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Rescuing MrJim


Pezzy
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Must be strange falling asleep without the sway of the boat. Good to hear the search turned out well.

 

 

Actually, since I lived in the outtermost marina to the ocean, there was some movement most of the time. I barely felt it after so long, except during really bad wind storms, which we did get from time to time.

 

I miss being able to start the engine and head out to open sea whenever I wanted to, but am do appreciate having lots of space and cable TV too. Plus in the winter, it got challenging to keep it warm. Boats are not really insulated very well.

 

I also miss being so close to nature. I had sea otters playing on the dock daily by my boat and leopard seals who showed up every evening at sunset. Then there is the Orca whales and the list goes on. I watched a giant Bald Eagle dive into the ocean one day and he grabbed something. He was struggling with whatever he had under the water and he was flopping around for a minute before using his wings to literally start swimming (breast stroke) to the shore (30 ft away). He swam to the shore with his wings and drug out a 3 ft salmon and started eating him. I wished I had my camera that day.

 

Its all good. That was a great time in my life and now I am onto new things. I think my Pathfinder coming back into my life will play a big part in that.

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I miss the sounds of water, now I just hear trains and sirens

 

 

I moved from the boat to a basement apartment, so I don't even know if the sun is shining outside now. No sounds either. :) Its only a 3 month lease, so who knows...

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So, now that this project is overwith, I would like to thank everyone for helping! Jims truck was quite a project. There certaintly were some challenges. I personally spent 30-40 hours working on his rig. Now, Im not trying to blow my own horn, I just want to let everyone who donated how hard both Scott (Redpath88) and I worked. We were really hoping for more help, but, I just worked out the way it did. I want to share the list of things that I wrote up, updated and, for the most part, completed. So here we go....

 

Catalytic Converter- This was cut out long ago. I was able to talk at friend out of one that was on his sisters wrecked Pathfinder. Scott had a temporary pipe made so it could be driven without sounding so hideous. He then took Jims truck down to a small exhaust shop in Centraila Washington, who gave us a great deal on having the Cat Converter welded in. The guy was very impressed by our story, but if you want more details, as Scott.

 

Cooling System- This was a two part problem. First, the coolant was the color of the mud that was deposited back on Jims rig on Saturday. I completely flushed the cooling system and installed properly mixed 50/50 longlife coolant (donated by my dealer). The second half of this was.....

 

Electric Fan & wiring- Well, after I got it running correctly(I will go on about that in a bit), Jims rig started to overheat. This worried me a bunch. I found some wires disconnected from the fan controller. We reconnected it and found that it didnt help. Did some searching online and found a wiring diagram for the controller and then verified that it was connected correctly. It did not activate the fan at all. I jumped power and ground to the fan and it worked. I then installed a new fan controller and that baby worked awesome. I barely adjusted the setting knob, and that needle didnt seem to go much past 1/2 way. Works like a charm!

 

Radio- Jims truck was completely missing a radio. Now, to some, this might not seem like a big deal. You ever drive around with no radio? Sucks dont it? I happend to have a CD player laying around that I had removed from my Quest. I rewired it and installed it, and it worked. Jim now has a working radio. I may not be the best, but, gotta start somewhere.

 

Headlamps, front grille, side markers- All of these were long gone. The wrecking yard that kept Jims truck for us, supplied us with some replacements. Only one problem, whoever removed the original lights, stripped and broke off the mounting bolts for the headlamps. I drilled out and retapped 3 different bolts. Installed the replacement lamps and grille. Found one headlamp retainer was broken, we got a replacement. Got all the lamps working but found the turn signals in the bumper were not working. Found the wires had been pulled from the connector. We repaired the connectors and got them all working.

 

Front driving lights- These were mounted on Jims ARB bumper. They were very loose and we werent even hooked up as I found out. I found they were wired into the factory fog light wiring. The problem was, someone hacked the wiring and a lot of the circuits were disconnected. I used my rig as a example and rewired the lights to work properly. I soldered and sealed all of the repairs to prevent future problems.

 

Brake system- When I first drove Jims truck around my neighborhood, the brakes felt very strange. I got his rig on jackstands and removed the wheels. I found mud caked into the calipers and into the drums. I hit them all with a pressurewasher and lubricated as needed. I then flushed his brake fluid as it was blacker than his tires. I also noticed the clutch fluid was the same, so I flushed it too. Both the brake pedal and clutch pedal felt way better. His truck now seem to stop properly and the clutch operation was much smoother.

