My old daily, the diseasel, was in the process of dying again.
Here's a nice pic of it by the harbourside:
So I started a casual search for a replacement daily.
I'd been feeling the Micra love again for a while and found a '91, 187k, red 4 door 998cc facelift K10 with MOT until December and tax to the end of the month, oh, and no 3rd gear, for £50 on freeads.
By 10.30pm I was driving home in it.
When I got home I had a quick look for a replacement gearbag on ebay, found one, same county as me and sent the guy a message.
The following day I took it to work to get it on a ramp and have a look under it, I also wanted to try a wheel on it, just out of curiosity y'know.
BMW E30 14 x 6 1/2:
Shame I'd only got 3 of them.
Got home from work to a message from the guy with the gearbag, it was still on the car and he was also selling the car complete. A couple of messages later and I was on my way to look at it.
It'd had the cam snap between 3+4, he'd replaced the cam but couldn't get it to run right. He'd also sold the n/s mirror off it and removed the carb.
It had 3 weeks MOT, 1 1/2 months of tax, 86k, 5 100nx wheels, a 5 digit numberplate and a tow bar!
£75 later I was being towed home in it!
Next evening was spent doing a little internet research,
Thursday evening we did a compression test, discovered no compression on cylinder 4 and removed the head to find out why. This ended up taking rather longer than expected as the front centre 3 head bolts were a b'stard to get out. 1 of them rounded and I ended up having to weld a socket onto it!
Friday night we took the head off the 998 and stripped both of them down.
Bent inlet valve:
I spent the Saturday morning putting a mates Transit through it's MOT but managed to pick up a headset, coolant, oil and filter, a set of 5mm spacers and got some new tyres in a more suitable size put onto the nx rims whilst on my travels.
Saturday lunchtime I finally got to get on with the head.
If you've got the head stripped bare already it'd be rude not to 'tidy up' the ports wouldn't it?
Valves back in
Spot the difference
That's right, when the cam snapped it took a chunk of the distributor body off. But where did it go?
Ah, there it is.
By 9pm and having drilled out and retapped the snapped exhaust manifold to downpipe bolts, it was all built back up and ready to go back on.
But I thought I'd leave that for daylight, so I went out and removed the rear lights, front indicator lenses and repeaters, took them into the garage and tinted them instead.
Sunday morning I treated myself to a lie in and then went out and got the head back on.
Having run it up to temperature, I did the timing and reset the valve clearances. Runs very sweetly too.
With all the stuff back under the bonnet I got onto the fun part.
Bolted the wheels and spacers on and measured how much slam I could get away with. Jacked it back up, took the wheels back off and removed the struts. Dismantled them and carefully cut off the spring platforms, moved them 2 1/2" down and welded them back on.
Reassembled, refitted and photo taken
Fitted my gearknob
Drove it properly for the first time Monday morning, the journey to work highlighted a couple of issues.
The tracking was a mile out, it had a little flat spot, the N/S/R shock mount had rusted out of the top of the turret and the towbar was tapping the rear beam over bumps.
I fabricated and welded in a new turrent top and sorted the tracking after work and swapped the carb over when I got home.
Here's what I discovered when I unbolted the towbar
Third time lucky getting the holes in the right place eh? ;D
Then out for a bit of a bimble round and a couple of pics again
As per usual the realization that RTTS show n shine is only a couple of weeks away starts a period of madness, ideas that would usually be thought through fully and planned in advance are instead acted upon straight away, thus it begins....
Thursday night I went out to the garage at 10.45 and angle ground the paint off the spare bonnet (everybody needs good neighbours
)
so that I could take the bonnet to work on Friday and whack some white primer on the front
Friday night I masked it up and scribbled on it.....
cut it out
just enough red left from the Sierra of Doom to paint it
et voila, 1am:
I've lightly sanded it and salt watered it and put it outside, hopefully it'll be rusty by the 24th eh?
Saturday morning,
Load all the gear into the van, get to the car park at my old flat, where the diseasel and the other micra have been hiding. Instead of doing what I was going to and weighing the spare Micra in.........
By 11am we had got the diseasel started, moved the cars into a suitable position and stripped the interior out.......
11.44am
11.52am
12.00pm
12.08pm
12.33pm
1.18pm
1.56pm
2.17pm
2.33pm
3.23pm
3.29pm
3.54pm
We then concentrated on getting the rest of the of the micra packed into the diseasel,
the lights wired up on trailer, original loom stripped of all the excess wires, taped up and connected straight into the trailer plug,
towbar modified to clear the rear beam,
towbar put back on,
towbar wiring modified to make the reverse lights work on the trailer,
and spring platforms moved to bring the ride height down to the same as the car.
no shocks or springs
lights work
ready for the frame
8.57pm welding the frame in by dusk
Got all the structural stuff done by which time it was dark, so we tidied up, hitched it up and towed it home.
Here it is, whilst we were dropping mates keys back to him, spot the sharp edges!
Sunday,
Let the neighbours have a lie in, it is Sunday after all.
Put a front on it
Close the front corners up
Bit of primer over the bare bits and hitch it back up ready to take to work tomorrow.
Hoping to get a ply floor and sides in it, cap the tops with chequerplate and maybe get the BBQ mounted in it after work.
The BBQ was the product of a previous weekend idea, made from old oven shelves, a gas bottle, some 1/4 plate and a lamp post (yes, seriously, and don't ask) Here's it cooking it's first fried egg. mmm ;D
Here's a nice pic of it by the harbourside:
So I started a casual search for a replacement daily.
