4WD GQ Hammer Build Up

[fatman1121]

Ok guys, I've decided on the direction on where i want to go with my next 4wd.

Ive always been a big fan of the nissan patrol and ability of the GQ. My mum had a GQ for years, got sold as alot started to wear on it and they wanted to upgrade. My brother inlaw now has 1 (techincally dads car). But yea, currently i have a 08 d22 navara. It goes ok being a work ute and all. I now want a vehicle that can do alot more actually offroading.

Now i no that quite a few of u's will tell me im wasting my money and time with the build that im goin to do. But i want a car that is really unique and not found often. It needs to look awesome, have good/reasonable fuel consumption and cost value as well as perform and also double as a family car.

Thats why ive chosen the patrol. Im a nissan and holden fan, want a car that can basically go anywhere, and with the ability to put on the hammer kit from rhino buggies, its everything im after.

Basically a quick overview of what its gona include before i get into the nitty gritty of wats going into it.:

• Nissan GQ patrol chassis and running gear
• Hammer 4 Door Ute kit
• Holden V8 6L
• 2inch Suspension Lift
• 2/3 Computers to basically run anything and everything the car can do

Anyways, Im goin to putting my overall build process for everything on this forum as i have found it very useful. But there will be links to other forums where i will be posting build specific things but the overall thing will stay here. Make sure u guys keep me posted on feedback and ideas and thoughts etc. Would be good to have an idea on to how to possibly improve the build as i go.

 

[Grumpy]

Welcome to earth fatman enjoy

 

[bmurray2250]

Welcome to 4x4 Earth. Sounds like a epic build, hope it works out. Remember, photos and updates are good

 

[fatman1121]

yep, will be including lots of pics. starting to work out the details atm. I no im gettin ahead of myself before i have the car and the kit. but thats wat im saving up for. But the details are wat im workin out for the moment, plus the computers and their interfaces and controllers. Im in the IT industry and i own my own IT business and seeing as it will have some business signwriting, so im goin to make sure that atleast that part is above and beyond the norm of wat most people would be used to seeing. The computer parts are the bits that i am gettin are start on now cause they are going to be intense.

 

[bmurray2250]

Check out RodW's set up it is impressive. Computer under the back seat of his Lux and everything integrated somewhere in the cab

 

[fatman1121]

yea i've seen it, saw the build process on the other forum i am using for my computer build part. Mines gona b slightly different and u could say a bit more expansive, as i want to try to have everything integrated, window control, air con, most if not all accessories and lights etc. ive got a reasonable list so far, just not on me so i will post when i get home tonite

 

[tankbloke]

Gidday Fatman, goodluck with your project and will follow the build with interest.

 

[fatman1121]

sweet as, well i hope that heaps of people follow and give me feedback etc. just to give info to people and ask a favor, if anyone c's or hears bout a gq patrol for sale cheap to let us know. im not concerned if its damaged or not running etc. if its in that stage and the owner really wants to get rid of it that would be perfect, thx.

 

[Split pin]

Ok guys, I've decided on the direction on where i want to go with my next 4wd.

Ive always been a big fan of the nissan patrol and ability of the GQ. My mum had a GQ for years, got sold as alot started to wear on it and they wanted to upgrade. My brother inlaw now has 1 (techincally dads car). But yea, currently i have a 08 d22 navara. It goes ok being a work ute and all. I now want a vehicle that can do alot more actually offroading.

Now i no that quite a few of u's will tell me im wasting my money and time with the build that im goin to do. But i want a car that is really unique and not found often. It needs to look awesome, have good/reasonable fuel consumption and cost value as well as perform and also double as a family car.

Thats why ive chosen the patrol. Im a nissan and holden fan, want a car that can basically go anywhere, and with the ability to put on the hammer kit from rhino buggies, its everything im after.

