Partsflyin's Mild 03 Frontier Build

[partsflyin]

I thought I would start to document the mild build of my 03 Frontier.
Long time Nissan guy, I think I lost count of all the 720's I have owned. The last one was an 85 that I DD'ed for several years.
I suffer from muscular distrophy and finally had to sell of my last 720, due to difficulty with the manual transmission as my MD has progressed.
Heres a pic of the ol girl...... Boy do I miss her !

 

[partsflyin]

I had wanted a CC Frontier since they first came out, so my search for a new ride (with an auto) lead me to an 03 at a local stealership. I drove about 6 different trucks and ended up going back to the very first one I drove.
She was a bone stock 03 XE CC. Only real mod was the shell.
I do alot of canoeing so the first necessary mods were to help make boat haulin easier, bolted on a hitch for towing of the canoe trailer , also needed a rack for the trips when I wasn't taking the trailer. After much pondering on how I wanted to violate the nice shell with some holes I came across a thread here on expo with some neat Ideas for mounting.
Ordered up a set of Yakima roof rails, and went to the hardware store for some fasteners.

 

[partsflyin]

A little detail on the mounting of the roof rack I scavenged from the 720 before selling it.

Yakima roof rails with carriage bolts in the tracks to keep as low a profile as possible.

 

[partsflyin]

Picked up some stainless hardware and fender washers for mounting the tracks. While planning the mounting I came with the idea to add some mini D-rings on the bottom side of the mounting bolts for some overhead storage.



Bought a roll of bungee cord and threaded it through the d-rings.

 

[partsflyin]

Added some super track rails on the bed rails.

 

[partsflyin]

Was dying for a lift but that was gonna require saving some pennies. After what seemed an eternity I had enough to order up the 3" Deluxe kit from AC.
Went with the Rancho RS9000's and added a steering stabilizer while I was at it.
Installed the lift myself at home, not near as bad as I thought it would be. I have lifted umpteen vehicles but this was my first IFS kit.
In progress.



Rear 3 leaf add-a-leaf kit.

 

[partsflyin]

UCA's and torsion bars





Idler arm brace.

 

[partsflyin]

Completed lift....... Needs some new tires.

 

[Allof75]

Sweet frontier! I'm loving the little wave of them on here :sombrero:

 

[Co-opski]

I like the rack on the campershell/cap mounted low, always wanted a basket. ohh and very nice truck btw.

 

[partsflyin]

Had a surprise meeting with a deer Friday AM . Bumper is pretty well trashed, and fender flare was pulled loose from the body.
All in all it could have been much worse. I had plans to upgrade the front bumper anyway, so I'm turning this one in to insurance. I'll see what they are gonna offer me and put that towards the upgrade.
I am impatient about getting her back looking the way I want so I went ahead and ordered up a TJM Bullbar.(Been drooling over those for a while now)

I also finally found a set of wheels I really liked and got them on order, 1 actually came in last week, the rest are on back order. Tires should be here by the time I get the rest of my wheels.

So several changes coming up , a little sooner than expected but hey i'm excited !

 

[partsflyin]

Sweet frontier! I'm loving the little wave of them on here :sombrero:

Thanks !

I like the rack on the campershell/cap mounted low, always wanted a basket. ohh and very nice truck btw.

Thanks man ! I'm a long time follower of your last frontier thread by the way, love your truck !

 

[wreckdiver1321]

That's too bad to hear about the deer. They have a bad habit of getting in the way sometimes. Glad to hear you're okay though. These pickups are pretty tough.

I'm really interested to see how the truck looks with that bullbar on it. I'm currently trying to decide between one of those or an ARB. I had a TJM bar on my 2001 Disco, and I can attest to the fact that they are super tough and well built. Do you know what tires you want to run on it?

Love the tuck by the way. It's awful nice. 2003 is a good year for these trucks! That topper with the Yakima rack looks really good. I had originally planned to do something similar, but I decided I wanted a RTT, so I'm doing a bed rack instead.

 

[partsflyin]

Couple pics of the carnage from the deer.



A big box arrived Thursday afternoon....



Took a bit longer than I expected but got the bumper installed last night.

 

[partsflyin]

After installing the front bumper It really made me want to upgrade the rear bumper. I have a buddy who is getting pretty slick at metal fab so I conned him into doin a rear bumper for me. He's got a good start on it and I'm really stoked about how its coming along.
Snapped a teaser pic this afternoon.