Jump to content

What did you do to your Pathfinder today?


RedRider3141
 Share

Recommended Posts

Damn! Good to see that's all that was damaged.

 

I replaced my craptastic trailer light converter box with a homebrew hackjob. There's already voltage drop between the battery and the tail lights, and the box was dropping it too. I was getting nine volts and change to the brake/turn filament on the light I tested with! No wonder I could barely see the turn signals when the running lights were on. I made my own converter with relays and its own power feed from the battery to cut out as much voltage drop as possible. It's also got its own fuse, so I won't lose the lights on the truck if the trailer shorts out.

I also deleted the alarm while I had the seat out to run the wire. Anyone need an alarm brain?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That thought had crossed my mind. I'm considering putting that reflective tape stuff on the sides of the back window. I still haven't found a NPORA sticker to replace the NRA one I removed. Personally I'm not sure how I feel about the camo, it was the PO's doing. He told me it's military surplus (spray?) paint. I think the truck might look really nice cherry red with a nice gold flake undercoat, but I get a lot of compliments on it in Arkansas. Either way, the rear corner is a bit dented, so with the custom paint Hartford fire insurance will probably have to pay to weld in another one and paint the entire truck shop so it all matches...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Put My emblems on added door emblems. Also sewed up the tire cover and refurbished it along with compounding the entire vehicle. Turned out great.df9e8f1e9ed985de0ed0a6c476fc7853.jpg242f4751965fa40d8c4f9aa8e948beb2.jpgf0eda6c84665cb4c2d8328b5ad1ae97c.jpgac4c3ad5b454797aedbf1df656e26acd.jpg

 

Sent from my SM-S337TL using Tapatalk

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Put My emblems on added door emblems. Also sewed up the tire cover and refurbished it along with compounding the entire vehicle. Turned out great.df9e8f1e9ed985de0ed0a6c476fc7853.jpg242f4751965fa40d8c4f9aa8e948beb2.jpgf0eda6c84665cb4c2d8328b5ad1ae97c.jpgac4c3ad5b454797aedbf1df656e26acd.jpg

 

Sent from my SM-S337TL using Tapatalk

Replaced climate control lights with brighter bulbs.d791c0b8ec4d8e8b3dfc9e71024da775.jpgd77373683873b8eae0b54d72090305b2.jpg

 

Sent from my SM-S337TL using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Started the truck the other day in over a year since I tore the bottom end down for another rebuild.

I really wanted to be sure if it would fire up and build oil pressure before I invest anymore time into the truck.

While priming the oil, I found out I forgot to tighten up the oil cooler banjo bolts on the transmission.

Once I saw oil pressure was building up, I hooked up the fuel pump fuse and cranked her some more until a loud roar echoed in the garage as it filled with unburned fuel. :itsallgood:

Edited by Cuong Nguyen
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Took it to a U-Pull-&-Pay in Denver (near Thornton?), and got a tail light, a rear speaker grill, and a factory skid plate (splash guard? It's pretty thin but it's better than the sheet of rubber I had bolted under the radiator to keep water off my belts...) and put the tail light on so I won't get pulled over on the way home. I kept the smashed one, I'll put it back before I go get the damage I sustained the other night surveyed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fixed the cracks in the dash wth the padded dash filler, sanded it all down once more and got everything nice and smooth. Cleaned it one last time and tomorrow it's ready to be flocked. Just waiting for the bondo to dry.

On a side note I had enough time to finally go through my tool box and organize it all so now that's finally done. All that is left to build a "stand" for the wrenches. Though I still don't know if I'm gonna keep them where they are or move them with a magnetic clamp set up. Time will tell

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welp, finally flocked the dash. Looks good from what I can tell right now, we will see when I can shake the excess off. Few tips for this

 

Make sure your area is VERY clean. This is an obvious but there was a bit of saw dust at the end of the garage that happened to find its way over to the work area making some flock less than desirable to be salvaged.