Basically a quick overview of what its gona include before i get into the nitty gritty of wats going into it.:

• Nissan GQ patrol chassis and running gear
• Hammer 4 Door Ute kit
  [*]Holden V8 6L
• 2inch Suspension Lift
• 2/3 Computers to basically run anything and everything the car can do

Anyways, Im goin to putting my overall build process for everything on this forum as i have found it very useful. But there will be links to other forums where i will be posting build specific things but the overall thing will stay here. Make sure u guys keep me posted on feedback and ideas and thoughts etc. Would be good to have an idea on to how to possibly improve the build as i go.

He buddy.
Mate I reakon you would be a lot better off installing a Chevy V8 diesel from Brunswick diesels in WA. They are awsom motors and far cheaper to run than a petrol V8 and a lot more low down grunt than a Petrol. The standard Patrol drive train as in diffs and gearbox/transfer box are more than strong enough for the motor. Brunswick will supply everything you need for the conversion and give you 12 months warrenty as well.

 

[fatman1121]

sweet as, its this type of info that is good to hear. On the mechanics side of things, ive still got time to decide on how to go etc, so its really good to get as much info from people that i can so i can make a really good call

 

[fatman1121]

Well, currently the list of functions for the pcs are as follows

PC 1:
- management of OBD (onboard diagnostics)
- management of any other gauges e.g. battery monitor, secondary battery monitor etc
- possibly tunning if i make it capable to do so
- contain a schedule for servicing
- contain a schedule on when car was filled up and amount etc to keep track of mileage and costing etc


PC 2:
- climate control - make the aircon hotter or colder
- adjust the fan settings
- display inside and outside temperatures
- select where the air is to go to
- have an auto preset function that sets aircon to optimised settings
- possibly have a dual zone setting
- desmitter

- satellite navigation - all onroad street directions will be put thru here e.g. like a tomtom and navman
- central locking - be able to lock and unlock all the doors or just single doors
- alarm system - be able to activate and deactivate the car alarm/alarm siren
- record when the alarm was activated

- reversing sensors - show how close an object is and from which direction/sensor
- have the usual warning beeps and messages on screen
- on/off function to turn off when towing (possibly automatic function when the
computer detects that a trailer plug is plugged in
- split screen mode to show the reversing camera
- automatically show reversing sensor display in reverse

- lights - be able to control spotlights
- be able to control roof spotlights
- be able to control reversing auxiliary lights
- be able to control side lights
- be able to control tray work lights
- be able to control engine bay light
- be able to control interior lights
- be able to control hazard lights
- be able to control any other miscellaneous lights

reversing camera - automatically show camera when in reverse

sound system - control all the speakers (possibly individually) this specific setup will be determined
when the system is getting ready to install, but will basically have amps between the
computer and speakers which will let the computer to control each set of speakers
individually
- store all music
- be able to rip music from cd's, dvd's, ipods/iphones, usb etc
- music playback (basically this whole section is like a head deck)


PC 3:
- gps off road - be able to show off road maps at any given time
- be able to record travel routes & trip routes
- transfer records to Google earth

- tire pressure monitor - monitor tire pressures (preferably individually)
- warning for low or high tire pressures
- be reasonably accurate at a minimum (prefer accuracy to 1 psi at the
minimum)
- off road and on road modes so alarm doesn't go off when off road
- function to specify which tire spot has which sensor for when the wheels are
moved around for even tire wear
- prefer to be able to have every tire individual in reading etc for this section

- aux air compressor - be able to turn on/off
- possibly control air lockers

- phone - be able to answer phone calls in car
- make a phone call in the car
- hands free system basically


That is the current list of functions that will be in the car. Now yes i do realise that i have said 3 computers. With this system, there will be 1 touchscreen for PC 1, 1 touchscreen in the front and 2 non-touchscreen in the back for PC 2, 1 touchscreen in the front for PC 3.

Currently the PC 2 will have the 2 screens in the back so that dvd's can be played and watched so when i end up with kids they can be in the back and watch dvd's on trips. I am in 2 minds on how to set this up, either have it based on PC 2 and all 3 screens and up with the same thing on each of them, or possibly c if it is possible to have those to only project what i want them to c, otherwise my other option is to just have either a couple of portable dvd players altered to have their screens in the headrests and the dvd part somewhere else but have both run of the 1 player or have a seperate computer (that can be controlled by PC 2 acting as a master controller to it) and have it only project on the back 2 screens and all it can do is play dvd's or music into head phones.

