[Hairy]

Well Ive decided to start a build thread on my Poo.

Its a 1990 Y60 leaf sprung ute,
4.2 diesel, no turbo
Has the h260 rear end in it,
Its built like a tractor and I assume from left over parts from WWII equipment.

I purchased it late last year for a minimal fee from its 2nd owner with no roady and as expected it needed some work done to bring it up to scratch.

It was already equipped with 35's on alloy rims (with minimal tread), a decent lift, ARB front bar, scrub rails and sliders, canvas canopy and some other junk.

So the first thing on the list was:

New calipers, rotors, pads
rebuilt front hubs with new wheel bearings
rebuilt e-brake and rear drums
rear wheel bearings
new leaf spring bushings
new door hinges
new sway bar bushings
new steering damper
new diff fluids
new master cylinder
new idler arm and bolts (steering)
new tyres and rims, 16x8 dynamic steel rims with 315/75/r16 Toyo mud countrys

Then I removed all the old owners accessories, ****ty spot lights, uhf, interior stuff and about a 15ltr bucket full of dodgy wiring !.

Now it was time for registration:

After getting it on the road i removed the canopy and frame and passed them on to my Uncle. I prepped the wooden floor of the tray and re coated it with decking oil.

I also installed some more new bits:
adrad radiator, hoses, water pump, t-stat (all after a 2 part chemical cooling system flush)
new belts, new oil and air filters, engine oil, gear box oil change and fuel filters.

Also installed my uniden uhf / police scanner and one of those GME 6db fiberglass aerials.
Then I made up a wiring harness for my Light Force 240 XGD HID's so i can plonk them ontop of the bull bar for camping trips etc.
Also installed some 24 watt LED floodlights (on the back of the tray) from Jet6.


Then i decided to hit the beach:

Next on the list was a visit to fulcrum to get some new shocks and a full alignment.
Well this only opened up a can of worms and in went a new superior tie rod with ends, a cast align kit, another new dampener, had to straighten a bent idler arm and some other junk.


So, that is my poo story thus far.

Oh apart from these bits that i already have and am thinking of putting on it.

 

[huntingqtas]

looking good mate,i like them rims,what brand are they?

 

[STUMPY/GU]

Mate that is one very straight & neat looking ute for its age .
And yeah the new wheels are awesome.
Cheers.

 

[Finchy260]

one awesome ute man! good luck with it!

 

[truck]

geez reminds me of Iron Horse' F150 = Great looking truck
very envious.
truck

 

[Hairy]

Thanks for the comments.

The rims are Walker Evans 17x8.5 competition beadlocks, they are sporting 37x12.5r17 Kevlar MTR's.

Still undecided if im going to run them on the poo, like wise with the PP 4-link LA kit (that was designed for Jeep).

 

[CSAGQ]

love the look of the ute, lways sorta wanted one, just couldnt handle the lack of space

 

[Ian Johnston]

Cool lookin ute mateunkrock:

 

[Finchy260]

gday mate!

any updates?

 

[weird_gq]

nice ute man, seen that when it was for sale... accept the guy was at the mines... then i rang him, and it was sold haha went to a good home

 

[Hairy]

Thanks for the comments.

Updates: Just about have everything i need to convert the front end suspension to a 4 link long arm set up (5 link with track bar), just holding off on ordering the 16', 2.5 FOX coilovers at the moment till after easter. Have been sorting out geometry and angles and looks like ill have more flex in the front end than my old Jeep. Thinking about converting the steering at the same time, but ill cross that bridge when i get to it.

Weird: Yea that's the bloke, was alot of interest in the truck when he was selling it, guess i got in early lol. Dont worry tho, to get it to a drivable state another 5k or so needed to be spent.

 

[weird_gq]

haha yeah, o well.. sucks but i suppose you rarely get the good bargin.. look forward to your progress

 

[LycraMooseKnuckle]

will angry mechanic be making an appearance in this thread?

 

[Hairy]

will angry mechanic be making an appearance in this thread?

Not likely Yom

Change of direction for the poo:

My tyres and rims are up for sale - Message - Patrol 4x4 Classifieds - Nissan Patrols, Parts, Accessories

 

[Hairy]

As stated above the old leafy pootrol has gone in a new direction.
I had all the gear ready to go to transform the old rust bucket into a capable offroader but decided against it and the coilovers, rims, tyres and other assorted gear were sold on to new homes. At the end of the day a more economical and realistic approach was taken considering the intended purpose of the vehicle.

At the moment I am working on a turbo set up to give the old girl some more erbs for towing, work and the occasional camping/fishing trip.

Detailed write up to come.

