Sam's 1st Project - Kylie the K11

[slj_2003]

Hey everyone, new to the idea of a blog but thought I'd make one on here just to keep a complete record of my journey with my little Micra.

I plan to do a lot to it in the future so it seemed fitting to start one. ?

Introducing Kylie! She's my 2001 K11 S 1.0, finished in Lazuli Blue Metallic

This was her the day I bought her. October 9, 2020. Totally stock apart from a broken set of hubcaps.

I paid £1170 for her, which at first sounds a bit steep, but the car had been driven by an elderly lady and her daughter from new and came with 12 months MOT, FSH, a fresh service, 4 good tyres, 1 month warranty and a valet. She also has very little rust! Just a tiny bit under the offside sill (keeping an eye on that) and a small patch of surface rust above the rear window. All in all, I was very very happy! ?

The first proper modification came in the form of a new shift knob and gaiter. Came to £25 from eBay and the end result was not bad at all! I plan to install a short shifter and a nicer knob soon, but this setup is perfectly fine for now.

Next on the list was getting a decent stereo installed. Couldn't go without them banging tunes, bruv! The original cassette player worked but was temperamental at best, so a new JVC Bluetooth headunit was installed. It sounds awesome even through the standard speakers. Looks the part, too!

Of course, it wasn't long before I got a sticker ?
I also painted the side trim on the rear bumper with Halfords' finest matte black. I'll finish off the rear and do the front soon.

Finally, the most recent mod was replacing the gauge cluster bulbs with LEDs. Little details like this make the most difference IMO. They turned out awesome, £2.49 on eBay well spent!

And that's everything as of now. I haven't really had the chance to do much more to it yet, being a full-time A-Level student learning from home and having virtually no space to do anything drastic (not even a garage!). However, in the next few weeks I have a few more things lined up:

- Facelift March Tail Lights
Got a really tidy pair a couple of days ago for £100 on eBay. Those will be rewired once delivered and installed in a few days.
- Repainted Steelies
As a broke student, I can't afford alloys right now (insurance will also shoot to the moon), so the current 14" steelies will be sprayed white.
- Bonnet Struts
I'm a total novice when it comes to fabrication, so this will be a first. The renowned pollyp gave me some good pointers, so thanks for that!
- Twin-Tone Horn
The weedy stock horn just has to go... it won't even scare pigeons! I'm looking at a pair of PIAA units.
- Clear Side Repeaters
For a cleaner look - the stock ones look a bit "stuck on".

I'll post updates on this page after every mod. For now, though, cheers for checking it out! ??



(Bonus pic, messed around with in Lightroom)

 

[MicraKing]

very nice mate!
I know about 'not have money' it's a pain.
Anyway good on you for getting a Micra!!

 

[slj_2003]

The tail lights have arrived! They have very little signs of wear and came wrapped up in Japanese newspaper (which for some reason I find super cool). I'm more than happy with them! I'll try and get them cleaned up and rewired today, then potentially get them installed on the car tonight.

 

[slj_2003]

After a full day of messing around with these lights, they are finally on!

The wiring was a total ball ache, but thankfully once the issues I had were resolved everything fell into place.

First task was getting the old tail lights off. 3 x 10mm nuts hold them on. The glue is stringy and gets everywhere so take care not to touch it too much.

A quick test fit with the new offside unit. Looks ace

I then plugged both of the new ones in to see how much re-wiring was needed. The indicators and hazards worked correctly... buuuut that was about it. The reverse light came on with the headlights and the indicators came on with a dim light when I pressed the brake. No big deal though, how hard could swapping a few wires around be?

Turns out, I was about to eat those words and come back for seconds.

The connectors for the tail lights look like this:

Right side

Left side

I used these reference images to look up the wire colours in the ever-comprehensive Haynes manual.
The colours are as follows:

LEFT SIDE
Green/White = Reverse
Green/Black = Indicator
Brown = Sidelight
Red/Green = Brake
Black = Earth

RIGHT SIDE
Green/White = Fog Light
Green/Yellow = Indicator
Blue = Sidelight
Red/Green = Brake
Black = Earth

Once these were figured out, I turned to Rauf Cars' tutorial on YouTube to help guide me in the process. Sham's video is brilliant and very concise, without it I'd have been quite stuck with the whole ordeal.


However, he wired up pre-face March lights to his car, with pre-face Micra lights as reference. I'm wiring up facelift March lights with facelift Micra lights as reference. As I soon found out, the bulb holder in the facelift Micra (or at least the 2nd facelift) is totally different to that of the pre-face Micra. This meant I could not refer to the Micra bulb holder. Luckily though, jotting down the wire colours from the Haynes manual meant this was not a problem, as I could refer to those instead. Fortunately, the bulb holders for the March's are near-identical.

Next, I could get started with swapping the wires.

My experience was not fun but I'll spare you my moaning. It involved laborious amounts of cutting, hacking bits off, crimping, swearing, etc. but in the end it worked! ?

