Honey Badger the Y60

[mudnut]

One tip for replacing all suspension components is to have the vehicle sitting at normal height as you tighten the bushes. This will allow them more flex both ways.

[BrazilianY60]

Thank you for the tip. When the car comes back from bodywork I plan to take some of the components out, for example the coils for painting, and plan to re-torque everything to FSM spec.

[BrazilianY60]

I love the looks of the Y60 from the middle east. Brand-new-looking rigs with golden wheels. I must confess that I never liked the look of the steel sunnies, but some of the rigs I see pictures on Instagram with the sunnies painted in golden tone, man, that looks mad!

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So for some time I looked around trying to find a matching spare wheel, with no luck. One day, I saw an add for a set of 4 very scratched Brazilian made Mangels Alloys, 16 inch tall, 8 inch wide, gorgeous design. Since I wanted the wheels to be painted golden, being scratched was no problem for me they would go over blasting, preparation, painting anyway. And the price was a steal, so I got them. Look at this picture and imagine the car with 5 of them!
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8 inch wide rim, great for an 285/75r16 tire.
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Backspace was about spot on!
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As it turned out, one of the wheels was in brand new state (the one in the pictures), two were scratched as expected, but one was severely damaged. It went straight to the recycle bin... So I was back to searching... Either one sunny or two Mangels alloys, LOL.


Also, I have been monitoring tire prizes for opportunities, maybe a warehouse closeout, tire sales, buy 4 take 5, etc. My plan for tires was for it to be the very last expense of this restoration, to avoid leaving tires aging without being driven, but I would not close my eyes for a possible bargain. During that monitoring, I realized something: in the past, 15" MT or AT tires were the standard here. Now, 15" has fewer options, and they are becoming more expensive then 16" and 17" tires. There is no much aftermarket options here, and the trucks being sold here that all had 15" rims in the past, now are coming with 17" rims from factory. Because of that the offer of 17" tires are the majority at tire shops now. There was more to chose in 16" and 17" sizes, with better prizes... Oh boy...

Back to the admiration of the middle east beauties, I stumbled across this picture of a fully restored/restomodded Y60 from Dubai (the red one). What a dream car! and What a wheel set! Very similar the D-slot steelies, but in alloy.
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The search goes on, and look what I found... Not the same one, but very close design! And it was 17" so I had to bite the bullet on that one!
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9 inch wide, that would be just perfect for 285 tires or even 315 if needed, although I like somewhat skinnier tires a bit more.
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So I settled in the tire size I needed, 285/70r17. Stored the wheels for the end of the project and kept working on stuff. Then, when I was working on the suspension, I was face to face with this surprise: one of the front tires that I had been driving for 1000 km during engine break in was stitched like frankenstein... Wow... What did I know when I was enjoying my driving nights... Not that the other tires were that better in terms of the thread, but this was too much.
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So, tire expense had to be anticipated. 285/70r17 Three-A ECOLANDER (Chinese tires are dominating the market here) is what I could get. They look quite decent despite the unknown to me brand.
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It is virtually the same size, maybe just a hair wider, than my favorite tire size, 33x10.5r15 that I have on my trail Samurai.
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Off to the tire shop we go!
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And here you can see the final results in two ways...

When I first set them, with suspension done, but before the spacers were installed.
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And at last, with spacers in.
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One more step done! The dream goes on!
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[Danyael]

Lookin' good in new shoes :-)

[mudnut]

Noice! Get into the habit of checking the lug nuts, periodically and more often for offroad driving. Patrols have a history of loosing their back left hand side alloy wheels.

[BrazilianY60]

Really? Any reason for that? Something I didn't mention that could be useful for other owners in places where this may be a rare car: the lug nuts for the steelies are not the same used for the alloys, and the compatible one I found locally (proper size, thread, capped/closed end, chrome) was from another Nissan, the Nissan Kicks.

Please keep the good advice coming, I really appreciate you sharing bits of experience with these cars. I've been offroading and messing around with cars for some time, but no Patrol specific experience here.

[Danyael]

How is it with those polybushes now? Did the rear axle quit jerking around? ;-) Didn't it get too stiff now? I am considering this upgrade aswell, cause mine jerks alot...

[BrazilianY60]

How is it with those polybushes now? Did the rear axle quit jerking around? ;-) Didn't it get too stiff now? I am considering this upgrade aswell, cause mine jerks alot...

Hi Danyael. The axle did quit playing around. I have only driven it on pavement, so I consider the behavior to correspond to my expectations with old OEM springs and new OEM shocks, which is, comfortable, no play, precision handling. I am not sure if that will translate into stiffness or less flex when going offload but I don't plan anything more then dirt roads for this car.

On the other hand, people here on the forum highly recommend staying with OEM rubber bushes. If that is an option for you, it could be simpler, easier and more predictable.

[BrazilianY60]

I love the Patrol Clinometer look and fortunately, mine came with a perfectly working unit. It was dirty inside-out, but nothing that could not be solved with some attention.

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Disassembled, parts cleaned.
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Some screws were missing, so I replaced them with similar sized ones.
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These little buggers were burnt. I am not familiar with lamp/bulbs sizes/names, it took me some time to figure out how it was called (W1), but ended up buying the correct replacement ones. Interestingly, the lamps are not green themselves, but rather, wrapped with this blueish silicon sleeve.
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Final result.
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[BrazilianY60]

Internal light sockets were a bit dusty and not providing good connectivity for the bulbs, and are also missing the clear covers.
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Took some measurements to evaluate cover options.
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Gave them a good clean sanded all the contacts and oiled the ball retainer on the lever. It now clicks very softly to the lever action.
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Was driving on the highway someday and noticed clear covers on the side markers of an 18 wheeler (they are usually amber). Bought two types of those to experiment with the looks of it. Good thing is that they are darn cheap, so if I don't like them after the required trimming I'll just trash them.
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This one looks almost ok
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This one, not that much:
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I bought these festoon type LEDs to change the internal illumination of some of my cars some 10 years ago, and it doesn't fit anywhere, as they are longer then the festoon usually found on this application. I am considering taking the end caps and soldering maybe three of these together in an arrangement that fits this roof lamp. Still debating about doing it.
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