 

Paint the dash (or what you are flocking) the color you're flocking. I kept my dash red so that way I could see where the glue went and wasn't but the two guys I had gluing still managed to leave a few holidays I had to point out or go over myself

 

HAVE HELP. Doing this by yourself is a major task, takes a long time to get the glue down then flock it. Using the flocking applicator is not as easy as it seems, the fibers get between the slide and gum it all up making it a work out just to apply the flock

 

Light light light and more light. Have an excess of light. Again something that is obvious but is overlooked. Whateber extra lighting sources you have you should use

 

It is straight forward and an easy process but a bit laborsome and requires you and your friends to pay extra attention (something my helpers lacked in lol) take your time but remember the glue sets up and drugs in 10-15minutes.

 

In 2 days I'll let y'all know how it came out and it's going back in the truck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seconded. I had to look that up too, and I definitely would like to see the dash with the bondo dry before you go ahead with the flocking. I have an Arizona dash (worth it for the lack of rust!) I need to fix but I'd be more likely to paint it at that stage because I really don't like the carpet dash mat I got with the truck. Maybe a picture of the socket organizers too? We like DIY.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I'll have to figure out the process of posting pictures up to the site for everyone interested to see.

I'm not sure if I have pictures of the dash with the bondo unfortunately but it looked like a mess. Only reason I didn't go the route of painting the dash was I felt it would look kinda tacky. I've seen a painted countertop and it looks pretty bad, looking on Google for others that painted their dash it was hard to tell how it really looked so I opted for the flock since I know what it looks like (plus I figured it was much easier).

The padded dash filler aka bondo worked very well just as you would expect bondo to, spread easy and sanded down smooth. I got pretty anal on making everything very smooth because I didn't want to be able to see any signs of the old cracks through the flock which you can't so I'm very happy with that.

 

Speaking of the socket organizer I got around to drilling out the spots for the metrics since the dash needs to dry for 2 days. Would have sanded and burned the sizes in it if it were not snowing since I don't want saw dust all over the dash while it dries. Once everything is done I'll look into posting up some pictures.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was easy enough however I have very few pictures. Had to screenshot a video I took to show just a few of the cracks I repaired on the dash

 

Screenshot_20180316-024024.png

 

These are the largest cracks, this is before I drilled holes at the end and widened the cracks with a Drexel to a V

 

Screenshot_20180316-024114.png

 

This is one of two crack/holes in the dash, these were annoying to repair since they were on the poor excuse the dash has as a tray on the top.

There were many more cracks, holes and dimples along the dash especially around the vents but I didn't get pictures of video to screen shot off of

Edited by Charlie_Brown
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome. Dude, your dash looked way better than mine does even before you started. I bet it'll look great when you're done. I haven't decided whether to paint mine as a final step or not. I've used duplicolor vinyl and fabric on my glove box and my R50 console, but I have to do it again with the right kind of paint. Someone suggested to me doing flocking like you are, then going over it with a clear fiberglass type resin (I don't know what I'm talking about yet on that one). I'll have to look into that, theoretically it would give me a fibrous colorful dash that doesn't trap dust and pet hairs. I swear my carpet mat is the next thing to having an in cabin air filter. On your dashboard. But that's just my opinion of the carpet type dashboard, some people really seem to love theirs with their own situations. Good job man, you're inspiring us.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I look at dash flocking and see the a similar technique model train guys use to simulate grass. Couple bags of static grass, some plaster rocks, maybe a tree or two, and you could have a beautiful rolling field for a dashboard. :lol:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I look at dash flocking and see the a similar technique model train guys use to simulate grass. Couple bags of static grass, some plaster rocks, maybe a tree or two, and you could have a beautiful rolling field for a dashboard. :lol:

 

Well I mean you're not wrong about that hahaha

 

I habe heard of people putting a clear coat of paint or resin over the flock so it doesn't catch anything. I'm planning on leaving it bare so I can give an honest "review" of if it catches a bunch if dirt and whatnot plus how hard it is to clean since all information on the matter is given by people whom have not had a flocked dash. And some from people who do say it's easy (but that could always be then lying to themselves lol)

 

If you paint your dash post some pictures so I can justify or regret my decision on flock hahahaha

Once it stops snowing I can put it all back in, I'd snap a picture to show the texture but snow knocked out power the last two days until further notice :/

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dash is back in finally excluding the center vent because I still have to run two more wires. On to the real reason for posting though, pictures!

