level9

I picked up a 2013 Pathy Platinum last year. Wife loves it. My only complaints are a weak 2nd gear when I have my foot it in. Also, deactivating the Nav and Video controls while the car is in motion is extremely annoying.. I've heard there is a hack for this (send an e-brake engaged signal), so that's on my to-do list.

Are you wanting a comparison of Rust Bullet vs. other MCUs (moisture cured urethanes) or just curious about MCUs like POR-15, Master Series, Rust Bullet, etc. in general vs other types of rust prohibitive products? I haven't used RB specifically, but can say that MCUs in general are great. They are typically used for high wear and abuse public infrastructure like bridges, subways, etc. Tough, chemical resistant, scratch resistant, chip resistant, elastic, compatible with any top coat and the silver versions are non porous and contain aluminum flake/powder. Basically, pretty much everything one could ever want in a paint when it comes to durability. The only catch is they must be applied under the proper conditions and with good prep work; these kinds of paints are absolutely unforgiving in that regard.

I'll detail my experience as I put together an air tool setup about a year ago for rebuilding my Pathfinder. The first thing I looked at was NOISE. I wanted something "quiet". 2 reasons: #1) I didn't want to piss off my neighbors #2) Many/most? air tools and compressors operate in the hearing loss range > 85dB with long term exposure and my compressor was going to be in my work area (garage) Second thing I looked at was what tools I was going to use. Once you know what tools you want, then you can get the CFM requirements for your compressor. In my case, I determined I could get most tools I wanted operating at <= 5 CFM @ 90 PSI. Third thing was POWER. A ~5 CFM compressor will pretty much suck all the power on a 15 AMP circuit. So nothing else could be on that circuit. Lastly, I looked at convenience. I wanted an oilless compressor as I didn't want to have to deal with removing oil from the lines when using the compressor for painting, etc. Dealing with moisture is enough for me. Having oil blown all over the place would be a disaster and those cheap oil/water separators found online are just that - cheap crap. What I ended up buying was mostly Aircat brand air tools - they are all whisper quiet compared to the rest (< 85dB) and while not cheap - they are I believe reasonably priced. For a compressor, I ended up with a Dewalt D55168 (5 CFM @ 90 PSI and 78dB noise) also reasonably priced for what you get. I've been happy with the setup - never had any issues and it's been used nearly every day. That being said, I eventually ended up ALSO buying a Dewalt cordless impact wrench. why!? The pick and pull! It weights less than carrying around the equivalent in breaker bars and wrenches and I can strip a car in no time (important when it's 100+ degrees outside!)

You might consider just plasti dipping the truck for cases where you want it to be somewhat presentable but know you are going to get more scratches and paint chips while trying to save time/money at the same time. pdip is easy to DIY in your garage. You can peel a panel that gets jacked up and just respray it. You can also do touchups with cheap pdip rattle cans in some cases (it's a solvent based product and so re-liquefies when you spray over it). There are kits available that include an Earlex spray gun (electric HVLP) which is also useful to have for other painting projects around the house.

If you are OCD like me ... Clean throttle body with CRC Throttle Body & Air-Intake Cleaner Clean MAF with CRC Mass Air Flow Sensor Cleaner Clean any electrical connectors with CRC Electronic Cleaner Put Permatex 22058 Dielectric Tune-Up Grease around electrical connectors to prevent future corrosion & moisture/oil/dirty entry

I picked up a 2013 Pathfinder last year for the wife. Mainly because it was the only SUV that would actually fit her family and out of all of the new fugly car designs I thought it looked the least fugly. I would NEVER take it off road. When I was talking to the dealer about the 4WD option they laughed. So we have the 2WD. This thing would need like a 1 FOOT lift before I would consider going offroad and that would look pretty ridiculous on this body style, but I suppose that's true of all of today's "SUVs". I will say this: it does drive nice. Much more of a car than truck. MPG is pretty decent. I get about 18.5 city and I abuse the hell out of it.. I like to drive fast and go WOT all the time. It's pretty peppy; although 2nd gear is a little weak for my tastes. If I'm on a backroad doing 75 and need to pass someone, I can easily gun it to 100+ in no time. Suspension is better than the review gives credit for (at least on-road). Driving at 120 still feels like I'm going 60 and body roll is generally tolerable in the turns. All in all it's not too bad.