 

[Hairy]

Turbo write up in progress here: http://www.patrol4x4.com/forum/diy-modifications-accessories-40/just-another-turbo-build-72122/

 

[Hairy]

Time for an update I think.

Well I've decided to 'tart' up the old leafy junker a bit as I have really enjoyed driving it these past few years. Even more so since I did the turbo upgrade (link to build up in prior post).

The tray and paint work are starting to get a bit sad so I've decided to do a re-spray at home and of course things always get out of hand when a new project is undertaken and the 'to do' list grows exponentially.

A few weeks back I decided to kick off the referb project by picking up a 'new to me' 2nd hand tray from ebay. It's a steel sided job with a wood base. I don't have any pics of it at the moment because when I got it home I couldn't help but pull it down into is basic components ready to be stripped back to bare for painting. The basic plan for the tray is to paint all the metal surfaces in 2-pack full gloss black, replace a few of the wood decking boards that make up the base and to prep, stain and clear them, or if I get lazy a few coats of decking oil and a rubber matt. Along with the cosmetic changes to the tray Im going to pick up 2 under tray aluminium tool boxes to go in front of the rear wheels from http://www.tongmetal.com.au/wmenu.php (more to come on their intended purpose later)

So now that I've got this plan set in motion it occurred to me that I might aswell repaint all my existing bar work, then i figured 'bugger it, ill do the entire friggin truck'.

So as you can see the to do list started to grow !.

Now with the intentions of doing the entire truck I decided to fix a few things that have been giving me the irrits, so along came a new set of GQ doors with electric windows and mirrors ! - $75 from gumtree and laughing. They are a bit ratty but nothing that I can't sort out.

I've just about got everything ready to go for the prep stage of painting so I started to pull the bull bar and bonnet off the other day. I figured I might aswell have a decent pile of parts to work through in my make shift spray booth in the back yard.

But now this is where the 'to do' list starts to grow again !. Whilst under the truck pulling some bolts off I noticed a few very worrying things.
1) - I had to look twice, but whilst under the front end I noticed that the drivers side front u-bolt that holds the leaf spring to the axle was swinging free :O. It has actually ripped the bracket off the diff !. My room mate plays with welders for a living so we've come up with a solution !, over engineer the crap outa the mounts and weld a bucket load of gussets in !.
2) - Whilst looking at this u-bolt situation I also discovered that the steering was well munted. Never fear, a quick search on the forum lead me to the solution ! A superior engineering cross over steering set up, just waiting on it to rock up now.

That's about all I've got right now, still a few other bits and pieces to do along the way like new locks all round, make a beefier intercooler mount, tinker with some electronics for the doors and some lighting that will be going on the tray.

I'll update this post tomorrow and stitch in a few pics, after all, pics are cool !.

 

[james008]

Nice looking old ute you have there. Hope the refurb goes well.
While you're modifying the suspension setup... Custom flat springs and spring over conversion!
... And a shackle reversal
... And move the shackle mount to allow a longer spring
... And a high steer
... And longer shocks
... And extend the spring retaining clips
... And teflon pads between the leaves.

Its easy to spend other peoples money, but you'd get some damn awesome flex.
The teflon pads are easy enough though, and a lot of the Jeep and Toyota guys do it to reduce interleaf friction.

 

[Hairy]

Thanks James,

Haha, If the ute's purpose was awesome trail rig those would be very good ideas and yes, it is easy to spend others money . I don't think ill go that full on with the suspension though, load carrying is more what I'm into, perhaps some air bags in the rear but I would be dreaming if the budget allowed for those type of luxury's !.

On another note, I can't edit my prior post to include photos so ill stick them in here.

Tray pictures: These are the pic's of the tray from when I bought it, atm its in about a million pieces lol.

I picked this little beauty up off ebay for the tidy sum of $300.00.


I was a bit lazy on the weekend and didn't do much to the ute apart from prep one of the new doors for paint prep. Things should pick up as of today though, Obrien is coming out this morning to take the windshield and rear glass out of the cab. Ill have them back again to install a new windshield and put the old rear glass back in after paining is complete. Also waiting on a quote from rare spares on all new door seals, bailey channels and belts for the new GQ doors.

Cheers

 

[Hairy]

Time for an update:

Been busy as hell and haven't done much over the last few months but I've now got some spare time and have kicked things into gear. I plan to have the truck back on the road in about a month.

I've been stripping my bonnet, GQ doors, front guards and other assorted bits back to bare metal in anticipation of getting some paint down very soon. Once they are all done I'll attack the cab.

Picture spam:

old tray:

no tray:

stripped panels sitting in the beginnings of my el'bogan spray booth:

my spray gun: