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Small update With the interior stripped and the sun visors replaced with the 5 panel wink mirror, it got quite dangerous when it came to driving during sunset. A friend helped me fit a sun strip which should solve this issue  I decided to make a DIY front splitter made from garden edging, the idea came from a Mighty Car Mods video. Originally it was riveted on but the bottom edge was too wavvy. So I made some aluminium plates to go behind to give it some rigidity, for it to still be wavvy. curse word it it can stay like it lol In the end I had to use stainless M6 bolts because the holes opened up too much for replacement rivets  I was on the search for some MG/Rover side skirts to modify to fit, mainly because I knew what they looked like on the car but the cheapest pair I could find was £65 shipped. Thats when a friend contacted me after she saw a facebook status of mine, saying don't buy any she may have some in the garage. After a search she found a pair of Civic EK skirts she said I could have for free, winner! I cut about 6" off the front and kept the sweeping edge just like the original fitment on the civic. With the skirt flipped upside down, I then had a flat edge to use to mount against the sill. The passenger rear arch that has the damage now requires more work. I was tapping the sill to see where the solid metal was and my finger went through.....oops! Luckily the skirt hides the hole for now, I'm waiting for a friend to give me a quote for the arch to be cut out and another welded in its place, along with the sill.  With the front and sides now sitting lower, the rear bumper needs something to match. I remembered a Seat Ibiza Mk2 Facelift front splitter follows the shape/lines of the rear bumper really well, as I first discovered it on the previous car. It seems these are harder to come by nowadays but luckily my local dealer can still supply them new. That'll come a little later as I've got other things I'd like to do first  When I purchased the E30 bottle top alloys they only came with 2 centre caps. I managed to find 3 more for the grand sum of £20 posted, so those were sprayed and some monochrome BMW badges were fitted to finish them off. If the wheels didnt have BMW in the casting we would have gone for something else, I quite like them with the 'proper' badge.  Another Facebook bargain was an S13 HKB steering wheel boss for £20 posted. I wasn't planning on changing the steering wheel so soon but at that price I couldnt turn it down. I couldnt have the boss just laying around un-fitted so I borrowed a Nardi wheel from a friend's Impreza GC8 that he had spare. Its not the cleanest of wheels but it'll be fine until we buy our own  I couldn't find a full set of matching counter sunk bolts so i had to improvise with some normal M5 bolts |
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tom13
Part of things
Posts: 571
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Looking good dude. Catching up with your previous one.
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Jul 15, 2020 15:33:30 GMT
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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 |
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Sept 6, 2020 17:49:38 GMT
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Sept 6, 2020 20:07:15 GMT
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Because my imp will come off the road at some point to fit the Honda engine we will obviously need a spare car. Ive been excitedly looking around the ads for a 2 door manual micra. Not a common thing here though...  So I'm still watching this with interest |
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A few updates rolled into one I'll start with the most obvious one from the first photo...the kanjo door boards. This was one of the things I wanted to tie in the kanjozoku style and it happened to be one of the last things lol. You'll usually see the osaka kanjo hand or hockey mask but with the car not being a Honda I wanted something different, and who doesn't love Mighty Car Mods?!    The next change was an experiment. I had seen on Facebook some posts from a page called KBMER who are graffiti artists. The first post was of a blue 350Z painted in an Initial D style and it really caught my eye. A few more cars followed including an NB Miata, Civic and an RX7 FC, these guys feature darker patches for shadows/shading and made it look more realistic. My issue was, I didn't want to commit to painting the car incase I didnt like it. So i purchased some 12mm pin strip vinyl from work and gave it a go. I posted the photos on Social Media and the comments were very positive with a few suggestions.  I left the pin strip on the car to see what it would look like with the door boards and I think I can pull it off  KBMBER uses ink markers to create the lines and the whole car is then clear coated. Again, clear coating the car is a large task for a drive way build, plus theres no going back. I'll stick with the vinyl for now and see how it goes.   Norfolk based company Wylde Wraps UK supplied and fitted the door boards, while the car was there they also vinyl wrapped the roof gloss black. This is the reason why the Gizfab spoiler was painted black and not colour coded   The last big change was the fitting of some aerocatches that I borrowed from my old MX5 carbon bonnet. The bonnet took quite alot of cutting just to gain enough access to fit them, its not the prettiest of jobs but the car is far from perfect haha. No real reason to why I fitted them, more because I had them laying about and I was bored  |
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Really like what you’ve done with this for not a lot of spends. Great transformation.