The bulb holder from the March cluster looks like this (screenshot from Rauf Cars):

The wire colours are as follows:
Green/White = Sidelight
Grey = Brake
Red/Blue = Reverse
Green = Indicator
Black = Earth

Using this information, we can match up each wire from the March cluster to the Micra harness:

LEFT SIDE

March Cluster Micra Harness
Green ----------> Green
Grey ----------> Red/Green
Red/Blue ----------> Green/White
Green/White ----------> Brown
Black ----------> Black

RIGHT SIDE

March Cluster Micra Harness
Green ----------> Green/Yellow
Grey ----------> Red/Green
Red/Blue ----------> Green/White ***
Green/White ----------> Blue
Black ----------> Black

*** NOTE: This will result in the right reverse light acting as a fog light. Replacing the white bulb with a red bulb should fix this. I want to add a separate fog light and connect the two reverse lights in the future, though.

The best method is to remove the pins from the March connector, swap them to match the Micra connector, and re-pin them. Sham shows you how to to that in his video.

However, he runs into the same issue I had... I found it IMPOSSIBLE to remove the pins, no matter how hard I tried. I ended up throwing in the towel and cutting the wires, crimping spade connectors on and wrapping them up in electrical tape. I didn't want to bodge it, but if I wanted even half a chance, it had to be done!

Electricians, look away now! ?

The wires were connected as per the list, and the clusters were reassembled.
I hooked them up to test them with crossed fingers, and they worked!!!
The tail lights were then bolted back up and secured tightly...

... Et voilà ?

They look absolutely amazing, most definitely worth the £99.99!
As you can probably see, it was dark out when I finished. That's how long it bloody took! I'll get some better shots in the daytime tomorrow ?

 

[slj_2003]

After fitting the tail lights, I wanted to connect both reverse lights and make them work together. So today that's what I did!

With the lights wired up how they should be, only one reverse light comes on when reverse gear is engaged. This is fine as of course my Micra only came with one reverse light. This also means that when the rear fog light is turned on, the other reverse light comes on as it's in place of the standard fog light. This can easily be fixed by replacing the white bulb in there with a red one, i.e. what any normal person would do.

Buuuut, because of my picky OCD and the fact I'm not a normal person, I like to make things difficult for myself ?

First course of action was to get a separate fog light, because connecting the reverse lights would get rid of it, and at least one is required legally.
This one was £7.50 from Halfords:

I had located a bolt on the rear bumper just behind the wheel arch that I could use to mount it up.
The bracket that came with the fog light was an odd shape and didn't fit the bumper quite right, so I quickly drew up a replacement in CAD:

And then printed it out on my Ender-3:

It fit on the light nice and tightly:

Then I did quick test fit on the bumper, and it looked pretty much perfect

That was easy bit out of the way, next it was time to wire everything up. I've had my fair share of crimping and cutting this week, safe to say I rather strongly dislike wires... ? But it had to be done!

First off, I needed to locate the wires for the reverse light on the left, and the fog light and earth on the right. As per the list I made when doing the tail lights, this was Green/White on both sides, and black on the right.

On the right side, the G/W wire was cut and the ends were crimped with spade connectors. This will allow the reverse light signal from the left side to connect to the right side connector, and the right side fog signal to connect to the new fog light. The black earth wire was stripped and T'ed off to another bit of black wire with another spade connector (excuse the crappy tape job):

On the left side, the G/W wire was T'ed off to a piece of red wire with a spade connector:

Next job was to solder the supply and earth wires to the fog light. This was simple as the light came with instructions:

Making good progess! ?

Then came the arduous task of trying to find a route from the rear bumper up to the inside of the boot, and then trying to get the wires up there. I looked round for a long time before noticing a vent thing with rubber flaps. No idea what it's actually called, but long story short, I jammed a long metal rod down it, poked around a bit, and it popped out in a hole between the wheel arch and bumper. Perfect!

I tied the ends of the fog light wires to the rod and fished them through the bumper up to the rest of the wires:

We're nearly there, thank god!
I then crimped on spade connectors to the ends of the two wires after cutting them to length. I connected the red supply wire to the G/W wire on the right harness side, and the black earth wire to the T'ed earth wire on the harness:

I then ran one final length of red wire from the G/W wire on the right side connector to the T'ed G/W wire on the left side:

Tidied up the wires behind the carpet:

Fingers crossed it all works...
???

Bingo!!!

Both reverse light now come on in reverse, and the fog light works perfectly!
Super happy with how they came out

I filmed a video of myself testing all the lights to make sure they all function well (with a cheeky rev):

Happy to say, they do ?

I'm bloody done with wiring now though!!! Or at least for a good while - the next few mods should involve some paint, and I'm less bad at paint, so I'm looking forward to it ?

 

[Tornado]

Looking great, do keep an eye on corrosion, it spelled the end of my k11. I wish I had gotten some heat shrink wire wrap in Lidl last week, great stuff and much better than electrical tape. I did pick up a soldering iron tho, I had managed to melt the lead of my previous one too many times.

 

[slj_2003]

Looking great, do keep an eye on corrosion, it spelled the end of my k11. I wish I had gotten some heat shrink wire wrap in Lidl last week, great stuff and much better than electrical tape. I did pick up a soldering iron tho, I had managed to melt the lead of my previous one too many times.

