Chris' Nissan Micra K11 v3

[hoodedreeper]

The first update in this post isnt very exciting but it's one of those little jobs that needed sorting.

With the Almera GTi seats fitted, the stock fuel/boot release lever wouldnt fit next to the seat. I relocated it to the opening behind the seat where the rear door card would have been and made a bracket to support it.



There's probably a way of mounting it nearer the front, but for now it'll do



With the interior stripped it was time to address the front door cards. The fabric had started to lift from the backing (its incredibly thin, I'm surprised its lasted this long). The bulky door pockets and handle didnt suit the theme of the car so something had to be done.

On the previous K11 build and my first MX5 I made my own carbon fibre door cards, which turned out quite well. One thing I've took forward from the MX5 version, is to reuse the top crash pad. This still makes the doors flow into the dashboard and finishes off the doorcards nicely.

Keeping things on a budget, I went with 1.5mm aluminium which was supplied by a friend at a very good price (2x 1200mm x 600mm sheets for £37.00). Fixings were 4mm and 4.8mm rivets (only because I ran out after doing one door, oops). Unfortunately they've suffered some damage from the file,angle grinder and rivet gun (passenger side is the worst).I'll probably cover the marks with some stickers to cover them up until I can re-do them



The day we got the car we talked about the route it would go, taking heavy inspiration from the previous build (not wanting a replica). We decided to go with a Kanjozuku theme, which is ironic because it struggles to get upto the national speed limit let alone any form of late night activity haha

The first thing was a window net, easier said than done on a budget. You can buy 'proper' mounting kits, but majority of them attach to a roll cage. Thats where I had to adapt and use inspiration from other cars whether its track, auto cross, rally or drag.



For starters, I ordered the net too big. I say too big, its the correct width but because the door curves quite alot towards the A pillar the top is too long. I made 3x L brackets rivetted to the door/doorcard with a hole on the other side. A piece of 6mm round bar cut to length is fed through the brackets and net and is secured on by an R clip either end. The top is alot less 'engineered' by using an elastic bungee cord. I cut down a P clip and mounted it in the middle, this stopped the bungee cord sagging in the middle

The rear received similar treatment with a TRS helmet net I had saved from the last car. I bolted 40mm D-Rings to where the door cards would have been which gave the anchor points for the net. The rest is pretty self explanitory



Lastly for this update is splitting and painting the headlights

With the headlights removed it was time to split them. Alot of people use the oven but I went with a heat gun instead, mainly because I have a little bit more control With the glass lenses removed the insert popped off and the orange indicator lens was removed too.



Its made such a difference to the overall appearance, its definately a must do modification for all K11s



Just need to paint the badge on the bonnet now and the front end is pretty much done. What about some canards? lol






I've got some chrome bulbs on order to get rid of the orange completely