DSM_guy

like i said above man..your REALLLY putting too much thought into all this. lord, iv experimented with so many diff products and sure your gonna not like things here and there, you just try something diff. its only a vehicle dude..dont worry so much about everything being "perfect" or "screwing something up". the bumper you choose or the lights you buy isnt gonna make or break your ride. its only a truck bro, you act as tho its your life. just lighten up and have a good time, cuz thats what were here for. a nice lookin rig is great...but id take my 245k beater with dents and all over any car on the road today. its sure not perfect, and thats why i like it. think about it..the greatest stories and memories are ALWAYS when things arent perfect. its when things go nuts and your driving some old POS car or this or that dosent happen exactly as planned that ALWAYS gets discussed time and time again. perfect is boring and overrated.. you have a 14 year old car..take it for what it is and live it up. and you KNOW the pictures made you smile as well as stop and think!

im sorry but this just presented the PERFECT opportunity sorry dude but you really need to grow some thicker skin if your gonna ask for opinions on the internet. sorry you dont like the answers given, but people here DO know their stuff and have for a while..they arent saying it to be mean. we all had our first cars and our attachments to them...but there comes a point where you have to be rational. but then again..what do us "old farts" know about anything? :X

there is a rather extensive thread on N4W in the "how to" section

ditto. they either got bent because the motor was off time by quite a few teeth, or you got alot of slack in the t-belt. or something rather large could have made its way into the chamber (or mechanical failure in the valve train) and possibly stuck a valve open and it got smacked with a piston. they dont just "bend" so easily

3 words public-address-speaker nothing says get the hell outta my way like 150db of "get the hell outta the way!" lol but seriously, maybe get a dual horn from an older car (my buick one is loud as piss). these are usually in 2 diff tones. i cant comment on the lil self-contained air horns cuz iv never heard those. i have had people tell me they sound rather corny in comparison to one thats run by a large compressor (like a big rig). if you wanted to install a large compressor, id vote train horn. a buddy of mine had one on his big rig and he could rattle the windows rollin down main.

wait, how does a 97 need a complete new muffler from the cat back? if its the muffler...then just the muffler needs replacing. its rare to need your ENTIRE cat back (which consists of piping and a muffler and a tail pipe all the way back which is about 3/4 of your exhaust system) replaced. i dont buy it..your girl is getting taken for a ride. if the muffler needs replacing..so be it. she can go to autozone, get a generic muffler and have an independent shop cut off and weld on a new one. thats crap. i spent a grand total of $70 to get a muffler, have the old one cut off and new one welded..and a new tail pipe section bent over the axle per oem specs. only reason i wanted a new rear section cuz the tip of my exhaust was lookin kinda chewed up. go somewehre else...you could get a COMPLETE new system with hi-performance parts and bigger pipeing for less than what they want. i have all the rest of my original pipe on my 91, so unless you have horrible salt...their feeding you a line. have her take a guy friend or...any guy..even a teacher or preacher or SOMEONE who is a responsible MALE..and that BS will stop right there. and even if she chooses to get a midas muffler put on...thers no effin way id pay more than $100 labor included. thats ludicrous

lights search yes, 4 pages..you have to weed through a bit, but in those 4 pages there are exactly 40 threads that deal with some sort of aux light. not only are brands covered, but mounting, wiring, etc were all netted. this took me a grand total of 25 sec to find lifts 3 pages of nothing but lift related material. everything from how, when, where, price. body and sus, problems, tricks, how-to's, brands, pros/cons. even includes additional info on lifting/modifying bumpers, exhaust, etc. took another 20 sec grill guards brush guard rust and thats just a handfull of questions youve asked. it took me a grand total of 5 minutes to find everything in its entirety. there is no way you have read all that for "months" and still come asking the questions you do. at least ONE thread in every search i have performed has either compared this to that..given a review, a trick a tip, an idea. and 95% of these searches yeild multiple threads where this has all been answered repeatedly.

