Fast forward to January 2012, and my regular annual rust maintenance program continues. Different corner of the car each season. As soon as I see holes, no matter how small, I get right down to business. The doors I can let go longer, but anything on the chassis gets repaired immediately.

 

 

 

I know that's probably much more than you ever wanted to know about my Sentra, but rust is a very popular subject with me. I like to think I am staying ahead of it, but we all know better. :-p

That is an entirely heroic effort !!!!

Will you be my friend? Lol seriously , I wish you lived in my neighborhood.

 

Mine has Zeibart which was done correctly in that it also drained well besides repelling water. Not a lot of spots are flaked off and rusty. Couple of actual rot through spots in the usual zones but mostly solid enough to still be a workhorse and plaything. pics later ....

 

Jesse , you enticed yet??

Front driver's side:

 

Front right as seen from under center of car

 

Gotta run , more in the future.

Good stuff Paul. I like trading rust horror stories.

 

I've been on the Tercel4wd.com forum and most everyone there is from the west coast. Us northeastern enthusiasts have to battle much more rust than they do.

Yeah pretty much straight across the board , no matter what you have. Gotta love places like western Montana where it's high and dry.

or cali

That is some very nice repair work. I would have never guessed the sentra was in that bad of shape to look at it now.

 

And am I enticed enough now to do what Paul????

 

And am I enticed enough now to do what Paul????

I think he means to come out and join us.

 

None of you guys have sent me an email yet. I want to send the meet details to you all shortly so please send me a note to mikek (at] icerace [dot) com. Thanks!

I am intrigued. As long as the Brat behaves it's self and nothing catastrophic happens I'm in.

 

Email coming.

You're welcome moosens.

 

Our plan is to also bring a lunch along and take some pictures of our group's cars out on the trails.

 

Yes just outside of Albany. Do you know of any members here that are near the Capital District of NY, in western MA or VT?

 

Ah ha! How did we miss each other? Oh, yeah... I don't lurk in the historic forums often.

 

I'm in Niskayuna, so I'm close enough to Albany to meet up some time. Got a black '06 Baja Sport, Mudrat bumpers on the front and rear, and I believe a 2" spacer lift; the previous owner didn't mention it, but there's a lot of dead cat space, and I haven't gotten in yet to verify that the spacers are there.

 

I'd love to catch up sometime for some light off-roading, but I won't be able to make the Dec 2nd trip. Gotta work that weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Even if I had it off, I suspect I've got a wheel bearing on the left rear that needs replacing first. Don't know how much I'd trust it off the road, but I know the trip to West Sand Lake would be a howl :-p.

I think my exhaust is awful low in the center. Going to have to be careful and hope for the best. Email coming.

Got my email kicked back.

I'm at moosens at yahoo dot com

 

Thanks!

Hey Mike. Just wanna say that is an awesome transformation. Nice job!

Oh no. My email got kicked back too.

Got my email kicked back.

I'm at moosens at yahoo dot com

 

Thanks!

Thanks Paul. I sent you a note and am looking into why my icerace.com address got kicked back.

I am intrigued. As long as the Brat behaves it's self and nothing catastrophic happens I'm in.

 

Email coming.

Guys I've run the roads/trails twice and have removed most of the rocks that stuck up and may have scraped our undercarriages. I will be leading the pack and I will certainly slow down to a crawl for any sections that require special care. Most of it is quite smooth though.

Oh no. My email got kicked back too.

Sorry about that. I sent you a PM with my regular email address.

Hey Mike. Just wanna say that is an awesome transformation. Nice job!

Thank you!

Looking forward to this small pack of small 4wd-ers. Can't wait to see pics of this spectacle. make that big grin !!!!

I was out all afternoon today finalizing [and prepping] the course for this Sunday's outing. I wanted to lessen the possibilty of anyone's car having a problem with bottoming out so this time I brought a sledge hammer and a pry bar to remove the rocks that threaten oil pans and suspension bits. This is the one that nicked my rear control arm a few weeks ago.

 

 

It was much larger than it appeared.

 

 

This one won't be a problem any longer.

 

 

There were a few others that I removed the hard way.

 

 

I unearthed one more new "cow path" just as it got dark. I saw a very large owl fly across my hood and land into a nearby tree. He stayed there and watched me. It was only when I got out of the car to take his picture that he flew away. Too bad, because I had the camera on "night vision" and it would have been awesome.

 

I used to keep my wagon spotless and clean it right away after any kind of outing. But now with this 4WD stuff is going on every week, I won't bother washing it until the event is over. :-p

Edited November 27, 201213 yr by Mike Kamm

Let's hope nobody sees this from People For Ethical Treatment of Rocks

 

Thanks for your effort!!!!!

You're welcome. There's actually a story behind that big rock. As the organizer, I had to go a scout out some roads for this event - roads I had never seen before. This particular "road" had a rock that stuck up just a bit too far for my undercarriage, but I was able to go around it while travelling up the [dead end] trail. However on the way back down I sort of "forgot" about this rock and with the leaves on the ground, didn't see it in time. It just slightly scraped my left rear control arm. It didn't feel like much from inside the car but this was the result:

 

 

My rear control arms are pretty flimsy, being made from light gauge sheet steel. So I straightened it out with a hammer and a dolly, then prepped it for strengthening.

 

 

 

I cut out a template from a cereal box to transfer to some steel plate that I will welded onto the arms to "box" them in.

 

 

All fixed.

 

 

I added a little black paint to complete the job.

 

So that's why I spent my day off re-checking the route.

You're welcome. There's actually a story behind that big rock. As the organizer, I had to go a scout out some roads for this event - roads I had never seen before. This particular "road" had a rock that stuck up just a bit too far for my undercarriage, but I was able to go around it while travelling up the [dead end] trail. However on the way back down I sort of "forgot" about this rock and with the leaves on the ground, didn't see it in time. It just slightly scraped my left rear control arm. It didn't feel like much from inside the car but this was the result:

 

 

My rear control arms are pretty flimsy, being made from light gauge sheet steel. So I straightened it out with a hammer and a dolly, then prepped it for strengthening.

 

 

 

I cut out a template from a cereal box to transfer to some steel plate that I will welded onto the arms to "box" them in.

 

 

All fixed.

 

 

I added a little black paint to complete the job.

 

So that's why I spent my day off re-checking the route.

Hey I wouldn"t worry about the rock police to much:grin: I"d be more worried about that big pothole you just made in the trail! By the way,nice job on the repair, where do you find spare parts for the nissan? I haven"t seen 1 of those things forever!

i saw a nissan like yours but it didn't look to good:-\it was next to my drive way down the road (my drive way is 1/4 mile long) in a ditch on top of a 4ftx8ft solid concrete brick:drunk: with the front in smashed up(seriously half the car was smashed up it had the front end about as tall as the top of the windshield) but the back was fine, definetly was a sad day for that car

Hey I wouldn"t worry about the rock police to much. I"d be more worried about that big pothole you just made in the trail!

Oh I filled in the hole afterwards. I wouldn't leave a hazard for someone else.

By the way,nice job on the repair, where do you find spare parts for the nissan? I haven"t seen 1 of those things forever!

Thank you. Some parts unique to the 4WD model are very difficult to find, but luckily I have a friend who is a really good parts man at my local Nissan dealership. He was even able to get a few things out of Japan. It took six months to get a fuel tank and fuel pump sending unit bit I was lucky to get them!

 

 

And of course, I also have a parts car.