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So this winter I'm planning to get a new front mount intercooler and all the piping. Then a Haltech, which will transform this car. One of the things I've really struggled with is communicating with that stupid Nissan Protocol ecu. There is software available, but I can't make it work on modern...

The future plan is to put a Haltech ecu in, probaly an Elite 1000. This car has always run rich. I've still not got to the bottom of it, though I have made progress. The MAF wires were broken, they're fixed and tested. The FPR wasn't perfect, that's fixed and tested. I replaced the injector...

Dang dude, that's pretty much my dream car right there! I'm so in love with Rocket Bunny S14s, good choice of colour too. I wish I was in a position to go nuts with this car, but I have to be realistic. The plan has always been to restore and sell it for a house deposit. So I'm aiming for a...

I legit still have bits of that. BGW FTMFW. And so shiny. Glory days boys. Glory days.

Thanks man! Those photos were actually from The Bandit Run, a charity run my mate organises every year. 5 ski resorts in one day! Moustaches and Coors light in the trunk are mandatory. It's a heck of a day out. There was another Trans Am there too, full bandit spec, don't seem to have any photos...

Some proof that it actually does get put back together and leave the garage occasionally.

While I had the front end apart, and was trying not to burn the funking thing to the ground, I cleaned and repainted a bunch of stuff and replaced pretty much every nut and bolt. The bumper had made a mess of the bar underneath the lights from being taken off and on so many times. The tape you...

The headlights. Oh dear lordy the headlights. I have a new appreciation for the phrase "open a can of worms". Never in the history of the universe have headlights had so much time and effort put into them. They had been opened to fit angel eyes, and stuck back together with..... something. I...

A spring on the front right coilover snapped just before MOT day last spring. GRRRR. The coilies were freaking awful anyway, full budget drift spec. Made by NPG, which was a Japan only brand in the 90's, so no hope of parts. Another part which had almost certainly been thrown on the car so it...

The boot has been repainted a whole bunch of times. It's been three years since I removed the spoiler and dived willingly down this rabbit hole, it hasn't been good since then. Sure, I could have taken it to a professional and had it done perfectly and saved myself many, MANY hours of work and...

I always hated the aftermarket rear lights. So I wrapped them. It helped, but I then decided to really darken the centre section. Looks WAY better now.

A few of the random little things that happened during this time: New clutch Cool sunset Fixed up the front bumper (I certainly wasn't the first) Car got me into Roxys pants (I wasn't the first there either) It got snowed on It got frozen It got dirty GOLD. BRAKES.

The only switches wired at the moment are fog and flash, the flash is just a setting for the fog light. You will see the fog light in later pics, it's a small triangular one under the rear bumper. The hazard switch is now where the cigarette lighter used to be. Man, that thing was a challenge to...

And after

Finally a complete interior! No holes, no sharp bits, no random electrical shocks from loose wires. Before the vinyl wrap

I engine turned them, for a classic look. Well, I stuck a scouring pad to a dremel bit and went nuts. Turned out lovely. Custom Horn button Then I wrapped a bunch of parts in dark brushed aluminium.

The centre console had apparently been modified with a machete. There was no good mounting spot for the boost controller, and the switches were either broken or missing. So I went to town on it. Mounting the boost controller where the ashtray used to be. It's completely reversable as I planning...

Interior soundproofing. I did the whole floor too, but I forgot to take any photos.

I'd heard the horror stories, I did the research, I thought I was prepared. I wasn't.

Sound proofed Making floor and shelf Battery tray Aaaaand done!

The boot build. There was pretty much nothing in there when I got it. How it started Making templates Painted

The boot, with relocated battery and amp.

Now that it was in a dry place the real work could start. The wiring in this car was a nightmare. Many years of amateurs and gadgets, so barely anything worked. The stereo wiring had been hacked several times, the instruments were suffering from demonic possession, the harness was brittle and...

After that I moved to a house with a garage. WIN. So I took the time to build a bench and shelves, then organised everything properly. Serious OCD orgasmic release. There's not much space, so it had to be done. Two years later my system is still working really well, and it's super easy to keep...

And finished! It's not bad, now that it's settled in a couple of parts need a little tightening up, but I'm pretty pleased with it. SO much better to sit in than it was.

Upholstering. Step one Slowly adjusting and fitting The cushions

That will be why it wasn't comfy... New foamy bits

The driver seat was in awful condition, so I figured I couldn't make it any worse if I tried my hand at upholstery. The material was left overs from a local furniture place, it's imitation herringbone tweed, a lot softer and comfier than actual tweed! Before Proof of JDM

So.... it's been a while. I still have this car, it's still very much a project. Progress has been painfully slow due to life and financial constraints, but it's getting better little by little. I'm about to do a big pic and update dump, I may have to drip feed it because of Imgur's upload...

Gellions? Well, at least the regulars will probably have blown their dole money by sunday night and be at home drinking special brew.... It looks like my flight gets in at 9:10, I'll message you and see what we can figure out.

That's the plan. It turns out that I suck at saving for a house. I figured this would be an investment and a lot of fun along the way. Every car I viewed in the UK was rusty. There is none on this car. The rest can be fixed easily enough with some elbow grease and minimum expenditure.

I'm keeping it pretty tame by my standards, there's a good chance it will be sold as a significant part of my house deposit in a few years. It will have a few magnificent touches though! Yeah, I spent nearly £50 on paint in the end! The wheels are a temporary fix, not worth spending £300 for...

Thanks mate. It's unbelievably low in the flesh, the roof is several inches lower than my nipples, and I'm pretty low myself... I do not look elegant getting out of this thing.

:creep: DUDE! I live in Inverness! Unfortunately this will be the first weekend I've been away from home in months.... That's mighty unlucky. How long you hanging around for? I'll be home late sunday night.

You know me bud, I'm making it up as I go along and meddling with things I don't really understand.

aaaaaaand that's us up to date.

Mandatory broadway mirror. I finally found a solenoid for the Greddy EBC. It was a bit of a bugger to fit as it needs different sized hose compared to the wastegate and intake, but I found some reducers eventually. I took it out for a run in the dark, which was exciting because I have no...

The wheels have been on for about a week. SO MUCH BETTER. The car now looks like somebody actually likes it. The arches had been hammered out, so I tidied up the rears and the fronts needed a pretty good roll. The fronts are pretty tight, there's a hint of rub on full lock but not enough to...

If you're wondering what's involved in retrimming the interior panels: Contact adhesive, patience, and a HEAP of clothes pegs. This has been my evenings for the last three weeks! The wheels are painted and lacquered, they're curing inside until my spacers arrive, then I'll seal and wax them...

I found some Buddyclub P1s for a good price, they were pretty scabby as they'd sat in a shed for a few years, but all straight with no damage other than paint. So I've stripped them down and repainted them, it's a pretty close colour to the original dark grey, I'll get some lacquer on them...

The interior retrim is coming along well, though only the dash is back in right now as I'm waiting on a few parts. It's slow going, but it looks SO much better. I wish I'd taken a before photo of the dash because it was in an awful state; the usual big cracks and a bunch of holes and damage...

Oh, and I took the spoiler off. Unfortunately the ducktail doesn't cover the holes from the old one, so they're ducktaped until I can be bothered to fill them and repaint the bootlid. I'm going to make a start fixing the fibreglass in the ducktail this weekend, it's in worse condition than I...

I finally got around to making up new looms for the indicators, now I have two on the side of the front bumper and two in the fog light position. So now it's happy and flashing at a sensible speed and I have my sidelights back. I think that was my last big hurdle for an mot. No pics, because...

I seem to be spending my life fixing annoying little electrical problems, mostly I have no idea how it got like this in the first place, somebody has had some odd ideas about wiring. This is a good example; the wires going into the maf sensor had been cut or broken and were soldered in really...

I'm getting right into the spirit of silvia ownership, today I had to bodge the alternator tensioner to get it home from the garage, so now it's held on by zipties. I'm fairly certain that's what the owners manual would recommend. I ordered a bolt from Nissan two weeks ago, they sent it to the...

Plans are, as always every changing, but currently: Fix that bloody speedo. Rebuild brakes. Fix indicators (from oem four down to two on the front, just need to track down the wiring and fix). NEW WHEELS. There's a Rocket Bunny spoiler living on my couch right now. Fit my tasty Stack boost...

Since I got it I've mostly been fixing all the annoying problems. The boost has been turned right down and I'm taking it really easy on the old girl until I get a few more things done. I had moved into a new house with an epic garage in February, pretty much as soon as I got the car my landlord...

I bought a fresh import '94 S14 a couple of months ago. There's no rust and mechanically it's spot on, but the wiring is truly horrendous. The long drive home was eventful. The headlights turned off, on the motorway, in the dark.... So a quick ride on a flatbed to the nearest halfords, a night...

Well, it's finally happened chaps, I've fallen in love. Her name is Silvia, she's 24, fresh off the boat from Japan, and her interests include going sideways and scaring my mother. This is going to be a cut and paste from my thread on SX owners forum, so give me half an hour before...

Just checking the new image hosting site works....

It's earned its keep! My sister used it for 9 months while she was a student, about 100 mile round trip every day plus lots of biking adventures. This summer it's been out most days as my two friends practiced for their driving tests. Now I'm about to give the civic back, so it will be my daily...

*****. It looks like ****. Runs super rich. You can tell because the exhaust leaks so badly you can smell the unburnt fuel. Haven't hoovered it since I bought it. Still got the oil it came with. Bottoms out whenever somebody whispers the word "pothole" within 200 yards of it. Baffles in the...

Oh buddy. I'm a fan.

Update: IT'S STILL NOT DEAD.

Thanks bud. And only a 9 hour drive from me according to google maps! I do have a mate with a custom shop down that way..... I just put the first £200 away for the deposit today. I'm fairly excited about this idea, it's becoming more and more appealing. We'll have to see what a year does to my...

I'm becoming more and more tempted.... It won't be for about a year, as I need to finish my pcp and I'd like to see another couple grand off the prices. I bought my sport shortly after the fk2 was released, so there should be a few coming up to the end of their finance deals at about the right...

Micra? Anyone?

I'll bet they do! It seems there's a couple of ways around it though. I've got a bunch of research to do, I first thought of this as an option this morning. It might be prohibitively expensive to build one of these to my tastes, but it's got potential as an idea. What's the score with...

Yes. I get into my civic and spend a minute turning everything off.

That's good to know, most of the time I'm a very sedate driver, occasionally I'm an idiot. Ah well, I don't really use the foldy up seats often anyway. It's just a cool feature to have. Yeah, I've had a few drives in one. Proper drives. Coming from my old EP3 it felt heavy and floaty, but now...

Thanks for that bud! Jeez, that's a lot of rubber, my diseasel is now 25k on the original tyres! I'm thinking my costs will remain roughly the same, as my current civic was brand new with all the toys and 18k miles per year. So probably comparable if I finance a £20k FK2 with it's higher...

Alrighty chaps. I'm looking at cars again. Still got just over a year left on the pcp for my diesel civic, never getting another pcp, so starting to save a deposit. Trying to think of something fun and practical as two cars are out of the question for now. The plan was for a scoob wagon or...

Merry Christmas Vette!

I know, it's a minefield. I may have to settle for a 350z. But, I do really fancy some ZUTUTUTUTU...

I chipped the worst off with a screwdriver, then wire brush on the drill. Dentist pick and wire brush on the dremel for the nooks and crannies. It took ages. I'll get refurbed calipers next time.

This is the rears, they were much worse. You can see where the seal failed and the problem started. It was generating so much heat that it changed the colour of the high temp paint!

Rebuilding calipers is a fairly big job. Remove calipers. Dismantle and clean. Remove corrosion around seal points. Lube and fit new seals and pistons. Refit calipers. Bleed brakes. Cleaning and removing the corrosion is the time consuming part. If you skip this step then you won't get a good...

Worth having a go on the engine to see if it's saveable?

Yeah, I'm bad for that too. I have to force myself to use the torque wrench. Another joy of owning a micra: "about there" is plenty good enough!

Sorry to hear about that Welshy, I can just imagine how you felt when you saw it. I look forward to seeing the aero, well done for sticking it out.

This must be the most-dismantled EP3 in the world! Fantastic work as always Rambo, your dedication puts us all to shame.

Glad to hear that bud. A new torque wrench for chrimbo then? :lol:

I think from this thread we can conclude that it's personal preference. I personally really hate the look of stretched tyres, I like them big and meaty. So filling the arch and the look of a wider tyre is a big plus for me. Honestly, it's really not a big difference between those two sizes, the...

Yeah, I could have phrased that better - relatively stiff compared to normal everyday tyres. I liked them for blasting around back roads, not near the grip limits or under big lateral loads, I don't drive as hard as you I guess! Yes, there will be a speedo error. But in this case it was only...

Yeah....what? Tyres that wear faster when you don't use them?! Ummmm....

I went through two sets of F1 A2s on my ep3, I loved them. They did the day-to-day perfectly and were plenty grippy enough in the wet and dry when you wanted to play. Mega twitchy in the cold though, I really struggled for traction once it got below 5 degrees. I ran 215/45s to give a slightly...

No, but I hadn't thought of that. I guess that could increase the wear in that area. LOL. Not yet. But I'll be sure to tell her you've been thinking about waxing her ass. Yep, a massive tranny. I got a lot of stuff moved for friends and family that week. Yep, I think you must be right. I...