 

CB Radio- Once again, this doesnt seem to be a big deal to some. But Jim had a CB before, and we thought he should hae one again. Scott donated a working Cobra CB and I custom mounted it under the center stack, just in front of the shifter. We did have to get a new cable and antenna. A local CB shop gave us a good deal on both(ask Scott for more details). I was able to hook up the PA speaker that was in his rig, and it all worked great.

 

Front skid plate- Jims original front skid plate was long gone. I wasnt going to worry about it, but, I was concerned about stuff flying up into the engine bay and cause issues. I donated my old skid and installed it with new hardware.

 

Battery and Hold-down- The battery that was in Jims truck was toast at the wrecking yard. We stopped at a local parts store and picked up a decent battery. I then found what I think was the original hold-down. I found it crammed down by the headlight and damg near missed it. I cleaned it up and reused it.

 

Interior parts- A lot of interior pieces were either missing or damaged. Scott was able to obtain replacements including....

Center console lid, Glove box pins, both Sunvisiors, Left rear lower cargo side trim, Steering column covers, and door sill plate and clips. Now, I know I left out

some others, so bear with me.

 

Spare Tire- Jims spare tire was long gone. Scott found a replacement on Craiglist and picked it up. I then took the tire and rim to my work were I mounted and balanced the assembly. I then found out why there was no spare. While spinning, I noticed a large amount of wheel movment. Upon further inspection, I found the rim was bent. Inspected further and found no significant damage to the wheel. I instructed Jim that this will be his spare only! Unless he doesnt like his teeth. That would be a bumpy ride(even after balancing. Can you say 13.75 oz!)

 

Front suspension- As many may have noticed from the video and pictures, the front of Jims rig did not sit right. I found that someone, at some point in time, had the torsion bars out(My guess was clutch replacement). I found that they were installed incorrectly. I reindexed the bars and adjust them to a much better height. We then found the front sway bar and links were long gone. Scott donated a replacement from his parts rig. He had to pick up some new links and bushings. He installed them and got the bar fitted correctly.

 

Left Rear Taillight- Well, this was easy. I found the light was damaged. Scott picked up a replacement and I installed it, making sure all the lights worked properly.

 

Engine Runablility- Ok, here we go. Jims truck did not run well when we got it. Backfiring, popping, missing. After moving it two times, It did not want to start a third time. The fuel tank was very low. I filled it with 5 gallons of new fuel, but still did not want to start. I wanted to check the ignition components so I pulled the plugs. I found someone had put brand new NGK plugs in. I gapped them as needed and cleaned them. They were covered with raw fuel. I sprayed the cylinders with brake clean to help the cylinders dry. After sitting for about 30 minutes, I reinstalled them and gave it another try. Popped and wheezed a few times, but no go. I thought I would give the starter a break, and moved onto something else. I came back and tried again. Finally, after almost 3 hours, I got it to idle, but not very well. I let it sit and idle for a while then reved it a bit. Some interesting clouds of smoke erupted from underneath. Once things got a bit more stable, I checked the timing and found it way off. I reset the timing to factory as needed. After more research, I found Jims truck had a few more internal, external and electrical mods. I bumped the timing two degrees and things seemed much happier. Jims truck continually ran better and better even as we gave it back to him.

 

 

Air Filter- Jim had a cone air filter and adapter installed. I found the adapter was not held down very well and was letting dirt and stuff get into the Air flow meter. I took it apart and cleaned the Air flow meter. I tried to find a new adapter, but it wasnt that easy. So, I realigned the adapter and redrilled it to fit better and more secure. Reassembled and found all worked great.

 

The Body- Jims truck was a mess from years of neglect, weather, grease marks and all out crap on the paint. I throughly cleaned the body with a pressure washer. Scott and his boys washed and got it looking pretty good. He also went as far as to polish the wheels, which were also a mess. The day before we gave it back, I buffed with a medium compound to remove the crap. I then went back and polished with foam pad to give it a shine. I thought it looked a million times better. Some may say this was overkill, but as a whole group, the better is rig looked, the better he felt. He was very happy with the result. Now, its just up to him to keep it looking good..