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Oct 17, 2020 19:31:49 GMT
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Oct 17, 2020 19:52:43 GMT
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When I collected the engine I also bought a Garrett T2 Turbo and DIY manifold. I giggled like a little child and the thought of making choo choo noises from my rusty shitbox. Thats when I dug deeper into the conversion....  These engines aren't the most renown for being strong when boost is applied. Some engines have lasted years some within a week. The ringlands are the first to go and with the uncertainty of how long they'd last I'd need to factor in a bottom end rebuild.  The next largest piece of the puzzle was engine management. I was relying on using a Nistune board, but they're not available for the coilpack ECU. Piggyback units like the Det3 and E-Manage Blue are perfectly fine but they don't come about very often, then its finding a mapper local who can do it. The other option was to go full standalone i.e Omex,Megasquirt,Emerald, Link etc which would require a full rewire. Although this option isnt an inconvience cost was a big factor. Can I justify spending £600-£1000 on management plus the cost of everything else? I said all along I wasn't going to boost it because I have the R34 for power/speed. I guess caving into peer pressure and curiousity got the best of me. I decided not to go down this route because of the costs to make it reliable. Yes you can do it on the cheap, but finding the 1.4 engines is becoming more difficult and I don't really wanna be replacing the engine every month. The turbo and Manifold sold today (17/10/20) |
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Oct 17, 2020 21:11:49 GMT
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This build looks awesome, as far as cheap fun goes, K11s are up there with the best. Fancy owning one myself one day. keep it up!
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Oct 18, 2020 19:11:37 GMT
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This build looks awesome, as far as cheap fun goes, K11s are up there with the best. Fancy owning one myself one day. keep it up! Thanks Benny, they're certainly alot of fun to drive, even more so when this replacement engine is in  |
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tom13
Part of things
Posts: 571
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Oct 19, 2020 13:15:17 GMT
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Love this thread dude. Loved your old mx5 one as well. One of my all time faves.
This car is quality. I had a 1L k11 and it was amazing but I have always keep been pulled towards k10s and have had a few variants over the years.
Needed a cheap car recently and I so wanted another k11, even more so after seeing your updates but alas I couldn't find the right one that was close enough to me and the right price. I would have settled for a 1L but I was amazed how much the cg13 cars had gone up in value. Ended up having to get a Skoda in the end. Ha.
Anyways keep the updates coming and put on as much information as you can be bothered to as I personally love seeing what you have done.
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Last Edit: Oct 19, 2020 13:16:16 GMT by tom13
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Oct 23, 2020 18:58:35 GMT
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Love this thread dude. Loved your old mx5 one as well. One of my all time faves. This car is quality. I had a 1L k11 and it was amazing but I have always keep been pulled towards k10s and have had a few variants over the years. Needed a cheap car recently and I so wanted another k11, even more so after seeing your updates but alas I couldn't find the right one that was close enough to me and the right price. I would have settled for a 1L but I was amazed how much the cg13 cars had gone up in value. Ended up having to get a Skoda in the end. Ha. Anyways keep the updates coming and put on as much information as you can be bothered to as I personally love seeing what you have done. Thank you Tom, its nice to read that people enjoy my build threads and I love creating them. Its a great sense of achievement being able to look back through and seeing the progression, mistakes made and lessons learnt. The prices have hiked up alot which is a shame, just hoped people would look after them abit better but each to their own I guess |
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Oct 23, 2020 18:59:29 GMT
