Ash's 2004 Patrol GU III TD42ti

[Cremulator]

Tie down points/Anchoring a fridge without drawers
Since getting a second-hand 40L fridge I've been working out the best way to fix it in the rear cargo area without having the mounting points that you get with a fridge slide or set of drawers.

Searching this forum turned up a few good suggestions, in particular, I was inspired by a post by Lowie back in 2013 – Tie down brackets for fridge

That post informed me that there was a child restraint anchor point in the rear (which had a plastic plug in it in my car) and that you can get anchor points that can be covered to stop them damaging things and also look neat.
I went to the wreckers on the lookout for some of these anchor points from a Commodore sedan but found something similar in a 2001 Subaru Outback.
I picked these up for $5 each - anchor points, covers and bolts.
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They are roof mounted points in the Subaru which is why they have plastic covers.
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Firstly I tried a tie-down strap, then I thought I'd get a clip from a car seat and use that to secure to the anchor point, but I found those type of straps loosened slightly over relatively short trips. So that led me to think that the seat belt material would work best.
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I got a couple of car seat extension straps/child harness from gumtree for about $5 each. The safe-n-sound protecta ones I got have a quick release buckle with a push button.
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I tried various methods to fix the straps to the fridge by unscrewing and threading the strap around the handle.
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and even with a double J hook to make it easy to remove, but that hook didn't fit the handle well.
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So I bought a single ratchet strap from Bunnings for $9.95 and used the PVC coated S hooks from that.
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I cut the hook with a Dremel and treaded the strap into the hook and folded the edges under.
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These are the two straps with hooks.
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I put the second anchor point on the passenger side in the rear of the cargo area as I am using the anchor point located directly behind the seats for a child seat.
Note: this needed a different thread as the anchor point bolts don't fit, so I bought some high tensile bolts for these locations near the wheel arch (I put another anchor point on the right side too as a potentially useful tie-down point).
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It worked out that the far strap I can pull towards me to tighten, and the close strap I can pull down to tighten. So both can have plenty of force applied.
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This gives me the flexibility to remove the fridge when we aren't going away and use a rear cargo mat for everyday use.
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[Cremulator]

Stereo Upgrade:

This is what I did to install a new Kenwood DMX8018S double din head unit, JL Audio XD700/5v2 5 channel amplifier, Kicker CSC65 6inch speakers, running speaker cables and a JL Audio CP112W0-4 12" sub woofer.

This was the aftermarket head unit that came with the car. It wasn't powering on when I took delivery of the car, so I cleaned up the way it was wired in and got it working.
To plug an aftermarket head unit into the factory plugs you need an adaptor like this one from Aerpro. Make sure you get the APP0121 as the recommended APP0120 doesn't fit the GU1-3.

There was no audible noise when I did get it operating and I discovered that all four of the factory speakers were blown.
I replaced them with 4 x Kicker CSC65 6" speakers which were a good low cost option.
Some longer replacement screws were needed to fit the thicker speaker mount points.

The head unit had Bluetooth music and phone calls, but I wanted to replace it with a double din unit with more features.

I decided that I wanted to run an amp to increase sound quality.
Looking at what a few other members on the forum had done with stereo upgrades, I picked a small 5 channel amp that I could mount under the centre console.

I ran new speaker cables from each door speaker to the centre console area. 16AWG for the speakers and 12AWG for the sub woofer.

While the console was apart I fixed up the gear stick surround with some Sikaflex sika 227. There were a bunch of the small plastic fixing points missing, so the gaiter was sagging away from the plastic trim.

I bought a 3-way junction terminal and cut the 4AWG wire that I had previously run for my dual battery system in the passenger footwell. This T-piece of 4AWG I ran along the passenger door sill and under the passenger seat to power the amp.

RCA cables from Jaycar. The 3-way video, audio left, audio right were on special and two of them cost about 1/2 the price of buying 3 x stereo RCA cables.
Just needed to label both ends of one cable to distinguish right from left between stereo and amp.

