quality of the 60mms seemed cheap and I couldnt find any info online about them. The 52mm felt heavier in weight, looked and felt better quality too. One thing I liked about them, was you can daisy chain link them meaning you only need to wire in the positive and negative once. I decided to pull all of the existing wiring out and fit the 52mm gauges (minus the oil pressure gauge)      Who knew fitting gauges would become such a head ache haha. At least thats all sorted now |
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Feb 21, 2021 22:09:10 GMT
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A throwback to when I fitted the side skirts, I discovered the N/S/R sill was rather soft, having poked a 50p size hole when finding a solid area to mount the side skirt. I also had the O/S front and rear jacking points cave in on me, not ideal! So it was time to sort the sills out. My friend Kevin who helped me remove and refit the engine offered to weld the sills for me. So today (Sunday 21st Feb) we went over a unit he has access to to start the work. After some poking and scraping with the flat head screw driver we were left with this   The jack had slipped on the N/S/F sill when I was doing the driveshafts during the engine swap so this was the most challenging part of the day. Unfortunately no photos of the damage. The O/S/F jacking point lip had just folded up but was still solid overall. With the N/S/R sill opened up you could see the corrosion had really set in   You'll be pleased to read I've finally got an arch repair panel on its way, unfortuantely Kev isn't confident doing bodywork welding so I'll need to go else where to have that done.  With the plates welded in, treated,primed and undersealed its looking much better.       Its not the prettiest of repairs but its strong and looks much much better than it did before. We put the front end back on, unfortunately the N/S/F sill which caved in still isn't a great fitment with the wing (abit better than before though) so I'll have to worry about that later |
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Feb 22, 2021 11:29:20 GMT
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Recently found a micra which I bought cheap, needed rear wheel bearing and handbrake cable for mot.
Cant believe how much fun it is to drive.
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Feb 28, 2021 19:54:38 GMT
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Back in October I bought some Almera N15 1.6 calipers. These are a single piston caliper with 252mm vented discs,compared to the K11 single piston caliper with 234mm solid discs  With the brakes stripped off I wire brushed the hubs and shock absorber body down ready for a lick of paint. I also replaced the lower suspension arms as the ball joint dust covers had started to split and the bushes had seen better days. I was going to go with Mtec dimpled/grooved discs and their pads but went for a cheaper option for now. I managed to get a pair of Pagid discs from Euro Car Parts for £14.28. Along with some Blueprint brake pads for £20.00 that I got from my work. The current pads didnt have a huge amount of material left and the discs had a lip too (yes i know i could have gotten many more miles out of these)   I also purchased a pair of new hoses but I couldnt crack off the brake pipe union, so I'll leave those for another day. Believe it or not I have never bled brakes before so it was a great time to learn. Much easier than I thought, don't know why I had put it off for so long! With everything bolted up it was time for a test drive. Instantly I heard a rotational scraping noise.  Turns out the pad retaining clip was catching the end of the disc   Nothing the angle grinder couldnt sort  Got everything back together, took it for a test drive and no more noise  (These were before the test drive, the discs were cleaned once assembly was completed)  Next job for the front is to remove the arch liners, clean and underseal the arches to finish it off |
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Mar 14, 2021 21:59:20 GMT
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In January I ordered quite a few items, some were made to order and with this on going pandemic things were a little slower than usual. The first to arrive is the most marmite purchase. This was the whole reason I did the pre-facelift swap, JUST so I could have this bumper. Blackflag-Labs were the suppliers, initially a 4 week wait for manufacture which then had an additional 4-5 weeks for delivery due to complications their end. Long story short, they changed from using a courier (broken body kits) to using 2 hired drivers who ended up leaving. The company who manufactured the bodykits were also arranging with the deliveries. After being told numerous times it would be delivered on X day, to then TNT delivering it on X day, a friend ended up collecting it for me.  Anyway, onto the fitting I started off by making a template of the bumper on some sheet steel for an under tray. This will also help take any damage if I scrape or catch it.   With the shape roughly cut out I then fitted U fasteners/spire clips (what ever you wanna call them) around the edge and marked the holes ready for drilling.   