cpalka9's Build

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
So I've already done a lot and figured I might as well make one of these. So here is what has been done so far.

2003 Nissan Xterra 4x4 XE/SE (according to the registration) V6 Auto

May 2014 - 151k miles



May 2015 -173k miles



Suspension
- 3" SL & 2" BL
- AC UCAs
- Bilstein 4600 series shocks (front)
- HD Torsion Bars
- 3 Leaf AAL
- Bilstein 5100 series shocks (rear)

Steering
- HD TRAs (busted)
- Total Chaos King Kong Steering
- Centerlink
- Pitman Arm
- Idler Arm
- Inner & Outer Tie Rod Ends
- Idler Arm Brace

Tires & Wheels
- 285/75/16 Kenda Klever
- 16x8 Summit Racing 84 series steel wheels

Armor
- RLC Front Bumper w/ Smittybilt XRC 9.5k winch & synthetic rope
- Shrockworks rear bumper w/ tire carrier
- White Knuckle rock sliders

Lighting
- 2 Hella Black Magic Rallye 1000 lights <broken and removed>
- 40" Led Light Bar
- 2 4 cube LED pods <removed>
- LED third taillight relocation

Exterior
- Curt Cargo Basket
- Bedlined plastics and roof rack
- Tinted taillights

Electronics
- Shorty flexible radio antenna
- Sony receiver
- Image Dynamics 6.5" front doors
- Image Dynamics 6x9 rear
- Ultragauge scanner
- Uniden Bearcat 980 SSB
- 4' Wilson Flex Antenna

Engine
- Resonator Delete
- K&N drop in air filter <gone>
- Navara Snorkel
- K&N Apollo and Custom Intake
- Flowmaster 40 muffler
- 180a Mean Green Alternator
- External Trans Cooler
- S/C Radiator Swap

Drivetrain
- Lokked and Dropped
- Warn Manual Hubs

and a ooga horn.... just because

I'm probably forgetting something but will update as needed.
 
Last edited:

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
I had a few stock adventures







A few pics of a couple jeeps getting stuck trying to follow my bone stock xterra







I didn't waste much time before I started pricing out lifts and tires

The first of many shipments for the X









First transformation (August 2014)



Then came a few lights







Started using rustoleum bedliner on all the plastics



Also added a Curt cargo basket, 40 in LED light bar, blacked out the rear and had to finally get rid of those side steps





 
Last edited:

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
Still needed more light



Finally getting my 4low back





Took a trip with a ton of Toyotas, unfortunately only pic I got



Proved to be handy when clearing the trail



I couldn't be happier with the rlc bumper





And hoop is on!



Final assembly











Then this happened. Big difference - AC HD TRAs



OOPS!





I almost forgot I bought this



Only issue I had was the latch didn't line up with the hole so I had to grind down the latch so it would slide in.

 
Last edited:

XTP_Dyer

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Nashville
Great build so far! I think I follow you on Instagram, so I was wondering when I would see the name popup on here. Awesome stuff so far. Always good to see another "Super Black" crew member.
 

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
Total Chaos King Kong Steering...... night and day difference

IMG_0645_zpsrrm7pchk.jpg





Still got a few things to finish up before I can get an alignment and test it.
 

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
So haven't updated in like a year. First off fixed all the broken links. A lot of odd break downs started.

First I had a blown wheel cylinder and could not for the life of me get the drum off. The adjuster for the shoes was seized so I resorted to cutting to drum in half. Rear brakes were non-existent.



After about a day on the road the truck was starting to lose electrical power and hard to start. Had battery checked, bad battery. Got a new one, drove fine for another day until it was losing power again. Battery checked out fine but alternator wasn't charging. Go figure. Found a mean green 180a for sale on here so hopped on it.

Old and new


The bearing in the old one was shot which was the cause of the irritating engine whine. Win!

On the test drive after the new alternator, all of a sudden I'm overheating and spilling coolant everywhere.



After going through 2 radiators trying to figure out why my fan was putting holes in my radiators I decided to go ahead and replace the water pump and the do the timing belt job while I was at it.

An a fresh SC radiator


Truck ran better than ever after that.

This was my face when I noticed this happened. It took a lot longer than I thought it would though.



RIP 4" tips





No tips!



Also finally got a CB Uniden Bearcat 980 SSB







Then it was off to the shop due to something causing my coolant to turn milky



I thought head gasket, but the shop found a leak I the tiny rad hose past the thermostat. So they replaced that and put an external transmission cooler on and they saw no reason to go ahead with the head gasket. It has ran fine and even took me on a 2 week trip around Florida.



Currently has an oil leak that needs addressing but it is finally going strong.
 

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
I really slack at keeping this up to date so sorry for that.

First off, I should really get some bright reverse lights because this what happens when you cant see at night. Left me with a nice little dent in the rear corner panel and a good story.



I knew the those guards wouldn't do much in this situation but I loved they looked. I've since replaced them with some other ones that I sure wont hold up either but I got so used to them that I had to have something over the taillights.

A few weeks ago this happened, good thing I already had parts to build a new intake.



I had bought 12" section of aluminum intake tube, cut it I half, drill 2 holes for the vacuum lines and a hole for the MAF sensor



I bought a K&N Apollo to replace the factory air box. This came with a few vacuum line adapters. I cut one and shaved it down to use with the intake air temp sensor, which also had to be shaved to fit as well.





