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♪♫ Charlotte's Purple Glanza Project ♪♫


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Well I think it’s about time I write a build thread for my little Glanza project!



So here goes…



I happened to see an OEM LSD box for sale on a breaking thread here in 2012 on a Sunday morning. It came with shafts and mount for a very reasonable price in Doncaster which is only about an hour drive for me. So I decided to go get it for the GT Advance that same day, bit of an impulse buy really.



So when we got there the lad was very nice and we sort of got chatting. The Glanza he was breaking was sat on his drive looking very sorry for itself. I asked how much he might want for the full car and he didn’t really say a price as he planned on selling the parts and scrapping the shell. I hate the thought of a starlet that can be saved going to scrapyard. We agreed a price over texts and I arranged to go over with a car trailer and pick it up.



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It had been sanded back to bare metal in most places as he planned on respraying it. The bonnet was covered in surface rust along with the rear quarters etc. It had been filled in places on the roof and doors. It originally had a recaro interior which he had sold, so it was pretty much without an interior. The dash was present but just chucked in the back along with everything else including the blown engine. All in all it came with a few bits but was missing quite a lot. The only thing that was still fitted was the steering column and the doors! It was literally gutted.



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So I got it back to the lock up and dumped it. Put the dash loom and dash back in before taking out all of the parts etc that were rammed in the shell.




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I spent a lot of time deciding what colour to spray it, but I had never sprayed anything in my life. I had no compressor and no idea. After a long time (pretty much a year) I decided to spray it Nissan LP2 dark red/purple. I LOVE this colour, it’s stunning in real life and thought it would look immense on a Glanza. So I invested in a compressor with Sam and a spray gun etc and got some paint to have a go with.



Trial and error and patience and experience. So many people are top sprayers and can spray really well until you ask them to show you what they’ve sprayed or ask them details about spraying etc. It REALLY annoys me. I humbly accept any advice on spraying, everyday is a school day. When I got this car I didn’t know how to turn a compressor on. I had no idea on how to set the gun up etc. I’ve learnt a lot in the space of a year. It does look like a terrible DIY job and I don’t need people to remind me that lol, although constructive criticism is welcomed. Everything is self taught by trail and error pretty much. I’ve had horrendous reactions, runs, silicone reactions etc, but theres only so much you can read/people can tell you. You just have to have a go in most cases.



The doors, wings, bumpers, tailgate, spoilers and bonnet I haven’t flatted, but the rear quarters came out shit whatever I did. I had to flat the rear quarters because they were very orange peely and one had some runs in the lacquer. At this moment in time, they still need a fair bit of polishing before they are anywhere near, and I’ve not been very daring when flatting so the edges are a bit crap as I didn’t want to go through the paint.



Anyways enough about the fact that I can’t spray and more about the spec. The original plan was to build it up totally standard as I still had a few of the standard parts lying around from my GT Advance. But it became apparent that it would actually be easier/cheaper to just build it with a few mods rather than try to source all of the standard parts. I definitely wanted it CT9 though as I wanted to purposely build it different to what the Advance is so it actually felt like a different car to drive.



After stripping the engine to try and find the reason why it was smoking I found no clue or evidence to suggest a reason for the smoke. The car came with a speedvision hybrid that upon inspection had an oily exhaust housing and slight shaft play, but I didn’t know if it was the turbo at fault or storage etc.



I bought new bearings for the bottom end, the ones that were in it seemed fine, no scoring or marks but seeing as I’d had the caps off for crank inspection I thought I may as well bang some ACL ones in there. The piston rings seemed a bit worn but nothing out of the ordinary really, the bores were really good. New Hastings piston rings went on and were gapped accordingly. The head was fully cleaned out and measured to be straight which was a bonus, so Toyota headgasket and headbolts went on there. New timing kit and spark plugs, new rocker cover gasket etc.



I saw a tongs CT9 hybrid come up for sale on here before Christmas and having had no experience with hybrids or never having been in a hybrid starlet I thought what the heck. I needed a CT9 anyways and for the little extra money I couldn’t resist. I wanted an externally gated manifold as I had previously ran a wepr power up kit on the Advance back when that was CT9 and I loved it because the boost was solid, no spiking or boost cut. So I decided to take advantage of the wepr annual sale and placed an order for a mild steel power up kit. In hindsight I should’ve gone for a stainless kit but at the time I couldn’t really afford the difference in price.