 

Inspection- This was the most interesting challenge of the whole project. Being that Jims truck was in a wrecking yard, the title was marked and destroyed. This meant his rig needed to be inspected by the Washington State Patrol to verify it was roadworthly. Now, when I was in high school, you just drove up, they looked around and off you went. Now appently you need a appointment. Scott did all the leg work here. We wanted to give Jim his rig back sooner, but the appointment schedule was booked for weeks. Luckily, I dont know if Scott did some sweetalking or what, but were were able to fill a recently opening. This was very lucky. Scott took the Pathfinder and it passed the inspection with flying colors.

 

Now, I know I may have left a few things out. Scott kept track of all the money and I think he was able to give Jim a few bucks back to help him with insurance or whatever. I hope this gives everone a little more insight into what all we did to get Jims truck back to operational status. Thanks for taking a few minutes to read this and if anyone has any other questions, by all means let me know.

 

Derek

 

 

What can I say? Thank you Derek, Scott, Shane, everyone for all of the hard work. You were certainly thorough and the truck is great!!! It runs strong and looks great! I appreciate knowing all that you did in detail here and I know everyone who contributed does too. You are the best!!!

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Man, i wished i had been there when you guys picked that thing up.. Afterall i'm not trying to sound like a little whinney beyotch but it was I did find the rig just didnt put the pieces together that it was Jims... We should try to have a mass get together at my place sometime in Woodinville (East of Seattle North of I-90)

 

IMG_3736.jpg

 

Little something something i found

 

Hey!

 

What do you have in mind for Woodinville? I am game!!!

 

MrJim

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Glove box pins

 

Those happen to be one of a kind, custom made glove box pins... :D

 

Great job guys. We all knew it was going to be a lot of work, but you are the ones who did it... :beer:

 

B

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Yes, thank you B! Scott couldnt find those things to save his live.

 

I forgot to mention that I gave it a oil change, changed the wiper blades and lubricated the suspension and rear tire carrier. I also polished his windshield cause no matter how many times I cleaned it, you could barely see through it. We also got a new master window switch as it didnt want to work the right front or left rear windows(Scott posted that he used a maxima switch). Im sure I will remember more later.

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Yes, thank you B! Scott couldnt find those things to save his live.

 

I forgot to mention that I gave it a oil change, changed the wiper blades and lubricated the suspension and rear tire carrier. I also polished his windshield cause no matter how many times I cleaned it, you could barely see through it. We also got a new master window switch as it didnt want to work the right front or left rear windows(Scott posted that he used a maxima switch). Im sure I will remember more later.

 

And you siliconed the old mounting holes from my roof rack too. You were very thorough. I can never thank you enough. It makes me want to do something for others now. I do tell the story a hundred times a day and everyone is really moved by it. No one more than me though. Thanks again...

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  • 7 months later...

Ok everyone, here it is. It was a long day for Scott(RedPath88), me and my friend Shane, but well worth it. It was great meeting Jim and his daughter. He seemed really excited to be getting it back. Heck, maybe even a little overwhelmed. Watch the vid and listen closely!!!

 

Go make a comment on youtube after watching it!!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UviOGK-xXiA

 

 

We will be putting his rig back to operational status over the next couple of weeks and will make the reunion hopefully in a month or so.

 

Derek

why was his truck in the impound lot in the first place? sorry i never figured it out.... :ohno01:

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Did you go through and read the whole thread? Maybe you missed it, but Jim himself posted/wrote this himself.....

 

http://www.komonews.com/younews/53043907.html

 

 

Pretty much explains it.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read it. Nice to see new members take notice of what kind of community we have here! :beer:

Edited by 5523Pathfinder
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Look at the comments at the bottom of the article. Apparently she is still bitter that MrJim got his truck back. I am happy to have been around at just the right time to help out. It's a great story.

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I am happy to have been around at just the right time to help out. It's a great story.

 

Weird, I was thinking about this on the way home from work today. :)

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  • 11 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Great story, I've been super pleased with all the help, kindness, sarcasm, and humor this forum has brought me in these past few short months. It's great knowing that this happened and I thank MrJim for starting something so awesome.
As stated before I'm pleased to be a part of this new 'family' even if adopted in and hopefully if there's a MrJim run this year I'll be able to go, it's always cool to meet people and put faces to names.

 

-Travis

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  • 1 year later...

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