A little rtv to seal it together



Finished product. It's not the best and I've had to make a few tweaks here and there but so far so good







A few couplers from the parts house and a special 45 degree one and its all mated. Also added a snorkel at this point



This wound up being more of pain than it had to be. I wound up cutting the hole too low and was hitting the fender flair. After much fiddling and moving around to try and get it to sit snuggly, I said screw it and broke out the grinder and cut a chunk of fender out where the snorkel was hitting. It didn't turn too badly, can barely see the cut, just wish I didn't have to do it to begin with.



The biggest thing I noticed with this set up was the difference in sound. It really growls at higher RPMs and it did seem to give me a little more power at higher speeds too.


So I've had this Lokka and diff drop sitting on my bench for about a year and half and finally decided that it needed to happen. I didn't take many pictures of the process but I will say that it wasn't as hard as I was anticipating but it was just time consuming.

I used a quarter of a pallet I had laying around and strapped the diff to it in order to get it up and down.





Pretty sure your diff fluid isn't supposed to look like an espresso



While I had it all apart I decided I would change the CVs out as well since those have been clanking around too much, and I also found some Warn manual hubs on sale so I gobbled up a pair.



I also added a spring and a new Wilson Flex antenna as my old one came apart at the base due to all the whacks and vibrations. Hopefully adding the spring will alleviate that.

 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
Wow! That's a lot of updates! The intake looks great. And the Apollo with a snorkel is definitely the right way to go. Truck looks great!
 

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
Wow! That's a lot of updates! The intake looks great. And the Apollo with a snorkel is definitely the right way to go. Truck looks great!

Yeah thanks! It was definitely a learning experience for me but I'm happy with the way it all turned out
 

Joey

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Indianapolis
First gens are beast! You'll like the Lokka its night and day differences. the only complaint I have about mine is on icy/snow covered roads when I get above 45 mph or so, it gets pretty scary/uncontrollable. So my days of running around in 4 HI are over :(
 
Last edited:

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
First gens are beast! You'll like the Lokka its night and day differences. the only complaint I have about mine is on icy/snow covered roads when I get above 45 mph or so, it gets pretty scary/uncontrollable. So my days of running around in 4 HI are over :(

Yeah I have noticed that the steering self centers a lot more aggressively


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

SKAVYNGR

Need Bigger Tires
Location
Lexington, KY
Yeah man. I'm loving that intake. Looks very nice. I wish I had the skills and equipment to make stuff like that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
Yeah man. I'm loving that intake. Looks very nice. I wish I had the skills and equipment to make stuff like that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks. Believe me if I was able to pull it off then I'm sure you can too. I do have a drill press which made drilling the holes easier and a dremel came in handy a lot


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
Okay so if you have a shrock rear bumper you realized that your third taillight becomes useless and shines in the back window which is really irritating. So here's what I came up with.









Just brakes



Left Turn Signal



Right Turn Signal



Left Signal with Brakes



Right Signal with Brakes



I just started with a piece of angle channel and cut and bent a tab to line up with my bar clamps that mount to the roof rack.



Drilled holes for these

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013SLZ9FI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1





and BAM!!!
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
That's awesome! The best I did was a brake light in an old Hella housing mounted to the roof rack. Integrating the turn signals is brilliant. Bravo.
 

cpalka9

Bought an X
Location
Ocala, FL
So here was last week's project. Finally got my Christmas present mounted and wired up.

4a9c0f1a5f958f61f34c78d48c9aed88.jpg


6101e965da5cfefadef5d5bb3415b376.jpg


They were meant to be mounted as stock jeep fogs so I had to make a custom bracket for them to mount to.

I started with a piece of flat stock and put a 90 degree bent in it.

7589478f61b706d220991a5aa0aaf243.jpg


Then came a 4" hole for the light to fit through.

7fe21f9c568d65cd201212cb6bfeeedc.jpg


bb4d905df646627021cff386e3d1bbe8.jpg


c42673e7acc14ebb4996666fa84e522b.jpg


6f615cecc7362a564631a613a29fcf71.jpg


8a0fc1001c3959e8708742285f939e25.jpg


2148738b9468a1513c33a819c4388b41.jpg


Now to do it all again.

3a727058b61a55fc8a3db58f198d4b2d.jpg


And paint.....

ac1268e24a52188aa2e65f9664faa3bf.jpg


03d6a67544a842b0cda0475ddf555619.jpg


The lights had three different settings.
1. Fogs on
2. White halos with red demon eye
3. Amber halos

The fogs are wired to the factory fog harness so the switch on the stalk works them.

da7a526a83958d436921faa7210f20aa.jpg


4656c41419f8ec727a4be6687c916020.jpg


I wired the white halos into the parking lights.

c1c404f2f5d5fff5ad96d16f090d3bdb.jpg


71628e19f03ba8bd571b7dcf58abac83.jpg


And the amber halos are wired in as turn signals.

d4b8a4f9527f325253fd72b3969726a8.jpg


452e4f7ae6f9e93a11970dc2772c8df3.jpg


So far I'm happy with this set up. I may need to strengthen the brackets a bit as they seem to bounce a bit on rough roads.
 
Top