RustFlames Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Hey everyone I haven't made a post in like 7 years, the ex crashed my pathfinder on an icy morning and slid into a trailer. So it sat in a field for a good long while until I decided it was time to bring it back to life. Someone had come along and cut out my amps and stole my sub. So my first order was to rebuild the stereo. I swapped out the speakers, deck, replaced sub and amp. Deck: Kenwood Double Din DPX503BT Amp: Kenwood 5 Channel amp XR901-5 Speakers: C2- 570x JL Audio Now onto the Dynomatting after upgrading the stereo it was quite evident that there was a lot of resonance between the body panels and the interior pieces especially when the base drops hit. This in turn took away from the music clarity with all the rattling, vibrations. It was the worst inside the front doors and the roof. Dynomat is a sound deadening material that keeps the road noise out, keeps the stereo sound inside. It makes a stock stereo sound great and an upgraded system sound phenomenal. I removed all interior panels, roof pieces (steam cleaned them once they were out) and went to town. I finished the cargo area, roof, pillars. Also to note I rolled up chunks of Dynomat and squeezed them inside the doors to eliminate the annoying buzzing sound in there. Its not a complete project there's a product they make called Dynopad and its thicker and specially designed to be placed on your floors under your carpet/vinyl. It was out of my budget at the time and eventually I will get around to it. This project cost me about $580 Canadian for just the dynomat. Its not cheap but if your serious about music its worth every penny. Also music aside it makes driving much more pleasurable when you take it on the highway the road noise is almost completely cancelled out, let me put it this way its the difference between driving a tin can and driving a Vault. There are other products similar to it but this was what was available to me in the area Hauling it home after it sitting in an impound for over a year. Before that It sat in a field for nearly 5 years The start of my quest to clean the underbody and frame began with dropping the fuel tank After several hours removing all the grit I had discovered some nasty little pinholes I sealed them up with JB steel stick that plugged the holes hopefully forever. 3 coats of Por-15 later and it was looking a hell of a lot better. Later on the Cap for the fuel pump was cleaned up and painted and wires all saudered wrapped The old calipers were looking rough so I replaced them and painted the new ones with some blue caliper paint ( little did I know I would start to paint everything in sight this electric blue scheme) Old springs vs. New comparison Since I had upgraded my shifter to a leather wrap and put a leather knob on my transfer case shifter. I cut this wrap off a BMW in the pick n pull yard. I had to drill out some of the internals to make it fit then I just slapped some contact cement on there and there you have it Been storing some spray cans of tint around for awhiles so decided to black out the tail lights and 3rd brake like, with the leds in there it looks very sharp Every single bolt, nut washers, locknut I removed was caked in rust, I methodically used my wire wheel cleaned everything up and painted with primer and 3 coats of a gloss black rust paint. After I reassembled the front end I realized that my knuckle, lower and upper control arms looked awful bolted to those freshly painted pieces so I continued on dismantling the rest of it. This is a comparison shot of lower control arms before and after primer I figured why not carry on with the blue so I used this raptor box liner paint to coat my upper and lower control arms, transmission support brackets, torsion bars, panhard bar, the torsion bar bracket, I tinted it "Electric Blue" Rear stabalizer bar, that dog bone piece off the front end. this pic I believe is of the first coat, I ended up applying 2 Im still putting it together here is some of the driver side assembled Since the front corner was crumpled I had to order a new radiator support, still in the process of removing the old one I cut out the heating pads and wiring out of some luxury suv at the pick n pull yard and installed them in my seats. Always wanted heated seats Since I was painting the entire frame and underbody with the por-15 black gloss (afterwards I painted over top of that with ashphalt undercoating)there were areas I could not reach, so I dropped the transmission out and ensure nothing was left uncoated from the rear all the way up the firewall Ordered some pacesetters, cleaned all the shipping paint (a real pain in the ass) and gave them 3 coats of por-20 high temp paint. I intend to wrap them with header wrap afterwards. will upload pics once I get around to it There are a few other things I am bouncing around on ( bodywork mostly) but this old girl has come a long way, and I dont intend of stopping here! Hope you guys enjoy this update! It certainly has been awhile! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjotrainbrain Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Wow, looks like you've got some dedication to restoring this rig! Glad to see it's getting fixed up instead of scrapped. Those new coils look beefier than stock, are you lifting it along with the rebuild? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustFlames Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 Wow, looks like you've got some dedication to restoring this rig! Glad to see it's getting fixed up instead of scrapped. Those new coils look beefier than stock, are you lifting it along with the rebuild?They do look beefier but I believe the stock ones had just rusted to the point where they were going to fail, I do want to add the calmini lift however I was told at the parts store it would be a 9 month wait as they only build a single small batch once per year, not sure if there was any truth to that but right now I’m saving for an Xterra transmission, are all years of xterra compatible with a VG30E? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobsteriffic Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Quite the resto thread!! Good luck on the project brother, it looks like you have a lot of dedication towards your Pathy. Definitely following this thread, excited to see what all you do to her! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 Back from the dead! I did a little sound matting when I had mine apart, but used one of the cheaper options. I think the biggest thing I found was that the glue holding the roof to the crossbars had failed in a few places, allowing for quite a bit of roof flex. I don't think I have enough bass for it to matter but I filled the gaps up there with seam sealer while I was looking at it. Definitely sounded better when I knocked on it, for whatever that's worth. My understanding is that any first-gen Xterra with the 3.3 has a compatible trans. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustFlames Posted February 8, 2019 Author Share Posted February 8, 2019 Pacesetter Long tube headers coated and wrapped with high temperature black fiberglass wrap (Moose Racing). 50 ft was just enough to do both sides. I was hoping to have enough left over to do the Y-pipe. Probably end up just getting destroyed. I still have to get a spray can of high temp silicone to protect from fraying and debris. The wrap will void the warranty on the headers but you only live once! With the 3 coats Por-20 I'm confident the pipes won't disintegrate from reaching higher temperatures than intended. If they do, let my mistakes be your knowledge! My question is I know the one bung on the drivers side header is for the Exhaust gas re-circulation tube, however there is a second bung just down the pipe from it. It is welded on but does not open up into the header its blocked by the pipe its welded onto. I'm guessing this is to install a temperature sensor. Is this a correct assumption? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 Honestly I have no idea what it is for. Most people just plug it with a bolt of some kind. Mine only came with one bung though so I didn't have the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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