Hippo's Ride

[HippoNZ]

Hi guys,
Thought I'd make a build thread, a little history.....
Bought the truck in Feb 2011 for $6500
Nissan Safari Grandroad 1992 GQ
TD42 Non turbo diesel
Manual
330k on the clock

Came already with,
Steel bull bar
31x1050 on 15" white spoke rims
Steel snorkel
UHF radio
Spot lights

Work done so far,
clutch
Wheel bearings
Engine mounts
Starter motor
Alternator
Batteries
Head lights
Tyre Flares
Stereo
And the usual maintenance stuff, oils, filters, belts re grease etc and probabley a few other things.

Future mods (dreams)
4"inch suspension lift - next month fingers crossed
35" muddies
New bar work, front, sides and rear
Diff guards
Rock sliders
Under body bash plates
Winch
Diff lockers
3" exhaust
Spotties
From there I'd like to do some touch ups and future proofing then finally an engine rebuild so I can chuck a turbo on her. I'd like to think I'll have one tough truck then lol

Piccies to follow of her being how I bought it so you can see the gradual progress

Cheers and beers Brett

[growler2058]

Nice looooooooooong list mate thats sure to grow hahahahahha

[Bigrig]

Sounds awesome ... plenty of pics mate as the weapon starts to evolve!!

[AB]

Look forward to the pics mate, like the wish list too...lol

[Woof]

Hurry up Brett......http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/
Sounds great what you have already done to it mate.

[Bagheera]

Sounds great, but we need to see how it looks!

[HippoNZ]

Hurry up Brett......http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/
Sounds great what you have already done to it mate.

Too right you are mate! gotta get round to cleaning it first, currently mud colour x 6 coats haha

[gqt]

plans sound good man, be sure to get some pics up :)

and never mind the mud, we want dirty pics as well as clean ;)

[Clunk]

yep, looking forward to the photos

[nowoolies]

piccies we luv piccies
hahahahahahaha

[timbar]

:feedback::feedback:......http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/

[HippoNZ]

added a teaser piccie, while the rig is nice and dirty lol I will add some proper ones of it nice and clean shortly guys

[timbar]

See now its a useful post hahahahaha Looks Good Mate !!!!!

[Woof]

Very nice Safari you have there Brett, love the shortys mate...

[HippoNZ]

See now its a useful post hahahahaha Looks Good Mate !!!!!

I caved to your pressure timbar haha

[HippoNZ]

Very nice Safari you have there Brett, love the shortys mate...

Cheers Doggy, love the shorty's too, can get thru some tighter spots than the lwb and luckily at the moment I don't have kids to worry about so it's perfect for me. That'll all change one day tho haha

[HippoNZ]

Well fellas, to describe how excited I am right now would be near impossible. Just booked in the lift, will be completed next Tuesday with piccies to follow! Have also given work some designs on the bullbars I want made to include a winch cradle and side bars. Finally serious mods are taking place :)

I'll keep you posted,

Cheers
Brett

[Bigrig]

Well fellas, to describe how excited I am right now would be near impossible. Just booked in the lift, will be completed next Tuesday with piccies to follow! Have also given work some designs on the bullbars I want made to include a winch cradle and side bars. Finally serious mods are taking place :)

I'll keep you posted,

Cheers
Brett

Outstanding mate!!! Before and after shots boss!! Nice little Xmas bonus!

[AB]

x 2 mate, before and afters would be great!

Going to be a long week for someone...haha

[HippoNZ]

Will do, going to clean the rig up a bit in the weekend for them to receive on Monday night. Then I'll add the photo of it in it's saggy state lol then on Tuesday it will be standing bold!
Andy I completely understand when you've said before your the type who gets excited and has restless nights...wellllll that's guna be me for the next week....... haha god its painful waiting and it's only been 2hrs since I made the booking!!!