 

Few pictures before it was put in the truck so you can see the texture of it

 

20180318_134837.jpg

 

You are not even able to see the old cracks any.ore or the two big holes that were in the corners here

 

20180318_134843.jpg

 

The texture up close

 

20180318_134916.jpg

 

Back in the truck

 

20180318_183433.jpg

 

20180318_183456.jpg

 

I'm pretty happy with it, had to clean a bit of saw dust off it already and it wasn't bad but we will see when it comes to dirt and dust how much of a pain it is

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mounted the radio and ran the power wires. Had to drill two holes through the fire wall for my wires and coax. Figured I would mount the antenna on the drivers side fender so I dented the fender a little so it will mount flat rather than sticking out passed the truck. I'm deciding to put a power brick off the battery for all the accessories rather than having all this @!*% right off the terminal so before I finish the wiring I'm going to do that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mounted the radio and ran the power wires. Had to drill two holes through the fire wall for my wires and coax. Figured I would mount the antenna on the drivers side fender so I dented the fender a little so it will mount flat rather than sticking out passed the truck. I'm deciding to put a power brick off the battery for all the accessories rather than having all this @!*% right off the terminal so before I finish the wiring I'm going to do that.

 

I bought a fuse box off Amazon and mounted it to the bracket for the power steering res. One line from that to the battery terminal, six fused leads out for whatever I want. Much cleaner than a bunch of in-line fuse holders bouncing around on the battery terminal, and it's got indicator LEDs built in so it'll be easy to tell if I blow a fuse.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I bought a fuse box off Amazon and mounted it to the bracket for the power steering res. One line from that to the battery terminal, six fused leads out for whatever I want. Much cleaner than a bunch of in-line fuse holders bouncing around on the battery terminal, and it's got indicator LEDs built in so it'll be easy to tell if I blow a fuse.

This is exactly what I got off amazon. Just gotta wait for it to come in now.

Yesterday I cleaned up the wiring with the coax cable by putting plastic tabs on the fire wall and using plastic one hole straps. Mounted the antenna on the fender, sits nice and straight after i dented it in a little. Heat shielding over the power wires and just for kicks I put one of those red flip up switch covers for my ground light toggle switches. I've always had a soft spot for those things growing up, reminds me of a jet fighter lol. Parts should be here once I get back from a trip this week to finish and clean up the wiring.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anybody have any idea what the size of the wheel bearing lock washer screws are? I had to drill all 4 of them out when replacing my ball joints - some shop at some point stripped them all and just left them there

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anybody have any idea what the size of the wheel bearing lock washer screws are? I had to drill all 4 of them out when replacing my ball joints - some shop at some point stripped them all and just left them there

 

 

Nice when someone leaves you an easter egg, right? Those do strip easy. Just checked one of mine (front end torn apart anyway) and the screws are 4mm-0.7 thread, a little less than 7mm long (not including the head).

 

I tore into my front end, finally. Discovered that the Moog Problem Solver UBJs come with zerks, but aren't tapped for them. Screwed around for far too long trying to reboot a CV joint. Next time I'm just buying CVs, this is ridiculous.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Careful when tightening those zerks down, over tightening even a little strips the threads the zerk made.

Also both upper and lower MOOG ball joints zerk joints are not threaded, the metal is soft and the zerk threads itself.

Edited by Charlie_Brown
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...