My 88 D21

[Ranger850]

Didn't do the tie rod ends, waiting to get more parts. BUT, I did take out the explorer console that was in there and put in an actual Nissan console. It came out of a much newer truck and the rear bracket is supposed to attach to a small airbag computer that I do not have. So i had to fab up a bracket.
I started with a 4" piece of 2x3 aluminum angle

And two 5" peices of 1" aluminum square tube

I marked and pre-drilled the angle to go here

Like this

In the above picture, you can see the square tube attached to the angle. I used self tapping tek screws from the bottom, you could weld it.

 

[Ranger850]

Then I attached the stock bracket to my square tube

In the pic above, you can see the front bracket and the rear bracket attached to my bracket. The console fits over the 2 brackets and gets 4 screws at the bottom, 2 on each bracket, then a 5th screw on top of the rear bracket. It took a few minutes to get it spaced right, but i eventually got it.
Here's the front bracket hole

And here is the back

And here is the console in place and bolted in

And here it is with the seats back in

 

[ret_Marine2003]

There was a 1986 Nissan D21 that went from Marine to Marine at MCAGCC 29 Palms Ca.
The drivetrain was almost unstoppable. The electronic and wiring was not nearly as Marine proof.
I rewired it once, and know others had to repair damage from other Marines who wanted to put a better sound system in it but did not know hot from ground...
An ugly orange Nissan Pulser (?) Was another similar mess, I helped put a used motor in that goofy cheese wedge of a car.

Both had cobbled features that would leave you laughing or scratching your head.

 

[Ranger850]

There was a 1986 Nissan D21 that went from Marine to Marine at MCAGCC 29 Palms Ca.
The drivetrain was almost unstoppable. The electronic and wiring was not nearly as Marine proof.
I rewired it once, and know others had to repair damage from other Marines who wanted to put a better sound system in it but did not know hot from ground...
An ugly orange Nissan Pulser (?) Was another similar mess, I helped put a used motor in that goofy cheese wedge of a car.

Both had cobbled features that would leave you laughing or scratching your head.

Actually the D21 and Pulsar are closely related. They share a lot of bits and pieces that are directly swappable. A lot of people think the 240sx is the D21's car twin, but it is the PULSAR. lol

 

[Ranger850]

That single cab can get pretty tight for space, with my co-pilot riding along. And the bed is too big for small objects, things tend to slide around or out of the bags before I get home. So with the little bit of time I did have this weekend, I put in a tool box.

Since I pulled it out of a junk pile and it has been sitting in my yard for a few years, the locks were frozen, and the lids wouldn't stay closed. So I worked them loose with some PB Blaster and got them working again.

This is the side view.

There is a small bar that is attached to the lid. It slides into the mouth looking piece. The mouth should be facing up and when the lid is pushed down, the bar goes in the mouth and rotates it to the position in the picture. The backside of the mouth has little teeth. The teeth are then locked into place by a little thing that is attached to the push button on the out side of the box.

Push the button, the mouth flips up, and the toolbox opens. Push the lid closed and it stays closed.

 

[Ranger850]

Performed more liposuction. Since I'm not going to bother repairing the AC, I started removing related parts.

That's the compressor and hard lines. I left the ac cooler in front of my radiator for the time being. Also in this pic is the bracket that the compressor was mounted to. It went here on these 4 bolts.

 

[b1pig]

Oh, wow. I was talking to my wife the other day about how I'd love to have one of those trucks. When I was a teenager, I used to drool all over the hard body trucks at a local Nissan dealership. They got used to who I was and let me drool all I wanted to. I loved the look of the reg cab. I always felt like Nissan went down hill with the Frontier trucks. The hard body was the pinnacle. The 1st Gen Rangers and S-10s were it. Yes, I was into the compact trucks when the lowrider thing was in full swing. No, I never had any of the good ones. Back then, though I wanted the Nissan over all the others. I think Mazda and Toyota had the biggest following in that scene, but there wasn't anything better looking than a slammed hard body, and it didn't need ground effects to look great low to the ground.

That sucker looks like it's cleaning up great, though.

 

[Ranger850]

Finally had time to do some stuff to the HB. I replaced the distributor cap and rotor

Old vs. New

 

[Ranger850]

While i was under the hood, i replaced the fuel filter

And built a plate to cover an old emissions hole.

 

[Ranger850]

Front shocks were done. When I removed the top bolt, the shocks just collapsed and came out without me compressing them.

They came all black but I painted the tops gold because I have a lot of gold paint I gotta get rid of thanks to a clearance sale.

 

[Ranger850]

Beleove it or not, this little piece is a jewel among the d21 crowd. I basically have the rest of the interior torn apart. I'm going to attempt to spray the vinyl headliner gray. I got a can of spray on vinyl paint/dye. We'll see how that goes. Still have some masking to do before all that happens. Those old headliners are in there in a strange way that destroys them if you try to take them out nd mine is an ugly tan. Going to go to light gray to match the pillars and other things.

PS: my ebrake doesn't even work right now.

 

[b1pig]

Looks a helluva lot like the piece that was in the '88 Sentra we had when I was a teenager.

 

[Ranger850]

Looks a helluva lot like the piece that was in the '88 Sentra we had when I was a teenager.

Probably the same if the brake pulls out if the dash like this one does.

 

[Ranger850]

The truck originally had tan & brown interior. I have slowly been converting it to gray because I can't seem to find ANY tan interiors at the yards. Got gray seats, door cards, console and tan headliner with a brown dash. The dash will be addressed in the future. The tan headliner was adressed today. With this stuff

It works pretty good as long as the surface is cleaned properly. I didn't use anything the can suggested to use with this product, I just used a mild water/purple power mixture to clean it and after it was good and dry I started. Forgot to take "before" pics but have some " during".
Rear pass. corner

Rear window

Front before

Front after

I did another light coat to get rid of the streaking. Looks better dry.

 

[b1pig]

many years ago when that stuff was just coming out, I used that on a 92 Civic that I had. I recolored the sides of the seat black and after I put a center console and armrest in it from the graveyard, I painted it as well. Turned out REALLY good on the fabric. Not so much on the vinyl. Their product has improved a lot since then, though. I've seen some really good jobs done with that stuff. Wouldn't hesitate to use it myself.