Project D21

Welcome to my D21 Build up.
I've had my Navara now for just under a year now and I must admit it's a bit of a love hate reationship (I love her, she want's to kick the crap out of me).

This is how she looked when i first bought her


With the cash left over from the bargain price I got her for got her some new shoes. But unfortunately the salesman at the tyre shop convinced me not to go for the 31s again but to opt for a smaller size to keep it economical. So on went the desert duelers.
I took the bullbar of after I got stuck in a ditch. Have plans to make a custom bar.



Took off the old restrictive air filter and made a pod filter air intake out of 75mm stormwater pipe and stuff that was on clearance at supercheapauto, well bugger me if there wasn't an immediate power and economy increase right there. I could have run those 31s after all, hell maybe even 33s.
The dual battery system I only knocked up last week. Uses an ABR sidewinder soleniod to seperate, it only cost me $10 on Ebay, now I can run the Waeco.



Mate of mine was cleaning out his shed when he offered me these seats, there out of a Skyline so nothing matched up, nothing a little bit of elbow grease couldn't fix. Heaps comfy, I can hardly feel those leaf springs anymore. How's that for nothing.

Nice work on the seats, how did you feel about the old Navara seats on long trips before the swap?

Top work mate. Cant beat getting shit for free

Pro-Nav2.7TDi said:

Nice work on the seats, how did you feel about the old Navara seats on long trips before the swap?

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I never knew, the previous owner replaced the original drivers seat with one from what presume was a hilux, but it didn't sit right so you could imagine how sore my back was after a long trip. My wife did mention that hers was very comfortable though and she endured it for few hours on a round trip to Burra and back, but that was on the black top.

P.S. how you going with your cab swap?

Scotty

d21demon said:

I never knew, the previous owner replaced the original drivers seat with one from what presume was a hilux, but it didn't sit right so you could imagine how sore my back was after a long trip. My wife did mention that hers was very comfortable though and she endured it for few hours on a round trip to Burra and back, but that was on the black top.

P.S. how you going with your cab swap?

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That's no good, just as well you got the free seats then. I'm glad to hear your wife was comfortable in the standard seat, I'm eager to see how my standard captain's seats feel. With the bench seat in my single cab, you're always falling in toward the middle of the cab, so you're fatigued within an hour of driving it.

I got a fair bit done on Saturday pulling the wiring harness out of the body, not far to go, but I had work to finish today so that's it for this weekend. We'll see how I get on before Wednesday night when it's back to work again. Hopefully I'll get to pull the tray, fuel tank and front panels.

What's the story with the plate behind the door latch in the bottom picture?

Pro-Nav2.7TDi said:

What's the story with the plate behind the door latch in the bottom picture?

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The previous owner did it. I think its either because the door hinges were slipping and was helping to keep the door aligned with the rest of the panels, or its because the latch is so worn.

Got my 2" lift from 4wd systems today, it looks pretty good. Should get it on some time this week.

Have attempted twice now to install lift but to no avail. Leaf front pins wont budge, so Iam going to have to cut them out, lust waiting on new greasable pins and shackles.
Good news is that I wont be able to tackle it for a few weeks, for I going back to the red centre to try and squeeze as much time as I can in the West MacDonald Ranges.

I have realised that I haven't yet stated my wish list yet, so here goes. A lot of the custom stuff I am going to have a crack at fabricating myself.

2" suspension lift: done
2" bodylift:
V6 conversion:
Long range tank:
Dual battery system: done.
Respray:
Custom winchbar:
Custom built tradies box:
Lightforce 240 blitz spotties:
New cofortable seats: done.
Uhf: done.
Stereo upgrade: done.
Aftermarket gauges: done
33" muddies on 15x8 black sunnies:
Winch:
Window tint:
Custom side steps:
Front Lokkas:

So let see how many of these I get ticked off on the way.

d21demon said:

Have attempted twice now to install lift but to no avail. Leaf front pins wont budge, so Iam going to have to cut them out, lust waiting on new greasable pins and shackles.
Good news is that I wont be able to tackle it for a few weeks, for I going back to the red centre to try and squeeze as much time as I can in the West MacDonald Ranges.

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I'm sure this is telling you how to suck eggs but sometimes it helps to state the obvious, my method is to use a huge rubber mallet and a wood drift to get the lobe to turn 1/4, that cracks the seal on the bushes, then drive the pin out with the mallet and drift, soak in WD40 and continue to turn if necessary. Have you got ALL the shear load off the pins?

d21demon said:

2" suspension lift: bought but waiting on greaseable pins to finnish instalation.
2" bodylift:
V6 conversion:
Long range tank:
Dual battery system: done.
Respray:
Custom winchbar:
Custom built tradies box:
Lightforce 240 blitz spotties:
New cofortable seats: done.
Uhf: done.
Stereo upgrade: done.
Aftermarket gauges:
33" muddies on 15x8 black sunnies:
Winch:
Window tint:

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Whose long range tank are you going to use?
What colour for the respray?

Pro-Nav as for youre first reply, tried it even got some heat on it, bushes just wont let go.
As for the second reply, I'm thinking of going the 4wd systems 160l tank but I'm going to get them to allow for a tray and 2" body lift, should bring it above the chassis, Quoted price is only $980 delivered.
Colour I'm not sure, I was going to go just silver but after seeing Olgus69's beast I dont want to look like a copy cat, so maby nipple pink or labia red.

I had $970.50 supplied not delivered from Long Range Automotive for a 120ltr, 4wds sounds like the better deal... I'm still trying to work out how to get the three factory tanks I have to somehow fit in some combination of two.

I'm going white on the colour, have you considered bile yellow?

Pro-Nav2.7TDi said:

I'm still trying to work out how to get the three factory tanks I have to somehow fit in some combination of two.

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Have you considered moving your spare and putting the an aux in its place and route the filler from the back? Is there enough room?

d21demon said:

Have you considered moving your spare and putting the an aux in its place and route the filler from the back? Is there enough room?

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It's a Pathfinder 80L, it fits between the chassis rails but the cross member for the spare wheel (even with the spare wheel moved) causes it to hang out the back too far. I'm limited by the constraints of departure angle and ground clearance. I'll keep trying though.

hey mate, nice choice of truck! just got one myself. I have a question regarding the body lift you want to put in. are any mods required to the steering shaft or brake lines? i got a 2" susp. lift and want the 2" body lift to fit bigger rubber. any info or advise would be awesome. only new to the 4x4 scene so learning all the time. cheers, matt

Hey Matt, wellcome to the forum, its good to see another d21 owner on here. As for the body lift, I'm still exploring all ideas myself, but from what I have picked up so far is that steering shaft has enough play in it that you only should have to loosen nuts where it meets the box, the brake line I dont know about because there doesn't seem to be anywhere you can extend the lines from the chasis up, so Im kind of hoping that there is enough play in the lines that they don't crease. But the biggest thig is only lift one side at a time so as to keep the bolt holes alligned.
And don't worry mate, everybody here is still just learning, thats why we're all here, learning as we go and passing on all the usefull stuff on the way. Good luck with it all, I hope Ive helped.
Thomo.

P.S. Show us some picks of your Nav, we would all like to see them.

Hey d21 demon its looking good, as i said to pronav i wish i had the time to work on mine also,Oh and dont worry bout the copy cat thing i havent got the only silver nav out there, and i think silver looks great on most cars. Do what ever you like. I wish i had your spring front end...

It's settled then, silver it is. Hey does anybody kwow if we can sqeeze the front flares off a d22 onto a d21, reckon it would tee the look right off?