I made some aluminium brackets to fix the amp under the centre console area. Two points held it in place firmly.

And it fits perfectly under the console.

The head unit came with a bezel that didn't fit over or under the plastic dash surround.

So I needed to mark it using the dash surround and cut it down using a Dremel and a file.
It now fits on and the dash surround can be removed with it in place.


Finally I ran the sub woofer cable along the drivers side door sill and into the rear cargo area and fitted Anderson powerpole connectors so that I can easily disconnect and remove the sub woofer.

I've set up a tie down strap that clips to the centre seat mount and hooks onto the rear seat mount over the sub box. Easy to remove the tie down with the sub woofer.

I also fitted steering wheel audio controls, which has made using the stereo while driving far easier and more enjoyable.
You can view the thread about installing those audio buttons here:
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...d.php?p=787795

[mudski]

Nice. I have so much that I need to do to mine, but having to remove the roof rack everytime to get it in the garage is a pain. So not much gets done.

[0-TJ-0]

Nice. I have so much that I need to do to mine, but having to remove the roof rack everytime to get it in the garage is a pain. So not much gets done.

Same boat. Mine just gets done in the driveway when the motivation strikes.

[mudski]

Same boat. Mine just gets done in the driveway when the motivation strikes.

Issue is for me too, I have zero motivation to do it outside.

[Cremulator]

Issue is for me too, I have zero motivation to do it outside.

Yeh this weather we've had in Melbourne recently doesn't help getting motivated to work outside.
Our garage is open to the elements on one side, but half the time my car is not undercover.

[Cremulator]

EGT, boost and dual voltage gauge install

So this had been on my list of things to do since I bought the car over 12 months ago but it turned into a more challenging problem to solve that I had originally anticipated.
The car already had a 3 inch Manta exhaust, but for some reason the aftermarket dump pipe didn't have a bung for the EGT probe.
I looked into getting a bung welded on, but as the dump pipe was cast it has to be done further down the exhaust. I decided to replace the dump pipe and found another Manta 3 inch dump pipe on Gumtree that was brand new and got that for a good price.
I had a go at removing the old one, cracked 8 out of the 9 nuts, then started rounding the head on the last one so thought I'd better give it to my mechanic to remove. Lucky I did as the gaskets needed replacing, which I hadn't sourced.
This is the old one that was removed:
this is what the new one looks like, identical but with a cast bung:

Cabling runs along the firewall using some of the existing clips and into the cabin through the drivers side.
I decided to mount a couple fuse boxes in the left side of the driver's footwell. Cardboard template, translated to some 40mm x 3mm aluminium flat bar using two factory mount points.
The idea was to have one fuse block powered off the ignition ON wire and the other powered from the headlight illumination wire on the steering column.
The ingnition ON worked well but my idea of running the gauge illumination to the headlight wire and earthing it to the dash light dimmer didn't dim the gauges when I dimmed the dash lights (I'm learning). I then worked out I had to connect the illumination wires from the gauge to the dimmer switch, but not to the earth wire, to the two wires that had a positive voltage reading.
I connected the grey wire from the gauge (to park light positive) to the blue wire on the factory dimmer and the brown wire from the gauge (to dash light negative) to the pink on the dimmer. This dimmed the gauges properly with the dash lights.
The dual gauge pod (which I purchased colour coded from Patrolapart) fitted snugly and easily and looks great, but the grab handle sat out a bit as there is no plastic ribbing on the back of the A-pillar like there is on the factory one. I swapped the spacer with one from a child seat anchor point and that resolved the problem. All looks nice, neat and functional.

[MB]

Looks great Ash mate!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cremulator]

Cheers @MB. Next is the optional sensors to keep an eye on water temp!

[threedogs]

Wow thats a lot of work with great results. Id just say any
hoses in the engine bay that touch or cross each other to
use a cable tie to stop them rubbing.
Also there is a small door mod using one of those bonnet style
struts. Have a search and youll find it doesnt cost much which is good
A rivnut tool will make that job easier, keep the pics and mods coming,
dont forget to block the egr .