Got the turbo kit all bolted together to go on once the engine was in the bay. It was at this point I started seriously considering a 6 speed box. I spoke to redz11 a fair bit about his at JAE last year and it got me going. I loved the thought of having that extra gear for motorway drives etc. So I started the hunt. Eventually I got one from a breaker on ebay. Once it turned up I gave it a lick of paint and fitted the exedy stage 1 clutch to the engine, then bolted up the 6 speed. If I’m honest I hadn’t done much research on these so it was going to be a trial and error effort. It bolted straight up to the engine no bother and the starlet sandwich plate was fine. No problems so far.



Engine was stripped due to a suspected piston failure but everything was fine upon inspection but replaced a fair few parts. Piston rings, head gasket, bottom end bearings, timing kit, gaskets etc etc to freshen it up a bit as most 4efte’s are a bit tired these days



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Engine and box finally were ready to go in, and in they went. I’d bought and fitted a few nice parts like clear timing cover, polished inlet and fuel rail, got some fittings welded on a smoothed rocker cover, orange hose kit etc. We did it the same way we always do it. Jack the front of the car right up, slide the engine under the cross member, then use the crane to lift it in to place. Unfortunately by sheer bad luck, one of the gear cables snagged on the inlet and snapped. We had to take the engine back out to get it out. Total nightmare. Luckily a friend who was local had an ep91 breaker so we grabbed the cables from that. Second time lucky. It went in fine.





After a few days of sorting wiring out, plugging the loom in, it wasn’t far off. Once the turbo kit was bolted to the engine and the idworkz short route hotpipe was in place, it was apparent that the standard radiator wasn’t going to fit because of the hotpipe. With it being chirstmas I was disappointed because I knew it would take a while to order/receive one. But hey ho that’s life and it gave us time to sort other things out like fit the brand new handbrake cables and rebuild the rear callipers etc.



The engine bay is a very bright pearlescent metallic pink lol not to everyone’s taste but I like it! Looks wicked in person.



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The civic rad turned up and the fitting kit from JD tuning, so that all bolted in place perfectly, and boom we could now fill her with coolant! Poured the coolant in, and out it came. Massive leak from down behind the inlet. It was the metal hard pipe that pushes into the water pump. The o-ring had snapped. Another bummer as this was also over Christmas/new year. Luckily, we have millions of spare engines/parts so we found one that was ok and replaced the full pipe for the one with the decent o-ring and hey presto it was sorted.



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Filled her up with coolant again and the moment of truth had arrived. The first time firing it up. I actually wasn’t there at this point (I get so nervous and anxious about stuff like this I would’ve probably had an emotional breakdown lol). From what Sam said, it was extremely tight to turn over at first with the new bearings, timing belt, piston rings etc. So after a few turns by hand (and filling the oil filter with oil etc) it turned on the key. Took a while to fire on its own and we had no idea what the fuel pressure reg was set to etc but it got there. Ran sweet for 5-10mins then the oil was dropped and new oil and filter. Tweaked the idle and fuel pressure slightly but all seemed good. No knocks, bangs, smoke…



I just wanted to drive it now haha I was getting excited. But it became apparent once the battery was on and all looms etc plugged in that I had no reverse. Having spoken to Redz11, reverse was next to first it turned out on these boxes. So the shifter itself needed modding to allow access to the reverse gate. Got the dremmel out and took a fair bit off the plastic that was restricting the shifter. Eureka! Reverse! Never been so happy to see some reverse lights!



Few pics of her at this moment in time…



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(It's covered in polish in those photos ^^^ )



Sorted a few more small issues like blown fuses and also removed the ABS module, wiring and pipes. Cleaned the bay up massively and reduced the loom that runs under the front slam bar a huge amount. Shocking amount of redundant wiring. I never wanted ABS as it’s just one big hassle. Hear no end of lads snapping ABS sensors etc and I don’t like it when it kicks in while braking, some people love it but it’s not for me.



