Howdy folks, new nugget enthusiast here from the UK. I purchased an L251 Charade (Cuore? Mira?) last year after seeing Al at The Skid Factory swap a silly engine into his. I am really enjoying the car, it’s much more practical than my MX-5 given the increase in seat count.
So far my adventures with the car only revolve around doing some pretty major rust repairs and one 400 mile road trip and it’s been serving me well.
Welcome mate!
L251 they are pretty good to be honest I have one as a daily and while the stock wheels are terrible on the country highways where I live I have found it to be a great car also and very good on fuel.
Arrh yes the skid factory L251. I think since they sold it it is now on it’s 3rd or 4th owner and has broken way too many gearbox’s than neccessary. I cant remeber who owns it now but it wasn’t long before they broke another gearbox.
The one thing that skid factory or any of its owners since then have failed to do was to spend the money and get a straight cut gear set from compact motor sport in NZ. That being said it is much harder to get gearbox’s for k3’s in Australia. hahaha!
Would love to see a pic of your L251 Nugget
Welcome 
any plans on modifying the car?
Yeah I had a 1.2 2004 Polo before this and the Daihatsu is world’s ahead in every measurable aspect, besides maybe road noise but some sound deadening will help that when I get around to it. Fuel is insane on these things, I’m getting about 60mpg while not being particularly careful about chucking it around the country lanes where I live. Definitely could use some alloys though for sure, the stamped steel rims are a little worse for wear.
No plans on mods just yet but I have fitted an aftermarket remote central locking system, a cheapo basic single DIN android head unit, some new speakers as the originals weren’t great, though neither are the replacements to be fair, and I’ve fitted an air conditioning system from a scrapped car that had it. Thanks to Daihatsu for not excluding the wiring for the air con, it didn’t take long at all to fit.
So far I’ve just been fixing things that it needs, new rear shocks & springs, a new fuel filler neck or as close as I could get by making one, the original was totally rotten through, lots of rust fixing, couple of new wheel bearings to fix a horrendous wobble on acceleration which I thought was driveshafts so put a set of those in too. Still need to do the driver’s side rear arch and sill area, front driver’s side wing needs some bodywork doing from an incident in a car park, someone kindly smashed my mirror off and then left.
Some pics of what I’ve done so far. Haven’t really done any beauty snaps yet just quick snippets of work in progress, it’s a rolling project but she’ll be right.
Picked up a sewing machine and taught myself how to sew to replace the worn drivers seat bolsters with some old jean fabric. Will do the passenger side at some point also.
Interior out
A/C in
Tbc…
Followed by a winter of fixing rust
But it’s all good now on that side
Damn that’s a lot of photos, hopefully I’ll have more soon once I’ve got the polish out.
Welcome. Looking forward to hearing more.
Thank you! I’m looking forward to doing more! Though it’s been put on hold for now until I can afford to do more.
Thats some nice work man well done!
Seems like allot of work. Awesome to see
G’day and welcome. Nice work on the rust repair.
Cheers mate, it wasn’t without a blood sacrifice but I think that’s minor if it gives a few extra years of life. The driver’s side is going to be more of a pain as someone decided to weld over the access gap for the bolt holding the suspension beam in. Ah well, job for the summer I reckon.
