Bax03SE

I didn’t quite dare take it too far, but I was curious once and put a jack with a block of wood under the step rail and put a little pressure on it to see if I could see any flex on the body at the mounting points. I didn’t see any give at all on the body/frame as the truck started to come up. I was afraid of breaking the step mount so I stopped short of lifting the wheels off the ground but I think the body side of the mount would have taken the load just fine.

This should give an idea of the trimming I did to clear the tires up front. I cut out the lower portion of the wheel well liner, the inner edge of the flare, and a couple inches of metal off the inner bottom edge of the fender. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another thing to check when trying to track down a front end clunk is the front differential mount bushings. I went through this recently having replaced just about everything in the front suspension and still getting an occasional clunk. I finally checked the diff mounts and found the bushings were worn out and allowing significant play. I could move the whole diff up/down and side to side with just a screwdriver as a pry bar. The diff bumping around in its’ mounts was the clunk I was feeling. This isn’t a great pic, but the circled area shows where one of the bushings is on the drivers side. Try prying in this spot to check for the excessive movement. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m using a Hayden plate and fin style cooler like this. I have it set up as a stand alone cooler, bypassing the factory cooler in the radiator altogether. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I use a blue tooth dongle and the OBD fusion app to help monitor things while towing. It also makes a great diagnostics tool. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I may or may not get it done this summer, but one of the next big projects I’m planning is to Raptor Line the whole truck. Even though it looks good in pictures, the paint is far from perfect in person. Plus, I’m planning to start getting it out on some trail rides, and black paint and tree branches don’t play well together. I think the industrial/military look of a well done bed liner paint job would suit the rig well. It isn’t my daily driver anymore, so I feel a little more free to experiment with it, lol!

If you look at how I masked it off, I used the body line as a cut off to mask from, so it hides the cut off where I sectioned off that part of the panel for paint. The only buffing I did was to the old paint surrounding (upper section of quarter panel, the rear bumper, and the back door) the freshly painted section so it wouldn’t stand out as as too shiny compared to the surrounding paint. I didn’t do any sanding or buffing on the new paint.

This was just a quick and inexpensive project, so I used duplicolor products for the primer and base coat. Then for the clear I used a 2k clear in a can. It is a two part high solid urethane clear that comes in a spray can. Before you spray it you flip the can over and push it down on the included adapter that releases the hardener into the can to mix with the paint. Once the hardener has been combined you have about a 48 hour window to use the can before it is no good. This is the first time I’ve tried this product and the final result was every bit as good as traditional clear coat that I would usually apply with a gun and compressor.

Mine were also a bit beat up. I took them off and painted them with bed liner to clean them up and visually blend them in with the truck a bit. Also, if you get down and look straight under the truck, there are other parts of the frame and cross members that hang down at the same level of the lowest point on the step rails, so technically the rails don’t really hinder the overall ground clearance much if at all. Some of the steel step rails that came on the earlier R50s were not as strong and tended to rust out, but these late model aluminum rails are surprisingly robust.

Some stance pics to see how the wheels and spacers line up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There was also that time someone in a turn only lane decided to go straight and drove right into the side of me. This incident is actually the number one reason I still keep the oem step rails in place. The step rail took the brunt of the collision and directed the car up into the door instead of hitting the rocker panel. Without the step rail it would have gone into the rocker and caused a lot more damage. As it was, the damage was all contained within the door and I was able to fix it with just a used door from a salvage yard painted to match. The guy who hit me took off and was never found, so it was cheaper to fix it myself than to go through my insurance.The step rail took the hit with absolutely zero damage other than a scuff in the paint. Seeing how strong they are convinced me to leave them in place for the rocker protection. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And how it sits now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another pic of how it sat with the lift spacers front and rear, stock springs, and 245/75/16 tires. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Somewhere along the lines I installed mile marker manual hubs to save my CV joints. I’ve been very happy with these. Please note that this pic is with the oem wheels still installed, and with the 1.5 inch spacers also on. The manual hub would not clear the center bore of the oem rim without the spacer. The hole in the center of the late model SE rim isn’t big enough for the hubs to pass through all the way. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Also did a mild diy panhard drop by relocating it a little down and to the right with a new hole drilled.The original mounting hole is circled. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

While upgrading the rear springs, I also went bigger on the wheel and tire package, moving up to 285/75/16 Kumho mud terrains mounted on 16x8 rims, with 1.5 inch wheel spacers to clear the strut assembly. I had to remove the front mudflaps and do some trimming on the inner fender and front bumper to clear the new tires. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not too long after I started using it for towing, I started looking for options for heavy duty rear springs to eliminate the need for the air bags. That’s when I stumbled on the info about Land Rover springs fitting the R50. I think I was one of the first to go this route, and ended up putting the NRC9448 springs in, with one coil cut off to match the ride height of my previous set up using the stock springs and spacers. The LR springs gave me about the same lift by themselves without the need for spacers, and the heavier spring rate handles the trailer without the need for air bags, Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

