Meet Moira, my Nissan GQ Patrol
Moira is my 1992 GQ Patrol, one of (apparently) 500 made with a TD42 Diesel and an RE4 auto transmission. I got her about 6 months ago now. I paid too much money for her, but she's everything I wanted. And Coco said I had to buy it because she's beautiful and butch. No arguments there.
We love old cars, no dumb alerts and bells'n'whistles. No electronics. No traction control. No computers. No seat warmers. No ABS. (ok that one would actually be nice, the brakes leave a lot to be desired.) Just an Air-con that barely works, a noisey old diesel motor and a bulletproof driveline...and poorly made 1990s plastics. Coco is very attached to the idea of getting the brown club number plates for cars at least 25 years old, so that was the main appeal for her.
It seems likely this was a car that towed a caravan for a lot of its life. It's clearly been love and cared for, and the springs are bloody stiff. Also there's a very good selection of power outlets custom-wired to the rear. Very handy. At some point I will put some softer springs in it though, it's not a pleasant experience driving over corrugations at the moment.
According to the service records, the DTS Turbo kit was installed 19 years ago. This uses a Mitsubishi turbo, a TD05 I think it's called. No intercooler, but only running low boost for a little extra pep. Fingers crossed it holds on for a while longer.
So far I've modified the drivers seat rails to give myself a bit more legroom, and built a fold-out platform in the back so I can sleep in it. Got my Runva winch from my old ute installed with Coco's Dad, and did some rust proofing and serviced the trans while it was on his hoist. New Dobinson IMS shocks we installed when getting its RWC as well, the old ones were toast.
Unfortunately the first time I took her into the bush, a branch flicked up, went straight through the aluminium side-step and dented the sill. Bloody. Pissed. Off. Got some rock-sliders with infills on order with Eliteweld to prevent that happening again.
Right now she's in the shop, which has been a saga. Went in for a service last week, all a-ok but alternator was on its way out. Best to replace it since I've got some remote trips coming up they said, made sense to me! That was somehow a 4-hour job because there's a vacuum pump on the back driven by an oil line from the motor. I'm new to diesels so hadnt heard of this, but apparently its because diesels need a hand generating enough vacuum to run the brakes.
Anyway, $2k later and I get the car back. 50km later the car is sounding off. Checking under the hood and the shiny new vac-pump has ruptured a boost hose it was rubbing on. The new alternator must be a slightly different shape or depth because it certainly wasn't an issue with the old alternator. Oh well, the shops had it for another 3 days now.. TBC