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Spent a couple of days cleaning the block up and painting. The engine was pretty clean to begin with so luckily I managed to skip the degreasing stage. I used various wire brush drill attachments to clean it up and plenty of brake cleaner to get rid of the dust. With everything being aluminium it cleaned up really nicely.  The bottom end and sump was painted with Smooth Black Hammerite aerosol, while the head had the same treatment but with Smooth Silver. I've used Hammerite for years and never had it dry this glossy, how long that stays like that is anyone's guess.   I've replaced all of the sensors, waterpump and thermostat while everything was stripped. Not necessary by any means, but I know its all fresh and new  I've done my best to remove everything I can and paint it. Again, all of the silver is the same Hammerite spray but the black is Holts Simoniz Tough Black aerosol. Its covered just as good as the Hammerite and it was quite abit cheaper (another bonus of selling it at work)    I've also replaced most of the original nuts/bolts with Stainless allen cap versions. I've been recommended to use Nord Lock washers instead of normal flat ones. Never heard of them but it came from a close friend who's a perfectionist when it comes to this sorta thing so I trust his judgement. I need to remove the alternator (only a couple of month old), PAS pump/Alternator bracket and Crankshaft Pulley from the 1.0L engine and swap it over before this gets fitted. I'll also paint any other bracket on the car and replace the hardward with stainless as and when I get to that stage. |
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Oct 29, 2020 22:12:00 GMT
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Spent yesterday (Wednesday 28th) taking the car apart ready to remove the engine. I managed to do everything except remove the drive shafts in an afternoon. A friend is coming over on Sunday with an engine hoist to help finish the removal.  With the unpredictable british weather and limited days off I had to make do with the best of what I had, but when it comes to paint work that can become abit tricky. All I had was a dusty and cold garage to spray in, with the help of a heat gun I managed to pull off a reasonable finish.  We decided on BMW Atlantis Blue  Unfortunately I didn't have the time to properly fit it to the engine but couldn't resist a quick photo  Depending on the time and available daylight, I'm hoping to get the remaining brackets etc removed from the engine bay once the engine has been removed and have the whole bay degreased and rinsed. This will be the decider whether the engine bay gets painted or not, although it probably will because theres a scabby patch on the drivers side which is in plain sight Would be a shame to fit this engine and the curse word engine bay lets it down. Oh and I need to vent my anger with the courier MyHermes. Purchased a Janspeed Manifold and exhaust system from a known breaker at the end of September. It should have been delivered on the 17th Oct, it went back to the depot and no updates happened. They're now saying its damaged and are refusing to deliver it, been instructed to contact the seller. Contacted him and it seems almost impossible to get through to them.... *sigh* They're also refusing the give me the local depot details so I can collect (found out where they are, and are litually 5 minutes down the road) I reeeeeally don't want to refit the stock manifold but until its resolved it looks like I'll have to |
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So an update on the MyHermes nightmare.... The tracking showed the parcel was unable to be delivered and to contact the seller. Spoke to the seller who had rung them and was told the packaging was damaged. He struggled to get back in contact so I tried, to which they were quite reluctant on passing on any info at the beginning. Turns out it had arrived at my local depot with the packaging damaged and THE WHOLE EXHAUST was missing! I updated the seller and I received a refund almost instantly, I can't fault him for that, it was beyond our control The exhaust was the last piece of the puzzle for the engine swap,especially as its one of the first things you see when you open the bonnet. So I contacted Eden at Gizfab and asked what the lead time was for one of his 4-2-1 Manifolds, which is 4-5 weeks. The manifold and front pipe were more money than the complete system I had originally purchased, but this is made from scratch and will be a much better quality stainless than the Janspeed. This gives me plenty of time to get the swap going and luckily its the last thing I need to fit. Here are some photos from their Facebook page.   Last sunday my friend came over to help remove the engine, it all went pretty smoothly to be honest. Removing 90% of the parts a few days prior certainly saved us alot of time, especially while dodging the rain showers.  Remembering where everything goes will be a task in itself...haha  Heres the rust patch I mentioned in the previous post. I thought about fitting an oil catch can, but the inlet/outlets are facing the other side of the bay which isnt ideal. I started off with a degrease and rinse to see what I was facing and it cleaned up pretty well. Thats until it dried and I was left with this    There must have been something on the surface because the rest of the engine bay was fine. It would scratch off with my finger nail, but that affected area was very smooth, my finger would skate across with hardly any effort. I was limited with what products to try, the first was vinegar...nope...next was brake cleaner....nope. Hmm..... I wanted to avoid painting the rusty area for the fear of not being able to match the red, but this was now the reason to do it. I sanded the area with 150 grit wet and dry and it removed this weird degreaser 'stain' and also helped remove the loose corrosion. Various grades of wet and dry sandpaper later the area was now prepped ready to be treated. Once treated and everything masked off it was time to paint. I went with Holts Simoniz Tough satin black for 2 reasons. The first was the satin finish would contrast nicely against the gloss black and silver engine. The second being I used the gloss black version to paint all the parts for the engine, so I know the coverage and finish was going to be very good. Here are a couple more photos before the degrease   A couple of coats later and its looking pretty good. The outside temperate was dropping as the sun was setting, so I didnt have much time.   