1989 Nissan Patrol Superturbodiesel - More machining!

Time for an update!

After failing to make it to RRG in the Patrol, work continued in fits and starts but because there was no deadline I wasn't exactly working my ar$e off getting it finished. After a while I got fed up of it sitting there unfinished so picked up the pace, until my daily BMW e36 engine popped and I did the only sensible thing and swapped in a bigger engine with manual gearbox conversion.

After that was done I got back onto the Patrol! I did the last couple of repairs, and as the paint was being shot by someone else the last bits of filling were left to the bodyshop and I helped out with the prep. Paint really isn't my area, so I figured the guy painting the truck needed to be happy that the surface he was spraying it on was as he wanted it, and I would get to learn a few things and maybe be less curse word at paint in the future - win-win! The paint is being done by Firefly Speedshop whose Garage Communities thread can be found here.

Rewinding a few months, I had to choose the colour. I went through lots of ideas and only really decided on what I wanted when I was at the paint shop! I toyed with white, gloss black, or just keeping the original red...
In the end, a can of paint I had kicking around that I had used on a few repairs gave me the answer.



A pearlescent deep red. It wasn't a manufacturer's colour, just some random can, so we sprayed a test-card and took it to the paint shop.


^ So much choice!


^ That looks like what I want! Mitsubishi Kutani red pearl.

Fast-forward to last week, and we were on with the prepping and paint!




^ Getting closer! We needed to get the bodywork arrow-straight so that the pearl paint wouldn't show up the flaws. It seemed a bit crazy to be going into this much detail on what is essentially an agricultural workhorse, but I'm not going to be doing much offroading in this.




^ So much wet flatting!

All that work was about to pay off though...













YEAH!

The grey skies don't really show off the depth of the pearlescent finish. When the sun hits it it has a really nice bright "pop", so hopefully on those two days of the year when it's sunny in the North West I'll be able to get a few more photos. Firefly Speedshop will probably put a few more photos in their Garage Communities thread showing the huge amount of prep, painting and polishing and elbow grease that went into the truck's paint.

The bumpers and other metalwork is being painted satin black. I'm currently re-assembling the truck, but it's not really a process that warrants any photographs as it's pretty boring! I just have to remember where everything goes...

Getting close to having it back on the road!

Superb work chap! So nice to see this in paint now! Looks beautiful!!!!

nice! look forward to seeing this as one

That does look good, all those lovely straight lines shown off really well. It's the only Patrol I've seen this tidy.

What's the plan with the rear cover chap? is that going to be body colour also or you going with a two tone? Or binning it altogether? I'm assuming it needs it to stay water tight?

That's a cracking looking truck now , will be superb once it's finished, definitely a show pony, but nowt wrong with that

I"d likr to see this finished too

I've been really slack in updating this build thread, but there has been loads of progress! Bit by bit I've been chipping away at the little bits and pieces needed to get the Patrol finished. I've got other cars and a fast-growing drifting addiction to maintain so dividing my time has been difficult!

With the main body in paint, there were various other parts to finish off. The bullbar, bumpers and other parts had been blasted and primed months ago, but just sat there for ages waiting for me to get around to getting them finished. Finally they were painted in satin black!







The problem with having a shiny new paintjob is that everything you took off starts to look old and scruffy in comparison. I was using new stainless fasteners where I could, so bolting on crusty bits of metal or faded plastic parts just didn't seem right. The bumper corners went to the blasters and got painted, for example. Overkill? Probably! But in for a penny, in for a pound:









The grille was also looking faded and tired, so was freshened up:


^ Before. Faded grey plastic.


^ After! Looking better in satin black. The huge Nissan badge was removed, I'm not sure if I will reinstate it yet.

Bits like the tailgate hinges got freshened up. One of them had seized and sheared so that was rebuilt and painted.



I really had to speed things up quite a bit as I was moving workshops and really needed the Patrol finished before the big day, so I'm afraid the photography had to take a back seat in favour of getting the project done! Evenings and weekends were spent re-assembling it all.
The roof was painted in black (no photos I'm afraid!), but one stumbling block was the side window frames which were rotten and totally unobtainable. I decided to make polycarbonate windows, and with a lot of swearing and persuasion they were fitted.

Finally, the Patrol was ready to roll out of the workshop. The paint had gotten covered in dust after spending so long in the workshop, so it was given a jetwash ready for the MOT...




^ The spare wheel hadn't been painted yet so I left it off for the photos...



With the MOT passed, there wasn't really any time to sit back as I had cars to move and the truck had to do what I bought it for in the first place: haul stuff! The new workshop was 130 miles away, so it was in at the deep end. I'd ran it around for a couple of days beforehand just to make sure it still worked and the way I see it, if it'll do 20 miles it'll do 200.



Loaded up and ready to go! I'd not towed anything with the Patrol before, and this was my first proper drive of it for over a year. Hills have always been a bit of a struggle unless you take a run up, so with over a tonne of metal hitched up to her I was a bit dubious as to how it would go, and how bad my fuel economy was going to be.

It performed great! Some long hills on the motorway were a bit hard work as expected, particularly if there was no chance to take a run-up beforehand. Having said that, I never dropped below 40. Changing down into 4th or 3rd only seemed to make more noise, but it chugged along just fine in 5th for the most part. By my reckoning I got about 22mpg, which isn't bad at all considering it'd only ever return mid- to high 20s on a run without a trailer.





I still have some things to do. The wheels need refurbing, although I have been looking at modular steels too. The paint needs flatting and polishing - it's just as it came out of the gun at the minute as I had absolutely no time to do it. I have a decal set to go on, which I'll do after the polishing. I also need to give the underside another thorough rust-proofing. I had been collecting up LPG parts to do a conversion on it, but when that will happen I don't know. Now that I know the economy isn't too crazy when towing, I'm less inclined to do it.

With the truck 98% finished (nothing is ever really finished though, is it?!) I intend to use it to tow the drift car to events next year, and generally just enjoy it. I'll keep the thread updated with the bits and pieces I do to it along the way, but the majority of the big work is finished now. Thanks for all the encouragement and interest, it's really appreciated!

what a fnatastic transformation.

i kinda liked it with the cab off the load bed, looks like a mini bronco