Cheers mate yeah there is a little bit of rust on the sills but it's not horrible, if it gets worse I'll get it sorted before it becomes a real problem.

Also I got my crimping set from Lidl, they really do have some bargains there haha

 

[Tornado]

Yep, some say I should be banned from the Lidl centre isles. In fact, thanks for reminding me, I might get some Lidl degreaser today. My K11 had back shelf speakers that I replaced with 6x9s which sounded good.

 

[Tornado]

Mayby you are ok for rear speakers, but as you probably know, the wiring for parcel shelf speakers is likely already in place.

 

[slj_2003]

Mayby you are ok for rear speakers, but as you probably know, the wiring for parcel shelf speakers is likely already in place.

You've tempted me too much now the sound system is fine at the moment but does lack oomph, I might have a look soon. While I was doing the tail lights I saw some seemingly superfluous wiring, some of which was probs for the parcel shelf like you said, I'll check that later

 

[Kirkynut]

It's nice to see you having a go at stuff and learning.

I like the fact that the stuff I learnt years ago at your age you're doing now yet stuff I would find tricky due to not growing up with it and would have to learn you just crack on with - like just knocking out a bracket on a 3d printer!

Kirkynut

 

[slj_2003]

It's nice to see you having a go at stuff and learning.

I like the fact that the stuff I learnt years ago at your age you're doing now yet stuff I would find tricky due to not growing up with it and would have to learn you just crack on with - like just knocking out a bracket on a 3d printer!

Kirkynut

Thank you man, yeah I must admit I'm kind of a geek ? I've done 3d modelling for a while now, it's honestly not as difficult as it first seems and is very simple to begin with. Anyways I appreciate the compliment haha, love your project btw

 

[slj_2003]

Right-o, time to get on with some painting!

My plan today was to paint the current 14-inch steel wheels on the car white. However, I was on a time crunch due to my dad needing the drive after 3:30, and because I own only one 30-year-old jack and no jack stands, I only managed to get one wheel painted. ?

I popped to B&Q nice and early in the morning to grab a tarpaulin, because I knew rain was forecast and I did not want to get caught out with it (it's happened before too many times!).

Not too bad for a makeshift garage

The car was flipped round and jacked up before the wheel was taken off.

I got right to work sanding the wheel down before cleaning it and masking it up ready for primer. The wheels are all caked in rust so the surface was super uneven. I'm not too worried though, because eventually I'll replace them with alloys. The paint helped mask this to an extent anyway.

The primer went on nice and thick:

The two coats were left to dry before the white paint went on:

Three coats of that went on before a final coat of lacquer. Then the masking tape and bags were removed:

Looking good!

By this time the rain had started chucking it down. Glad I got the tarp up early!

I also removed the stickers form the tailgate. I liked them, but they admittedly looked a bit tacky in that location. I'll whack some under the bonnet to compensate

Now I could finally get the wheel back on the car. Unfortunately, I had to put the wheel back on literally 15 minutes after the lacquer coat as my dad was already on his way home. If I had it my way, he'd be on the street the whole night! So the soft paint was ripped off by the wheel nuts as I put them on. Annoying, but it doesn't show that much in fairness.

The finished product:

I think it looks ace!

Still got 3 more to go though, so I'll try and knock them out tomorrow, and maaaybe start the front bumper too if I time things right ?

 

[SuperUno]

You need to remove the paint where the wheel nuts sit otherwise you nuts will come undone...

For the other wheels a cheap pack of playing cards makes masking up the wheel a LOT easier, plenty of videos on YouTube of this.

 

[slj_2003]

You need to remove the paint where the wheel nuts sit otherwise you nuts will come undone...

For the other wheels a cheap pack of playing cards makes masking up the wheel a LOT easier, plenty of videos on YouTube of this.

Thanks for the tips mate I did them up pretty tight but I'll get rid of the paint round the nuts tomorrow

 

[SuperUno]

The problem comes from the heat from the brakes melting the paint, which then comes out and then leaves the nuts loose.

 

[slj_2003]

Never knew painting wheels would be such an ordeal, but all four are finally painted!

The bloody weather was the main problem, rain, then wind, then both! The tarp worked, but I had no more cable ties to fix them to the fence. It's always something!! I have the worst luck ? But thankfully I managed to find 4 clear(ish) days to do each wheel.

I also painted the front bumper corner trim pieces and the trim on the n/s door before I ran out of Satin Black (typical!)

The sun came out just as I finished, so of course it called for a photo opportunity ?

I think they came out awesome!! Not bad for a guy whose only prior painting experience is spraying a rusty BMX ?

Next up is doing the grey front bumper and re-doing the back bumper. I'll grab some more Satin Black from Halfords tomorrow (if the weather holds up!). I also have some clear side repeaters on the way so they will go on soon!

 

[Ihtisham Rauf]

What a read!

When I first started reading this, it reminded me so much of when I first started working on my own K11!

Keep it up!

PS - I agree the japanese newspapers are very cool lol

 

[slj_2003]

What a read!

When I first started reading this, it reminded me so much of when I first started working on my own K11!

Keep it up!

