Come check out the Nissan Pathmaker Build Blog where I take my 1987 stock Nissan Pathfinder and cut it into a one-ton axle, 42″ tire rock crawling beast known as “The Pathmaker”. Having owned the rig since 2001 and upgrading it for years. It was time to SAS it and add some one-ton running gear, dual transfer cases, full hydraulic steering, exo-cage and more! If you are planning to build a Pathfinder in the future make sure to subscribe. From fuel system to brakes, exhaust and cooling this blog goes over it all. The project also doesn’t stop. I still wheel the Pathmaker to this day and am constantly upgrading (and breaking) parts. Follow along and don’t miss out on all my crazy off-road adventures!
After years of red line and forgetting to turn my Ford Taurus E-Fan on my Head Gasket was starting to go with a bit of oil showing up under the rad cap. Grabbing some new head gaskets off of RockAuto, as well as an assortment of other gaskets and seals that I may need along the way, including a timing belt I tore into the Pathmaker and got started. Continue reading →
In the last post we removed all the parts for the MPFI swap from our donor 1995 Nissan Pathfinder “The Cheapfinder.” Now the time has come to put the Pathmaker Rig under the knife and pull off all the TBI parts so I can bolt up the parts off the 95.
The list of parts you need to remove is essentially identical as in Part 1 so head over there for all the details and we’ll pickup this from a torn down VG30i. Continue reading →
It was finally time to tear apart the 1995 Nissan Cheapfinder project and get the EFI stuff off the engine before sending it to the scrapyard to get turned into a cube. The reason for the effort and the reason you’re likely reading this is to do an EFI Swap on your Nissan Pathfinder or Hardbody with the VG30i Throttle Body engine. Since the Pathmaker rig is a 2dr 1987 Pathfinder it sports the old VG30i and it was time for an upgrade.
Why go thru the effort you may ask? “Free” Horsepower! Continue reading →
With my knuckles back on the Pathmaker Rig it was time to shift from “need to” projects to a few “want to” projects. The PSC Full Hydro steering on my rig has been working great for me, except that my pump likes to get nice and hot and whine after some hard use.
It was finally time to get around to installing the windshield that I pulled out of the Project Cheapfinder in a previous BLOG POST and toss it into the Pathmaker rig. Never having done it before this was going to be an interesting learning experience for me. My good friend Rich owns a glass shop in Kamloops BC Family Glass and he gave me a few pointers on what I should do. Of course I completely forgot everything he said right away so any screw ups are definitely my fault! Continue reading →
I had the Nissan Pathmaker out at the Frogstompers Funday Toydrive in Dec 2017 and decided I should do an updated blog post just to go over where my rig sits now, as compare to my last blog post and first shakedown run which took place in 2012. I figured I’d film the origin story and then go over some of the parts on the rig. Nissan Pathmaker One Ton SAS WD21 Build Walk Around, while you get to come for a ride around our local OHV park trails.
It was time to roll it out of the shop and do a little photo shoot with the fresh unpainted cage. This would be the last time I ever saw it looking so fresh and so clean again! Continue reading →
In one of my previous posts about installing the full hydro steering I mentioned that I had picked up a brand new JD2 Bender. I fabbed up a mount so I could bend all the pipe for my rig Continue reading →
Now that the Pathmaker is sitting down on its own axles again it was time to deal with some of the odds and ends. The list includes the fuel system, rerouting the exhaust from drivers to passenger side, Continue reading →
What a fantastic pile of goodies I got! I went up to NorthWest Fabworks to grab my NWF Hydro Steering Arms, as well as my Full PSC Hydro Steering setup. Decided on the 8″ Ram full kit with cooler and N-Pump, as well as 4 new 14″ – Bilstein 5100 Series Shocks. Continue reading →
After getting the “easy” rear axle together and placed it was time to figure out the rest of my front axle. In one of my past posts I built the front cross member out of a piece of 3″ square and cut and attached it to the front of the frame. Continue reading →
Now its time to bust out the grinders and welder again and get back into the heavy metal fab and heavy is the way it turned out! I had pulled the 3″ body lift out of my rig Continue reading →
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