I was cleaning the seats, and there's something weird on the drivers side that won't come off. It's on the front of the rearmost panel of the seat (roughly where your belt would be), looks matte compared to the rest. The leather cleaning wipes were coming off a bit black when I scrubbed hard...

I finally got around to washing it. That's the first time since I painted it :lol: completely changed the colour of the car. I also ran into another micra, it made me realise just how far this car is from standard now. LOOK AT THAT ARCH GAP! As some of you may know, I hit a red stag...

:smt041 AMAZING. Hah, result! PITA to deal with it all, but you've definitely come out on top. It amazes me that they wanted to write it off with so little damage, would have been such a shame for a car to die like that.

You wrote it off?! Another roundabout? :lol: Hope you're ok bud! Wow, it sounds like you have some excellent plans. That's a great find for the price, the 1.8 and diff will completely transform it, the hardtop will make a big difference too. This thing is going to be awesome. I call first...

Bad luck mate, I've been there myself. £1200?! What?! Yeah, I think it's worth having a shot yourself! You don't need to remove the grill from the bumper, but you will need to unclip it from the slam panel. It's definitely worth buying a bag of new clips, you will break some, they're quite...

There's four; right, front, back and gearbox (left). Left and right are fairly obvious, front and back are under the manifolds and accessed from underneath. They're not cheap, fitting is awkward. A cheap stopgap fix is to use mount inserts, Energy Suspension do front and rear, Powerflex do the...

The solid bush kit won't fix the play in the gear lever, it is a nice little pocketmoney mod though. The problem in these cars is wear on the plastic balljoint at the bottom of the lever. You would need either a oem shifter assembly or the buddy club short shift. The buddy club is awesome. Buy...

Tell the missus you're taking her somewhere nice....."Oh, and while we're in the car dear, listen to this...." :smt037 It was time. I'd gone as far as I wanted to with it, all the next steps were big money. Also, finding that patch of rust on the floor rather ruined the car for me. It wasn't...

Not spoken in ages mate, hows the car? :lol: I guess it could be the pads moving, don't know how loud a noise that would make though. Grab a set of cheap pads and retainer clips, shouldn't cost more than £25. I guess you'll be taking the wheel off to have a snoop around anyway. Check...

Lol, on the way good buddy.....

Gremlins dude. Nothing worse. Could well be connected to your other problems. I'd firstly try a new battery and check the alternator, an inconsistent power supply can create some bizarre symptoms. After that, you're going to have a few hours with multimeter, and that's way beyond my experience...

If it's an intermittent fault then it's probably not the fuse. Yep, change the knock sensor. As you say, it's certainly somewhere that you want peace of mind! It still amazes me how much abuse my civic took. They're damn tough wee cars. Pretty much all the problems I had were sensor related...

If it's an intermittent fault then it's probably not the fuse. Yep, change the knock sensor. As you say, it's certainly somewhere that you want peace of mind! It still amazes me how much abuse my civic took. They're damn tough wee cars. Pretty much all the problems I had were sensor related...

My Bluetooth reader cost about £7, worth buying to keep in the glovebox anyway.

Just to make it more confusing, my Bluetooth reader did pick it up. Mine was a split wheel speed sensor ring thingy.

I know how you feel, I much prefer having a cat (The polis just LOVE my cars....). I'm sure TDI could make anything you want, might cost a little extra though. Ask them. Having a cat further back can cause issues with emissions unless you can get it really hot before testing, particularly...

Jesus. That's bloody awful. I hope it haunts him the rest of his life.

I just discovered that Tegiwank sell Brides now. What could possibly go wrong.....

Working on it. Planning a track slut too.

Hah, you southerners! My nearest city is three hours away!

It sounds fine to me. But, as our glorious leader Loxy said, you may as well get it done anyway. Jamieboy showed me an awesome trick for finding engine noises a while ago; put a screwdriver against the engine and your ear against the end of the handle. Move it around until you find where the...

Racing snakes indeed. Yeah, try as many as you can, my voluptuous a55 didn't make it easy! They don't have to be uncomfortably tight, once you're strapped in you won't be going anywhere. You could always have them wide enough for comfort and have a couple bits of foam down the sides for...

Fair enough, but it's a wrench to have a car you can't drive. You may as well keep it road legal, then at least you can take it for a spin when the red mist descends. Seats are mandatory. Proper buckets, or even really good recliners, will transform it when you're getting a shift on. Those...