PS - I agree the japanese newspapers are very cool lol

Thank you mate! Just trying to do as much as I can for the time being and gain experience really ?
By the way I love your Micra, sounds like a freaking Honda at 8 grand!! The vids are always a good watch
Need to have a drag race soon ?

 

[slj_2003]

Quick update, got the front bumper all painted up yesterday ?

Took the bumper off first of all. A total of 12 screws, talk about overengineering!
Everything looks in good stead thankfully.

Masked up and sanded down the bumper:

Then 3 coats of Halfords black bumper paint:

The paint job is not the best but it's not bad to be honest, at least from a distance! ?

The finished product:

Turned out as well as I could have hoped ?
Still need to do the fog light blanking plates but they will go on later, now onto the side repeaters if I can figure out how to get them working!!

 

[MicraKing]

Quick update, got the front bumper all painted up yesterday ?

Took the bumper off first of all. A total of 12 screws, talk about overengineering!
Everything looks in good stead thankfully.
View attachment 73945

Masked up and sanded down the bumper:
View attachment 73944

Then 3 coats of Halfords black bumper paint:
View attachment 73946

The paint job is not the best but it's not bad to be honest, at least from a distance! ?

The finished product:
View attachment 73943
View attachment 73942
View attachment 73941

Turned out as well as I could have hoped ?
Still need to do the fog light blanking plates but they will go on later, now onto the side repeaters if I can figure out how to get them working!!

Don't park on the double yellow lines lad.

 

[slj_2003]

Don't park on the double yellow lines lad.

Hahaha don't worry I checked for traffic wardens beforehand

 

[slj_2003]

I bought a cheap tachometer from eBay a while back, but held off on installing it for a bit because I wasn't too confident diving into electrics so quickly. After doing the taillights though, it seemed like a walk in the park! So today I got that all wired up.

First, I took the gauge cluster out and located the wires on the plug for RPM signal, lights and 12V power. These were the Blue/Black, Red/White and Yellow wires, respectively. I then connected the green tach wire to the Blue/Black plug wire, the short Red tach wire to the Red/White plug wire, and finally the long Red tach wire to the Yellow plug wire.

The tach had separate earth wires for the tach itself and the backlight. No idea why they aren't just connected to one cable, so I did it myself. A ring terminal was then crimped onto the earth wire and it was bolted behind a nut directly behind the cluster.

A quick test was successful and the tach functions properly! The cluster was then put back and the wires were fed out the side of the shroud to the right.

I need to tidy up the wires and properly secure the tach down on the dash, but after playing with positioning I think I'm happy with right here:

The tach isn't that responsive. When you hold the car at a certain rpm, it takes a solid 3-4 seconds to get up there. It's a little bit frustrating, but it was £12 or something, so you get what you pay for. Also, in all honestly I only really bought the tach for one reason: it looks cool. I really don't need to see what revs I'm doing lol. Won't stop me getting a better one in the future though! Or even buying an OEM cluster with a tach?

Regardless, I'm happy with how this came out! ?

 

[Kirkynut]

I quite want a tacho on mine but wasn't sure how to achieve it on my 2002 coilpack model.

Is yours a coilpack model too? If so I might have to copy you at some point but with a more expensive tacho.

Thank you for sharing.

Kirkynut

 

[slj_2003]

I quite want a tacho on mine but wasn't sure how to achieve it on my 2002 coilpack model.

Is yours a coilpack model too? If so I might have to copy you at some point but with a more expensive tacho.

Thank you for sharing.

Kirkynut

Yes mine is a coilpack too, I found the backlight power and main 12v power from the Haynes manual but wasn't sure about the RPM signal, so I searched it up and found this video:



This lad explains it well but wires in an external switch for the backlight and thus doesn't use the R/W wire, other than that I saw he did the same as what I did so I was quite relieved!

 

[Kirkynut]

Thank you for that.

Kirkynut

 

[slj_2003]

When I bought my Bluetooth headunit, it came with a microphone so you can talk on the phone hands-free when it was connected. I actually totally forgot about it when installing the headunit and only remembered it tonight ? So tonight I got that put in real quick, mainly because I was bored.

The mic is only a little cheap one but it does the job:

Headunit was taken out:

Microphone port was located:

The cable was routed through a hole in the footwell up to the headunit and the mic was stuck under the steering wheel off to the left:

A quick test call with my dad proved that the mic is clear and works well! Now I don't have to ignore him every time he calls ?

 

[Joshb]

Hey everyone, new to the idea of a blog but thought I'd make one on here just to keep a complete record of my journey with my little Micra.

I plan to do a lot to it in the future so it seemed fitting to start one.

Introducing Kylie! She's my 2001 K11 S 1.0, finished in Lazuli Blue Metallic

View attachment 73725
View attachment 73726
This was her the day I bought her. October 9, 2020. Totally stock apart from a broken set of hubcaps.

I paid £1170 for her, which at first sounds a bit steep, but the car had been driven by an elderly lady and her daughter from new and came with 12 months MOT, FSH, a fresh service, 4 good tyres, 1 month warranty and a valet. She also has very little rust! Just a tiny bit under the offside sill (keeping an eye on that) and a small patch of surface rust above the rear window. All in all, I was very very happy!

