K11 first car project

[mattspry1]

Hello, this is my first car a 1998 nissan micra k11 tempest 1.0l. Picked her up at the end of january a few days before turnin 17 for bang on a grand. 37k miles full service history, and virtually no rot, cant argue with that! Bought it in Bath from its 3rd (i think) owner and brought it back to its new home in sunny south wales. The first few of these posts will be in past tense until i catch up to the present. Enjoy.












I'm sure you all know what a micra looks like, but here she is, not in perfect condition by any means but ill call the lacquer peel and dents patina, drew pritchard would be proud.

[mattspry1]

Nothing happened with it for a while, i started learning to drive and i really couldnt fault the way it drove. I began what is now a bit of an addiction of collecting parts by heading to euros to get a prefacelift front bumper in plain textured black. The reason being i wanted a prefacelift car in the first place but i was struggling to find nice examples that werent too far away so i decided id simply install all the prefacelift parts onto my car. I then acquired the ever sought after super s clocks…



…and was promptly informed by everyone on facebook that they wouldnt work in my car as its a facelift and all the connections are different, curse word. I them bought these prefacelift brake lights and they're so much nicer than the ones that were on there.







They were an absolute curse word to get working with the whole bulb holder needing to be rewired. But, in the end it was definitely worth it, only a small change but still nice nonetheless. Somehwere around this time i mocked up the wheels trims off my fathers newly acquired ‘95 punto (also 37k miles coincidentally) and new that the crusty old steelies had to go sooner or later.

[mattspry1]

Spotted these two beautys in clonakilty back in march during the west cork rally.

[mattspry1]

As soon as i came back to wales, inspired by the silver march i ordered a set of prosport corsa b coilovers and a Gizfab panhard rod







The panhard rod was really nicely made and i was even surprised by how not rubbish looking the coilovers seemed considering they were £240 all in.

[mattspry1]

Next was actually fitting the stuff, i wont bore you with the details of how you get these to fit because its been written up a million times on sites like this. The only cause for concern was the rear springs, i don't know if you can tell from the photo but the second coil up from the bottom of the spring sits awkwardly in the subframe and clunks like hell, everyone told me not to use them, but I'm not really one for listening and i really doubt they're going to pop out or snap anytime soon.



Heres how she sat once the rear was all done.

[mattspry1]

A day or two after this i recieved a very exciting delivery.



WHEELS! finally the micra was going to look like less of an old banger. They’re JBW revolites (revolution 4 spoke reps) in 13x6 et16 with 175, 50s. I reslly didnt want to run reps on this and even though the real deal was pretty much the same price i couldnt find them in 4x100. Anyway, i really believe this is the perfect size for a k11 they tuck just the right amount on the back and have a tiny bit of poke on the front. People like to run the dull 13x7 et -7 rims and even though some of you might not want to hear this, they do not fit. they're too wide and it looks curse word. Needs to be made illegal (techincally it is now i think of it).


It was at this point i knew exactly what direction i wanted to take this build in. Ive always had an obsession with classic minis and i was inspired by how they're modified in japan, and considering my cars japanese, quite small and 4 spoke wheels look at home on both minis and old J cars it seemed natural that i should aim to mirror the style of both the mini and the kyusha scenes for this build. Still following? Well i know what i mean anyway.







The wheels went on with little issue, my father folded in the rear arches to about a 45 degree angle just so we could be sure they woouldnt rub (they don't thankfully) and since the front arch lips were so much smaller we didnt bother to roll them. We didnt have an arch roller we used the rubber handle of a hammer and smacked it with a deadblow hammer. Worked a charm.

[mattspry1]

Getting it off the ramp was a chore, it involved a lot of thinking and a few blocks of wood but we managed to get it off eventually. Heres how it looked in daylight for the first time with its new shoes on.







the initial test drive was nerve-wracking to say the least, but i soon got used to it scraping everywhere so thats fine. It’s not comfortable but its not so bad that it'll give u a bad back or anything like that and the way it handles is simply superb, every roundabout is a treat to use and it stays completely flat round corners. 