[HippoNZ]

Here ya go, couple of pics with Hippo all washed up from her watering hole lol
These are the before pics and I will have more photos on Tuesday once the lift is complete :)

Cheers
Brett

[growler2058]

Bet ya cant wait mate how high are ya end up going

[Clunk]

my god man, it must have been bloody dirty it's only taken 3 months to get some clean piccies up!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahaha............ cough splutter............. hahahahahahahahahahahaha

looks good though mate, looking forward to lifted pics, see you in another 3 months lol

[HippoNZ]

my god man, it must have been bloody dirty it's only taken 3 months to get some clean piccies up!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahaha............ cough splutter............. hahahahahahahahahahahaha

looks good though mate, looking forward to lifted pics, see you in another 3 months lol

haha mate, believe it or not but shes been dirty for the last few months. Moving house and all I still haven't bought myself a garden hose. I took it to a self car wash place last weekend and it seemed to be more of a place people go to wax and polish there show cars. Well..... lets just say I didn't make any friends when I rocked up and started water blasting the mud of my truck lmao. Finished off the inside today so took some pics finally, sorry to keep ya's waiting. The pics of the lift will be up as soon as I get home!

cheers
Brett

[Sir Roofy]

nice rig mate will look good with a lift

[HippoNZ]

Bet ya cant wait mate how high are ya end up going

3" in the end. The price went up a fair bit to get the 4" but while I was booking it he showed me another safari swb with a 3" setup and I thought it was the bee knees so I'm one happy man. With having swb I believe you don't need the extra lift as such like you do for lwb when your talking approaches etc and I was trying to balance clearance and top heavyness, if that's even a word lol With the 3" lift it will happily take 35" tyres but what I may find is my flex being affected and tyre scrubbing on the cab.

Sounds like I'm trying to desperately justify myself here lol At the end of the day it pretty much came down to funds....

Cheers
Brett

[Clunk]

haha mate, believe it or not but shes been dirty for the last few months. Moving house and all I still haven't bought myself a garden hose. I took it to a self car wash place last weekend and it seemed to be more of a place people go to wax and polish there show cars. Well..... lets just say I didn't make any friends when I rocked up and started water blasting the mud of my truck lmao. Finished off the inside today so took some pics finally, sorry to keep ya's waiting. The pics of the lift will be up as soon as I get home!

cheers
Brett

just yanking your chain mate!!!!! lol, hope you managed to splash some mud over the waxers and polishers !!!???

[2TROLLFAM]

My old mans ride10317

[growler2058]

My old mans ride10317

So if that's ya dads truck they'd. Be your sand buckets then hahahahahahahah

[HippoNZ]

just yanking your chain mate!!!!! lol, hope you managed to splash some mud over the waxers and polishers !!!???
That's the thing mate, I did! Got a bit tense at one stage when this fella had a go at me (including the shop assistant), just apologized and kept my head down, wasn't going to be an argument I was going to win lol Although instead of hosing all the mud on the ground into the drain (there was a lot of it) I drove off and left it there as a last and quite F*&% you rofl
Probably best I invest in my own water blaster lol

[Dozer]

lol, ive been chased away before too hahaha, its classic, when he said to me you cant drive that in here, its too dirty. I just replied your running a car wash man, no point cleaning a clean car is their hahaha. He just looked at me funny and i drove in and washed the rig lol.

[HippoNZ]

Just been told the rig wont be ready today..... sorry no picces tonight

[growler2058]

No excuse mate get down there and take a heap of foters anyway hahahahaha

[HippoNZ]

I would if only the lift had been started....still sitting untouched. Aparantly the guy had a shit of a day with another vehicle and couldn't get it off the hoist to get mine on there.

[growler2058]

Spewing mate ah well tomorrow we'll get to see it:-)

[HippoNZ]

Well boys and girls, as promised here are the piccies. One very happy man. Played around with some flex on a couple of tyres at the old mans but nothing serious. All I need now is some bigger shoes and it will be one big boss! Cost me just over 2k for springs, shocks, brake lines, castor correctors and some heavy duty rear arms. Thinking about getting a drop box in to line up the tail shaft a bit better and to take out the very slight vibration I get. Steering wheel is now turned to the right a fair bit say 2oclock to keep her in a straight line so not sure if the steering arm needs adjusting or if she is crabbing. It has always done it but just worse now with the lift, pretty sure I knocked the steering arm a while ago because when I bought the rig it was riding pretty true. Any how, saving for tyres now and work has the designs for the front bar. Will also pick up a new steering damper soon.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I am doing :)
Cheers
Brett

[growler2058]