The first proper modification came in the form of a new shift knob and gaiter. Came to £25 from eBay and the end result was not bad at all! I plan to install a short shifter and a nicer knob soon, but this setup is perfectly fine for now.
View attachment 73727

Next on the list was getting a decent stereo installed. Couldn't go without them banging tunes, bruv! The original cassette player worked but was temperamental at best, so a new JVC Bluetooth headunit was installed. It sounds awesome even through the standard speakers. Looks the part, too!
View attachment 73728View attachment 73729

Of course, it wasn't long before I got a sticker
I also painted the side trim on the rear bumper with Halfords' finest matte black. I'll finish off the rear and do the front soon.
View attachment 73731

Finally, the most recent mod was replacing the gauge cluster bulbs with LEDs. Little details like this make the most difference IMO. They turned out awesome, £2.49 on eBay well spent!
View attachment 73732View attachment 73733

And that's everything as of now. I haven't really had the chance to do much more to it yet, being a full-time A-Level student learning from home and having virtually no space to do anything drastic (not even a garage!). However, in the next few weeks I have a few more things lined up:

- Facelift March Tail Lights
Got a really tidy pair a couple of days ago for £100 on eBay. Those will be rewired once delivered and installed in a few days.
- Repainted Steelies
As a broke student, I can't afford alloys right now (insurance will also shoot to the moon), so the current 14" steelies will be sprayed white.
- Bonnet Struts
I'm a total novice when it comes to fabrication, so this will be a first. The renowned pollyp gave me some good pointers, so thanks for that!
- Twin-Tone Horn
The weedy stock horn just has to go... it won't even scare pigeons! I'm looking at a pair of PIAA units.
- Clear Side Repeaters
For a cleaner look - the stock ones look a bit "stuck on".

I'll post updates on this page after every mod. For now, though, cheers for checking it out!



(Bonus pic, messed around with in Lightroom)
View attachment 73735

Nice one! I’m exited to hear about what you do to it over time, how many miles?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[slj_2003]

Nice one! I’m exited to hear about what you do to it over time, how many miles?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks mate! It's on about 88,350 now and I bought it with 87,145 on the clock, so it's averaged just under 5k a year since new, not too bad I think!

 

[Joshb]

Thanks mate! It's on about 88,350 now and I bought it with 87,145 on the clock, so it's averaged just under 5k a year since new, not too bad I think!

Yeah that’s really not bad at all, what are your plans for the future?


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[slj_2003]

Yeah that’s really not bad at all, what are your plans for the future?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As much as I can do really! Or rather as much as I can get away with on the insurance Things I have in mind for the near future are a new horn, steering wheel like you've done, lowering springs potentially...

Unfortunately I can't do anything drastic right now because of 1) insurance going through the roof and 2) my main priority now is saving some money for university

And then once I'm at uni in Oxford I won't be able to keep the car there without renting a garage. Nothing stopping me doing that but realistically it'll end up on my parents drive with my mum using it to go to the shops hahaha

Providing my mum doesn't flog it while I'm there, my *very* ambitious goal is a K20 swap from an EP3. Always wanted a fast Honda, and I love my Micra, so why not combine the two?

 

[Joshb]

As much as I can do really! Or rather as much as I can get away with on the insurance Things I have in mind for the near future are a new horn, steering wheel like you've done, lowering springs potentially...

Unfortunately I can't do anything drastic right now because of 1) insurance going through the roof and 2) my main priority now is saving some money for university

And then once I'm at uni in Oxford I won't be able to keep the car there without renting a garage. Nothing stopping me doing that but realistically it'll end up on my parents drive with my mum using it to go to the shops hahaha

Providing my mum doesn't flog it while I'm there, my *very* ambitious goal is a K20 swap from an EP3. Always wanted a fast Honda, and I love my Micra, so why not combine the two?

Yeah that’s an amazing idea, I’ll be making a thread soon of how I did my coilovers soon so if you are thinking of using corsa b then maybe it’ll be helpful

But yeah insurance is ridiculous w/out black box but f### that, I’d rather work overtime and pay the insurance


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[slj_2003]

Yeah that’s an amazing idea, I’ll be making a thread soon of how I did my coilovers soon so if you are thinking of using corsa b then maybe it’ll be helpful

But yeah insurance is ridiculous w/out black box but f### that, I’d rather work overtime and pay the insurance


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I'm definitely considering the Corsa b route so that would be awesome if you did mate no pressure

Also yeah I kind of regret getting black box insurance tbh I'm lucky mine is quite lenient so I can get away with taking the mickey a little bit, but 20 zones with no other cars or people around are so rubbish The difference was just over 2k (1,135 to about 3,300) though so maybe it wasn't such a bad idea but I'm still getting it off as soon as I can lol

 

[Joshb]

I'm definitely considering the Corsa b route so that would be awesome if you did mate no pressure

Also yeah I kind of regret getting black box insurance tbh I'm lucky mine is quite lenient so I can get away with taking the mickey a little bit, but 20 zones with no other cars or people around are so rubbish The difference was just over 2k (1,135 to about 3,300) though so maybe it wasn't such a bad idea but I'm still getting it off as soon as I can lol

Yeah of course, I’ll be writing the thread tonight or tommorow night depending on whether I’m busy or not.