[mattspry1]

That pretty much brings us up to the present, ive managed to source a prefacelift rear bumper so ive thrown that on (might put the red back on for now til i do the front end swap), found a phase 1 preface grill, got a headlight and another one on order, and bought an rgb interior bulb with a remote for it. Alot of guys in japan put strobe lights on their rear parcel shelf (don't ask why i havent got a clue) but i thought that woukd be a bit over the top so this bulb does the same thing but more subtly.










Took the car to chepstow for a show just a day or two ago and it didnt miss a beat, what a great little motor. Need to fix the sunroof as it opens fine but struggles to close but other than that its going to be slow progress for a while as i need to start saving money up for insurance once i pass my test. Hope this has been an interesting read so far, ill try and keep this updated as often as i can. feel free to chip in any ideas for mods its always appreciated and if youve got some red prefacelift panels to sell to me do get in touch. 

[jonomisfit]

Looks really good.

Cars like yours are giving me a hankering for a k11!

[mattspry1]

May 10, 2023 6:39:24 GMT jonomisfit said:

Looks really good.

Cars like yours are giving me a hankering for a k11!

Thanks man appreciate it, great little cars

[kevins]

That is one hell of a transformation, the tempest name actually looks fitting now you have finished with it!

[paulwoolley91]

Love the prefacelift k11's. Looking really good so far 👌👌

[teaboy]

Nice first car, K11s are excellent.
I got my daughter one as her first car.
The rot spots to look out for are the crossmember underneath the radiator and the back end of the sills.

[halkyon]

Love it! Perfect first car these days, the styling has aged well.

[Jonny69]

Looks spot on. Nice one.

Had a soft spot for these since markbognor did his

[brendanr]

Helped a friend buy her first car and guided her to a 1994 k11. Went and test drove it and was shocked at how well it drove for a little car. Cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, excellent reliability but it was rot behind the rear arches that got it in the end. Absolutely agree that it's a great first car (or a secondary runabout) and light years ahead of something like a Yaris in terms of fun and aging well.

I prefer the phase 1 look too. Keep it up!

[yoeddynz]

Great first car to start tinkering with! Very easy to work on. Thanks for starting a thread too - these little cars are all getting a old now and will be a proper classic in time. A combination of rot, learner drivers and general apathy towards what most see as just a basic shopping car (because they are just that really.. but sooooo cool with it) means the numbers of them out there on the road will continue to drop. Look after this one !

Check if your car has a mechanical speedo cable or if its an electronic speeedo. If its mechanical then I believe you can always swap the plugs out to suit that instrument cluster you have. I'm pretty sure all the wires are the same between models but for an extra 'bip' signal wire on the electroic speedo gauges.

You'll possibly have to add a signal wire for the rev counter though - at least this is the case with the JDM marches we have here. See my k11 thread.

[mr]

To be honest I never liked these cars. However my sons girlfriend wanted one for her first car and they grow on you really fast. Jobs so far have been simple to do and she absolutely loves the thing.i got her a parcel shelf with speakers in and it turns out the wiring is already in the car for it despite hers being what I can only assume is the lowest spec variant there is. I currently have a rear bumper indoors for it, how hard is that to replace?. Love the way this car sits lowered, makes hers look like a gasser in comparison 🤣😂. Will be following this thread, will see if I can get her onto this page too. looking forward to updates. Nice work so far, car looks great 👍

[88zxturbo]

Very nice first car 👌 my sister had one when I was a young teen and I “borrowed” it a few times, made mk2 fiestas and the likes feel like clapped out old boats

[yoeddynz]

May 11, 2023 4:31:30 GMT 88zxturbo said:

made mk2 fiestas and the likes feel like clapped out old boats

That's because you can with a Nissan...