G'day from the Outback
Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 6:33 am
G'day folks,
Well, I am guessing you may not have heaps and heaps of Aussie members on here, but if you have a few you probably don't have many (if any) who are from the Outback. I know that in the US you know about the Outback from movies like Crocodile Dundee or Kangaroo Jack.
Ok, so the Outback isn't always as nice as those movies portray, it's usually hot, has a lot of flies, dehydrates you at an incredibly alarming rate (with the highest dehydration rate on earth basically) and it's got all manner of things that will kill you (snakes, spiders, centerpedes, scorpions, dropbears and hoopsnakes).
Anyway, I live in Alice Springs which is in the Northern Territory of Australia. That's basically right in the centre of the country if you look at a map. The drive from one side of Australia to the other is the same as from one side of the US to the other, in fact our continental landmass is about the same as the USA excluding Alaska.
I own an almost pristine 1989 WD21 Nissan Pathfinder 2 door (not sure of any trim codes or other model codes), it's the 2.4 litre Z24 engine (not fuel injected) with twin plugs.
It runs on the original petrol engine with 434,000 kms (270,000 miles) on the clock and it's still going strong. There are a couple of small spots of rust that I'm planning on getting fixed very soon. The vehicle has been re-sprayed at some point in it's life.
The best thing about the vehicle is that I bought it sight unseen, not test driven etc, but I was overseas at the time and bought it after almost an hour on the phone with the previous owner and about 25 emails before that call... and basically the history of the Pathfinder is that it was bought new by a friend of his fathers, that guy got in to financial difficulties and then sold it to his buddy (the father of the guy I bought it from), at the time the vehicle went to it's second owner it was barely a year old. That family then kept the car for the next 20 years! It was handed from husband to wife to son then daughter then youngest son who sold it to me..
So there you have it.. It's practically a 1 owner vehicle, it was maintained and cared for it's entire life... and now I've got it and carrying on the tradition of looking after it...
Anyway, I guess if you've managed to put up with reading all of that you are probably pretty keen to see the beasty itself........
Pic 1
Pic 2
(EDIT: sorry, found that I couldn't cross link the image thumbnail from my forum so I've just put a link to that image thumbnail, or you can click below for the full size pics in the thread (click them to see the full resolution pic))
Full size images can be seen on the 4x4WORLD forum.
Since I've owned the vehicle I've taken maintenance of the old girl very seriously and so far I've had half the exhaust replaced (it already had a bigger exhaust system so it's got a nice note to it), I've had the drivers seat re-stuffed so it's more comfortable and one of the cloth sections needed replacing. I have also fitted Rola roof racks to the vehicle and a roof cage. I have also had the front CV Joint half shafts replaced last week, along with new brake disc rotors, new pads, new wheel bearings... I've also replaced the front Torsion bars (which were sagged to hell and had to be wound up to MAX to maintain standard ride height) with new heavier duty Ironman torsion bars and last week the new 50mm (2 inch) lited, 25% heavier duty rear coil springs from Ironman were fitted and the front end was wound up to match the ride height.
I change the engine oil and oil filter every 5 - 6,000 kms, which is probably overdoing it a little but when I check the oil levels it's always clear engine oil running around in there, right up to the time I change it which makes me happy that such an old engine is running so nice and clean.
So my Pathfinder was my first car when I moved back home to Australia, but I've had plenty of other cars, my last 4WD while I was living in the UK was a Frontera (Holden, Vauxhall, Isuzu - you might know it as something like the MU) which had quite a bit of modification done to it.
My plans for the Pathy are to try and maintain it as best I can, get the little bits of rust fixed on it, and hopefully some day to get a full engine rebuild and if I am ever able to afford it I'd love to get the entire vehicle blueprinted (complete rebuild of the entire vehicle) or to at least send it to a vehicle restoration company to have it beautifully restored, but believe me when I say it still gets a good work out and always will, I love my 4WD's and I continue using them as designed.
I've owned a few 4WD's, they include Jeeps (a Cherokee and a Wrangler), the Frontera, the Pathfinder, a Daihatsu thing and Land Cruisers and Hiluxes.. so far though I think the Pathfinder is probably my favourite.
If you have a look at the link above you'll see there is a lot more pics of it and a lot more of a write up than this one.. but hey, this is a pretty in-depth write up.
Oh yeah, I'm currently trying to find somewhere to buy new front door window rubbers (the ones that are along the bottom edge of the window on the outside) and I'd like to get new window rubbers for both of the big long back windows as well, as I need to take one of them out to fix the bits of rust and I wouldn't mind re-sealing both of them... so if anyone has any idea where I can order these parts (don't care where in the world they come from, as long as I can get the parts!) then please let me know by PM, email, or whatever..
