Zibi

What fukinitup means is that the quarter on the '97 was reinforced to support the weight of the tire. The '01 wouldn't so it would over time warp the sheet metal.

I'd guess no but I'm not sure. They restyled the front clip and there are material differences.

Awesome work, keep posting as you finish stuff, interested in seeing how things go

Mine is bent But seriously man, jack stands. Doesn't matter that you don't intend on being directly under the truck. @!*% happens.

What you have in the front are called MacPherson Struts, and in the rear you have regular shocks. Like the other guy said, the MacPherson struts run through and are attached to the coil spring, whereas the shocks in your rear run somewhat beside the coil springs. You'll want to replace your struts and shocks at the same time, especially if they're all worn out. If something is knocking in the suspension it's probably either a ball joint or one of the bushings in your suspension. I had both my ball joints start to go. When I replaced the first one my friend mechanic told me not to bother with the other until it wore out, which ended up being only a few months afterwards. All of the control arms in the suspension have rubber bushings in them at the pivot points. You have six control arms on your truck; in the front each side has one "y" shaped one, and in the back they are there are four straight bars that run from the body to the axle, two long ones on the bottom and two short ones on the top. If the rubber bushings have worn out, which I'd bet they have if you have 120,000 miles on them, they can cause a bunch of problems. They can cause a knocking sound, they will cause your suspension to be sloppy, and they can cause wobbles and other worse things. If the knock isn't coming from your suspension it may be one of the sway bar end links. The sway bars stiffen up your ride and have rubber bushings in the end as well. My front ones are worn out so I get a nice knocking sound as well when I go over bumps, and sometimes if the engine is at just the right RPM (usually at a high idle) they vibrate and make a funny sound. You generally wouldn't want the GR-2's unless you were doing a suspension lift, although as far as I know they aren't any longer than the stock ones. If it's just a road truck I'd probably go to NAPA and Lordco and get quotes for OEM struts and shocks and only buy the GR-2s if they were cheaper and in near knew condition. As for mounting hardware, I'm not sure exactly what that refers to but my struts came with their own top nuts and then I just reused all the other hardware...in other words, I didn't order any hardware. Just forewarning though, if your suspension is getting near the end of its life and is all original, then more than just the struts are going to need replacing. Check to see if the bushings are worn out, ball joints, springs etc, because if they're somehow not now, they will be soon, and it may be cheaper in terms of labour to just replace everything at once.

Do you want to swap the clip because your current one has paint chips or just because it'd be a kickass project? :shrug: Because if you take your truck offroad, as I assume you do by your giant window decal, won't your new QX4 front clip just get some nice little paint chips in it as well?

glad you're alright. how does it work there if she doesn't have insurance, can you sue for the damages? Would be kinda @!*% if you got stuck footing the bill (at least in terms of increased insurance premiums) because she didn't have insurance to cover it...

If you're running rich and have the standard issue Nissan cracked manifolds it may just be exhaust smell. My truck runs rich and you get a smell of gas from the tailpipe, especially after startup when it's still cold. When I had my manifolds replaced last summer both were split clear in half.

awesome, looks good man

bump Any pictures of the final product?

really nice looking bumper

I didn't even read adamzans post. If new clamps are just $10 I'd probably get one of those. Paint it with some por15 or other, cheaper rust paint before installation.

The bolt on mine was rusted solid too but there was enough play that I was able to disconnect the one end and then slide it out. The new one came with some foam bits on the side and sliding it in wedged it good. I'd say zapstraps as well. Alternatively I'm sure you can replace the entire mounting bracket. I don't remember how it's held on and due to the snow I don't want to climb under my truck. But if the bracket is just a bolt on part then go grab one from a scrapper.

I still wouldn't weld the front. If I couldn't put a selectable locker in it then I'd rather run open. Welded front causes torque steer and puts tremendous stress. The problem is only fixed by manual hubs when the hubs are unlocked, if they're locked then your turning radius goes to @!*% again. Thats personal preference based upon research. I'd be interested to hear from someone who has actually run a welded IFS front for a significant amount of time.

If you're having trouble going from 4H to 4L even if you are stopped and in Neutral, you can put it in park and shut the truck off, then shift it into 4L and start the truck again. If the driveline isn't spinning there is nothing to grind.

Don't weld the front, that'll destroy your turning radius and potentially blow @!*% up. If anything do the opposite, weld the rear and ARB in the front. Or wait for the lockright lockers to come out and put one of those in the rear with an ARB in the front.

You can shift into 4H while moving, just not faster than 50kph as I recall. To shift into 4L you must put it in neutral first. On the back of the driver side sun visor there is a little card that explains how to use the transfer case.

Just bolt them on. Tire diameter determines whether or not you need to lift, not tire type. Check the tire size thread in the R50 pinned topics section to see what other people are running and get a good idea of what you can do.

Today I seafoamed it, oil change, cleaned the MAF, and changed the fuel filter. Great to get out and work with my hands again...

If you don't want the antenna to go up - ever - just disable the antenna motor. Then you can just manually extend the antenna and leave it that way. They have a tendency to fail anyhow, the gears get stripped so it will whir away trying to raise or lower the antenna. Mine has been disabled since before I bought it, probably because either the motor had failed or the gears had gone and it was just easier to permanently leave it up. My antenna is kind of hooped however, I whacked it with a couple trees and then dropped a canoe on it last summer so it's got a nice permanent kink and a bit of a "speed angle". Eventually I guess I'll just replace it with a metal whip.

It's a second antenna to both improve reception and to be there in case the other one gets ripped off.

The 4.25" backspaced rims will likely work but if they're not what you ordered then make them replace them. The difference between a 3.75" and 4.25" rim is not negligible. Both may work, but there is a sizeable difference in the backspacing. Make sure you get what you want and what you ordered. You're the customer, and it's your money and you don't have to settle if you don't want to.

OME922 is the rear MD coil. Rockyroads lists a rear HD coil, but my understanding is there only was MD, but I might be wrong. My back end sits high with the OME922s. I got a more dramatic rake angle. Not sure what it would look like if left stock. Frankly though, if your old springs are worn out I'd replace all four coils, whatever type you chose.

Drill out the rounded side The part of the pin that goes through the hinge on the rounded side is smaller than the rest, so if you drill out the flat side the pin won't come out. Works great.

I've done it, but never slept back there. I end up taking them out fairly regularly as I often have to transport stuff in my truck. Having the seat bottoms out provides a decent amount of extra cargo space. I might have some pictures of the process, I'm not sure. Here is a picture of the completed hinge. Only problem I've had is over time the wingnuts can work themselves off as you put the seat bottoms up and down (the wingnut gets caught on the carpet allowing the bolt to turn in the nut). I suppose you could use normal nuts but that exceeds the point of being able to quickly remove them without tools.