I did also try alcohol (believe it was 91% though) and peroxide. Also a 2k PSI pressure washer. As fman indicated, it resisted even sand paper.. so I gave up on buying/trying any more solvents.Goo Gone heated to a couple hundred degrees tore right through it though

Getting ready to repaint the Pathy and could absolutely not get the Dealer? installed decals off.. the ones which run the length of the car. I tried.. - heat gun - paint thinner - wd-40, pb-blaster, kroil - lighter fluid - 3m adhesive remover - goo gone - every kind of soap I had around the house including pure trisodium phosphate - brake fluid, trans fluid and any other fluid I had around the garage - also nearly every other cleaner/degreaser product you can imagine These products did absolutely NOTHING. Not a single spec of decal glue came off. I don't know what adhesive they used here, but it's ridiculous. With a heat gun I could completely melt/catch on fire the decal and the glue stays. Sooo.. here's how I finally got them off: First, the decal must be removed to gain access to the glue: Use a heat gun on the edge of the decal and a plastic putty knife or trim tool to pull up the decal. You want to scrape back enough to grab on to. Then work the heat gun along the decal while pulling it off. Too much or too little heat and the decal will tear. You want just the right amount of heat. Usually just a few seconds of a heat gun on the highest setting is enough. Next, we need to attack the glue: Start by liberally covering it with Goo Gone. Work the Goo Gone into the glue with either a stiff nylon or steel brush. I used a steel brush as I didn't care about scratching up the paint. Don't bother SCRUBBING - the glue isn't going anywhere yet. You just want to work it into the glue a little and provide a reference point for the next step.. After letting the Goo Gone sit for a few minutes, it's time for the heat. Note Goo Gone is flammable - at least that's what the label says. I tried catching it on fire, but couldn't, so just be warned here. Using the heat gun, heat up a 4-6" area of glue. You want it hot. REAL HOT. You should see the glue turn white and the Goo Gone will evaporate and/or start to smoke. Next, grab your stiff bristle brush in one hand and your bottle of Goo Gone in the other. Working quickly before the area cools off, start spraying liberal amounts of Goo Gone while working the brush across the glue. The glue will then disintegrate. Keep working the panel 4-6" at a time. Then hose it off and check your work. Most/all of the glue should be gone. If you see a shiny/raised area where the glue used to be - that would be your original clear coat. So there isn't much point in going through this unless you are planning on repainting the car.

I just went through this. I whaled on the front drivers side hinge pins for a while with various punches and hammers. I could only get one out. I also couldn't get the bushings out at all (I practically destroyed them but they wouldn't budge). hrmm. I grabbed my Air Hammer and a flat piece of 1/4" steel. Placed the steel between the pin and the hammer to help with the alignment issues. Pulled the trigger and the pin popped out instantly.Then I grabbed the chisel bit for the air hammer and placed it on the outside lip of the bushing. Again, they popped out instantly! I was able to pull the pins & bushings from all 4 doors in just a few minutes. An Air Hammer is one of those tools I rarely use, but when I've needed it, it pays for itself several times over. This is also preferable to putting any kind of punch or other object inside the hinge area to push the bushings out since you can easily scrape/gouge the inside of the hinge, which is asking for future rust issues (yes there will be oil going back in this area.. but.. )

I figured I would share how I removed my exhaust manifold studs without breaking them since this appears to be a big problem on these WD21s. This was on a '90 with original, very nicely rust rotted manifolds and studs. Luckily, I had a lot of prior experience on the pathy destroying bolts with pb blaster failures, heat/shrink failures, breaker bar disasters and snapped bolt heads flying from my impact wrench.. and I wasn't looking for a repeat in this situation. Here's what I did: - soaked with Aerokroil every other day (basically whenever I remembered) for a few weeks. Aerokroil is like PB Blaster, except it actually works. It will cost you 3x as much as a can of PB too but worth it. - used a cordless impact wrench (not my tear-your-arm-off pneumatic) to SHOCK the studs loose. 5 or so gentle, quick pulls on the trigger and verify it's loose. If not loose, continued soaking. All of the studs came out with the nuts except 3 and those nuts came off. - remaining studs I soaked for another week or so with Aerokroil. During that time I would check the studs with a large pair of vice grips - applying FAIR hand pressure to see if it was loose. If not, continued soaking. - when the studs came loose, switched to a small pair of needle nose vice grips and gripped the stud length wise and they came right out! If I had to do it again, I would probably NOT soak the rust-welded nuts. Instead, use them for driving the stud with the impact while soaking the stud area between the manifold and the block. Might have saved a little time. good luck!