K11 Micra acquired!

[greengartside]

A rather unexpected tale of luck and judgement happened yesterday.

I finished work at 11.30am (joys of double day shifts) and went home and was idly browsing Facebook when my mate messaged me and asked me would I be interested in something he’d just acquired?

Naturally, curiosity got the better of me and I went and had a look. I arrived at his gaff and saw the new project sitting on his drive.

”I’ve got no time to do anything with it and I need it off the driveway. I’m gonna send it to the oval or cut it up for parts if you don’t want it”. Now he’s pulling at my heartstrings, any car that’s destined for the scrapyard is always a car that I’d like to save and so, after a short test drive, I have purchased this fine automobile.

Meet Dudley, the K11.

Sadly no KULEKSHEN FRED as my mate delivered it on his flatbed as he was off to pick up a car on his way through.

Why Dudley? Well the day this car was registered is the day that Dudley Moore passed away, so it seemed like a nice tribute. Plus it’s also a day after my birthday so it must be serendipity.

It’s done 81k and has MOT until March. Part service history inside the Nissan book pack.

Original dealer plates, sadly no dealer sticker.

First thing was to give it a wash to establish how good the bodywork is.

First impressions are, that other than a couple of pin dents, this Micra is bloody immaculate. I can’t find a single spot of rust anywhere on this car. Sills, arches and rear boot lid are all solid.

Even the K11’s weak-spot, the front crossmember is solid.

So, what’s the plan for it?

I’m not actually sure what I’m going to do with it yet. I need to buy a car cover firstly to preserve the paintwork on it. It will need a bloody good machine polish, the wheeltrims sacking off into the nearest bin and a few other niggly little things like the wipers aren’t parking (motor fault?), the sunroof has been sealed shut (blocked drain pipes?) and I’m wondering how much white smoke this is meant to kick out, it got to working temp, didn’t overheat and the fan cuts in but there was a bit of white smoke coming out the back. I’m hoping it’s because of lack of use. I’m sure some K11 fans will be able to answer some of these questions.

So yeah, there we have it. Pleased as punch with it!

 

 

[Eyersey1234]

Chodtastic purchase there greengartside, good to see it's been saved

[CortinaDave]

These are disappearing at a rate of knots... cracking little cars, keep going even when the arse is absolutely hanging out of them.

looks like there’s a few mot’s left in this one! Nice save.

[egg]

Sure* the white smoke is condensation at this time of year.

Excellent purchase!

[jcr]

that looks mega clean

[Tock]

The k11 was the last of the bombproof micras!!

[ETCHY]

Superb cars. Dudley looks cool. K11s are one of the best small cars ever IMHO.

I look forward to updates !

[Spiny Norman]

Some smart alloys (or even painted steelies) on that and it'll look the biz.
K11s are GR9 wee cars and so easy to own. Unless you totally lunched the engine  or more likely had to go on a weld-a-thon on the sills and boot floor it's hard to spend any kind of serious money on them, Couple of weeks back I put mine into the local garage to mend a snapped handbrake cable and the bill was £48. 


 

[Split_Pin]

That's a cracking wee thing. Even if the worst* is occurring, it really looks a viable fixer-upper.

[SRi05]

That looks really smart. Usually these things look battered. Couple of randoms please ?

[greengartside]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

That's a cracking wee thing. Even if the worst* is occurring, it really looks a viable fixer-upper.

Well I have done a short video of it starting from cold, it doesn’t seem to struggle. Fan kicked in but when I turned it off I heard some gurgling from the tank so I’m at a loss really. I may stick the devil’s K-Seal in it and forget about it.

[volvoman]

Well bought, an it scrubbed up a treat too.

[greengartside]

Alright ladies and gents, a PIK HEVVY update on this old nail.

First things third, sorting out the little niggles that it seems to have acquired along the years.

Up first was the ‘broken’ parcel shelf. It seems that the PO had too much in the boot once and smashed the lugs off the hinges resulting in a floating parcel shelf.

You can see where the lugs would have gone, on the small raised horizontal bit at the front of the shelf. Two lugs from a donor Micra shelf were fitted after hammering out what was left of the other lugs.

And job done. Shelf now sits where it should.

Next, the broken boot handle. I thought it may be a case of putting in a new nut & bolt.

But on closer inspection, it seems that the whole mounting bracket with the nut and bolt have parted company.

So I will be on the lookout for another boot handle in this Blue colour (anyone know the name of it?)

A new rear wiper was acquired as the old one had absolutely no rubber on it. A shame as the wiper/washer unit works perfectly.

Much better. It’s the little things that make the difference.

Next, the interior light. It seems that years of dogging and pizza deliveries in this have taken their toll on the light unit. The switch to control on/off/door was very slack and felt easy to leave it in the wrong position.

The scrapyard Micra came up trumps again with another interior light.

Much better, a more positive action on the switch now.

The 12V cig lighter socket was missing, this was quickly remidied.

Something I noticed when I bought it was the lack of mudflaps. I used to be the guy who when he bought a car would bin them off as the first job but now I think it’s a very good accessory to have on a car, this one being no exception. I really want to save this bodywork as it’s absolutely perfect. There is no rust on this car in where it should have it. The wheel arches are excellent.

The best thing is that Nissan used the arch liner retaining screw locations for the mudflaps, to save drilling and mucking about so it was literally a ‘screw and play’ figment, especially on the fronts.

The rears were a little more trickier, the bottom screw was already there but the two side ones have to have holes made. A quick braddawl session later and we have the rears fitted.

Nissan even thought to put dimples in the bumper to aid fitting, as circled in the picture above.