My insurance is absolutely through the roof but that’s the price I pay for the modifications I have, mines up to 5k and that’s without black box luckily, just means I have to work a lot

And yeah black boxes are great for insurance but I couldn’t do it, not in my little go kart


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[slj_2003]

Yeah of course, I’ll be writing the thread tonight or tommorow night depending on whether I’m busy or not.

My insurance is absolutely through the roof but that’s the price I pay for the modifications I have, mines up to 5k and that’s without black box luckily, just means I have to work a lot

And yeah black boxes are great for insurance but I couldn’t do it, not in my little go kart


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Jesus Christ 5k yeah that's a hard pass from me, I could afford it if I did lots of overtime too but I just cannot find much time now with college and stuff, let alone with more work ?

 

[slj_2003]

Just thought I'd do another update, cause I haven't been on here in a little while...

Not much has really been happening with Kylie recently! It's mainly just cause of my final A-Level exams looming (already had two, three to go) so I haven't had the time to do anything to her. I take Maths, Physics and Computer Science so most of my days are filled with bloody revision That'll change soon though! I have a couple of things lined up...

In the meantime, I put this very apt sticker on the dash

Then when I was in my CS exam, my mate decided it would be a good idea to wrap the car in clingfilm...

As you can see, I was not particularly pleased (it was quite funny in all honestly lmao)

Shenanigans aside, the things I have lined up for the car at the moment are new horns, valve cover respray and potentially a Gizfab backbox or maybe a full exhaust if I can grab enough hours at work to pay for it. Those should be coming in the near future once my exams are done! ?

 

[Tornado]

????

 

[Chie]

Haha good effort with the cling film

And good luck dude

 

[slj_2003]

Haha good effort with the cling film

And good luck dude

Thanks mate, don't wanna jinx it but they're going ok so far, touch wood

 

[slj_2003]

Exams are finally done!
I have all the time in the world now, so I've ordered some paint for the valve cover.

Went for this gloss red from Hycote, because as we all know, red immediately adds 200bhp

Also grabbed a new valve cover gasket and some new bolts to replace the screws, as I suspect they have not been touched for 20 years... I'll also try and clean the engine the best I can in the process. The engine bay should be looking snazzy in a couple of days!

 

[slj_2003]

It's valve cover time!

Today I got the tired old valve cover all spruced up. It was actually much easier than I expected, nearly everything came off easily (which surprised me lol) and it was just as simple getting everything back on. This was my first time doing anything engine related so I was quite nervous, but luckily everything went well!

Right-o, onto the shiny new bits!

The colour I chose was Hycote gloss red engine enamel paint:

I also ordered some replacement allen-headed bolts to replace the standard phillips-headed ones:

And a replacement gasket, as there was no way I was reusing the standard 20-year-old one:

First things first was getting everything on the valve cover off. Thankfully there's only a few things actually on it, the coils, the throttle cable bracket, three hoses held on with spring band clamps and the oil filler cap.

The screws were buggers to get out! Half of them were ok, but the other half were rusted on very tightly. An impact driver would have definitely helped here, but I was stuck with a rather puny screwdriver. A lot of swearing and WD40 later, they were all out.

Oh boy... am I in over my head here? I mustn't lie, it was a bit intimidating staring the cams in the face like this...

The old gasket was binned, and the bonnet was shut to stop any rubbish from getting in the engine.
With the valve cover out, now we can start sanding and masking!

This was pretty straightforward, I used a wire brush and some sandpaper to scuff it up good and proper.

Then when masking the plug holes, I found a rather neat trick... a 27mm socket is pretty much identical to the size of the holes, so I stuck a bit of masking take on it and cut round it. It worked a treat!

We're all ready for paint!

The first coat went on...

Then the second one...

Then finally the third one... The sun came out just in time too

Looking awesome!!

I sped up the drying process a bit with a hairdryer...

Now we can sand back the lettering! I was going to try and paint them white, but in all honesty I could not be bothered to mask them all off, so just sanding them back to silver is an easy compromise

The cover was put back on the engine with the new bolts and all the parts were put back on...

Et voilà...

Look how good that looks!!!!! ?

I'm so so so happy with how it came out!
Not to blow my own whistle or anything but I don't think I've done too bad with that

I took Kylie for a quick test drive after to check if there were any leaks, happy to say there were none ?
Quite the productive day!

 

[slj_2003]

In the 8 months that I've owned my car, absolutely nothing has gone wrong with it.

Well... that statement was true until a few days ago, when the wipers decided they didn't want to work together anymore.

I went to put them on as normal, and the drivers side wiper stayed put whilst the passenger side wiper started moving. Of course, they then ran into each other and the blades were bent as they got wedged.

*sigh* ..... ?

The blades were an easy replacement, I was wanting to upgrade them anyway so it wasn't a big deal, but I had no idea why the drivers side wiper had suddenly committed aliven't.

