Background:
In 1999, my father-in-law, Gregor, bought a beautiful Nissan patrol 4.5 petrol.
Last year October he gave me the 4.5 as he was scaling down on everything as he moved from his house into a nice retirement house.
I had plans of building a complete off-road rock-crawling beast.
The Build:
I took the car to Anthony Forgey after speaking to Manny and Andreas.
I asked Anthony to pull out all the stops and install everything that would transform a standard 4.5 patrol into an absolute 4x4 monster dream car.
His advice was that we get all the parts ready and then attack it all at once.
Good planning to maximize efficiency by opening the diffs once and installing everything to minimized costs and maximum use of labor use.
The plan (for maximum articulation and grip.):
37" Tires
4" Lift
Gear ratio reduction,
Suspension upgrade -
So the list started
1. Full Service (oils and filters).
2. Radiator repair & fan belts.
3. Air hoses.
4. Oil pipes.
3. Bonnet gas struts.
3. Additional fuel tank, with gauge and manual transfer pump.
4. Transfer case low range reduction to 4.3 ratio
5. Manual hub lockers.
7. Gear reduction for both diffs also 4.3
8. Steel rims with a changed offset
9. 37" Maxxis Tires
10. 4" Suspension lift - Raw
11. Bzt front and rear replacement bumpers
12. Adjustable rear trailing arms, adjustable panhard rod front, adjustable panhard rod rear, adjustable draglink, heavy duty swaybar links.
13. Chrome-moly tie rod with ball joints
14. Extended brake lines and breather lines
15. Propshaft balancing
16. Android radio with antennal and reverse camera
17. New Clutch kit
In February Anthony finished the car and we took it on its first test at Hennops
Afterwards the flex and other adjustments were made.
Gregor:
Gregor's health was failing but I managed to take him on one last drive with the now big Patrol - he needed a two step ladder to get in!
The smile on his face alone was worth it all
Unfortunately, a week later. on the 30th of March this year Gregor passed away.
Since then I sold my Land Cruiser 79 series pickup and the Land Cruiser Prado.
I bought another 4.8 Nissan Patrol for my daily driver which I am going to chop and transform into a pickup.
I will do a write-up on that once I am finished....