Cheers,
Simon
Well, I am guessing you may not have heaps and heaps of Aussie members on here, but if you have a few you probably don't have many (if any) who are from the Outback. I know that in the US you know about the Outback from movies like Crocodile Dundee or Kangaroo Jack.
Ok, so the Outback isn't always as nice as those movies portray, it's usually hot, has a lot of flies, dehydrates you at an incredibly alarming rate (with the highest dehydration rate on earth basically) and it's got all manner of things that will kill you (snakes, spiders, centerpedes, scorpions, dropbears and hoopsnakes).
Anyway, I live in Alice Springs which is in the Northern Territory of Australia. That's basically right in the centre of the country if you look at a map. The drive from one side of Australia to the other is the same as from one side of the US to the other, in fact our continental landmass is about the same as the USA excluding Alaska.
I own an almost pristine 1989 WD21 Nissan Pathfinder 2 door (not sure of any trim codes or other model codes), it's the 2.4 litre Z24 engine (not fuel injected) with twin plugs.
It runs on the original petrol engine with 434,000 kms (270,000 miles) on the clock and it's still going strong. There are a couple of small spots of rust that I'm planning on getting fixed very soon. The vehicle has been re-sprayed at some point in it's life.
The best thing about the vehicle is that I bought it sight unseen, not test driven etc, but I was overseas at the time and bought it after almost an hour on the phone with the previous owner and about 25 emails before that call... and basically the history of the Pathfinder is that it was bought new by a friend of his fathers, that guy got in to financial difficulties and then sold it to his buddy (the father of the guy I bought it from), at the time the vehicle went to it's second owner it was barely a year old. That family then kept the car for the next 20 years! It was handed from husband to wife to son then daughter then youngest son who sold it to me..
So there you have it.. It's practically a 1 owner vehicle, it was maintained and cared for it's entire life... and now I've got it and carrying on the tradition of looking after it...
Anyway, I guess if you've managed to put up with reading all of that you are probably pretty keen to see the beasty itself........
Pic 1
Pic 2
(EDIT: sorry, found that I couldn't cross link the image thumbnail from my forum so I've just put a link to that image thumbnail, or you can click below for the full size pics in the thread (click them to see the full resolution pic))
Full size images can be seen on the 4x4WORLD forum.
Since I've owned the vehicle I've taken maintenance of the old girl very seriously and so far I've had half the exhaust replaced (it already had a bigger exhaust system so it's got a nice note to it), I've had the drivers seat re-stuffed so it's more comfortable and one of the cloth sections needed replacing. I have also fitted Rola roof racks to the vehicle and a roof cage. I have also had the front CV Joint half shafts replaced last week, along with new brake disc rotors, new pads, new wheel bearings... I've also replaced the front Torsion bars (which were sagged to hell and had to be wound up to MAX to maintain standard ride height) with new heavier duty Ironman torsion bars and last week the new 50mm (2 inch) lited, 25% heavier duty rear coil springs from Ironman were fitted and the front end was wound up to match the ride height.
I change the engine oil and oil filter every 5 - 6,000 kms, which is probably overdoing it a little but when I check the oil levels it's always clear engine oil running around in there, right up to the time I change it which makes me happy that such an old engine is running so nice and clean.
So my Pathfinder was my first car when I moved back home to Australia, but I've had plenty of other cars, my last 4WD while I was living in the UK was a Frontera (Holden, Vauxhall, Isuzu - you might know it as something like the MU) which had quite a bit of modification done to it.
My plans for the Pathy are to try and maintain it as best I can, get the little bits of rust fixed on it, and hopefully some day to get a full engine rebuild and if I am ever able to afford it I'd love to get the entire vehicle blueprinted (complete rebuild of the entire vehicle) or to at least send it to a vehicle restoration company to have it beautifully restored, but believe me when I say it still gets a good work out and always will, I love my 4WD's and I continue using them as designed.
I've owned a few 4WD's, they include Jeeps (a Cherokee and a Wrangler), the Frontera, the Pathfinder, a Daihatsu thing and Land Cruisers and Hiluxes.. so far though I think the Pathfinder is probably my favourite.
If you have a look at the link above you'll see there is a lot more pics of it and a lot more of a write up than this one.. but hey, this is a pretty in-depth write up.
Oh yeah, I'm currently trying to find somewhere to buy new front door window rubbers (the ones that are along the bottom edge of the window on the outside) and I'd like to get new window rubbers for both of the big long back windows as well, as I need to take one of them out to fix the bits of rust and I wouldn't mind re-sealing both of them... so if anyone has any idea where I can order these parts (don't care where in the world they come from, as long as I can get the parts!) then please let me know by PM, email, or whatever..
Cheers,
Simon