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The beautiful Y2K "Ashtray"


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So here she is, a minty 2000 R50 with,like, 168k on it.

 

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Yeah, well, kinda not.

 

When a friend of mine messed me at like 2am saying he had a "rough" but running Pathfinder for only $500, I originally shrugged it off. But after going to his place over in NJ, I looked at it quick in the dark and decided that I had to have it. So 2 weeks later he sold it to me on a gentlemans agreement and onto the trailer it went.

 

Looking at it in the light and not buried in a car lot though, it was gruesome. Might not wanna look at these on your lunch break.

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The water is from an overnight rain. Left the windows open. Made it much grosser.

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Yeah, really freakin gross.

 

But wait, it gets worse as I begin on stripping it.

 

Rear seats out, and all the rear carpet and plastic were dumped.

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Under the passenger seat was a good warning as what was to come.

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I gagged pretty good when I saw this.

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All carpet was stripped, and the door pockets were cut off.

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Looking rearward, all the plastic on the doors, trim, everything was tossed.

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So a day or so later, I got the pressure washer out cause the tar and ash was everywhere. The only way to make the cabin habitable was to use some water on it. So I drilled a few holes at the front of the little channel the cord run through, parked it on a hill and got out the Karcher.

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Cant forget the electronics.

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And not a whole lot has changed as of yet. Nothing I have pics of anyways. Got a new head unit cause the BOSE didnt like the water, got a new steering wheel cover cause the old one was hard and gross and the leather on the wheel was worn to hell. Covered the driver seat with some Super 77 and stuck a few bath towels to it as the leather was disgusting and the seat foam was nonexistent. Got it tagged but no way its gonna pass inspection now, and definitely not later. Took it on one trip up to SullCo and rode Centralia a little and it hit 110mph on its dry rotted tires so im very happy with the driveline health and hopeful itll stay strong. But I got a ride planned to RAC on Sunday so gotta crank some stuff out on Saturday to make it more enjoyable.

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Wow that's nasty. Mine was a smoker car too, but not nearly that bad (and they did at least try to clean it before selling it). I still swapped out most of the interior.

 

If everything else is alright, I'd say you did alright for the price!

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Definitely got lucky(?) on this one. Friend really helps me out on a lot of projects like this and lets me use his shop when I can get over there.

 

Ive never seen a smoker car this bad either, even in my few years in votec where I worked on a lot of them. I guess the guy had a mental illness or something and it got the point where he couldnt drive, so the rig sat until the owner (his mother) just gave it to my friend since he is their mechanic. Has all new brake lines on it so no worries there.

 

Out here now trying to work on it. Working on getting a CB in and a dedicated fuse box for lighting and accessories. But cant for the life of me find a decent spot in the firewall to drill through.

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Got the CB and fuse box in. Just put the multi drill on and ran it through the firewall. Close to the right bank exhaust manifold but I loomed it and tucked it up behind the AC lines so it should be fine. Put the fuse box on the right side of the dash console to the right of the pocket thats inaccessible to anybody, and just drilled the CB bracket right into the glovebox. Antenna on the right rear above the taillight and ran the cable high cause it seemed like less work.

 

RAC tomorrow. Didnt take any pics today cause it was dark and 40 degrees. Supposed to be much nicer tomorrow so definitely will have pics and video.

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It's interesting that over there you guys seem to always mount your CB/UHF antenna on the rear comer of the car.

Do you have laws against putting it on the front or in the field of vision?
Over here in Aus they get fitted almost exclusively to the front on a bracket on the bullbar. 
Maybe we're just too lazy over here to route the cable all that way under the carpet :P

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Nope, no laws against mounting up front. I have seen them mounted on the front with many cars. When I had my CB in my mom's 1990 Isuzu Trooper I had it mounted on the hood on the left side, opposite of the radio antenna. That was definitely in my field of vision there, right in front of me. 

I chose to mount my antenna on my Pathfinder on the upper hinge of the spare tire carrier simply because it was convenient for me and I simply liked the look of it back there. 

I don't have a bullbar or even good bumpers, so a good mounting point took a bit of thought since I hate putting holes in the bodies of my cars. 

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11 hours ago, FirstGenFreak said:

It's interesting that over there you guys seem to always mount your CB/UHF antenna on the rear comer of the car.

Do you have laws against putting it on the front or in the field of vision?
Over here in Aus they get fitted almost exclusively to the front on a bracket on the bullbar. 
Maybe we're just too lazy over here to route the cable all that way under the carpet :P

 

Yup, no laws.

Originally, it was gonna be mounted on the roof. But even before I bought it I had intentions of cutting the roof off and welding in a rollbar to make a unibody truck. So a rear mount made more sense since I wouldnt have to move it. Second concern was catching it on branches, lots of low trees where I wheel hence the spring. A stainless whip would have worked since they dont snap but they were more than I was willing to pay. Third was a fluke, I ordered a 4ft antenna casue it was $2 cheaper than a 3ft antenna and it looked extra goofy, like a 5th telletubby or something lol.

 

The cable I got was 18ft long so location wasnt an issue. And since the carpet is part of a hill somewhere now routing was as easy as screwing in some cable clamps. Ill probably affix a flag to it or something later on.

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Finally got out to RAC on Saturday. Was cold, had snow flurries all day, but it was beautiful out.

