The $500 D21 Nugget

Well I promised you lads some photos and here she is... she's a work in progress so no laughing ok...

As you can see she's a wee bit rough but as you Aussie say "She'll be Right!"

iPom

These are early stage photos from last year, I'll post up some more very soon.

Looks good iPom, bit of spit and polish and she'll be schmick!

Looking good mate, good buy I say.

What needs doing.

Dave.

Thanks lads,
The list of things to do is;

Rebuild gearbox. Done by a mate for $600!! Now fittted
New windscreen. Getting fitted next week.
New 1/4 glass passenger door.
Replace exterior weather strips both doors
Grill missing.
Repair rust holes in foot well, drivers side sill (Done)
Repair various rust spots all over cab
Respray cab (Eventually)
New drivers side guard to be fitted. Hopefully this weekend.
Grind, wire brush chassis to remove surface rust and repaint. Done
Wire brush underfloor of cab and spray with body schultz. Done
Reweld tow bar. Done
Replace both interior door trims.

There still a bit more to add so thats for starters....



iPom

How do add more photos to this thread? I could not seem to do it using quick reply?

Hit the 'Post Reply' button bottom left, instead of quick reply.

mate, your making me want to get an old car and do it up, would be so much fun and great experience to do everything yourself

That list didn't include rear wheels and tyres.....you really need them going off the photos.

Good work mate. Its always fun to get stuck into something like this and I envy anyone that has the room and does it.

Keep the photos coming as you make progress

Yeah that looks like fun to me.

Good on ya.

Cheers for the support lads. It's been a bit of a grind(pardon the pun) at times but I have and still are enjoying the build. All up I reckon I will get it back on the road for $2000 which is pretty good. A good point is that I have done (except for the gearbox) all the work myself which is very satisfying. I forgot to add that it came with uprated Old Man Emu suspension front and rear and also Wildcat extractors which makes the $500 price even more of a bargain.
I have also fitted an Exedy Heavy Duty clutch (only $160!!!) when i refitted the gearbox. I also replaced all the g/box, transfer case and various mounting bolts with new high tensile bolts/spring washers, i even replaced the ones mounting the clutch!
I'm also looking at fabricating a stainless steel snorkel and a dual battery system. I am going to remove the bench seat and would like to fit some 'bucket' seats out of a donor vehicle. If any of you know of which make/model would fit I would very grateful.

All the best iPom

The early Terrano seats are very nice and from what I assume the D21 from the B pillar forward is very similar on both the Terrano and the Nav.

iPom said:

I'm also looking at fabricating a stainless steel snorkel and a dual battery system. I am going to remove the bench seat and would like to fit some 'bucket' seats out of a donor vehicle. If any of you know of which make/model would fit I would very grateful.

Click to expand...

Maxima seats with a bit of a massage. Stainless steel?? Heavy! If you or someone you know can weld stainless, surely you know somebody who can weld aluminium?

Sorry about the delay in replying lads... didn't realise you both had replied. Thanks for the heads up on the seats I'll be watching the Bay with interest. Would Patrol seats fit by any chance, I saw a complete front and rear set for $100 the other week in the paper.

Pro-Nav... It never crossed my mind to use aluminium....DOH. I agree with you about the weight issue and ali is definitely the way to go.

Regards iPom

Depends on the donor car era, it helps if the series of the donor car was first released about the same time as the series of yours, but to be honest, if you're of the fabricating type you'll find it easy to make seats out of absolutely anything fit. Electronic seat adjustment would be awesome...

Pro-Nav2.7TDi said:

Stainless steel?? Heavy! If you or someone you know can weld stainless, surely you know somebody who can weld aluminium?

Click to expand...

I did some back-of-napkin maths on this, and actually, I was wrong about the magnitude of the difference...

Let's assume you want a 75mm internal diameter. Perhaps excessive for a stocker, but if you're spending the money on materials, welding, electropolishing/pickling & passivating (for SS), you want to cover all bases for future power mods.

In stainless, you're looking at 76.2x1.6 tube, I'd go for grade 316. That clocks in at 2.95kg/m, and you'll use roughly 2m of it. So, with two elbow joints and a head nozzle, about 7-8kg all up. That's not too shabby, and you needn't worry about galvanic corrosion.

Conversely, aluminium requires a greater wall thickness of 3mm. The closest match is 80x3 6060 T5 tube. It's 1.96kg/m. So really, you'll only shed about 2.5 kg overall switching from SS to aluminium.

So.... When opting for a custom metal snorkel, go with whatever material is most accessible, or whatever you can fabricate for the least cost.

Thanks again Pro Nav for the invaluable advice. I've been back in the United Kingdom for the past three weeks or so and didn't go near a computer (Too busy on the pi$$) so apologies (again) for the delay in responding. I've access to mig, tig, and mma so the only choice to make is material. From you comments and findings SS is now the way to go. I'll keep you informed how I get on,
Regards iPom