New project.

Hi Forum, been a while.....
I had a convo with my partner recently as she is rapidly being introduced to the world of patrols...the crux of it was not everyone wants a patrol but a select few want all the patrols...which leads me to my new project.

After recently sinking my daily drive GU in a bog hole and having it stuck for far to long and all the repercussion that go along with carpets soaked in stagnant water the KM2 were removed and I decided that I need a toy vehicle...I have an old diesel Hilux on the property which needs a new cab, I sourced another cab and began turning spanners when a friend also a forum member shamed me ( and rightly so) for wasting my time and making myself a laughing stock by believing that I could make a puslux a capable off road truck.....

Which brings me to my post, but the important thing to remember is I had an onion on my belt.....

I acquired a NA TD42 wagon with a strong motor and drive line...body is pretty gone with rust in the roof....I briefly considered doing a rough repair and getting some club plates for it...when out of sheer luck and a few minutes trawling the web I found a GQ leafy ute factory TD42 no motor or box...so my new project has begun I have taken inspiration from Mudrunner and will do a full build on the ute minus the high standard and quality components that MR achieved and used.

Here are a few pics, I will hopefully add to it in the future and possibly even see some of you on the tracks...

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Well done on the new toy,

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Haha welcome back mate. This old girl girl get interesting eh. Look forward to seeing it looks great for what ya paid

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Welcome back Shaun. It will be great to see this build. Licola is in two weeks so you better hurry!

Welcome.back mate, cant wait to see the build.

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Welcome back mate, good to read ya again, can't wait to see this puppy grow!

Hey mate congrats on the new build... money aint coming with us to our grave so what better way to keep you happily occupied.

Nice rig seems pretty straight. What ratios does it have in the diffs?

Call me silly but you could get away with a barra or ls conversion for mext to nothing these days paired up to a manuamised auto... slap some.lockers in it and coil the rear job done!

Thanks all.

BD I did think about an LS but I have a TD42 sitting here already and a choice of 3 turbos to bolt on...I knew I was collecting turbos for a reason....

As far as diffs the ute has 4:3 with h260 rear
The GQ wagon donor has 4:11
My GUTD42 has 4:6

I also have a spare rear GU housing disc to disc no centre that was 4:11.

I am still trying to figure out where they should all be the GU is a tourer and the GQ ute will be for the tracks and paddocks. I Would like to put the 4:3 in the GU and 4:6 in the GQ ute.....however the h260 is drum rear, what would the patrol brains trust of the forum do?

Maybe 4:11s into the GU and 4:6s into ute and get rid of the h260?

Any chance you can come down to Licola next weekend mate?

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Originally Posted by Family4x4

Thanks all.

BD I did think about an LS but I have a TD42 sitting here already and a choice of 3 turbos to bolt on...I knew I was collecting turbos for a reason....

As far as diffs the ute has 4:3 with h260 rear
The GQ wagon donor has 4:11
My GUTD42 has 4:6

I also have a spare rear GU housing disc to disc no centre that was 4:11.

I am still trying to figure out where they should all be the GU is a tourer and the GQ ute will be for the tracks and paddocks. I Would like to put the 4:3 in the GU and 4:6 in the GQ ute.....however the h260 is drum rear, what would the patrol brains trust of the forum do?

Maybe 4:11s into the GU and 4:6s into ute and get rid of the h260?

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I have 4.11's in my GU TD40poo. Originally 4.3's. It went better with the 4.3's but first gear was virtually non existant, and 5th at 100k's it was screaming away at 2600rpm. So its better now with the 4.11's.

It might not appear so but the GQ project is advancing.....

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Progress report.

The hilux chassis pictured in the above post sat around taking up room for far to long, the Corona hit and for some reason I got motivated....the car went from the chassis to driving in about 4 days and is now a farm ute destined to cart horse feed around the paddocks for ever.....

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Once the hilux was out of the way I moved the patrol wagon into the shed. I started to strip it....but home schooling has slowed progress.

Stripping most of it is pretty straight forward, I unpicked the radiator support from the wagon as the leaf ute has the early MQ style front. I will use the wagon rad support, guards and grill.

THe leaf ute didn't have boost assisted clutch so that has been put in from the wagon, the wagons brake booster is bigger so that is in the ute too, these swaps meant engine bay brake and clutch lines needed to be swapped. Most of the pipe clips on the firewall are brittle so I will order some new ones.

The wagon body is close to being lifted off but it's easier to leave it on right now while I swap everything.

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I must have missed the start of this. Welcome back mate.

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Progress woohoo haha.

Keep motivated mate I'll lend a hand when I can.

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Slow but steady progress, as much as I have wanted to rush and lift the wagon body I have resisted and stripped everything I want from it as it will be much easier to access now as opposed to when it's resting on a trailer....It turned out to be a bit more than I planned....the hardest part so far has been undoing the electrical plugs...due to some minor physical limitations I spent an hour trying to undo one!!!

I wanted to keep the swaybar disconnect the ute had everything bar the bracket for the lever which attaches to the underside of the steering column...so I began stripping that out and have decided that the ute will also get the upgraded tilt steering column, (I bet that only ever gets used once)!

I also wanted the Jesus bar so dash out...the wagon had trailer brakes so that was stripped too definitely installed by an auto elec on an hourly rate...neat job and about 3 packs of cable ties in all the hard to reach places.

