Project #2...Nissan Figaro

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Good point Exuptoy...I will have a poke around...I saw some drain holes in the Figaro "roof boot" so maybe drains down there and then out of the bottom or something. Theres plenty of drain holes in those sills now of course :-)

Been a bit sidelined fitting a new gate today....been tinkering with the gate for a while but just thought I want it done today. Bit more tinkering needed but happy enough for what I need....it's 50mm tubes with palisades bolted to the frame. Went a bit OTT with the hinges....am just hoping that the post will hold as it's a heavy gate. Post is 100mm square filled with cement but it still flexes a little!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

The main frame was mig welded in my garage....as some of the welding had to be done outside my neighbour lent me an old arc welder. My first time arc welding...have to say I can see the attraction of no gas + the arc welder itself was tiny. The welds didn't come out great but was only doing a few small bits and pieces so no big deal (locking nuts etc). Am thinking about getting a small arc welder to use on some of my scrap projects...has anyone tried those cheap £100 jobbies. As I have a descent mig the arc would just be for tacking things up quickly....would be welding 2mm angle bar...not car bodies! Just saves me getting the mig out, the gas setup etc when all I want to do is put 2 tacks in a piece of angle iron for example.

The turn into my alley is really tight...hence the reason for just a single post + the hinges are mounted on the back of the post to stop the gate eating up space when it opens!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Lidl are/were doing two , one buzz box [at iirc£40] and an inverter type for [again iirc] double that. Search the forum, there's been discussion about them already.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Will do cheers....would be good to have one in a cupboard just in case I think...£80 ain't bad and would save me wasting gas on stuff that really doesn't need to be great. I make quite a few custom tools for working on different cars....they just need to work...doesn't matter if they look pants!!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

This is one I made to allow the inner steering joint on a Volvo V70 to be torqued correctly...the nut allowed a torque wrench to be used with a socket.

 

[Exuptoy]

Genius

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Had a sad day building shelves for the Figaro bits....just got fedup of tripping over stuff. You know you're getting old when you add the foam on the corners because you know you'll hit your head and it's gonna hurt!!

Was all made out of scrap stuff that I've been keeping so it's also saved me some storage space too :-). The space is there for the bags of bolts...and it also smoothes out the bottom of the shelves which means it'll hurt a lot less when I hit my head!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I find that 2 days after unbolting something I've forgotten where the bolts went....doesn't help when I take them off and toss them all in the same bucket. This time going to try something new....I really must be getting old!

 

[Wallace]

View attachment 115594 I find that 2 days after unbolting something I've forgotten where the bolts went....doesn't help when I take them off and toss them all in the same bucket. This time going to try something new....I really must be getting old!

Makes reassembly much easier and having refurbed parts sat wrapped up dust free is nice too.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Yea Wallace....but usually in all the excitement I start by "just taking that headlight off" then before I know it I've got a bucket full of bits and no clue where they all came from! I'm trying to reform myself and do things a bit more sensibly this time around. Although to be fair with my MR2 almost all the bolts were rusted and just broke off....this nissan is much better....maybe just seen fewer UK winters I guess.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

And take photos as you go along.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Been quite a productive day...after I finished the shelving I got on with some more dismantling....am having my house decorated at the moment....my builder joined in the fun too...well who wants to do decorating when there are projects to be worked on!

So I've now stripped the drivers side wing too. There is some corrosion on the pillars behind the door. on both sides..but it seems to be on the outside and survived my corrosion assessment tool (screwdriver!). Usually Jap cars rot like pears in the sun....from the inside out...so bit strange to see corrosion on the outside....but a welcome change!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I made it as far as the wheel arch today...small amount of corrosion on the drivers lower arch (passengers side was clean).. but again it's on the outside so will probably just clean up (probably going to regret saying that!!). The stuff on the floor is mostly dirt which fell out from behind the arch liner....along with a DA sanding pad....bit random!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

The final job today was removing the bonnet and pulling out the radiator and fan....that was really not much fun as the lower cross member has been pushed backwards so really no space to get spanners in! Please excuse the mess in the garage...the radiator took an age to pull out...and then finally when it came out I realised there was still coolant in there and had to run around to find something that would hold water AND fit under the front of the car + I've just finished building a gate for the alley and a set of shelves too!

In this pic you can really see the lower cross member has been nudged backwards on the passenger side. Ignore the random roll of tape and rubble sacks...that was used as part of the radiator leak prevention operation...I think thats it actually on the floor in 2 rubble sacks!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

The drivers side rail is "mostly ok" I think....the passenger side is definitely a bit goosed! The lower rail being bent has pulled the crumple zone on the main rail....in my book crumple zones are a lot like toilet paper....single use!! The damage "seems" to be localised to the crumple zone and the damage is ahead of the engine mount which is very fortunate.

I will be speaking to the car pulling guy next week to see what can be done. In the mean time the disassembly will continue. Well if it can't be fixed I'll need to unbolt the parts to sell them!! I'm thinking at the moment to have the cross member and rail pulled straight and the front end measured etc by someone who knows what they are doing...then maybe remove the cross member and the damaged section of the rail and replace with a used rail from a good car once everything is where it should be. It All depends what the man from delmonte says I guess in terms of what can be done and the associated cost...I'm fond of the little car but the restoration does need to make some sense in terms of the cost of fixing this Figaro vs dumping it on someone else to break for parts and buying a new one. To my eyes it looks fixable....also there is no guarantee that the next one won't have just as many issues!

opinions anyone?

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Check out the funky welding on the first pic....looks like someone was using it for welding practice? Looks like they removed the drivers side light holder...you'd think they would at least have ground back the mess before painting over it!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Today I switched to working on the inside....I saw 6 other Figaro's before I bought this one. All of them had serious floor and inner sills rot. I think in terms of Figaro's I've escaped relatively lightly! There is some rot but it's localised and is in the floor....not spread into and up the inner sill sides. Unless there is some serious reinforcement inside the sills themselves I'm thinking these are fairly weak cars in terms of construction so I will probably need to brace the doors before doing any cutting out of the sill rot...anyone have any opinions (or done anything similar?)

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Both sides have some corrosion but it's definitely not terminal. The passenger side has surface rust along the length of the floor which may cleanup. Drivers side is more localised by the pedals...there are some holes there too. On some of the cars I saw you could literally push your hand through the side of the floor from outside most of the way along the sills!



I noticed a bit of corrosion on the drivers side wheel arch....I wonder if the corrosion I saw on the outside isn't as localised as I first thought?

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Wonder who put this wiring in along the floor....just imagine if that were to short out under the carpet. Would need plenty of luck to find the cause!!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Wonder who put this wiring in along the floor

Speaker cable?