I made the centre support out of some 25mm box section and angle iron (spare shelving from work haha). It was just too short to reach the middle of the bumper so made a bracket from the same sheet steel.   The lower section needed trimming to clear the bonnet catch support I need longer bolts for the undertray but theres enough fitted to stop it going anywhere. It needs trimming a little bit to help clear the exhaust manifold, other than that its spot on.   I've just ordered these  The sides that mount to the wings need the hole bringing further in. The top contour line on the bumper should follow the grille/wing line. Because of this new mounting hole it pulls the corners in a little bit.    Sadly nothing I can about that. Next job is to remove the bumper once the new bolts have arrived and start attaching the mesh fixings. All of the brackets and the undertray will be painted too Once I'm happy I'll start the prep ready for paint  |
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Mar 24, 2021 20:51:27 GMT
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A few weeks ago I asked my friends if anyone had a 15x8j ET0 wheel I could borrow to test fit. A friend said he had some from a Civic EK which I could use. With the wheel mounted, I was pleasantly surprised how well they fit but they had too much stretch for my liking.  With the wheel size sorted I ordered the wheels I had my eye on, Autostar Classic. I also got my hands on a scrap 195/50 tyre to fit so I could check for fitment and clearance.  Uh...something isn't quite right  Turns out the wheels I had borrowed were infact 15x8.25j ET20...doh! Thats what I get for not checking the back of the wheels I borrowed before spending money  The wheels were put up for sale and sold within a couple of days *cries* Inbetween flicking through yahoo autions, facebook market place and eBay I decided to carry on working on the Impul bumper. The undertray and brackets received a coat of Tough Satin Black (same paint I used for the engine bay). I then assembled it together with the new stainless flat headed bolts  I also fitted some rubber U channel trim to tidy it up and fit the mesh. I didn't go with the fibreglass route because it still needs painting    I also used the same bolts to fit the bumper to the car, allowing more room and clearance for the grille  You probably spotted the import number plate mounted central too     |
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Mar 24, 2021 21:32:36 GMT
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The front and rear arches were rolled and the inner arches cleaned,wire brushed, rust treated and undersealed  The rear drums also got a coat of Smooth Black Hammerite  So the search for new wheels continued. I have been wanting to put a set of cool japanese wheels on the car since I bought it, but the realisation is I'm too impatient and the cost would be ridiculous. We'll ignore the fact I'm now on my 4th set of wheels so 'could' have had some by now lol I read that 15x7j ET30 is a flush fitment but couldn't see what the tyre size would be. I didn't want stretched tyres because the car is built to be functional. I had a look through Paul Li's K11 build thread and saw he uses 15x6.5j ET35 with 195/50 tyres. Speaking to Paul we found out we're both lowered approx 50mm (although he is on BC coilovers). This helped the decision greatly so I began looking to see what was available in these sizes.  Knowing the arches are now rolled a 7j was still an option. I had narrowed it down to these wheels Rota Grid Rota Slipstream Rota 356 Wheels TFS3 Rota 356 Wheels TFS4 Japan Racing JR29 I reeeally wanted white wheels but I remembered how much of a pain the Work Meister S1s were on the MX5 to keep clean. When I checked stock levels they were out of stock of full sets too so that made the decision for me. I once again narrowed it down and placed the order. For tyres my work colleague recommended Avon ZV7, he had these on his Audi S3 and couldnt say a bad word about them. Having been out in the car, I was impressed so it was great to have some experience with them. The wheels and tyres arrived and I got the tyre bay next to my work to fit and balance them. Today (Weds 24th March) I fitted them to the car          The flat centre caps supplied won't fit because of the driveshaft thread/hub nut and the rear dust cover   I spoke with Driftworks who supplied the wheels and they said Rota don't make any large size centre caps for cars with this size hub nut. I found these on eBay so I've ordered a single one to test fit, if all is well I'll order the others. Fingers crossed!  |
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Apr 10, 2021 18:22:00 GMT
