John's N16 DCi - from the ashes

[john's place]

As I said in my intro thread, I'm finally back in a Nissan after a few years in the wilderness so to speak. Now I could bore you with all the different cars I've owned modified and worked on since I first got into cars but for now let's concentrate on my new Nissy Derv.

Well after a brief spell in a Golf TDi as a daily runaround I felt the need to get a car I could spend some time on that would be reliable and after seeing some nice examples recently and worked on a few the search for a Nissan began. Now I actually sold the Golf before I had found the car I wanted and this meant that I had to be on the look out with a short timeframe in which to find the right car before the Golf was collected.

After a few wasted journeys to go and view a few N16's found either on eBay or AutoTrader and with the help of Rich (Mad Maru) we found the car at a very good price that needed works and was well in my eyes a diamond in the rough. The car was a non runner with moderate mileage, the turbo apparently failed and the owner had left it partially dismantled for over six months looking all sorry for itself.

The plan after agreeing a price was to get the car back from the remote farmland where it had been left to rot and get the car up and running as quickly as possible. This meant the need for a turbo swap day and a certain kind someone donating their existing OEM Turbo so they could fit the hybrid they had squirrelled away.

Any here are a few pics of how the car was when she turned up:

More to come watch this space...

 

[john's place]

So while I awaited the turbo from Rich's car I set upon addressing the dents that were all around the car, some were worse than others and the plan was to correct them and then set about getting the car resprayed as the shell was in quite a state with peeling lacquer etc.

So to work on the old girl

Before the masking up we managed to get the Turbo bolted up after sorting the issues left behind by the previous owner and Rich mentioned how the turbo look familiar as it was a hybrid turbo that had failed in the car so I plan to get this refurbed and find out what was the cause of the failure. The turbine was literally hanging out from the housing. I can safely say the intall was far from an easy one as when the blown turbo was removed the inlet pipework had been bent and nothing lined up perfectly. Also the cleaning of the pipework as per the turbo install instructions was timely but needed as we were not sure what had caused the failure.

Primer going on and car almost ready for paint

coming up paint and a few more bits sorted...

 

[john's place]

Now the plan initially was to add a pearlescent to the Nissan blue & add a subtle red fleck but well the overall finish wasn't as desired and gave the car a purple finish rather then blue.

Lacquered

 

[Sonicuk]

 

[chunky]

Surprisingly it looks good actually! Could have a theme going there bud

...Phone...

 

[edk]

I like that, but I love purple anyway. Great job John

 

[john's place]

Thanks for the positive feedback but the perfectionist in me wouldn't let the car stay in it's current state the lacquer had started to go off and the pearlescent in the paint left areas darker than I wanted and I had wanted the car to remain blue but different to OEM.

Here are a few more pictures showing the car before it was mopped following paint.

So after having driven the car around for a few days it was getting more apparent that the drivers wheel bearing had issues and was in need of replacement. This was done and now you can hear a noisy front spring that needs attention. To add to that the Infotainment system wouldn't work and only shows up as SECURE after a few minutes of the car being on. According to Nissan the stereo unit needs the code inputting as it has become disconnected from the ignition. To add to this the heater system also isn't working so hopefully this is due to the systems being linked and will be sorted once I take the unit over to Nissan to get the code as it wasn't supplied from the previous owner.

A week after the respray was comleted and the paint mopped I still wasn't happy with the car and many in my trade had asked what had happened to the spray job, so I had a spare bit of time so I decided to flat the paint down again and yes you guessed it resprayed it. Now I wanted a darker blue and had just finished some work on an Audi and the blue was just what I was after so I ordered some more paint banged it on and added the pearlescent to the lacquer and then another coat with a small amount of red fleck to get this:

17" wheels were put on but these need a refurb badly and they show how much this car needs lowering in the near future.

Thanks for looking much more to come and hopefully a few more updates soon.

 

[Mad Maru]

Now I really liked the purple as I felt it set the car off a treat and was a little bit different. When I saw the blue I was at first underwhelmed as it looked standard and almost too conservative compared to the bold purple. But I can safely say that it has grown on me and now it has been polished it looks very impressive and the dark blue sets off the red fleck and pearl very well. Has to been seen in the daylight folks not really helped by camera phone pictures even if they are really well taken pictures

Oh and your mad two full resprays in a week better make sure your arms don't fall off couldn't ya just watch the footie like the rest of us?


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