01Pathmaker

Strut to knuckle bolts are m14x1.5 thread, about 3" long with a flange head and a stepped shank. I'd either get them from a dealer, online nissan parts reseller or since you're planning a future lift, replace them with camber bolts. Yes, camber bolts replace the large bolts at the lower strut mount/knuckle.

Wd21's had them, r50's do not.

Picked up a set of 4 gently used 6.5" Pioneer speakers, for a whopping $30 of craigslist today! I have an Alpine head unit, MTX amp and a sub with all necessary wiring in the garage (removed from a previous vehicle before selling), also picked up an aux input cable that'll play nice for $8 off Amazon. Might get rained out of work tomorrow, maybe another garage day? Hmmm...

Agreed, thanks Xplor for clearing that up, never really put that much thought into it, but makes perfect sense. I'm not sure if it's my toasted springs or unknown aftermarket shafts, but at least I know I don't have binding issues on my 96 (1.5" spacers) even with both front wheels simultaneously off the ground. They'll suit my mild offroading needs. Just for future reference, does anyone make spacers smaller than 1"?

The 4x4parts.com kit is good but a bit pricey and they charge too much for shipping. It's much cheaper to just order the following part numbers from an online Nissan parts dealer (credit goes to Hawairish for supplying these in another thread): Here's what you need*: 4x 55080-0W00B bolts 4x 54368-0W02A bolts 8x 08918-6441A nuts *Just buy 8 of the cheaper bolts (54368). They are the same hardness, size, and thread pitch...and essentially length and thread length.

Also, there is a kyb direct website, seem to have best prices an $0.99 shipping! Bought from them within the last few months for my 01 and have nothing bad to say. Previous kyb's lasted over 70k.

Thanks for the compliment, but although it doesn't look too bad, pics make it look better! Lol! Most of your questions have been answered. Pre-facelift (96-99.0) r50's come stock with 15's, post-facelift (99.5-04) are 16 or 17 with bigger brakes.

That's insane! You could get 2 brand new black d-window 15x8's with 3.75" backspace shipped from summit for the cost of just 1 of those...

Sorry, but I'm not following this logic. Whether you're using spacers or springs to achieve the desired amount of lift is going to create the same cv angles, is it not? I'm running md springs on my 01 (5/8" lift over stock after settling), 1.5" spacers on my 96 (1.75" lift over stock with my saggy stock springs), neither of them bind at full droop up on the jack. 01 has Cardone select shafts, 96 appear to be unknown aftermarket replacements (replaced by the previous owner), if maybe that has anything to do with it.

Welcome to the R50 world! Check out eBay for the trailing arms, I just installed a full set that I bought on there, they seem to be good quality and were only $180 shipped! The seller is TrueBlue auto parts. Also picked up all new oem hardware for around $50 from an online Nissan parts dealer that I'll never deal with again, but others are about the same price. As for fitting 32's, 96-99.0 se's can fit 31's stock as long as the springs aren't shot, I'd think a 2" lift with 3.75" or so backspace would do the trick. I'm running the same 31's as bushnut but on stock se 6 spokes, added 1.5" lift (fluerys) cause my springs are sagged out, and 1" wheel spacers just to improve the stance.

Agree that oem's are best, but I've had very good success with Cardone Select from rock auto. You have to pay attention though as Cardone a has two different lines, the "select" line are new while the other is remanufactured.

There are a bunch of folks on here running spacers from him (myself included), great guy to deal with, great products, very active within the Pathfinder community, what else can I say. Very affordable, high quality parts.

96-99.0 had the same wheel styles available: xe steelies, se alloy 6spoke, le honeycomb.

Thanks, but I did find it and it's all good now, never thought to look in the rear floor section.

Depends on if you have manual (dials) or electronic controls. Electronic will be the amp and is a bit costly as said above. Manual is the resistor which is cheap and easy.

Ok, here's the tally. Before this latest "shopping spree" I was at $1015 (rounding up and keeping it simple), which included purchase price and all parts for work done prior to now (I've been doing all the work myself), but does not include things like title, registration, inspection, insurance, as these are just necessary evils that would have to be paid no matter the vehicle. The recent parts purchases have totaled $700, breakdown as follows: complete set of trailing arms $180 (eBay), shocks/struts/mounts $165 (eBay), 1" wheel spacers $100 (eBay), 1.5" strut/coil spacers $165 (4x4designs eBay), all new oem hardware for all these items $75 (nissanpartsdeals.com), 24 new extra long lug nuts $20 (eBay). All these prices include shipping (all the eBay stuff was free shipping). So this bumps me up to $1715 total. Got my tires from treadwright.com during their "march madness weekend" sale, a set of 4 Guard Dog M/T 31x10.50's delivered to my door $480. Had my buddy who owns a shop mount and balance for $20 (I threw him an extra $10 as I caught him in a really good mood! Lol). This brings my total to $2225 to date! Still a few inor things I want to do here and there, like replace the dryrotted speakers that sound like tin cans, tint the windows, maybe paint the wheels, run some seafoam through the motor, maybe a little bondo to hide the holes in the rockers. All this will be done as inexpensively as possible as well. I'm still confident that the total build will be within my original budget of $2500. I'll post some updated pics whenever it stops raining (probably Friday or Saturday). Overall, I'm very happy with the results. The drastic improvements that I've made in the way this thing runs, drives, rides and looks are amazing, and for such little expense. I'm very glad I came across this deal and that I pulled the trigger, especially since I really didn't need another project, and I'm also proving to the wife that I can still put a good, reliable and capable vehicle together on a low budget (which is priceless).

Above the strut is where you would want the spacer anyway, as to put it between the coil and top hat would limit travel and create top out. This also maintains stock ride.

Well said Karmann, I gave up on my long time search for a manual 4x4 3.5 r50. Every time one would pop up it was either beat or gone by the time I went to look at it. They seem to be the holy grail of pathfinders.

Since you don't have a place to do all this work, I'd say it's time to look for another one, cleaner, less mileage and mechanically sound. Several of active members in California, see if someone is close to you, maybe they'll give you a hand or a place to swap your mods.