CO_pathfinder

Late reply.... my cancer isn't bad enough in the common "bad spots" to warrant the time or money for a frame-swap resto, but there certainly is some amount of rust. For the most part, its just surface stuff that still has blackish metal beneath.. but thank you for the link!

Crawled underneath, got salt in my eyes, and discovered that my recent rally expedition with friends shook most of the loose rust off... revealing more cancer.. Going to pretend that it isn't there

This isn't mine, but now that you say that I wish I had a front tow hitch

Laughed much too hard when I saw a front-mounted tow hitch...

Follow some friends with Impreza's up a mountain road to a reservoir in the mountains.. almost rolled twice, spun the tires thrice and kicked their asses on the downhill dirt. All at 1 am, so I got to listen to my Pathy clear its throat in the woods for a couple hours

I'm out in Boulder, but I drive to the mountains weekly once November arrives

Lol, thread jacking in my second post http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/38881-my-1991-pathfinder/ ^^ see above

Hello all, This post is going to be long, but bear with me, because my Pathfinder means a lot to me. It is my way to vent, it gives me a chance to get away from the world and just think, listen to music and get lost in myself. I need it to survive, and at least twice in the last 4 months, people have tried to take that away from me. Photos: http://tinypic.com/3ia48xvn Let me introduce you to Rusty, my white 1991 Nissan Pathfinder XE, and tell you about the things he has taught me. This is the first picture I ever took of him. http://i61.tinypic.com/ao5b3o.jpg Soon, you'll see why I named him as I did, thought it may not be as apparent as you might think. First thing to know about Rusty is that he is my "first car." I paid for him, in cash on May 29th, 2014, and he wasn't purchased from my Grandmother, like my 2002 Honda CR-V (was forced to donate it to my sister when I went to college). I paid way too much ($2500) but I didn't care, because my name was now on the title, and the car was now mine. I've been into cars my whole life, and I learned to work on them when my next door neighbor showed me his supercharged '69 Camaro. The next thing that my Pathfinder taught me was that I've taken cupholders for granted MY ENTIRE LIFE. http://i59.tinypic.com/3g9bs.jpg He forced me to relearn how to drive, because I had never before had to drive stick on a daily basis. In my Honda, I was a redline racer, because it was so easy to do. In my Pathy, when I realized that gas milage doesn't matter until you get less than 20, I shifted at around 2500 in every gear... yes, including first, at like 10 mph. The first time that I completely missed 3rd on an upshift and hit the redline, I was like ... It was the greatest moment of my time with Rusty so far. The VG30E engine, at 6500 rpm, sounds like a goddamn second wind. Idle to 3500 is pretty standard, but beyond that, its absolutely gorgeous. Thankfully, I've found that regardless of whether I drive like in in my rally car or in a prius, I can't get better or worse than 17 mpg. Its the same, every friggin time (my garage at home, formerly occupied by my father's tractor http://i61.tinypic.com/xqfk7b.jpg The second thing that I learned about Rusty was that he came with chrome rims. I was cleaning him, and applying was to his total lack-of clear coat in a futile attempt to get the paint to shine. I moved to the rims, and I went from this ]http://i58.tinypic.com/17v0w5.jpg to http://i60.tinypic.com/2mxkck2.jpg.... Just about pooped myself. The following week (all of the above things occurred in the first week of ownership), I made him a little prettier... http://i57.tinypic.com/23h2byc.jpg became http://i61.tinypic.com/149rvbt.jpg. Shortly thereafter, I began to look into maintenance tasks... coolant, oil, differentials, hubs, tranny and clutch oil, brakes, shocks, coils, bushings, exhaust, intake, etc etc etc, it was never ending. I realized it needed way more work than I had realized when I was buying him... then, I saw this. http://i62.tinypic.com/140feio.jpg, and this http://i61.tinypic.com/25ov52s.jpg When I say that I almost cried, I am not kidding. How could I have missed all of that rust?!?!??!?!?!?! It was everywhere but the body, and I think I must have passed it off as salt buildup. I ran a VIN check, and found that he came from Ohio.... derrppppppp. Go figure.. My car was born in the SALTIEST STATE IN THE USA. I resigned myself to not actually caring about the rust, because it was so extensive that repairing or removing it might actually make things worse. When I had a buddy remove and patch a cracked weld, it ended up that the rust was so extensive, the arc from his welder actually managed to eat away part of my frame. So we said F*** it, and just tack-welded a steel plate over the cracked weld. After trying to repair the hole in my tail pipe, along with the numerous leaks along the seams (it has an aftermarket cat and glasspak muffler), I gave up. The