 

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The day was going pretty well, until we got down a trail that my friends Hyundai Elantra couldnt exit. So I had to back out of his way, and unfortunately missed a tree in the mirror, ripping off the driver rear fender flare and snapping off half of the brake light lens.

 

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No big deal. Obviously it was pretty rusted out. I had some plans to relocate the brake lights to the door using flush mounted LEDs and armoring the quarter panels with diamond plate anyways.

 

Ended up bottoming out in a bunch of deep ruts. I was trying to stay off the ice, but slid down into it. Luckily I carry over 70ft of tow strap, so the Elantra rescued me.

 

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Then, not even 5 minutes later, I did some real damage. When trying to go up a trail around that hole, I again couldnt see my clearances to the trees and body rolled right into a tree. Heard the passenger mirror smack the window and by the time I snapped my head over, the sound of stressing steel and the sound of safety glass.

 

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Well, it pulled the whole lens off the other taillight now. At this point, I was 80% sure I was going to have to get a ride back home and grab the trailer.

 

Then this happened...

 

My friend wanted to try and drive through a water hole in the Elantra. Seeings as the Pathy is taller, I figured I would go through first to break the ice.

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Well, it got deep. About halfway through, the inner wheel well (which had fallen out earlier in the day, you can kind of see it it) fed the airbox a large mouthful of water. Soaked the filter, and went straight into the intake causing it to hydrolock. So again, I needed rescued. Had to crawl through the back (with my gimp leg), pull out tow strap, and with only about 3" between the bumper and water try to hook the strap to a hole somewhere.

 

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Once we got it out, we just kept trying to crank it until the water blew through. Had to leave the airbox open minus the filter so it could breathe.

 

So after being rescued again and with darkness around the corner, we decided to take it easy. Once we were done, I decided it had to be trailered as there was no way it was gonna be road legal to travel some 50 miles. Sat in the Walmart parking lot while I waited on a ride. He showed up, took me home. Had to fix a light on the truck quick, go grab my trailer at my dads place, and do a round trip to rescue the Pathy.

 

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So I started out a 9am. Helped a friend move. Met up with another friend to ride RAC at noon. Rode until about 6pm. And by the time I got back home with the Pathy, it was 11:45pm.

 

So far from what I have discovered from the day...

 

2 broken taillights

1 missing fender flare

1 missing foglight (didnt work anyways, but its gone gone now)

1 Broken rear window

1 crumpled RR quarter panel

1 damaged C pillar

Hydrolocked the engine so who knows where else water got

Power steering pump barely works, needs a new belt

All of the CV joint boots were torn so they are definitely full of grit

Transfer case sounds and engages funny

Broke the exhaust pipe where it goes up over the axle.

 

No chance of this thing getting inspected now!

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Looks like it's a dedicated wheeler now, if it wasn't already! Hopefully the hydrolock didn't hurt the motor.

 

As an aside, I had no idea what RAC was, and was therefore confused until now as to why you were excited to take it to the rent-a-center.

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20 hours ago, FirstGenFreak said:

Jesus, that's a bad day out wheeling! (or a great day with some collateral damage)

 

I told him before we started that I was definitely breaking something, I just didnt know what it was. So it was a great day, just wish it had been warmer.

 

10 hours ago, onespiritbrain said:

Wow and I thought I was hardcore haha

Are you going to bring it back to life?

 

1 hour ago, Slartibartfast said:

Looks like it's a dedicated wheeler now, if it wasn't already! Hopefully the hydrolock didn't hurt the motor.

 

As an aside, I had no idea what RAC was, and was therefore confused until now as to why you were excited to take it to the rent-a-center.

 

It still runs and drives, drove trails for maybe an hour after the hydrolock and it seemed fine. If I hadnt busted off the taillights I probably would have chanced driving it home but it was a convenient excuse for some trailer time.

 

So its not dead until something catastrophic happens. Body parts are just cosmetic. Ill probably pull the insurance and keep it off the road except for conveyance and just trailer it.

 

Once it warms up ill plan on doing some budget mods to it.

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17 hours ago, RAW444 said:

Did the Elantra end up going through the water? Would loved to have seen that ha

 

 It went through just about everything but that.

 

16 hours ago, PathyGig12 said:

Bruh.....That poor ash tray....

 

Its all love wounds.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So I pulled the insurance. Poor thing is still sitting with a busted rear quarter window. Gotta put a new PS belt on so I can actually drive it without having to manhandle the wheel. Also wanna grab another filter but with this pandemic the air filter shelf at Walmart is cleaned out for some weird reason.

 

If by chance someone sees this and needs rearward parts, like the rear glass (doors or the one good quarter), the hatch (no rust), crossbars, roof rack, sunroof, etc. Let me know. Ill probably be cutting it as it warms up. And if people want parts and it comes apart ill cut it sooner. Give me an excuse lol.

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  • 2 months later...

Long time, no post.

 

Literally did nothing with this thing since I took it out to RAC. I did end up having to install a whole new alternator tensioner assembly and pulley because when I was trying to replace the PS belt I noticed the bolt was busted. What a pain that was, and now the AC belt pulley is squeaking. Battery is about shot and right rear tire is leaking. But im not too worried about it.

 

Tomorrow im headed out 500+ miles to Haspin Acres in Laurel, IN to see if I cant break some more stuff on it. Should be a nice long weekend. Got everything loaded up today, used every inch of trailer and had to get creative with the ramps by pinching in a 3/4" bolt so they didnt smack the back of it.

 

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