I'd been feeling the Micra love again for a while and found a '91, 187k, red 4 door 998cc facelift K10 with MOT until December and tax to the end of the month, oh, and no 3rd gear, for £50 on freeads.
By 10.30pm I was driving home in it.
When I got home I had a quick look for a replacement gearbag on ebay, found one, same county as me and sent the guy a message.
The following day I took it to work to get it on a ramp and have a look under it, I also wanted to try a wheel on it, just out of curiosity y'know.
BMW E30 14 x 6 1/2:
Shame I'd only got 3 of them.
Got home from work to a message from the guy with the gearbag, it was still on the car and he was also selling the car complete. A couple of messages later and I was on my way to look at it.
It'd had the cam snap between 3+4, he'd replaced the cam but couldn't get it to run right. He'd also sold the n/s mirror off it and removed the carb.
It had 3 weeks MOT, 1 1/2 months of tax, 86k, 5 100nx wheels, a 5 digit numberplate and a tow bar!
£75 later I was being towed home in it!
Next evening was spent doing a little internet research,
Thursday evening we did a compression test, discovered no compression on cylinder 4 and removed the head to find out why. This ended up taking rather longer than expected as the front centre 3 head bolts were a b'stard to get out. 1 of them rounded and I ended up having to weld a socket onto it!
Friday night we took the head off the 998 and stripped both of them down.
Bent inlet valve:
I spent the Saturday morning putting a mates Transit through it's MOT but managed to pick up a headset, coolant, oil and filter, a set of 5mm spacers and got some new tyres in a more suitable size put onto the nx rims whilst on my travels.
Saturday lunchtime I finally got to get on with the head.
If you've got the head stripped bare already it'd be rude not to 'tidy up' the ports wouldn't it?
Valves back in
Spot the difference
That's right, when the cam snapped it took a chunk of the distributor body off. But where did it go?
Ah, there it is.
By 9pm and having drilled out and retapped the snapped exhaust manifold to downpipe bolts, it was all built back up and ready to go back on.
But I thought I'd leave that for daylight, so I went out and removed the rear lights, front indicator lenses and repeaters, took them into the garage and tinted them instead.
Sunday morning I treated myself to a lie in and then went out and got the head back on.
Having run it up to temperature, I did the timing and reset the valve clearances. Runs very sweetly too.
With all the stuff back under the bonnet I got onto the fun part.
Bolted the wheels and spacers on and measured how much slam I could get away with. Jacked it back up, took the wheels back off and removed the struts. Dismantled them and carefully cut off the spring platforms, moved them 2 1/2" down and welded them back on.
Reassembled, refitted and photo taken
Fitted my gearknob
Drove it properly for the first time Monday morning, the journey to work highlighted a couple of issues.
The tracking was a mile out, it had a little flat spot, the N/S/R shock mount had rusted out of the top of the turret and the towbar was tapping the rear beam over bumps.
I fabricated and welded in a new turrent top and sorted the tracking after work and swapped the carb over when I got home.
Here's what I discovered when I unbolted the towbar
Third time lucky getting the holes in the right place eh? ;D
Then out for a bit of a bimble round and a couple of pics again
As per usual the realization that RTTS show n shine is only a couple of weeks away starts a period of madness, ideas that would usually be thought through fully and planned in advance are instead acted upon straight away, thus it begins....
Thursday night I went out to the garage at 10.45 and angle ground the paint off the spare bonnet (everybody needs good neighbours
)so that I could take the bonnet to work on Friday and whack some white primer on the front
Friday night I masked it up and scribbled on it.....
cut it out
just enough red left from the Sierra of Doom to paint it
et voila, 1am:
I've lightly sanded it and salt watered it and put it outside, hopefully it'll be rusty by the 24th eh?
Saturday morning,
Load all the gear into the van, get to the car park at my old flat, where the diseasel and the other micra have been hiding. Instead of doing what I was going to and weighing the spare Micra in.........
By 11am we had got the diseasel started, moved the cars into a suitable position and stripped the interior out.......
11.44am
11.52am
12.00pm
12.08pm
12.33pm
1.18pm
1.56pm
2.17pm
2.33pm
3.23pm
3.29pm
3.54pm
We then concentrated on getting the rest of the of the micra packed into the diseasel,
the lights wired up on trailer, original loom stripped of all the excess wires, taped up and connected straight into the trailer plug,
towbar modified to clear the rear beam,
towbar put back on,
towbar wiring modified to make the reverse lights work on the trailer,
and spring platforms moved to bring the ride height down to the same as the car.
no shocks or springs
lights work
ready for the frame
8.57pm welding the frame in by dusk
Got all the structural stuff done by which time it was dark, so we tidied up, hitched it up and towed it home.
Here it is, whilst we were dropping mates keys back to him, spot the sharp edges!
Sunday,
Let the neighbours have a lie in, it is Sunday after all.
Put a front on it
Close the front corners up
Bit of primer over the bare bits and hitch it back up ready to take to work tomorrow.
Hoping to get a ply floor and sides in it, cap the tops with chequerplate and maybe get the BBQ mounted in it after work.
The BBQ was the product of a previous weekend idea, made from old oven shelves, a gas bottle, some 1/4 plate and a lamp post (yes, seriously, and don't ask) Here's it cooking it's first fried egg. mmm ;D
