Mr. Pickles

To elaborate on 88SC, its a weak point on the body, a seam. Depending on the damage, you could get by with just grinding off surface rust and repainting, all the way down to cutting the nasty stuff out if needed and welding in new metal. Its a common issue, and sorry that this is an incredibly vague answer, but the situation has many variables. As for cause, its a flat surface that collects water over some weld joints. Its bad design and a matter of time really.

Thanks. All together, I'm into it maybe $60 including steel for the brackets and the lights. :contract: Not too shabby, I think.

Numero dos

Last summer I stumbled across a garage sale in the neighborhood where something shiny caught my eye. A bull bar type guard from a late model Land Rover Discovery. Strangely enough, I held it in front of the Pathy and things lined up enough that I just bought it in case. Fast forward many months, and I finally got a welder, and have been playing. Please excuse the booger welding, as its been like 10 years since my last time in high school... Oh, and I also found a local guy on ebay selling these 100 watt each Pro-Comp lights for CHEAP.

HA! I'm actually the one that stops every one or two hundred miles to hit the pisser. Regardless of when or where I stop, the Ms. falls asleep within a few miles of home, leaving the trip itinerary up to me. This comes in handy for 100mph stretches late at night (in the Acura, not the Pathy of course). Still, to be able to just chill and not worry about it, and have lots more range would be nice on those long weekend trail trips. I'm thinking of Grandpa and his new aftermarket tank on his Duramax Silverado. 70 gallons if I remember right. Gwaaahaaarrgggmmmmmarmmm...

Of COURSE you haven't heard about an environmental issue. You had GW commanding the ship. If he could track down and corner the elusive smog, he'd try to drill it. Sorry, couldn't resist. Anyways, yes Slick, move and join us. Although we have smog checks in much of western WA as well. Regardless, good luck and sorry to post nothing usefull!

Sounds like nothing then, unless you're willing to work and do a whole lot of "something" to make it happen.

And this.

Mine still flexes the body slightly when opening, and its factory stock. I don't think an aftermarket install of a stock rack would be pretty to the body after a few uses. If you have access to the tools or somebody with experience, you might look into something like many Jeepers use where the pivot point for the carrier is a wheel spindle or similar mounted to the end of the bumper. They covered it a while back on Trucks on Spike. Something like this.

I agree with the full size spare move. On a related note, when I got new tires last month, I kept the best of the old ones (31x10.5 BFG Mud Terrain) for a spare, and last weekend had it mounted on the stock spare rim in place of the "Temp Use Only" tire. It fit fine, and should get me home if I manage to kill one of the Pro Comps in the middle of BFE. Oh, and it mounted just fine to the exterior tire carrier. As for in or up, inside takes valuable space, but up means man-handling a heavy spare overhead, as well as raising your center of gravity even more.

Cruise Control, I'd imagine Pezzy.

From what I've heard, those things are worthless crap. I did a fair amount of research on them a couple years ago after stumbling across them like you did. Basically, you're just throwing a fan in the intake to speed up air supposedly, but you're not actually compressing it and shoving it down the engine's throat so to speak, like with a turbo or supercharger. So by that thinking, gain would be minimal if any, and loss ($$$) would be much. I've also read articles about lower quality units breaking apart and pieces of plastic and stuff coming loose internally. Not good! I second the "spend the money elsewhere" idea.

Sweet! I was just thinking about how nice a larger tank would be on the way home today half a tank and 140 miles after a fill up just a couple days ago. I'm jealous!

Nope, at least I don't think. I've got a 94 SE, but I have rear drums, regular non-adjustable shocks, and my diff is open (I can leave a really impressive single stripe of rubber, but that's like the sound of 1 hand clapping). I've got all the power goodies, trim, chrome package, fender flares, rear wind deflector thing, etc. etc. I spent a while convinced that the P.O. had simply put on SE stickers on a fully loaded up XE, but no dice. Its an SE for sure, as I found the original window sticker tucked in back of the owner's manual. According to the build up on that window sticker, the only manufacturer option I have is A/C. Strange. So I'd go along with the notion that the lines are blury, and the options list was more of a grab bag on the WD21's.

If the guy has yet to make you right or at least attempt or have a valid excuse, I'd say walk away. Suprisingly, if there is any decent measure of friends it would be in the pocket book. A good friend will either own up or will have a reasonable excuse, whatever you find to be reasonable. Nobody with your best thoughts in mind with trash your truck then leave you hanging. Good luck, and hope for the best!

JJ, is that a LeBaron? Please tell me you didn't go there.

Natural selection/ survival of the fittest.

I don't know about welding in this situation, as you could be looking at some warpage in the sheet metal over the course of the bead. But I'd also ditto the issue of cracking in filler, especially if you slam the hood down. I'd bet fiberglas would be stronger in this respect, but then its also a bit tougher to work with. Regarding other stuff brought up: there was mention of spacers at the hinges to lift the rear of the hood up like a cowl induction type. I believe the guys at L&P did this for clearance on their supercharger install, although I can't seem to find it now on their site. As for who else tried scoops, Jim had them and was ready to go, but that was about the point when he dropped off the face of the earth due to his crazy life, and I don't remember seeing any follow-up.

My understanding is that there is no open warranty that you can just claim, but rather a silent action on Nissan's part. I've heard many people say they had a very hard time with much pressing to get the manifold issue repaired/replaced within the 100K period. Remember, Nissan doesn't own the dealership, and the dealer doesn't have much interest in doing free work because the manufacturer screwed up. The trick seems to be to get Nissan to honor this issue with the HELP of the dealer.

Ok, I'm gonna start the bidding. Depending on any internal injuries, and not knowing your local shop rates, I'll guess a final body shop bill of $4500. Hopefully, I'm high. Depends greatly on body/frame pulls and unseen damage.

Hey now, not all of them. My grandparents should be passing through there sometime soon. They spend a few weeks here, a few weeks there, maybe go back to the last place for a few more weeks... wherever the weather cooperates. You'll know grandpa by his 2005 Duramax Silverado Dually on A/T's with a pimp 5th wheel in tow, going 5 mph faster than anybody on the road. If you see him coming in the rear view, you will get out of the way.

Wow. I 2nd the question on disposal of the body. Who cares if that's a one time thing, it would only take one time to kill somebody. I'd report the shop to every industry and government authority that will listen. Glad to hear you're ok. I've actually been in this situation on a ski trip due to a buddy that didn't properly tighten his lugnuts on the snow tires. Not fun, but luckily we pulled off. I thought wheel bearing, kicked the tire, and it moved sideways and inch or 2. Yikes!

Dude, that sucks. Hope your insurance takes care of you. A front impact costs a ton between the main damage and all the little trim and stuff. Hopefully they make you right again. Other than that, glad to hear you are ok, a kick to the balls to the sunovabitch that drove off, and good luck!

That's pretty pimp. I expect some mounted pics on off-camber and traversing hills. You gotta test it, right? Maybe you could glue on some carbon fiber trim or something.

Should be a TBI (Throttle Body Injection) engine, but the rest of the engine should be mostly the same as far as I know. I believe the timing belt is pretty much the same regardless.