Awesome.

GREENGARTSIDE FATHA_S NEXT DOOR KITTEH HAZ COMES 2 INSPECK WORKZ. HE APPROVEZ.

I then washed the BURD SHYTE off the bonnet, windscreen and roof. Whilst I was doing this, I remembered I had something left from SWMBO’S K11 before we scrapped her in 2014.

GINUWINE Nissan headlamp protectors. A little clean with glass cleaner and they were good to go.

I need to find some proper 14” Tempest wheel trims to replace these gash items...

Engine bay looks nice and clean.

Although I feel that my initial worry of HGF may be correct. The dipstick is rather coffee-coloured.

I may dance with the devil and put some Steel Seal in it. The car owes me nothing and it may last a while longer. It doesn’t seem to use any water though?? This is the overflow tank.

And it looks coolant coloured, although a sniff test smells of exhaust gases so it may be weeping very slightly? It started first turn of the key so I’m a bit puzzled to be fair.

There is also evidence of new parts, such as an o2 sensor, clutch cable and coil pack, so it has been looked after in it’s past.

I did a vehicle check on the KN02 BN* block, which revealed them all to be 1.0 Micras. So I’m guessing they were all part of a fleet of some sort?

Jobs next are to cover the car up, and find some original wheel trims.

O2 sensor & clutch cable pics.

[Cavcraft]

Class that and those little touches (replacing and renewing bits) is such a rewarding thing. 

 

 

Ref. the oil I'd just flush/change it and run it round for a few weeks and check again.

[greengartside]

4 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

Class that and those little touches (replacing and renewing bits) is such a rewarding thing. 

 

 

Ref. the oil I'd just flush/change it and run it round for a few weeks and check again.

Ok, I’ll give that a try. Thanks chief.

That’ll also be handy to use the old oil to rustproof the underneath of it....

[Lord Sterling]

Excellent purchase Gartside. I am indeed a fan and have a K11 Tempest model courtesy of Autoshite:

I have a spare parcel shelf as I changed it for a speaker'd shelf from a higher spec model. 

Here are some eBay items that might interest you:

Floor mats:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fits-Nissan-Micra-1993-02-Fully-Tailored-Deluxe-Car-Mats-in-Black/120654578692

This is the "Tempest" wheel trim style:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nissan-Micra-15-Single-Wheel-Trim/303318919859?hash=item469f376ab3%3Ag%3AreQAAOSwFCZdocHV&LH_ItemCondition=3000

Sadly listing is only for one. There a enough on there to make a full set but it might be costly at £7/£8 a wheel trim.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nissan-Micra-K11-Parcel-Shelf-with-Speakers/133264697658?epid=1016297268&hash=item1f0731e93a:g:AFQAAOSwveNd5jG4

Again, slightly costly at £40 delivered but genuinely a nice easy mod. Plug and play. Every K11 has a small connector hidden behind the r/h side boot carpet.

[Steve79]

@greengartside out of interest, how much air is the interior fan pushing out on max speed from the face vents?

If not much then £3.257 million says the pollen filter has NEVER been done. 

Pop the glovebox clear of its bump stops and let it hang down you will be greeted by a plastic trim with two perforated lines. If these are still intact then the filter has never been done.

Use a stanley knife to slice the perforated section out. The filter then just pulls out.

 

 

Did this on SIL's K11 when she had it. Her family it owned from new and had main stealer receipts for pollen filters every few years but guess what! 

Black as night and stank to high hell. It had never been done! No air flow was the key indicator.

[greengartside]

Thanks for the links, LS.

Yes they are the trims that I am after, hoping something will turn up in my scrappers. The parts I got were from a Tempest too, sadly no trims present (or seats!). Parcel shelf looks like it would be a nice mod.

I also have a front wiper motor which I will try and fit in the new year.

Thanks Steve79 for that tip. I’ll have a bash at that as well as the fan is pretty pathetic.

[Steve79]

17 minutes ago, greengartside said:

Thanks Steve79 for that tip. I’ll have a bash at that as well as the fan is pretty pathetic.

Yep, guaranteed to be the filter then. Beware though, you'll be surprised how much leaves and detritus gets blown out when using the fan for the 1st time after changing the filter. Don't vacuum the car until you've done this or you'll be doing it again very quickly.

[greengartside]

2 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Excellent purchase Gartside. I am indeed a fan and have a K11 Tempest model courtesy of Autoshite:

 

 

LS! Yours is the same colour as the one I raided for parts. Bonnet is in good shape.

[Lord Sterling]

3 hours ago, greengartside said:

LS! Yours is the same colour as the one I raided for parts. Bonnet is in good shape.

Hey! You couldn't grab the front bonnet and bumper could you? The one on our Micra is pretty battered. I'd like to make it look better.

[Spiny Norman]

Excellent work GGS. The parcel shelf in my latest one was broken just like that, it's a common fault and doubly annoying for me because only a few weeks before I bought this one I had a massive clear-out of the spare room and of course tyat included a perfectly sound shelf from the last Micra I had...

Oh well, chopsticks and cable ties were my solution, along with some draught excluder to stop the rattling. That was about 4 months ago and it's still holding.

[greengartside]

15 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Hey! You couldn't grab the front bonnet and bumper could you? The one on our Micra is pretty battered. I'd like to make it look better.

I could but you’d probably be best in speaking to them direct. Sadly they are a few miles from your gaff, the Micra is in South Norfolk.
 

He will however send stuff on a pallet so it may be worth ringing them? I’ll PM you the deets.

 

Spiny Norman - An inspired bodge there, Sir! Love that!