ahahahahahahah....bwahahahah! vsicks i think you and i finally come together on something *cue shocking music* seriously, nobody here is trying to be mean. dont you think everyone wants the best they can do? i mean, if you have TRULY done as much research as you say...youd have answered all these questions yourself through searching. the ENTIRE reason we have a search is so you can go back and read what answers we have given others who ask your exact questions. we gave them the exact same answers as we would give you. its fantastic that you want to make your truck as great as possible..but ease up a bit. i mean..your putting WAAAAAY too much thought into this. its just a truck. everyone has their own tastes, and there is a full gamut here all the way from all optioned LE with heated leather seats....to bare bones SAS rock crawlers. find your nitche, search around, and grab some ideas and tweak them to make your own. its YOUR truck. if you want our opinions...wanna know the best way to go about them? look at our rigs. each person does to their own truck what they can or what they feel is best. look through pix, develop your own taste..dont rely on others to pick your tastes for you. then youll end up with a truck that is everyone elses dreams..not your own. lights are lights, lifts are lifts, flooring is flooring..choose what best suits YOUR needs, YOUR tastes, and YOUR budget. i think we have all tried to be as nice as possible but your kinda startin to push alot of peoples buttons. youd be surprised what you can learn when you just sit back, watch what others are doing/have done, as well as research when you dont have your mouth open asking...really.

thanks for the invite TC. id LOVE to go..but unfortunatley im in the process of getting a place in amarillo and all the moving and wahtnot associated with that. also, my pathy isnt my DD till the winter months and i dont think my ins co would let me throw the pathy on the insurance for one weekend hahaa. yall take lots of pics for me tho! damn i wish my ol girl didnt eat so much gas pssd

dont trust that. i had THE EXACT same thing happen. i wasnt so sure it was my starter so i removed, threw it in the back of my roomates truck and we went a few blocks to vatozone and got it checked. hooked it up and everything worked fine. put it back in the truck...dead again. all that jostling around in the truck accomplished teh same thing as a hammer would on the way. if your havin to tap it..its going, just replace it.

that oil pressure sender is just for the idiot light on the dash. i accidently snapped off the lil spade connection and drove it for a few hundred miles with no effects. if you wanna replace it for good measure, go for it. as long as its not leaking and is functioning properly tho..no need to bother. youll find a wide array of stories in removing the starter. iv heard people disconnecting this and that, and lifting here and there..taking hours and hours. as iv shared before, i changed mine out in about 20 minutes in the parking lot at my school at completley stock height (pre BL/SL). the only thing i removed was the skid plate and the starter. no moving the oil filter, CL, none of that. 6" extensions and deep sockets are your friend, as well as little 1/4 ratchets IIRC. BTW that was my first time ever to change it, and i had no manual or previous experience.

your right...let me rephrase my statement. in an ACCIDENT bolt on bars will often do more damage. if your knockin aroud the trail and bumpin rocks, trees, etc..then yeah...a brush guard would deff be to your advantage. iv just heard of several stories (even on here) where someone got into what shoulda been a minor fender bender, but their "brush guard" bent all sorts of crazy ways crumpling and smashing parts that would have otherwise survived relitavley unscathed. i cant completley knock them, i used to have just a simple push bar (see sig pic). i was suggesting something more like an ARB cuz it seems that cash isnt a big prob for this guy really. and if i had the scratch..id take a built bumper over a bolt on push bar any day..having owned both. oh and for my light bar, it just utilizes the stock roof rack setup. i REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY stress you to search. i know your trying to find out more about your truck..but honestly, i havent seen you ask something thats not been answered a jillion times. people are trying to be as nice as possible, but we do expect you to do most of your own homework. were here to help..but not do it all.

id have to go with the yota over the accord if your set on a non-nissan sedan. i have heard too many issues with transmissions in those accords. and id reccomend getting the old path. youll be happier and you can do SOOO much more to a vehicle with a frame.