exhaust is so goddamn hot that it burned a hole through 2000*F paste meant for pottery kilns.... yeaaa... Side note: my Pathfinder has been mistaken by friends for a semi coming down the road, because the fan clutch or something runs at engine speed and is like "WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" all the damn time. But I have a love/hate feeling about it. Moving onnnn... I'm going to skip some of the interim work that I did on the interior of my pathfinder, which includes the following, with pictures detailing it all beneath the list: -installed a CB radio that I found in a junkyard where the ashtray goes; this required some dremel work, but it finally fit. It is attached to a 108" stainless steel whip, because FTW -installed speakers and subs from my Honda (Kenwood HD head, 1000W kicker amp and twin 12" kicker subs, 4X JL 100W RMS speakers w/800w walmart amp, and wiring done by yours truly. -Center console swap (THANKS TO YOU GUYS FOR THE IDEA AND GUIDE) I also used the stock head unit with my speakers and subs for a while, because I felt like being a retro kid and using all of my dads old mixtapes. Then I said "wtf are you doing lol" and installed the Kenwood unit. http://i59.tinypic.com/25jzgq9.jpg http://i58.tinypic.com/23hwwb4.jpg I tricked my Pathy out a bit.... http://i62.tinypic.com/23kswnp.jpg lol that sagging but super duper soft stock and original suspension:http://i61.tinypic.com/13zms2a.jpg (yes, that hood is hand painted by me... I took great pride in it..... Then, heartbreak. The first day that I was living on my college campus for the fall semester, about 3 weeks ago, some douchebag decided that it would be wise to hop 4 lanes of traffic to get into the left turn lane, and then chicken out when the light turned yellow. When he stepped on the brakes, he was on dry asphalt, in his nice shiny new Toyota FJ; I, on the other hand, was listening to my left brake rotor squeak every rotation (I have slightly warped rotors), when I slammed on the brakes, still on the wet CONCRETE because it had recently rained. Both of my rear drums are shot, and the ABS computer is fried. I was trying to stop 4800 lbs of steel and iron with 2 8" rotors on factory pads, in the rain, on M/T tires. in 40 feet, at 30 mph. Bad ending.... for me (his spare tire got scuffed, but that's it) The fan shroud got pushed into my belts. The radiator support was smashed, the left headlamp housing shattered, and my bumper was unscathed.. So, my hood no longer latched shut (some hyper sketchy driving thus commenced) and I would watch it flutter up and down, waiting for it to fly up and block my view of the road. I couldn't risk sending the accident to insurance for repair (I had gotten new insurance THAT DAY), so I had a local body shop do a rough pull on the radiator support, but the hood was toast. I cried about that one, because I had painted the Colorado flag in honor of my grandpa, who died of cancer last year, and was a hardcore Colorado junkie till the day he died. My car sat unused for 2 weeks in the parking lot of my apartment complex. I was too scared to drive it, actually afraid for the first time in my life. I kept thinking about how poorly its braking abilities were, and how f***ed I was if I actually damaged someone else's car, or worse, killed somebody. I lost sleep about it. But then I just told myself that I would drive like I did when I had just turned 16: cautious as all heck. My trip to the junkyard the following day netted me a new hood, 4 fog lights, a new grille, a stolen fan clutch (to try to fix that WHIRRRRRRRRRRRR sound) and a planned return trip, to net an LSD with 75k on it, a brand new alternator, an XTERRA rack, a body lift, and new shocks. http://i59.tinypic.com/2m5l0n6.jpg Then, I installed the new hood, and did this: Then, when the hood wouldn't latch, I did this too: http://i59.tinypic.com/21mt6k3.jpg At the current juncture in time, my hood closes and latches, but it pops up slightly, kind of like when you pull the hood latch on most cars. Its annoying, because it looks like crud and I have no idea how to fix it... *any ideas??* I'm currently working on finishing the wiring for my fog lights, but you won't see much about that till later because I'm swamped with college stuff (I'm an aspiring Aerospace Undergraduate). Thats all for now guys, thank you for spending the time to read this. I love my Pathfinder, and I so very much look forward to making him as awesome as my rusted frame will allow. He has 0 body rust at this point in time, which I am very proud of, and I have plasti-dipped the rear bumper, and rhino-lined the doors and lower fenders below the bottom fold line. http://i58.tinypic.com/24uyjqo.jpg PS: before I go, I wanted to tease you all with this little tidbit: My 23 year old, Rusty as f*** Nissan Pathfinder WD21, White exterior, red interior XE, has 75,000 ORIGINAL MILES Eat it, my new friends. I'll keep y'all updated and posted with my progess.

Have followed this forum for a year now, decided today at 1 am to finally join! Pictures to come