Sh1th0t mate very nice, now BIG rubber and a rear 1/4 chop an sliders an hahahahahahahaha nah good onya mate hopefully you wont be dealing with wet carpet now:-)

[HippoNZ]

Bullbars are in the motion now, have removed the old ones and started cardboard mock ups for the new one. My god talk about a time consuming job! I spent almost a whole day yesterday farting around to get some of the angles just right with the cardboard lol. Hoping to get the mock up completed this weekend then take it back into work and create a profile on the CAD PC. Lucky for me the bloke doing the job has already built one of these for his own rig, Isuzu bighorn..... lol but the bar on his had to be put in place via crane lol I'm not wanting to go to that extreme but his bar use to take the top of big boulders whenever he hit them.....lmao
I'll keep you posted on the progress.
The pics are of the old bar, then when the old bar removed.

Cheers
Brett

[Trolatron]

Coming along nicely mate. There's more working in making bars than they look all the measuring,fitting and checking to get them just right can take ages, the welding together is the easy bit.

Your well on your way to building a truck you can be mighty proud of.

Ray

[HippoNZ]

Update:
The bullbar is still a work in progress....
Truck went for a warrant and failed badley lol, the comment box for repairs was not big enough and required a 2nd page, oh dear.
On the bright side it means I ended up getting a new 3" exhaust! Videos to follow.......
The rest of the repairs were,
new starter motor (3rd on in a year)
Front wheel bearings and swivel hub kits with seals.
Handbrake
Had some electircal problems where certain lights wernt working
Leaking brake oil onto the disk
Worn sway bar - so took the dam thing off lol
Sharp edges on the front since the bull bar has been removed - (for god sake talk about anal lol)
Spare tyre - tyre was half off the rim lol
Couple of other things but all in all its an expensive warrant. Bigger tyres will just have to wait untill after a few more pay days :(

I am interested to see what difference it has made with a bigger exhaust. Not expecting much HP out of it but maybe just a bit quicker of the mark? It will be a we while yet till I match the manifold to 3" when I put the turbo in.

Cheers
Brett

[taslucas]

Coming along nicely, good and flexy:-) goodluck with the roadworthy

[rusty_nail]

Coming along nicely, good and flexy:-) goodluck with the roadworthy

its prob alot easier going over there... when i went to NZ in october, the road rules are so relaxed hey...

[HippoNZ]

In a sense your right mate, we can mod our rigs to what ever we like to a certain extent as long as you can get a engineers cert to say it's safe.

[taslucas]

Yeah, very relaxed in Tassie aswell. Can let a lot slip through. And once it is registered, there's no yearly pit pass etc. Just keep paying the rego and your fine.

[rusty_nail]

lol lucky buggers, they go over our stuff with a fine tooth comb here in NSW

[taslucas]

lol lucky buggers, they go over our stuff with a fine tooth comb here in NSW


Just like the teeth in the inspectors mouth, the fine tooth comb is missing a few down here!! Lol

[rusty_nail]

hahaha good one mate, not a busy day for you huh?

[AB]

Very nice mate, coming along beautifully!!!!

[HippoNZ]

Very nice mate, coming along beautifully!!!!

Don't want to sound like a tool but it sounds beautiful too! who needs music to listen too when your exhaust is sounding so boss! love the looks I get when taking off at the lights and yes maybe I am putting on a show and dragging out the revs more than required lol I must look like a complete dick while doing it cause I have this big smile on my face haha
Total damage to wallet 2k in repairs, im officially broke till pay day in a couple of weeks....... not my cheapest warrant of fitness I have so say......

[HippoNZ]

I managed to get a couple of snippets of the bullbar in progress being built at the moment, it's going to be pushing over trees in no time lol so far the the uprights out of the chassis is fitted with the winch cradle, now designing the plate work to spread out from there. Once complete she will get a sand blast and painted black. completion might be a month away yet but worth the wait I reckon.

[HippoNZ]

Piccies of the bullbar 2/3rds complete. It has all been made out of 6mm steel, I don't know much about steel but I am told it is quite a high density steel. Just got some more plate work to go then shes off for a sand blast and to be painted black. I have also eyed up a winch which I will purchase in the next month or so.

[Maxhead]

Yep, starting to take shape, looks good mate