And so, we embark on the first proper repair job on Kylie... yay?


First job was to take the wiper arms off. Two 14mm nuts hold them on under the covers:

I didn't have a wiper arm puller to hand, so I first tried to pry them off with a big screwdriver. No luck. So I went over to a cousin's garage so see if he had anything that could help, and fortunately he had one laying about:

This one was ever so slightly too small for my wipers, so it didn't quite fit correctly, but luckily it was enough for me to pop the wiper arms off with a bit of persuasion.

Off they came:

Yup, they're pretty mangled ?

Next, the plastic scuttle panel needed to come off. It was held in by three push clips, one screw and one strange push clip that sits in a hole on the drivers side. The panel was gently bent and coaxed out:

Once the wiper mechanism was exposed, I quickly found the problem. The drivers side ball joint had popped off of the linkage, thus the linkage was just scaping the metal underneath and the wiper arm was just stuck there. This was a pleasant surprise because I was expecting a lot worse!

The ball joint was pushed back together with some good old brute force as I didn't have any magical articulated pliers that would fit in the small access hole (the picture makes it look huge, it really isn't).

The wipers were tested, and they worked! The ball joint didn't immediately pop off and the motion is smooth once again. Success?

I couldn't help but notice some play in the drivers side splined shaft. It moved up and down too much, and it looked like the oval-shaped hole where the spline resides was the problem. It is meant to be circular:

I plan to 3D print a small piece to slot into the crescent-shaped gap and keep the spline from moving, but for a quick temporary fix, a chopped up clothes peg was suitable enough ?

The scuttle panel was put back in and tightened up.

Finally, I replaced the broken wiper blades with new Bosch AeroTwin units. I wanted to get these blades anyway, so this was the perfect excuse!

The complete wiper arms were then reinstalled and tightened back up.

The final result...

And we're done!

Nice and sleek! I love how these blades look! They work brilliantly too, and only £22 for the pair ?

Don't think this repair job is too bad for a guy who only 6 months ago was afraid to open the bonnet ?

 

[slj_2003]

Over the past few days, I've been working on replicating a Jap-spec tailgate.

This is how it came out, and I'm pretty bloody happy with it!

But let me tell you, it was a f***ing ordeal
Basically, everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Rain, broken tools, lack of common sense, you name it!
But I needn't bore you all with my moaning, lol.

This is how I did it!

- - - - - - - - - -

First task was taking off the original plate and boot handle, the latter of which is bolted on from inside the tailgate.

The metal cover was taken off:

(I reserve a special hatred for those little plastic screws )

Now the inside is exposed so we can get to the 4 nuts holding the handle on:

These were undone and the handle was pulled off:

Then the original number plate lamps were unscrewed and the housings unhooked from the handle:

The metal clip was pulled off, the rubber grommet was cut and the connector was unclipped. The wires were then pulled through the hole:

Next job was to clean up the surface. The old adhesive pads were nearly 20 years old and were cemented on there pretty good, but it was nothing a bit of WD40, an old Sainsbury's card and some elbow grease couldn't handle

Nice and clean! We're making good progress!

The next task was to mock up a new rear plate. I cut up some paper and make a 13x7 inch square - the standard Jap import size:

But as you can see, it was just a bit too big height-wise. If I got this size, it wouldn't sit flush against the tailgate.

So I cut an inch off each side to make a 12x6 square, which is the standard US import size, and that size worked just fine:

Now it was time to mark up where to drill the holes.

The lights I bought are from a K10 Micra. I got them a while back from eBay for £15. Yes, they are red, but it's nothing a quick dash of spray paint can't fix! I would have got some K11 ones but they proved to be ridiculously hard to find.

I measured the important dimensions, namely the gap between the studs and their diameter, and the diameter of the bulb holder:

These were then transferred onto some masking tape on the tailgate, along with some other measurements relative to the plate to make sure they were centred and level:

Without further ado, it's drilling time!

A 5mm drill bit was used for the 5mm holes. These were widened out to 6mm later (because a 5mm stud going in a 5mm hole is obviously going to be tight):

FYI, I replaced the tape because it rained (my typical luck)

Now was the hole sawing part.

Long story short, I bought some cheap hole saws that were meant for wood because I am pretty silly and didn't read what they were meant for before getting them. The result was this:

Yeah... not ideal

Thankfully, I was able to return them no questions asked, just as well because I'd have looked like a total moron

I then went and got a step drill from Screwfix for £30, so this time I definitely knew it was going to work. Ah well, it's a learning experience

Thankfully, the step drill made light work of fixing my error:

And then... just when you thought it was all over...

I locked the keys in the car.



I was SO lucky with this, because I did it after I drilled the hole, and because the metal cover was off too, it was now the only access I had to the inside of the car. And I had also left the back seats down, so I had a clear line of sight to the driver's side door lock. Talk about a close shave! I definitely should have played the lottery after that!

So, I made up this contraption, and after some fishing around, I managed to unlock the door. Phew!

Alright, panic over!

The drilling was finished off, so then it was time to wire up the lights.

