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What did you do to your Pathfinder today?


RedRider3141
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took advantage of the abnormal 70 degree weather in February and found the source of a faint knocking and most likely my CEL that was complaining about the efficiency of my Cat-conv.

Apparently, former maintenance had improperly secured the harness to the O2 sensor and it was rubbing on the drive shaft with the connector was hitting the boot clamp.

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Ground/rock lights are installed and look pretty rad, sucks doing all the work in 20 degree weather but at least it's sunny.

Used an older styled flip switch instead of the products led backlit modern looking switch. Wouldn't look right with the 90s dash and truck in general.

Speaking of which has anyone ever painted or flocked their dash?

I'm considering flocking mine to get away from the red and repair the cracks at the same time using plastic vinel "bondo". Just seems unique and a way to make the truck look better since I feel like a painted dash might look cheesy (pictures on Google kinda suck). Let me know if any of y'all have opinions.

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Today I am purchasing a new set of wheels they are gonna be 15x8 pro comp series 51 wheels and I was wondering if I could fit a 29.6" tire on my non lifted stock suspension 2003 R50. Also I am installing a front skidplate today for some frotection.

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Well, talked to my fab guy about strut tower repair...

 

He's talking (per side):

10-12 hours @$60/hr

<$100 in shop supplies (sheet metal, welding supplies, etc.)

Nissan repair patches ($40/ea.)

 

So, rounding up pretty heavily to make sure I don't wind up in trouble, we can say about $1000 per side, more realistically $850 if it stays on budget. That's a lot of money. But is it worth it? I'll have to decide. I'm thinking yes right now. I like the vehicle a lot, and there's nothing else really significant wrong with it. There's no way I'll find a R50 in better condition that I can afford, and any other vehicle I'll be out a ton to build it up to where my QX4 is now. &^*@ing rust....

 

He also mentioned maybe having to drop the subframe to do the job, so at that point maybe add a 3" SFD? It would't be very much more in fabrication or time, and the only parts I'd need is a steering shaft and u-joint as well as factory Nissan brake hoses from some other vehicle (right?), so maybe this would be a good opportunity for that? As long as it's all apart...

 

 

You can either fix yours and then you know what you have. Or find another one and possibly start a whole new set of issues.

 

 

That's what I'm thinking. ...... I feel very confident in the vehicle; the only mechanical trouble I've ever had was one O2 sensor. I've basically decided that I'm going to fix it. Let's get this rig to 250K (and not look like crap when it gets there :lol: )!

 

I can completely understand the dilemma! My recent engine rebuild/replacement led to alot of soul searching but I ultimately went ahead with replacement. The core of my decision was that my alternative was to buy another truck. I know and trust mine better than anything I could have found and they all might have had the same problems waiting in the wings. That's the silver lining I'm leaning on at least. Once you start getting in the $1,000s, it's definitely a commitment to keeping the truck for a long time. I soothed myself by realizing the sales tax on a new truck was about what the actual repair cost was and the rest was maintenance cost that I would have invested if I kept the truck another 100K or decade anyway.

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I can completely understand the dilemma! My recent engine rebuild/replacement led to alot of soul searching but I ultimately went ahead with replacement. The core of my decision was that my alternative was to buy another truck. I know and trust mine better than anything I could have found and they all might have had the same problems waiting in the wings. That's the silver lining I'm leaning on at least. Once you start getting in the $1,000s, it's definitely a commitment to keeping the truck for a long time. I soothed myself by realizing the sales tax on a new truck was about what the actual repair cost was and the rest was maintenance cost that I would have invested if I kept the truck another 100K or decade anyway.

 

On a similar idea, I wonder why people actually buy new cars? I don't want all the gadgets new cars have, and I could have a perfectly restored older car for much less! I think of this like an investment; if I put the money into fixing the rust, and then maybe in 5 years I have to do the drivetrain (suspension is already almost done), I'll still be in it far less than even half the cost of a new truck.

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Began mocking up how to mount and run the rugged radios 45. Got far enough to rip the dash stereo ends all apart just to run into not having a very good spot for it anywhere to mount unless I mount it right on top. Kinda leaning towards that idea since as of right now I just don't have any other options as the radio is just a bit to wide and long for many of the other spaces.

It decided it was going to snow pretty good here for once this winter so called it a day as if I am going to end up ripping out the entire dash I'm going to do it when I flock the damn thing and o my do it once.

Flocking I'm pretty sold on, it's easy, quick and doesn't look crappy. It has been hard finding out if it holds up well so I'm just gonna do it and make my own post about how it does in a year once it's done for anyone looking into dash repair or customazition and don't want to create a while new fiberglass dash. Also this way I can modify the dash for the radio and make it look good still

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On a similar idea, I wonder why people actually buy new cars? I don't want all the gadgets new cars have, and I could have a perfectly restored older car for much less! I think of this like an investment; if I put the money into fixing the rust, and then maybe in 5 years I have to do the drivetrain (suspension is already almost done), I'll still be in it far less than even half the cost of a new truck.

 

Dude I'm thinking the same thing; and I'm 17! I have loved working on mine since July when I bought it. Everything is super simple, it being 26 years old and all. I'm debating on registering it as a classic car.