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Its been a busy couple of weeks I'll start off by sharing a Mighty Car Mods inspired poster I created. I'll update the car when its eventually finished and I'll get it printed and framed to go along side my Mira and Super Turbo posters. Finding a background image was the most challenging, I decided to use the Hakone Skyline  You may remember me mentioning about the pattern part clutch cable feeling really stiff/sticky and half way of the pedal travel it suddenly springs up. I removed the cable to spray (more) white grease down it because it had started to play up again. Upon removal it had seen better days  The question was, do I refit another pattern part cable or go genuine? The thought of having to do this all again in a few months put me off so I rang the local dealer. £89.45 and 24 hours later I had a new cable in my hands (I still haven't gotten over the price)  I moaned and moaned about the price but it was 100% worth it. The pedal is now feather light and feels soooo much better. Hopefully this lasts a substantial while Another boring job was to replace the melted and cracked headlight plug   You may ask why didn't I fit a ceramic plug? Well, the ones we sell at work aren't a great fit and I've had to cut away at the ceramic to make it fit in the past. If it happens again I'll search else where and buy one. While we're talking about repairs, it seemed like an appropriate time to finally sort out the broken Almera air box. The majority of the neck plastic had broken off and the airbox would rock.  I managed to find some black PVC tubing from a local drainage company and plastic welded it on. I also blanked the pipe on the side and the inlet side which had a piece broken too.  The new pipe was much bigger than the original so I purchased a 90>70mm reducer from eBay. The listing image showed the reduction alot smaller (like a Radius wheel bolt, but instead its a 60 degree taper). I've trimmed the hose as much as I could but it's made the airbox too tall for the strut brace to be refitted. I'll look into sourcing another hose later on but for now it'll do.  Another job I needed to tick off the ever growing to-do list was to paint the centre console. An all grey/silver dash becomes boring rather quickly. I decided to try and paint fade for the first time, didn't come out too bad I think  I also replaced the cig lighter with a twin USB outlet and volt gauge  The boot floor under carrige got cleaned up and undersealed ready for the next mini project      I applied the same techniques I used for the R34 diffuser but as a mini version. The hole in the middle allows the factory tow hook to still be accessable and functional (although the hole could have been abit smaller, nevermind) Painted in smooth silver hammerite aerosol, stainless fixings were used including the same flat headed bolts I used for the undertray. The rear bumper will be replaced at some point due to the crack in the centre along the top edge. It made sense to chop this one first |
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After what seemed a life time waiting for delivery, the next segment of the build had arrived and was ready to be fitted. The first being a Sparco Sprint L seat and OMP 4 point harness. A friend modified the stock seat runner to allow the Sparco seat to be mounted. Its a really nice and simple design and he tilted the back up so the seat is level. We noticed the stock seat runner tilts back when bolted to the floor so he raised the rear up so I sit level.  From previous experience, a harness with 2" webbing cut into my shoulders so I made sure to order a 3" version. I was abit dubious with the colour choice but I think it works The last upgrade is very noticable in the previous photo, a 4 point half cage from Caged Laser. What should have been a reasonably straight forward fit turned out to be quite a head ache.  The brackets aren't exactly a 'direct fit' in particular the rear legs. The cage isn't quite wide enough for the brackets to butt up against the rear wheel tubs. A piece of steel plate had to be sandwiched inbetween to fill the gap. Not the end of the world but abit annoying when neither the supplier or Caged Laser mentioned it when I rang them.   I painted the brackets in red hammerite, but it looked awful so ended up painting the rest of the rear floor to match.  The front hoop obstructs the factory seat belts so the passenger seat has been removed for now. I may leave it out permanently, because (slow) racecar lol Next job at some point is to remove the front sound deadening and paint the floor to match I also took a visit to H&S Performance for a wheel alignment. I hadn't had it checked since lowering and replacing the bottom arms (naughty, I know)  |
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May 12, 2021 17:03:09 GMT
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mk2cossie
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 3,060
Club RR Member Number: 77
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hoodedreeper's K11 MIcra v3mk2cossie
@mk2cossie
Club Retro Rides Member 77
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May 12, 2021 18:17:11 GMT
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Wasn't keen on the front bumper in white, the red (even if its a different shade to the rest of the car) really transforms it tho  Looks good, especially with the colour of the alloys |
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May 12, 2021 18:23:10 GMT
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Certainly a tough looking thing. Makes me want another micra.
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May 12, 2021 19:34:51 GMT
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Wasn't keen on the front bumper in white, the red (even if its a different shade to the rest of the car) really transforms it tho Looks good, especially with the colour of the alloys I painted over the white gel coat, plus the rest are metal panels which don't help |
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