Clutch and brake boosters both fitted to the ute, ute also needed an accelerator pedal and hand throttle so they are in too

As I packed up this evening I took all of the tools out...apart from the trailer plug and fuel filler lines the body is ready to lift! I will have a crack tomorrow if I get time.

Hopefully the weather holds out so the chassis can get a clean and a quick coat of paint.

Big thanks to the forum and its contributors being able to search the odd bit of info for the best method of removal or install or just browsing other people's builds late at night for idea or while dreaming about how much of a beast this ute will be (it probably won't be haha) is a great help and motivator.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Family4x4

Slow but steady progress, as much as I have wanted to rush and lift the wagon body I have resisted and stripped everything I want from it as it will be much easier to access now as opposed to when it's resting on a trailer....It turned out to be a bit more than I planned....the hardest part so far has been undoing the electrical plugs...due to some minor physical limitations I spent an hour trying to undo one!!!

I wanted to keep the swaybar disconnect the ute had everything bar the bracket for the lever which attaches to the underside of the steering column...so I began stripping that out and have decided that the ute will also get the upgraded tilt steering column, (I bet that only ever gets used once)!

I also wanted the Jesus bar so dash out...the wagon had trailer brakes so that was stripped too definitely installed by an auto elec on an hourly rate...neat job and about 3 packs of cable ties in all the hard to reach places.

Clutch and brake boosters both fitted to the ute, ute also needed an accelerator pedal and hand throttle so they are in too

As I packed up this evening I took all of the tools out...apart from the trailer plug and fuel filler lines the body is ready to lift! I will have a crack tomorrow if I get time.

Hopefully the weather holds out so the chassis can get a clean and a quick coat of paint.

Big thanks to the forum and its contributors being able to search the odd bit of info for the best method of removal or install or just browsing other people's builds late at night for idea or while dreaming about how much of a beast this ute will be (it probably won't be haha) is a great help and motivator.

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Hats off to you mate. That minor physical limitation you have, doesn't really seem to limit too much though. Im really impressed.

Wagon body lifted! Came off pretty well there was 4 electrical plugs on top of the chassis for the fuel sender and tail lights, they were a bit of a pain but all in all another productive day and step closer. I used a block and tackle to sling through the doors and an engine crane to balance the back.

Tomorrow wash and paint chassis if I have time.

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Nice job mate they k funny apart like that. Any idea how the clutch is? Now is the best time ever to change it if need be. Takes like half hour. I don't mind with body off. Just use engine crane to sort the box and slice it back. So much easier haha

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It drove fine home.....but no idea really if I can get the chassis painted while the weather is still ok, I can then push it back in the shed and start to sort out suspension and running gear...chasing a GU front diff housing caliper to caliper and a 4:3 rear diff centre if anyone has them.

Early start out there at 5:45am, Mrs was stoked at the karcher going before sun up!

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Yesterday afternoon

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This morning.

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After a degrease and pressure wash.

I didn't paint the rails yet as I hit a bit of a roadblock, contrary to the info I had and what is now glaringliy obvious the wagon chassis has no tray mounts so I need to get some welded on. This turns out to be a bit of a positive opportunity as I now have the chance to brace the chassis.

A quick chat with PSR (great to deal with and happy to share knowledge) and a bit of kit is on its way, looks to be substantial. I also ordered a rear coil tower brace kit, it's just to easy to get it done now. The added bonus was PSR have free freight this month! The links below show the kits I ordered.

Can anyone else think or recommend anywhere else to brace while I'm at it? It will be a bit of an all round ute, farm, outback touring and hitting the occasional track.

https://www.performancesuspension.co...ernal-heavy-du

https://www.performancesuspension.co...-rear-internal

https://www.performancesuspension.co...il-tower-brace


I also spoke to Big O 4x4 in SA about bracing the top of the inner guards and the triangle brace where the inner guard attaches to the firewall, the bloke there who is a bit of a champ told me I don't need it as the early Utes already had a full length horizontal brace and a triangle guard firewall brace, the guards are still on the ute but I could see the horizontal brace through the old snorkel hole.

Have a look at @PeeBees build. http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...ser-6500/page7 post #271.

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Originally Posted by mudnut

Have a look at @PeeBees build. http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...ser-6500/page7 post #271.

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My kit components fitted like a glove. Absolutely spot on forming and profiles. I think that @Rossco did some bracing of the triangular box section on the front guards when he did the body swap. PSR gear is a great product, I need to call them Monday about a custom brace for the external pass side chassis to mirror the unit they supplied for the inside of the rail - exhaust from conversion is too close to fit so I need external plating instead - I am confident they will have a solution.

Thanks @mudnut and @PeeBee, I have read through a fair chunk of your build PB...you are a more patient man than I....

So my PSR kits turned up and my brother in-law who I sold the diesel hilux to for $300 is just finding out why he got it so cheap....he was a sheet metal worker at one time in his life so pretty handy on the welder...

A big shout out to PSR if anyone is thinking about using their gear all great quality and as advertised. I did need to drill a few holes for brake and fuel line mounts but that was easy enough. They did leave one tray mount out of my order (they gave me two rear left and no rear right) , we noticed this at about midday on Thursday...a quick call and the mix up was resolved...the mount was in my hand at Midday Friday...bloody good service considering it's going from QLD to country Vic.

I was also given a heads up on some sliders which I scored for a bargain thanks mate....and managed to pick up some fox shocks which will be rebuilt over the next little while.

Will get some black paint on the brace plates in the next few days and then start on tidying up the GU rear diff I have to go in next week.

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