Hello All,

I recognize two members on here from other Nissan forums I'm also on or were on, smj999smj(ClubFrontier) and palmerwmd(Freshalloy). I made a decision to pick up an east coast "rust belt" buy a few weeks ago on copart and it finally arrived. Less than half the cost of a West Coast Pathy so I bit and hoped it wasn't rusted to sh*t. It unfortunately does have rust underneath which was expected anyway, but looks like the massive amount of rust converter I bought for my 240z years ago is going to come in handy.

I was fooled that the interior was a lot cleaner in the copart auction ad, but when I got it...the interior is a mess! Looks like the previous owner never wiped anything down, never vacuumed, nor ever threw away any of their trash that fell under and between their seats.

Brakes need a whole makeover. Just bought a set of rotors and pads to see if that's sufficient for now. If not, I'll be replacing all 4 calipers and brake hoses next with a full bleed. Brake pedal is very mushy, but seems to have some bite though. Rotors are rusted and done, it sounded like metal on metal grinding when driving and worse when braking. Pads still have life left, just the rotors are gone.

The delivery guy said the battery was dead. I noticed the battery was a 2 yr old Duracell automotive battery and looked clean still so I charged it yesterday and today, it shows 100% and still holding charge so I think all it needed was a recharge. Probably a total of 16+ hours to a full charge.

The rear view mirror was missing although the auction showed it in the picture. So was the rear glass handle under the wiper was gone. Someone at the auction location probably took some quick parts for their vehicle is my best guess.

Anyway, the pathy definitely needs some work.

Thanks for posting it up!

How will you attack the rust?
scrape and then paint with rust retardant?

PS: Nissan Community FTW!

Definitely going to scrape & sand the frame as best as I can, then paint the rust retardant on. Once that part is done, I'll go over the frame with chassis black paint or maybe the rubberized coating. I'm in CA in the lower desert where its dry 99% of the year, I may stick with chassis black paint. I may eventually move over to rubberized coating if the mud tires I plan to throw on here are too much for the wife & kids' ears though.

The plan is to eventually replace all the rusted control arms front and rear and go with some Radflos or ICON coilovers and go to 3.36 diffs. Thinking about Lokka in front and ARB locker in rear, but we'll see! Selecting parts isn't the problem, it's coming up with the money for all these that are : /

The goal is to run 35" tires with a 2-3" suspension lift.

Will be using the Pathy to keep up with an FJ80 Landcruiser, FJ100 LX 470, Tundra, and FJ Cruiser.

Great plan.

I think its gonna dominate those other vehicles in power/weight ratio.

Thanks buddy, trying to extend the life of this Pathy as most of the rust seems to be surface rust on the frame only so someone else gets a chance to play with it if some day I decide to move on from it.

Before picking up this one, there was a 2wd V8 LE near San Diego that the owner was trying to get rid of for $2k. I almost bought it because it had the russet interior I wanted as a parts car since it had transmission issues that the owner couldn't resolve after throwing money at it. The owner tried selling it about 6 months ago and I told him to just replace the transmission because it was really clean, but looks like he opted to try to fix the current transmission instead and got nowhere. The buyer probably got a great deal on it for around $1500.

There's another V8 LE 4x4 in El Cajon right now that was originally going for $7k...used car dealership has since dropped the price down to $6700 now. Personally they're trying to market it as an "Excellent Condition" vehicle via Carfax's value calculator, but if anything, the car is in good condition and should be sold for around $5k per Carfax if that's what they're basing their selling price on. It's basically a tow yard with a used car dealership attached, I'm guessing impounded or non-recovery vehicles that owners just left there. I looked up the place that is selling the Pathy and they've got very bad reviews for their towing services. I suspect their dealership side was probably the same so I avoided it like the plague.

I think I'm going to keep this thread as a semi-build and maintenance record thread. I did some more investigation in and around the Pathfinder yesterday. Cleaned up the interior some more. I did find my missing rear view mirror, it was tucked in under the passenger seat. Not sure if it was the delivery guy or what, but it was tucked up under there pretty good. I had ordered a replacement mirror off ebay last week that arrived yesterday also which I have already submitted a return for. However, I did have to buy the rear view mirror mount that sticks onto the windshield as mine came off with the mirror. Luckily I was able to purchase it separately, but it was expensive, I almost just glued the old piece back onto my windshield.









I didn't get a chance to take pictures, but I sprayed WD40 on all the caliper bolts and on all the control arm nuts and bolts to start getting it loosened up. Also sprayed the rear shock lower bolts too. It appears the sway bar bushings are still in good condition. Oil filter is leaking a little bit, I'd like to do an oil change on it anyway so that should be fixed soon enough. Oh and I am missing the lower bolt on the rear passenger brake caliper(Nissan 44141-AW70A Disc Brake Caliper Guide Pin) which I ordered two just in case.

The Mirror base part number is 96327-2Y900.

Replacement brake pads did arrive this past week. Rotors should be getting here in a few days including the new tires since the ones on the Pathy are GONE!

Congrats on the purchase. I am curious to see how you plan to fix the frame rust.
Will you be documenting it here?

This is turning into a great thread already!

Once I figured out how to move threads in this new software I may move it into the R51 forum if members dont mind

palmerwmd wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 08, 2020 1:20 pm

This is turning into a great thread already!

Once I figured out how to move threads in this new software I may move it into the R51 forum if members dont mind

Palmerwind.. The "move" feature is listed under the "hammer" icon to the right of the "post reply" at the bottom of the thread.

Moved.. I used the option "leave shadow topic in place..
I wonder if this means replies in R51 Chat will show up on here as well.

palmerwmd wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:13 pm

Moved.. I used the option "leave shadow topic in place..
I wonder if this means replies in R51 Chat will show up on here as well.

That usually means the topic listing will be left in the original section, but it will re-direct you to the moved thread when you click on it. Without leaving the shadow topic, it will remove the thread entirely from the original section.

brickbox wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:35 pm

Congrats on the purchase. I am curious to see how you plan to fix the frame rust.
Will you be documenting it here?

I plan to do sections at a time since I have two little ones and a third coming, but yes, I'll try to document as much as I can on here. I already have some wire wheel brushes in various sizes coming with an angle grinder for the rust clean up. It's going to also get hot here very soon so I may split the rust cleanup project into several parts throughout the year into early winter depending how much rust I run into. I don't plan to clean any rust up on the suspension components as I'm thinking to completely replace them. Just the frame and body.

Palmerwmd - Moving the thread is fine. I didn't see a 'Build' section so I figured I'd continue with the introductory thread to make life easier. Figure this forum can use a little more activity and pictures to motivate other members to do the same.

Update: I got my wheel locks removed. Used the old socket method to remove them. Below is what I had.



And below is the end result of having no key.



So now I'm looking at purchasing another set of wheel locks so I don't go out to the Pathy one of these days and it's sitting on blocks. I don't live in the ghetto, but better to be safe than sorry. Have to protect the below:



And got my new rotors and pads:

What kind of tires are those?
They look a bit like my old Courser M/Ts..
But i had to take those off they were LOUD on the hiway.

At times I even found myself putting in earplugs.

Those are Maxxis RAZR MT-772. I don't personally know anyone running or have run these around the area, but all online reviews seem to be great. The company is based in Africa so I would hope these will handle and stand up to a lot of rough terrain