Next job before driving it was bleeding the brakes up…



Started bleeding them up, went round all of them and it wasn’t getting a better pedal as it should. The master cylinder was leaking from the bottom quite badly. Luckily by this point I had bought ANOTHER GT and that was now back at the lock up. So we had to use the master cylinder from that. Worked fine and solved the issue. Brakes were bled and a cheap boost gauge fitted. Also fitted an AEM wideband. I’ve been there myself when you can’t see what the fueling is doing and it’s a total guessing game. So on went the wideband to save me the hassle of trying to guess what fuel pressure to set it at.



Sprayed and fitted an id workz ducktail and front lip (the rear lip is genuine). Modified the bumper to fit 98 spec crystal fogs. Intercooler kit was fitted and piped up properly. All was good to go!



D-DAY. The maiden voyage…



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Fired her up, belted up and embarked on the first ever drive in the glanza I had now owned for 2 years. Off we went up the road and what a pleasure it was! No knocks, clunks, bangs, rattles… Pulled very well but only boosted to 0.3 bar due to the wategate spring rate. The gearbox was fine, had all 6 gears nicely and reverse. Fueling was ever so slightly lean but not dangerous. I was so happy! I had finally driven the car that I had worked so hard on! What a feeling!



So as I write this it’s booked in for MOT. Fingers crossed…



The current spec as it stands just before MOT is…



-WEPR power up kit


- Tongs CT9 hybrid


- Japspeed exhaust


- Civic rad


- id-workz short route hot pipe


- id-workz ducktail


- id-workz front lip


- id-workz eyebrows


- optional rear lip


- optional rear speakers


- optional UV tints


- KYB Gas shocks/springs


- Cades Eros 15” wheels


- front mount intercooler




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I’ll get some better pics of it outside in daylight but I’ve not even seen it in daylight myself as of yet!



Evene if the spry job is shocking (which it is…) it’s one that was well and truly saved from the scrapyard and lives to boost another day :D


Edited by funny onion
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Thanks for the kind words guys!



The paint job will never be as good as i want it to be because I still arent 100% on what to do at what stage lol, like i say trial and error.



I have 4 starlets currently, the GT Advance, this Glanza, a 5 door uk spec EP80 and my latest project- a MK2 GT Turbo that needs an engine rebuild. I'll start a thread for that soon too...



MOT at 5 today eeep!



I'll get some more photos if i can, it has 98 spec crystal fogs fitted now too which look nice, had to mod the bumper slightly to get them to fit.



Set the base timing and the boost last night to 0.6 bar for now. pulls so well! really makes the Advance feel laggy when you get back in a ct9 starlet lol. Will eventually run 0.8-1bar. May invest in a blitz access or jam ecu if one comes up at the right price...



And so far i would totally recommend the 6 speed box, feels awesome through the gears and 6th will be great for motorway drives!

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How many ep's do you own haha

Nice colour

Between the two of us we have 6 starlets in total.

Been an emotional journey from start to finish but got there in the end. Seems at one point it was two steps forward and six steps back 😒

Hopefully she will have a full mot on her by this afternoon so I'm looking forward to seeing it.

I'm going to have to write up a how to thread on the wiring part. If your not using the abs or air con any more it can reduce wiring in the bay dramatically. 😄

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Yeah it truly was a scrapyard saviour.



Been a massive project tbh, Still need a few daft things like little bits of trim that got lost over the years etc.



I'm dreading getting it out in daylight because i think it will look shocking haha needs the rear quarters re-doing as theyre quite wavy (i ended up having to wire wheel it because the paint reacted very badly and i should've built the primer up and gone over it with a block then re-primered until it was smooth, i know this now so in the future i'll have a go with it)



Would like a 98 spec bumper and lip for the front in time but for now i just want to drive and enjoy it!


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Very nice save. And most people say I'm crazy owning two Starlets... Even worst, modifying one!!!




I'm going to have to write up a how to thread on the wiring part. If your not using the abs or air con any more it can reduce wiring in the bay dramatically.




Can't wait for that.. I have connectors hanging everywhere from the aircon...


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