Theres a few patches that need another pass over, one or two areas will be quite tricky to get to, mainly behind the brake servo  Yes I'm aware I've missed a bit above the steering rack, but you're not going to see it   Theres a couple of runs here and there but it was never going to be mint lol Today (06/11/20) I collected the flywheel from the machine shop, a very fast turn around which was nice. Next up is to paint the gearbox, once that's done I need to get the engine back in on the mounts which will be the hardest part for me. Everything else can be done as and when. |
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Nov 14, 2020 12:37:48 GMT
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Spent a few more hours on the spare engine yesterday. As a temporary measure I painted the stock exhaust manifold in VHT Black and half fitted the alternator (may have lost the lower bolt oops)  Rocker cover and coilpacks fitted (very happy with the colour choices)  Refitted some of the coolant and fuel hoses. I need to order some replacements as a couple got cut during the initial removal by a friend. He thought they were the same as the 1.0, turns out they're different.    The gearbox got a lick of paint too. The original plan was to paint it Smooth Black to match the bottom end and sump, but with the engine bay being black too I needed some more contrast  I've got a new crankshaft sensor to fit too which will be refitted once the engine and box are back in the car  |
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Nov 18, 2020 23:02:49 GMT
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So today was finally the day we get the engine back into the engine bay,woohoo! The first job was to get the engine on the hoist and bolt up the flywheel,clutch and gearbox. Followed by the starter motor (forgot to clean/paint this oops! but you can't see it luckily), engine to gearbox braces and the battery/alternator/starter motor wiring loom.  With the front and side mounts bolted in place we jacked the driver side up to gain alittle more access to the central brace to re-attach including the rear gearbox mount and gear selector.  Next up was the wiring loom. Unfortunately without extending and tucking there's not much you can do with this. We started off by plugging in the coilpacks and injectors and fitted the rest as we worked down the loom. I'll be trying to tidy it up a little bit more, I may be able to move some stuff and cable tie it in a different position. I won't know until I start I guess  New fuel filter fitted and the removal of the carbon canister (just need to sort the last remaining hose) helps tidy up that corner. Battery tray was also refitted but need to give the fuse box a good clean.  Can't do much with the brake servo or PAS lines so that corner will have to stay as it is. I'll look into a replacement PAS reservoir as they all discolour and look curse word. Failing that I'll see if I can find one of those sock covers big enough to cover it up.  Driveshafts have been refitted too. Passenger side inner joint had no grease, it was more like really thin oil. That was cleaned out, both inner boots repacked with fresh grease and new clips. The top slam panel and front brace needs to be painted Awaiting delivery of a lower radiator mount rubber, PCV seal for the rocker cover and a coolant hose. Once they're here I can refit the radiator (purchased a new one for an Auto which are slightly thicker than the Manual ones), adjust the throttle and clutch cables and refill all of the fluids. Then fingers crossed it doesnt leak fuel,oil or coolant on start up lol |
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logicaluk
Posted a lot
Every days a school day round here
Posts: 1,299
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Nov 19, 2020 23:05:41 GMT
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That's coming along very well.
Dan
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Looking very nice! Its good to see how you pulled the engine out- I think we will take ours out through the top as well, rather than out the bottom. It just seems the right way to do it for me- a fella who is really only ever used to rwd cars.
Did you pull the driveshafts out completely from the hubs and box or just out of the box and tuck them aside?
I remember using plenty of that simonez tough black paint when I lived in the UK. Its a nice paint- goes on well and lives up to its name!
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But you'll have to wait for the next update to find out 
