My nearly new Patrol

[Steele]

Along with the adventures, off-road trails, and camping, there have been quite a few modifications along the way as well. There has been so much help on this forum from guys like Anthony, Tinus, Michael, Malcolm, Peter, Ian T, the list goes on.... Thanks to you all! So without further ado, here we go:

The first step was to get a proper towbar fitted as the original one was bolted only to the rear 'recovery point'. Malcolm suggested Steelite in Booysens, and they built me a bar that attaches to the recovery point and the chassis rails - three points of attachment. Cost was R3900 IIRC.

[Steele]

The next step was to send him to the spa, AKA Ants Custom Workshop. Here Ant fitted a madman, android head unit, LED lights in front and on the rear door, USB power points for front and rear passengers, as well as sort out the subwoofer and some wiring issues. Top class work from a top class guy!

[Steele]

Along the way, Tinus organised me some CST (Maxxis) Sahara tyres in 285/75/16. Only done a couple of thousand kms on them, but so far really good!

Ian T also put me in touch with his man Innocent who made up a rear door storage and wheel cover for me.

Michael did a major service and ensured all was in working order.

I also did the exhaust. Knocked out the inside of the cat converter and removed the silencer boxes. So it is essentially a 63mm straight through pipe.

[Steele]

Not content to let everyone else do the work for me, I did a few things myself.

I replaced the interior globes with LED's off takealot - much brighter!

Then I built a basic packing system the the back. There was a frontrunner generic system in when I bought it, but it wasted space and didn't suit my needs. So I sold it and built my own with connect-its and plywood. It is still a work in progress, and is being adapted as I go along. We have an offroad camper, so ultimate packing space wasn't a priority, I rather went for all round usability. Basically there is space for the 2nd battery and air compressor at the back. Then two ammo boxes fit underneath on the left and the fridge on the right.

The roofrack powdercoating was starting to peel and it was really looking tatty. So I sanded it down and gave it a couple of coats of Duram 88 (elixir de Tinus ) That was 100 bucks well spent!

Also put in some seatback organisers from Tentco for the kids stuff.

Currently I am replacing the winch cable with a plasma rope. The steel cable was so rusted and pinched that I had to use the wife's ford as an anchor to pull the cable out.

[offroadbiker]

The only reason I want to buy another Patrol is so that I can do all of this stuff

[Steele]

The only reason I want to buy another Patrol is so that I can do all of this stuff

Too true Dirk! I can definitely feel a GQ in my future.....

[Tinus lotz]

Lekke dude

[hugejp]

[JTEC]

great stuff DIY is the way to go.

[Steele]

Loong overdue for an update, and have done a few more things. Patrol is now on 108 000km....

First up was another trip to Anthony to get some new goodies fitted.
He fitted the front spots which I got off 4x4direct on a good special. They are 25w LED and can be used as flood lights with the covers fitted, or remove the covers and have a pencil beam.
He also fitted a light to my roofrack which I also got from 4x4direct.
Then he modified my table bracket off my old roofrack to fit the rack on my patrol.
He also blanked off the EGR and fitted a new reverse camera to give a better angle when hooking up my trailer.
Once again top notch work from him!!!

Then it was off to Michael for some of his magic. He sent it to Viper to do a 3 inch exhaust with downpipe. There is one box in the exhaust to soften the drone a bit. It work well in keeping the EGT’s in check without being too loud.
It then went to SAC for a remap. They discovered that my Patrol already had a chip fitted (something I suspected but wasn’t sure of). They remapped the existing chip and the difference is phenomenal! I told Michael I wasn’t too interested in huge figures, but rather a nice wide torque and power band particularly at low revs for towing. The jump in torque at 1500 RPM is incredible. Power comes in smoothly and builds nice and progressively. It pulls really well from 80km/h in 5th gear which it didn’t before. It also maintains 120 on an uphill while just feathering the throttle. Here are the before and after runs on the dyno, measured at the wheels with 33 inch tyres. The first run was after the exhaust fitment, and the second after the chip remap. 35% torque increase at 1500RPM and the torque all the way from 1500 to 3200 is higher than the maximum torque on the first run. Very happy!