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Cleaned it out of all the vg33 parts and swept the carpet out so you can actually use the trunk again and lay down. Not much to do without product. Ordered the flocking kit so dash will be flocked soon, opted against doing a creative design to save a little money and keep it simple.

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Finished pulling the dash. fskc that job, so tedious trying to find every damn screw. Everything I found on it helped but y'all have way to much conflicting information. I'll be doing a complete write up on this once in done so I can double check everything but Jesus that was annoying.

In some forums I have people saying you don't need to pull the windshield vents (you do), others saying you need to remove the steering wheel entirely and in the same forum saying you don't (You dont) , one foru. Talking about some metal plate you have to pry off to get to more screws (doesn't exist).

Everyone has their own ways they did it, a lot of them took off too much and others didn't take off enough. Made the job that much harder, I digress

Dash is out, coax cable is here now just waiting on the bondo. Have the dash ready for sanding and prep in the garage for flock and still the possibility of building to the dash to cover the radio. Windshield vent broke a corner off so plastic welded it back together.

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Cleaned the mold off the dash and all parts like the vents and sanded it all down as well as drilled the cracks bigger with a stress hole.Put some alcohol on the dimmer switch which seemed to free it pretty well so hopefully that solves the issue there. Found out the dash filler I ordered got canceled so had to reorder it and now it won't be here till Thursday delaying this project a bit which is annoying.

Need to plastic weld the key ring where it cracked through

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Mounted the radio with some plastic screw in rivets, drilled a hole in the dash for the coax and power wires. Looked around for a rubber grommet but couldn't find one so opted to make one out of some rubber chair caps by melting and drilling them. Bondo will be here on the 8th, who knows when the flock is coming in.

Guess I'll just mounted antenna and organize my tool box

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I've never done any major work on the QX4 without my dad before, and today I did the ball joint solo. When we did the driver's side together it was a big job, so doing the other side by myself was a big achievement. Pretty happy about that. Gotta love having the suspension apart for the millionth time. Oh well, no more big clunks any more!

 

In the past I've posted about camber bolts shearing off. At this point, my camber without them isn't that bad, so I'm just running regular bolts for now. When I took this side apart, the camber bolt hadn't sheared off, however the lobe was gone, it was just a smooth bolt! Perhaps this had something to do with my steering wheel shake, needless to say it had some slop in the hole...

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Flock arrived today so that's good. If only my dash filler hadn't been canceled I could ha e done the dash today but I digress

Made a socket organizer for the tool box out of an old shelf I had in the wood shed to get burned. Cut it in half to make it thinner which took a bit of time and cut it so fit perfectly in the tool box then cut holes for each socket to fit snug and burned the socket size and it's rachet size by it so you k ow where to put everything. Did the standard now I just have to do the metric and reducers. Gonna have a little extra space to considering engraving a spot for a small rachet in it but not sure if I'm gonna do that or deep sockets layer down yet. I have a board for my wrenches waiting so I can get those all organized and stood up. Might as well put a nice stain on them while I'm at it till the dash filler gets here. It actually looks pretty good honestly

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I decided on a grill (ordering today) and started a parts list to get my front end in presentable order.

As of Tuesday my Pathy and I work for Direct TV.

 

86concept.jpg

 

If anyone knows of a ladder rack available for the WD21, let me know. I've got to buy or build one in 2 weeks.

 

Currently designing one for the WD21 to go onto both of my Pathfinders

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I screwed a generic truck stop trailer marker to the tail light someone changed lanes into last night when I was on the way to Colorado. I blessed the workmanship of Nissan which allowed me to stay in my lane at 65mph while being rear ended at 80-85,total the car that hit me, and kept my truck from being damaged beyond the smashed tail light, dented bumper, and a bent tail pipe. I started humming "I've got a golden ticket as I surveyed the damage to my custom paint.

 

https://postimg.org/image/82f05qzol/ [img/]

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I screwed a generic truck stop trailer marker to the tail light someone changed lanes into last night when I was on the way to Colorado. I blessed the workmanship of Nissan which allowed me to stay in my lane at 65mph while being rear ended at 80-85,total the car that hit me, and kept my truck from being damaged beyond the smashed tail light, dented bumper, and a bent tail pipe. I started humming "I've got a golden ticket as I surveyed the damage to my custom paint.

 

https://postimg.org/image/82f05qzol/ [img/]

 

Hahaha, nice! Gotta love having the superior vehicle in an incident.

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Hahaha, nice! Gotta love having the superior vehicle in an incident.

 

Hahaha, nice! Gotta love having the superior vehicle in an incident.

Totally. Interestingly enough, the only reason nobody was hurt is that I don't have airbags and when the guy hit me his didn't go off. I was in the right lane and someone flew up behind me, went around, and suddenly there's a loud crunch and my rear end jumped sideways at least a foot. I had my left hand at the one o'clock, a bad habit but it's comfortable, and my finely tuned arm reflexes corrected (yes I'm proud of myself). I looked in my side mirror and this blue Chevy... Thing... It was sideways, keeping up with me, and still stuck to my truck, I think... It all happened so fast.

 

IMG_20180310_060656.jpg

 

https://postimg.org/image/4wuef4gxx/

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