Nissan Nate Hardbody (FULL BUILD)

Well what started of as just a small engine swap and bag job, in a driveway turned into a full all out build, in my garage. This is my friend Nate Dixon's Hardbody that I am building for him. The build has been going on for a couple of months now but I work out of town allot so it gets put on hold pretty often.

This project started out as just a motor swap and bag job, with deletion of the radius arms in the front. Then when he realized the 302 was too long for the engine bay it turned into a full cab floor and firewall back frame.

Here's what we got so far. (Note on the rear bag setup I added a pivot to get rid of the bag angle problem. Pix will be up soon of that.)

Edited: 2/18/2011 10:26:23 PM by jaredmXG

Edited: 2/18/2011 10:21:45 PM by jaredmXG

This is where it actually got into my shop and we started tearing it down. Nate quickly realized how fun it is to use a Sawzaw cutting on the frame, So the newest toy at the time was the portable band saw. It sure makes things nice.

Nate decided to buy a new steering column from www.thehoffmangroup.com, along with a fully labeled wiring harness from them.

He also picked up a fully built explorer rear end with Moser axles, lockers, and Willwood 4 piston disc brakes.although we did have to shorten the rear end 3" on each side to accommodate 22's



I decided to make a frame stand out of 2x4 because i could get the frame 100% level and I didn't plan on spending the money on box tubing at $4.00 a foot.

looks pretty cool so far..

Thanks Jay im in the process of getting them all up, we already have the cab fully built. I just want to give people time to comment.

Also a great tool to use to get the rear end perfectly centered and the correct pinion angle is the ratchet straps. I pre pulled some measurements from the front body mounts, to the rear end. Then when it was ready to go back hung it up there and made sure the measurements were correct. Ask for centering it up, I took string lines and ran them from the inside of the wheels, touching both inside lips, I ran them to the front of the truck and measured to center. That will also correct any possible problem of dog tracking.

deffienately on the right track, the work looks nice bro.

looks like poo...nah lookin good now have it readdy for spingfling

haha. well he still has to take it down to get the exhaust run, got to hook all the electrical up, run all the air line, the brake line etc. Buttt I think he plans on taking it running or not.

Edited: 2/19/2011 7:59:44 PM by jaredmXG

Figured I would post up some more pix of it. I got a little time to blow.

That rear setup is friggin sic trucks lookin nice