Skinny's Frontier Build - Blanche

[Skinny06]

Figured I'd hop in the way back machine and throw together a quick and dirty build thread with what photos I've got.
Not 100% complete as I don't generally document everything.

Where it started - Bone stock 2016 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

Well . . this is with a 1.5 x 1 inch spacer and block lift just to get some clearance.

Then came all the armor: steel skid plates(shrockworks) , rock sliders (white knuckle offroad dom tube), shock skids (nisstec), rear diff skid(shrockworks)

A custom roof rack from Precision Welding (eolivas) was next. Somehow I've lost the photos from that project.

 

[Skinny06]

From there things got a bit more serious in the suspension department. After research and figuring out the type of travel and terrain I was going to tackle I went for a titan swap.
Nisstec came through - after 6 months of waiting and multiple phone calls and missed parts out of their kit.

Radflo 2.5s with 650lb springs up front and radflo 2.0 rears

Work bench flow

PARTS! SPC upper control arms, stock titan lowers

Stock Front

Swapped front

 

[Skinny06]

Up next was a high clearance front bumper and winch. Eolivas (on the club frontier forum) of Precision Welding set me up quite nicely. Integrated recovery points and pockets for for lights, plus a well thought out radiator skid plate. The recovery points actually tie through the bumper to where it mounts up to the frame of the truck.

Here it is pre-powdercoat

Post Powdercoat

 

[Skinny06]

Install wasn't all that difficult, the most annoying process was trimming the factory bumper cover (which I still need to go back and touch up but I'm lazy) also had to modify the fog light housings.

Cut line

Fog lights in after some dremel work on the housings.

These were the fog lights I went with, in amber/yellow. Really great cutoff pattern and LED

For recovery I went with a Warn VR-12S, slight overkill but I'd rather more in this department than less.

Winch mounted. Feet first.

 

[Skinny06]

The backside of the stock bumper skin, post cut

Cut bumper skin and grill that will be retained.

This is a very heavy fairlead and I'll eventually change it out for a factor 55 unit.

Much like the 1997 thriller - FaceOff

 

[Skinny06]

All buttoned up

I need to re-trim and put some door edge guard on the valance. . .maybe this winter (I said that last winter)

Tensioning the winch line - forklifts are multi use vehicles

 

[Skinny06]

After the front bumper, it was only logical to go ahead and get a rear bumper sorted. I again went to Eolivas at Precision Welding and we designed and came up with a dual swing out bumper. Recovery points, hi-lift and rotopax mounts as well as spare tire. Integrated receiver and, bonus, a small fold down table and all important bottle opener.

At this time I also installed a full rear leaf pack from AllDogsOffroad to help with the weight and make full use of the extended travel radflos. A u-bolt flip kit and bump stops went in too. (I have since changed to black bump stops)

Pre swing out install

I bought a bottle opener and it came with this free bumper

 

[Skinny06]

Hi lift and rotopax fuel mount swing out

Complete with drop down table.

Spare tire swing out, I really dig the minimalistic Precision Welding logo. Not big and obnoxiously branded like some companies

 

[Skinny06]

As the original battery was on its way out, I decided a larger unit with better stats was the way to go. A group 31 northstar was what I ended up with. It required slight modification to fit, but way more CCA and amazing reserve capacity has been a game changer.
Extending the fuse block mounting was necessary so a heavy piece of brass was used.

Extending the positive lead was also needed

Some longer J hooks that were trimmed after fitting - safety third

Presto!

 

[Skinny06]

Lets talk snorkels.
I've never been a fan, especially of the molded plastic units. After some hunting I found a few companies in Australia that make stainless options. However, none for the US market Nissan D40/Frontier. After chatting with Meredith Metalworks out of Brisbane we settled on a spanish/thai snorkel that would still likely require some fiddling to get fit properly. I still need to pick up a sealed airbox or intake kit but for now it works well with the stock unit.

Stock airbox out, pre cutting.

Cutting template

Post 3 and 4 inch hole sawing - boy was that nerve wracking

 

[Skinny06]

Marking inner guard for cut

Outer guard cut finished and working on inner guard.

Cuts done, and fiddling with the temporary tubing to tie it together.

 

[Skinny06]

PRESTO

 

[jpat30]

WOW, just WOW.. Thats awesome. Really digging the snorkel. Are you going to run some type of prefilter uptop?

 

[Skinny06]

WOW, just WOW.. Thats awesome. Really digging the snorkel. Are you going to run some type of prefilter uptop?

Thankya!

I won't run a prefilter up top, however, the company that made it recently released something similar. A little mesh filter/water trap that fits towards the bottom of the snorkel before the airbox that I will end up getting over the winter.

 

[Skinny06]

Well, it never ends. I recently picked up a set of used Heavy Metal offroad bed bars, at the 9 inch height. This was to eventually move to a RTT setup as the oztent when setup requires so much flat ground space. A lot of times where we end up, that is hard to find, much less to find where you can get tent stakes into the ground.

After install and a trip, I determined that while extremely handy and useful, these bed bars were too short for a RTT to clear the spare tire and fuel cans on the rear bumper swing outs. I could've figured out a plate/spacer to put on top to clear but that would've needed to be roughly 3-4 inches thick. A bit too much, IMO. The next height offering was 19 inches, which was nearer to the top of the cab and would work. That being said, the kind of off camber and wheeling we do it made me uneasy having the COG shift that far up with a RTT.

SO. I hopped on the talk box and contacted the folks over at heavy metal and we came up with a solution between the two. After some fiddling and measuring we settled on a set of 14 inch height bars that would clear both swing outs, and give me a little room to jump up in tire size (spare tire clearance). Super easy folks to deal with, and helpful as well. This new set of bars will have a 25 inch plate for mounting quick fists/etc. on one side and two tabs to securely mount a hi-lift on the other. All while keeping the COG 5 inches lower than their medium height bars. 5 inches may not seem like much (thats what she said) but when you've got a 100lb RTT mounted that high, it is actually pretty substantial.

Here are some photos of the current bar setup, that I'll get around to selling at some point.

And on my truck