My 2001 Pathfinder (R50 ) mild/budget build

[Allof75]

Looks good, and personally, I like the grille. That initial shininess goes away within one washing, then goes down to a beautiful matte

As for the lights, nice work, I'd be interested in seeing a shot of the light pattern. Where'd you get the kit?

 

[stioc]

Looks great! Try some matte dull coat on the plastidip. Not sure how the reaction between the two would be but it's worth giving it a try on a test piece if you dislike the semi-gloss look.

Those HIDs are blinding! Gotta love HID in a halogen housing for offroad lights. Scatter scatter scatter. But for those guys dropping into oem (road use) housings, they need to at least re-aim their lights lower. The amount of glare and bleed is ridiculous. Never look directly into a 55W+ HID... save a 35W unit. Man, I know how you feel. I swear even when I closed my eyes for a few minutes, I could still see the black spots.

4300k should be pretty white. The whitest they come without dropping to 3000k (yellow). Perhaps the bulbs weren't up to spec, as a lot of the aftermarket kits aren't. I hear people getting mismatched bulbs even though the temperatures were stated to match lol. You get what you pay for. Try a different 4300k kit, and you might just get the light you're looking for.

Thanks, yeah I can't imagine 55w HIDs without proper cut-off housing. The color is actually just about where I wanted it i.e. max white but not blue. Unfortunately 4300k with 35w does tend to have a bit more blue tint than 55w at the same temp.

Look good, lots of light

Remind me to never drive in front of you on a trail at night though :sombrero:

Hehe no worries, even before the conversion I turned them off if there were any other vehicles close by.

Looks good, and personally, I like the grille. That initial shininess goes away within one washing, then goes down to a beautiful matte

As for the lights, nice work, I'd be interested in seeing a shot of the light pattern. Where'd you get the kit?

Cool, good to know about the shininess

There is no light pattern, it's like the sun, it throws light 360deg lol. I know what you mean though and I'll have to throw it at my garage door and see what it looks like, I'm curious too. You can see the grass by the mailbox the light really spreads out wide. It was ligthing up the trees along the side of my street while I was parked in the middle.

I got it from DDM tuning, they've been around a long time selling these kits- it was shipped directly from China though.

 

[Allof75]

Wow that's really bright then! Probably a good use of that dual reflector housing. Good to know who it came from as well- I have some ideas...

 

[stioc]

Some comparison pics (iPhone) that don't quite show what the eye sees. GF and I went out for dinner and found a dark street to try out the lights. HIDs take a few seconds to warm up to their full brightness so it was a gradual adjustment for the eye. After playing around with them when I first turned them off (while the headlights were still on) the gf said "wow it's dark" she thought I turned off all the lights. It took her a few seconds to believe me when I told her the headlights are still on lol.

Dark road:

OEM headlights with Philips Xtreme bulbs (pretty nice upgrade over OEM)- notice the end of the street has a fence (about 150-200ft away I would guess):

HIDs+OEMs - now you can see the trees on the side, the fence and beyond:

Garage door test, OEM headlights:

HIDs, notice the intensity of the lights, the output spreads out over a longer distance thanks to the dual reflector on these IPF 968s:

While I was at it, here's a crappy pic of the black grill:

 

[Allof75]

Thanks for those shots! I was just curious, and didn't want you almost hitting a cow again hahaha Plus at least you're getting your money's worth out of those IPFs.

 

[mortonm]

Does your fridge still sit on top of this platform and open properly?

I can see the on tie down location and the imprint of a fridge sized object.

 

[stioc]

That's a good question, the short answer is it should but I haven't tested it yet. The long answer is, the further I let the fridge slide out the more room for the lid of the fridge to open. You see that metal hoop? that was a stop for the slide because without it the weight of the fully loaded fridge would cause the top plywood of the storage platform to start to lift. However, since then the top platform is better attached (wood glue and pocket-hole screws) so worse case I'll have to remove the hoop and let the fridge slide out a bit further. However, I only raised the platform by a couple of inches so I probably should be OK as-is.

 

[mortonm]

That's a good question, the short answer is it should but I haven't tested it yet. The long answer is, the further I let the fridge slide out the more room for the lid of the fridge to open. You see that metal hoop? that was a stop for the slide because without it the weight of the fully loaded fridge would cause the top plywood of the storage platform to start to lift. However, since then the top platform is better attached (wood glue and pocket-hole screws) so worse case I'll have to remove the hoop and let the fridge slide out a bit further. However, I only raised the platform by a couple of inches so I probably should be OK as-is.

but not a chance it will open up inside the cargo area?

 

[stioc]

Page 40 of this thread has a couple of more pics but even without the platform I don't think I could open the lid all the way (vertically)- may be your X has more vertical room in the back? I've seen people removing half of the split rear seats and installing the fridge there...just another option if you don't need that seat.

However, holding it open with one hand and retrieving stuff using your other hand works just fine - even for my gf (5.6ft).

 

[mortonm]

Page 40 of this thread has a couple of more pics but even without the platform I don't think I could open the lid all the way (vertically)- may be your X has more vertical room in the back? I've seen people removing half of the split rear seats and installing the fridge there...just another option if you don't need that seat.

However, holding it open with one hand and retrieving stuff using your other hand works just fine - even for my gf (5.6ft).

Looks like a pretty good setup, I dont mind not being able to open fully, just want to have enough room to rummage around in there.

What is the weight rating on those slides? Looks like a nice and simple setup

 

[stioc]

I can't remember exactly but I wanna say they were rated for 75lbs? they were about $35 at the local home improvement store.

 

[mortonm]

I can't remember exactly but I wanna say they were rated for 75lbs? they were about $35 at the local home improvement store.

I saw some at home dept for 100 lbs. Do you feel those were enough ?

 

[stioc]

I wouldn't be surprised if that's what I got too. I figured the fridge weighs 40lbs+30lbs of food, should work fine and so far I haven't had any issues with the slides. they are a bit on thin side when fully extended but again no jams, excessive friction, binding or bending yet.

 

[mortonm]

I wouldn't be surprised if that's what I got too. I figured the fridge weighs 40lbs+30lbs of food, should work fine and so far I haven't had any issues with the slides. they are a bit on thin side when fully extended but again no jams, excessive friction, binding or bending yet.

That's more or less what I figured for weight as well. Does the slide have a catch/release on it?

 

[stioc]

It does have this 'self-closing' mechanism which is probably ok for a kitchen drawer but it's not a good-enough catch/release for use in a car. With any throttle application it'll fly open so I improvised and made a lock using a hitch pin that keeps the slide from opening while in transit.