The Righteous Path

[TheRadBaron]

Hello everyone. New member from Illinois here. I just bought a very nice '87 Pathfinder. It's a 4x4, VG30E, 5-speed, SE-model. The backstory is that last year I decided that I wanted an older compact SUV and I started shopping around. I was originally looking at the second-gen (90-95) Toyota 4-Runner based on Toyota's reputation for ruggedness. However, last year I got a really rusty '90 D21 pickup in a trade and I was really impressed with it in spite of the fact that it was totally falling apart. This got me thinking about the Pathfinder. Plus, the 2nd-gen 4-runner apparantly came with a REALLY lousy 3.0 V-6 and in a stark contrast the 1st-gen Pathfinder's V-6 has just the opposite reputation. Chalk one up for the Nissan.

I decided that I needed to stick with an older truck for a few reasons. I'm a avowed gearhead and I need to have an emotional attachment to my vehicles. I've just never been able to achieve that with newer autos. I've driven old stuff my whole life and I really can't get into anything newer than the early '90s. Also, I insist upon a manual transmission and the newer things get, the harder it is to find a stick. So that brought me to the 1st-gen Pathfinder. My mind was made up.

Problem is, it's nearly impossible to find a good older truck here in the rust belt and I wanted a nice vehicle for once. After much searching on Craigslist and eBay I found this '87 in Baltimore. It has 150,000 very well-maintained miles and it was garage kept for most of it's life. It's mechanically very sound, the interior is excellent, and the body has very little rust. There's a bit starting in a few places but it's far from terminal and I'll fix it before it can get worse. I took a flight out to Baltimore and drove it home to Illinois. Boy, am I happy with my decision and my purchase. I love this truck. I admire the way it's built and I really enjoy the way it drives.

It's pretty much all original but I'll be modifying things soon enough. Nothing radical but I'm a pathological modifier of things and I'll work in a lot of subtle improvements. I titled this thread "The Righteous Path" since that's what I named the truck. I like to give all my vehicles sarcastic or inside joke names. This way, when the wife asks me "What are we taking to the store, honey?", I can answer "We are taking The Righteous Path".

Disclaimer: I don't mean righteous in the religious sense. More like "fighting the good fight" or doing the right thing.

 

[bushnut]

one path one direction, just lock the steering wheel and go for it.....

[teixeira]

Looks good, have fun with it.

[xterra]

Looks nice and clean. I'm always glad to see another 2-door being saved from the scrap heap.

[PathfinderJA]

welcome.. that was a nice write up. I'm looking forward to following this build.

[TheRadBaron]

Thanks all for the welcome. One of the first orders of business was to change all the fluids. Luckily I found this site and read the FSB about the transmission fluid capacity and fill level. This is a picture from the other night when I was filling the gearbox with Redline MT90 ($$$). I read about pouring it in from the top but it seemed like the shifter boot was going to be tough to remove due to the carpet so I decided that this way was easier. I found that if you jack the truck up to this angle (no less), the gearbox will take the full 5.1L. And don't worry, I didn't put my body under the truck when it was up like this. I had a length of hose going into the fill port so I could pour the lube in while standing next to the truck.