After that I added a trailer hitch and 4 pin harness to pull our 6x12 enclosed trailer that we use to haul props for dance competitions. Both of my kids are on a competitive dance team, so that’s fun....! Here’s a pic of it with the trailer. This is with the spacer lift front and rear, and 245/75/16 bfg KO2’s. The stock springs are very soft for towing, so I put air bags in the rear coils to level the ride. Without the bags it sagged a lot with even just a little weight in the trailer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Even though the truck was largely rust free, for whatever reason the lower radiator support had a strange amount of rust on it even though everything else on the undercarriage is nice and clean. I knew that when I bought it, but it wasn’t an emergency so I left it alone for the first year until I got some time to tackle it. This is looking up from the bottom of the rad support, and the pic was taken about halfway through the repair so some of the rust holes are already covered up. I used two pieces of angle iron to box in the bottom of the rad support and strengthen it back up. With this reinforcement this section is now much thicker and I think stronger than stock. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

After driving it for a year I decided I wanted to toughen up the image a little bit and decided to do a spacer loft. I wasn’t on here much at the time and had not heard of sfcreations, if I had I probably would have used their spacers. As it was, I bought a set of aluminum spacers off EBay for 2.5 inches of lift. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don’t know that I would go so far as to call this a build thread, but I figured it might be good to organize some things into one place! My R50 is a black 2003 SE, that I’ve had for a little over 4 years now. At the time, I was trying to get away from car payments, so I made the decision to sell my one year old car that I was making payments on and then look for something I could afford to pay cash for. I had always liked the R50 platform, and I’d had good experiences with other Nissans in the past so I set out to find a good late model R50 with the VQ35. Most of the low mileage trucks I was finding at dealerships were still asking between $10k and $11k and craigslist private listings just had a bunch of junk. Then I found a recently traded in truck sitting at the back of the Nissan dealer just down the road from me. I stopped to ask about it, and it only had 70k miles and overall looked pretty decent but a bit neglected. They had literally just taken it on trade the day before, and said that since it was older than what they liked to stock on their used lot they were planning to just send it to auction as is. I asked if I could look at it and they handed me the keys and said “have at it”. I spent a good 2-3 hours looking it all over and crawling underneath it. It was the epitome of a soccer mom suv, all the way down to the “proud parent of...” stickers still on the back. It was full of Cheerios (literally), and didn’t appear to have been washed or vacuumed in years. But under the dirt it looked solid. The only mechanical issues I could find were a small oil leak from the oil cooler fitting (very common on the VQ), and the front tires were chewed up from being out of alignment for a long time. I took it for a good test drive and the engine and transmission were both nice and smooth, 4wd shifted in and out smoothly, and every button and switch worked and did what it should. No lights on the dash, and I also scanned it for codes and everything checked out. Long story short, I ended up writing them a check for $7k and taking it home as is. I felt like that was a fair price based on the low miles (keep in mind this was back in 2014). I don’t have much for pictures from back then, but this is what it looked like when I brought it home. I picked up the O ring I needed for the oil cooler for like 6 dollars while I was still at the dealer, and the next day I took it in for a set of front tires and an alignment. Then after taking a full day to pull out the seats, scrub the carpet, clean everything up, change the oil and fluids, etc...it was looking pretty good! I then just drove it like that for about the first year. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I did this project in the summer, but just now decided to post it. Like many, my 03 had some rust creeping out from behind the fender flares in the back. Just like an iceberg, what you see on the surface is usually just a little taste of what’s lurking underneath. I decided the best course of action was to cut out all the bad metal and rebuild that section with fiberglass. I used fiberglass cloth and resin for the basic structural repair, then finished it off with tiger hair and body filler. Since this was a small project I decided to try 2k clear coat in a can for the first time, and I was very pleased with the results. It laid down nicely and was easier than getting out my compressor and spray gun. I lined the portion of the paint that is hidden under the flare with bedliner to help protect it in the future, so that’s why the paint at the edge of the wheel well looks a little rough in places. It isn’t visible with the flare back on. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This stuff, I happened to have a bottle in the garage. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I run Castrol Transmax Import/Multi vehicle in my 03. Nissan matic D is listed on the back as one of the fluids it meets the requirements of. I replaced the fluid in mine with it 3 years ago and it runs great.

I guess if I’d read the title better I’d have realized you were already in 4wd with the hubs locked! Like I said, if that’s the case then it shouldn’t have anything to do with the manual hubs. I agree with starting with a fluid change because that’s a good maintenance step regardless.