just to hit on a few things. i dont think rhino (bedliner) liner would look good on the inside of a pathy. even at their worst, or trucks are FAR more refined than some jeep or the like. go back with carpet. as far as mats, i do reccomend rubber all around. i got a set of 4 mats and their nice cuz they dont slip around and they have some pretty good grooves to catch dirt and moisture, that way it dosent dribble all out into your carpet. i also made a cargo mat that covers everything back there. really handy to just toss tools or whatever back there and not have to worry. light bar, do some searching..i have made a couple references to mine. i just took a roof rack bar..attacked it with a drill, and bolted on 4 lights. works like a charm and look stock. as far as push/brush bars..id reccomend getting either a good HD set..or an aftermarket one with it built in like an ARB..or make your own. its been shown many times that a simple bolt on bar is stricly for looks and many will do much more damage in a wreck with one than not.

what part of dfw are you in? im up north by the river, but ill only be here for 2 months longer. movin it up to the land of no hills (the panhandle). welcome! always great to see a fellow texan...not too many of us on here

the only things made from metal in the well area are the inner and outer fender..so its one of those. a well shield or gap guard are made from rubber/plastic.

no, its a scam for the most part. your not runnin serious spark, OEM would suffice just fine

solid, go the easier route and have a large "hoop" bent that runs the entire length of the main tube. then you can use them as both feelers/sliders and as step bars. if you ever go wheeling you wont be getting hung up, and you wont ever have to redo them because you "wish you woulda gone a different route". much better than to not need it and have it, than not have it and need it. thats my entire philosophy on my truck. i sure dont do any hardcore wheeling, and its not like i NEEDED hell for stout bumpers and sliders all around, but i figured since i have the time and money (and free materials!) id overbuild past what id ever need.

ill do ya one better. back when the pathy belonged to my parents, we took it into a sams (or walmart..one of those). yes yes, bad news i know! anyways, so it has the little locking lugs on each set of rims. well the genius sticks the key in the impact wrench...never seats the key to the lock..and proceeds to spin up his wrench about 1/2 speed and shoves it on. of course the key catches the lock...and snaps off the little pattern inside. so he walks into the svc dep and hands us the key and the little chunk of metal and is like "uuuh, it broke" of corse my dad demands to know just how in the hell he managed to break forged steel. so yeah, we cant get the tires off because some pimple faced retard couldent take 2 sec to seat the key before he went to crankin with his impact. then, they refused to pay for it..saying the key was made of inferior aluminum! from now on, i go around and take off all the lug locks myself by hand

sure sounds like a snake oil to me. to a degree, all spark plugs are teh same with a few exceptions. and yes, some run better in other engines than the rest. but there is no gaining that kinda hp or effeciency unless what you had before was pretty much gone. as for the "ricer muffler" comment. yeah, most idiot kids slap one on a stock exhaust system and have no clue of its true function. however, cannister mufflers do their job when used appropriatley and applied correctly. unfortunatley...99% of the time they are not used properly. and i dunno that id be knocking on other vehicles addressing a "lack of grunt" on a pathfinder forum. i think every vehicle within the last 10 years save for a geo metro came with more ponies than our trucks

yeah simon..i had never been to his cardomain site before..just on N4W. and it his sig he says "runnin 35's, no lift" so thats what i based my origional statement off of. but once i got to his page..i saw the lifts. but i dunno..maybe he was running 35's before the lift and decided to add lift to it after the fact..and just never changed his sig? otherwise, i dunno why anyone would put that. but i guess that still shows that you COULD do it wiht a 3+3 and some trimming...

good writeup/maintainance idea. i did mine for the hell of it and took out a bit of debris. nothing serous, but i notice that my blower motor dosent make near as much noise as it used to

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY :eek: :eek: :eek: sweet set up dude..i dunno what else to say..im sure youve heard it all! ill just go sit in the corner and babble to myself for the rest of the evening ....SAS.....pretty....me want...cant....look away

WOW! that welder writeup is pretty sweet. i suppose you could get fancy and use a set of large aligator clips (like on jumper cables) and attatch them to a length of standard welding lead. i do believe ill add this to my list! already bookmarked

ok, i found the guy..and here is his site. in his sig he CLAIMS he's got no lift..but this site says otherwise. so i dunno. but he still has very few supporting mods to be runnin those tires http://www.cardomain.com/ride/719499