That basically somes up the work i am currently starting on. This work alone will take alot of effort and i will be well pleased when it finally works. This list of functions may change as i develop both software and the car. Most likely the list will be added to rather then having items removed.

Ill keep you all posted, let us know wat u think of the list of functions, whether u recon its a waste of time, wont work, or whether u recon thered be something else really cool that your not sure if work or not that u'd like to c developed. If this all does manage to come together and people would like to possibly think of having some of this software/hardware in the car id b more than willing to lend a hand.

 

[Walkabout]

Depending on what sort of areas you intend to drive and where you mount the PC's, it may be wise to spend some time making a good anti-vibration system for the PC's?, make the car very water and dust tight and have some kind of back up system should something stop working.

 

[fatman1121]

gotch ya walkabout, the cases will be 1 of the first things ill be looking at regarding their build. In terms of hardware, i will be looking using just ordinary core2duo full atx boards and c if they will run off the power modules i have. in regards to hard drives, i am thinking of possibly running a solid state drive for each computer to have the operating system on it so as to help prevent the system from crashing when going over bumps, and then having some 500 GB 2.5"(laptop) hard drives as these drives are more forgiving with bumps and that as they are desgined to moved around. Probably 1 or 2 500GB in PC 2 and 1 320GB in PC 3. As for dust i will be using quite a few fans as i can imagine, i plan on covering any fan port with stockings, as this will act as a filter. In regards to a shock absorption im not too sure which avenue im goin to go down, as i have read some good and bad points on the schock absorber style, so ill just have to make and test different options at the moment with a fair bit of research into what other people have done. And in regards to water getting to it, the cases will be completely water tight, cept where the fan ports are, and these fan ports will be routed into the top half of the cabin. They will most likely b placed beind the backseat, on in the floor, but have some form of tubing pipe the outlets behind the seats where it will go up to give it height, i will be testing the effectiveness of this before i actually say that this idea is 100% fool proof. My only concern with it is that heat may not be able to escape enough.

 

[1 red gu]

there was one of these in a resent 4x4 monthly and it's in this months dvd in detail
so check it out there for idears

 

[fatman1121]

sweet as, well ill c if i can grab it, wat issue was it incase i miss it??

 

[fatman1121]

is it a red hammer SUT?? ive got that issue and didnt even realise it was in there, just trying to find the issue with the white hammer, anyone now which issue that is, or would be able to scan some pages for us??

 

[fatman1121]

ok, well bit of an update regarding the whole hard drive mounting. I am going to go with the solid state drives as boot drives and have 2.5 laptop drives there for file storage, all my systems will be backed up periodically to combat against crashing should any occur. With the mounting side of things, after quite a fair bit of research, I have decided to just hard mount the hard drives as there is sufficient evidence to show that they can handle it. The biggest test i guess that i can think of will be corrugations, as you don't actually go that slow over them and they do tend to be rather bumpy. I'm thinking of actually mounting a temporary system into my navara for testing and drive over some corrugations and c how it goes, either that or find some way to replicate driving over corrugations

 

[rexy]

You building a computer or a car?

 

[fatman1121]

both, right now im in my research phase for the car build and at the same time in the research/design/build phase for the car computer

 

[nissan_4ever]

id love to do the kit aswell.... it will be a big job saucing seats and trim i think aswell as making everything work.... if u are very cluey or have lots of mate in car indrusty it will be a big help.... all my mates work is somthing to do with cars only thing thats saved me thousounds iver the years... a build like this would prob set back close to 30g to do properly.... personaly id look for a rb30 powerd patrol and turbo it.... i have a rb30 patrol it hammers for the engine it is and i have a mate whos built a few tuff vl commodores... so he will be building me a very tuff engine eventuly