DanAK

Yeah I have heard my pathy with no exhaust, it was not great. I don't think I will do a cutout anymore, I am trying to decide whether or not to do custom headers. I have two shops that can do it but it would be a problem to re-register. This country sucks for good modifications. No steel bumpers, no headers, no tires outside your fenders, and absolutely no new welding anywhere!

My alignment is okay now, but it took forever to get it right. I will get one set of camber bolts just to have that adjustment option but I don't really need them. I am using Micky Thompson 15" rims that I had powder coated. I am pretty sure the back spacing is 3.31". I don't think I can stuff the wheels in the back. I may order some new wheels in the future with more BS for the back but for now its not that important for my sand driving. I can always buy new fenders if I bust up the ones I have. Right now I am more worried about breaking, I did an emergency stop today at a light and the breaks locked up really fast and I squealed to a halt just in time to not run over the car in front of me. Anyone think the Power Slot rotors with hawk break pads will help?

I work for a small company called Trident Support that builds the worlds tallest flag poles. So I do construction and rope access mostly. I got all my parts made at a small work shop that I found run by a bunch of Indians that didn't speak much English. I showed them my car and tried to get the idea across about what I wanted, then I gave them the spring and the rubber spacer to take measurements from. They came back to me with the most kick-ass spacers. Also I can fit a rubber spacer at the bottom and the top so it will be easy for me to add another half inch lift to the back. The front parts took a bit more work and didn't look as pretty at the end, and the strut spacers were a nightmare

The grass is always greener on the other side. Just two days ago I was thinking to get my trim painted to mach the body like your pathfinder. But I do like my trim better now with the black wheels on. Yeah its not bad out here but summer is coming on now and that always sucks. No more Dune Bashing until it gets back down below 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Now that I have a photobucket account I will try to post some pre-SFD dune videos in the pics and videos section.

Yep I am living in the UAE, but I am from Alaska.

Well I hope everyone likes it. Big thanks to Shift220, Michiganave, and Tmorgan4 for the information and inspiration. It is a 3" SFD with the OME .5in lift suspension and I used the same steering setup as Shift220. In the rear I did two spacers on each spring instead of one and I will take one spacer out when I get the AC lift springs. Right now the set up is not really finished because I still need to do a panhard extension and get new shocks. It is still on the stock length OME shocks and right now I have 1" of travel in the rear. I am running 33x12.5/15" BFG tires on powder coated Micky Thomson wheels. It needed small amounts of trimming and I had to fold some sheet metal in the front. 3" lift blocks Bottom rear spacers, bolted in with 3 bolts Top rear spacer with broken bump stop protruding. I will have to replace this when I change the shocks. It still needs some work but its pretty close to finished. I hope to run either radflow or king shocks in the back, and I will not do a panhard drop bracket but just replace it with a longer tube.

Yes I used bolts instead, It was very easy that way.

Yes I used bolts instead, It was very easy that way.

I have a 2003 and I just test fit a few different 15" rims and they all fit with no problems. From what I have been reading I might get some rubbing when I change to new break pads but two minutes with a grinder should fix it.

When I installed my hubs I broke a stud in the first 10 minutes. I went out and just bought some high grade bolts instead, it made for a much easier install.

Are most people using 8.8 or 10.9 grade bolts? I got 10.9s just to be safe but is that the norm? Truck looks Awesome by the way!

Good to know, I was looking at ordering some Black Rock Alloys but then I found out you could only get 4"BS. Now I am going with some Micky Thompson Classic II that I found and I will have them finished in matte Black. They have a 3.31"BS.

Well here in the the UAE 100mph is no big deal and the highways are long, strait, and boring. I probably drive my car to hard, but the engine handles it well and I haven't had any engine problems except the exhaust getting louder and louder (actually now I am being nicer to my pathy because the engine noise at high revs bothers me). I have had a few people saying that a Cutout is a bad idea. Is there anyone out there who thinks a cutout might be a good Idea? Keeping in mind that I would like to have a quiet system and a performance system on the same car. -Dan

I think I will try the cutout system that I talked about. I will post my feelings about it when it is done, but I just got word that I need to go do some work in another country for a month or so I will update this post when I get back.

Yeah I know its a bit pointless but I do drive the thing on the street up to 300k a day for work sometimes and the engine noise bothers me a lot at around 100mph. I would like to reduce that as much as I can so it might be pretty restrictive. I will talk to the shop about it on Saturday (maybe)and see what they can do. I will try to post a video when I am all finish. I will also do a post with all my cars mods and the details in a month or so because I am doing some things that are new. P.S. On the theme of reducing road noise as much as possible, can anyone tell me whats that main reason a car will get louder over time? I am going to replace my door weather seals. Will this make any difference? -Dan

Well my exhaust is getting slowly but progressively louder and I have decided to do something about it. I want to do a whole cat back system but with roughly the same setup as stock. I want to be as quiet as possible for my street driving and I want to incorporate a Electric cutout system for power and off road. For the Cutout I want to strait pipe it to the back with maybe a 2in pipe skipping the muffler but going through the last resonator (so that its not just too crazy loud). I don't want to free it up to much so that I get the torque loss I have heard about but I wouldn't mind getting the extra 5-7 HP (I also just think it will be awesome to have a loud button on the dash ) I would appreciate input and alternate Ideas! Thanks

Hello Abdullah from Kuwait, I am Dan living in Abu Dhabi. You and I have the exact same Year, engine, and transmission. There really is almost no aftermarket support for a pathfinder here in the UAE, I suspect it's the same where you are. I have an AEM dry air-filter and a custom air intake. I had the K&N for awhile but it let way to much sand in and I had to clean it all the time. With the AEM I almost never clean it and it filters very well. I have not done my exhaust but I have heard from a guy that races a pathfinder that removing you middle muffler increases performance. There are no computer mods for the pathfinder unless you have someone do a custom reprogram, And I will agree Tungsten that this is not a way you want to go. If you really want the best street performance Light Weight tires and rims will help as well. Hope that helps -Dan

I just have to say that is some very nice work! -Dan

Hey Man, Thanks for all the updates. I was just wondering after looking at you steering setup it looks like you might be able to take about 1/2 an inch of the whole setup and do 3" blocks. What do you think, would that mess up the angles to much?

Awesome Job Mate, I am really impressed.

Wow, this is great!! I have been wanting to start a post like this for a long time but didn't want to ask a bunch of questions until I was ready to start. I think I will be ready to start in about 2 months but I am still not sure if I want to do it. I can get all the parts made up for free and I will have it installed by a shop that builds rally cars. But all my off roading is done in that sand, and my problem is that I want an awesome truck but I am pretty sure if I do this lift my R50 will not actually do as well off road because it would mess up my roll over angle. I am actually so disturbed by this problem I am thinking about just buying another R50 and having one with just the small lift, and make the other into a monster. Or I might just give up and get a new Xterra as my truck to modify. MichiganAve, I never thanked you for the info you gave me before, it was very helpful. After I got your message I had to go to Azerbaijan for a month and forgot to write you back. I am thinking to compromise on my lift and do a 2 in SFD to have about 3 or 4in lift total. How do people feel in their rides after they have put on there lifts, do they feel unstable off road or on? And dose anyone think that the SFD would have trouble with high speed sand driving?