I cut the original light housings off of the bit of wiring I disconnected, and then crimped on some spade connectors:

I did the same with the wires on the new light units. The right side one was then bolted up for a qucik test fit:

Quick note, I found that the bolts used for the original boot handle were the perfect size for the new light units. A very welcome coincidence!

The left side one fouled the metal bracket that held the inside plastic boot handle. At this point, I just wanted to get it done, so I kind of hacked away at it with the drill and a hammer... but hey, it clears now!

The lights were bolted in and the wires were connected and taped up:

Let's see how they look...

Looking amazing!

The only thing missing was of course the new plate.
I ordered a 12x6 US spec plate from PlatesForCars:

The final piece of the puzzle was then stuck on...

Tadaaa!!!

Once again, I'm so happy with how it came out! I was very nervous about drilling holes in my pride and joy, but there's a first time for everything, and I don't think I've done too bad!

I also got new bulbs for the lights so that they illuminate the plate nice and brightly:

This took me just under a week, but with all the right tools and parts to hand, this can quite comfortably be done in a day.

I also plan on filling in the holes from the original plate and boot handle, don't worry!

I am most definitely happy with myself

 

[hoodedreeper]

Great work with the number plate lights, something I did myself too.

Keep up the great work!

 

[slj_2003]

Great work with the number plate lights, something I did myself too.

Keep up the great work!

Thank you mate! Yours actually made me want to do it in the first place cause it looks ace

 

[slj_2003]

Just thought I'd do another quick update and talk about plans for the car in the near future.

After a quick clean, this is how the car is looking at the minute:

And this is most likely how it will stay for the next year or so.

I go off to university in September in Oxford, and apart from it being a car-despising place, I'm contractually obliged to not keep a car in the city whilst I'm at my flat. Understandable, but it's a bit crap!

I've thought about selling it to grab some cash, but without sounding too conceited, I've kept it very tidy and I'd hate to give it to someone who's either gonna totally deface it or wrap it round a tree within a week. I love it too much!

So the plan of action right now is to keep it on my parents' drive and SORN it. My mum has agreed to run it every week or so to keep everything working, ready for when I come back during the breaks and finally after my first year is over in June.

After that, depending on my housing situation, I'll either be keeping it under wraps for a bit longer or I'll be able to properly make a start on making it what I want it to be.

For now though, I'll be making sure I put as many miles on it as I can and enjoy it for the last 3 weeks of summer! ?

 

[Tornado]

It's looking fab, it will give you something to look forward to during your breaks! You might get a bike to zoom around on in Oxford, and best of luck in your studies. ?

 

[slj_2003]

It's looking fab, it will give you something to look forward to during your breaks! You might get a bike to zoom around on in Oxford, and best of luck in your studies.

Thank you very much mate a bike will definitely be a shout in Oxford lol

 

[slj_2003]

Got the number plate lamps sprayed blue yesterday:

Now they actually look like they belong on the car! Very happy with the results ?

 

[slj_2003]

It would be rude to park the car up without one more mod, right? ?

Ever since I got the car I wanted the gauge cluster with the rev counter. After looking about for a good few months, I bought this one off eBay for £45, literally within moments of seeing it as they're often snatched as quickly as they appear!

Pulled from a 1999 1.3, it had 96,901 miles on it, which at the time of fitting (6/9/21) was 6,032 miles higher than my car's mileage of 90,869.

My solution to the discrepancy was to simply swap the EEPROM chips that hold the mileage values. I had seen some videos that made it look relatively simple, so I decided to give it a shot.

First task was disassembling the unit.
Four T10 torx screws hold on the back cover:

The cover was removed and the front acrylic screen and shroud were removed:

Next, the needles had to come off. Simple trick is to wedge two spoons underneath and pry them off. I also used some toilet paper to protect the clock faces:

The needles were all popped off and the PCB was nearly ready to come out. These 4 metal tabs were bent to fit through the slots:

And then the main PCB came right out!

Now it's time to locate the EEPROM chip. After doing a bit of digging on the interwebs, I found that most of these types of chip used in automotive applications are 8-pin and more or less isolated from anything else. Using that, we can find our target chip:

This STMicroelectronics 93S46 chip is the one we're after. A quick double-check Google search confirms that it is indeed a serial EEPROM.

Now, this is where I stopped, because all there is to do now is carefully desolder the chip and then swap it out with the one from the old cluster (after disassembling that one of course).

Only issue is, I don't have the equipment to do that. I have a soldering iron, but it's nowhere near small enough to deal with a chip that's less than half the size of a 5p coin. Trying that is just a recipe for disaster. If I had the stuff to complete the job, I'd have definitely done it. Never mind, it's a job for the future!

Anyway, enough excuses, let's get this thing in the car!

The dash was reassembled in the exact reverse order, given a clean, and was then swapped out in the car. The blown bulbs were also replaced.

The final result...

Looking awesome! I'm chuffed with how it came out!
Now I can finally nail my rev matching ?

The car's MOT is due very soon, so I'll be sure to inform the tester of the 6k mile difference so that the correct mileage is on the certificate.

This is the last thing I'll do on the car before parking it up for the next few months (at least). Looking forward to after then so I can start modding it again and turn Kylie into a proper machine! ?