Gaurav

OK GUYS, FAST AND FURIOUS RELEASING TOMORROW.

Get ready to see "BLACK SUPERMAN"

Shall we book for next Friday evening.....? 9 AUG 2019.....?

Put your name below or suggestion for another date or time

1. Gaurav
2.  
3.  
4.  
5.  
6.  
7.  
8.  
9.  
10.  

CAPTION THIS

There are two ways to look at this problem:

• Don't eat outside food, breathe outside air if you are allergic or prone to falling sick quickly.
• OR raise your immune system to next level so most of things wont impact you.

I got my Pajero sprayed almost 3 years back (Nov 2016) and used the most hard wearing lacquer, and then used 3M coating and till date paint looks great and cleaned  every week from my building cleaner - 1 bucket style.

For interior you can look into scotch guard your complete interior for not having any stains or spill. Then use bushranger rubber mat that are washable and have thick grooves to hold any food or sand. Every week you can just do quick vacuum than using so much elbow grease.

For detailing interior every year, I don't mind (if needed) but exterior polishing every year will soon fade the original color of your car and leaving a fade spots all around - max 3-4 years as polishing do scrape the original paint to bring that shine and gloss back. I did with my Pajero once (5 years back) and then next summer I started observing the fading spot all around like a dalmatian. I know it must be the age but that polishing probably scrape off that last layer of paint left.

So polishing once in 5-6 year is acceptable if it really needed and I meant for polishing that uses grinder. Wax polish is acceptable for that shine and lustre look or for repelling water stains etc for rainy countries.

After the Repaint with Octroral Paint (Netherlands) and Standox (Germany) Lacquer and hardener.

After the 3M Paint Protection Coating for 650 Dhs. I think it was 850 for external and internal with scotch guard.

15 minutes ago, shadow79 said:

We have to feed grass or petrol...

Nope, only alcohol 

Whatever it might turn out to be eventually, but this time they have shared much more specifics.

This points out that actual car might be on its way. 

In my view, show it to good AC technician rather than mechanic who knows too little about AC and think by topping up gas they have mastered the HVAC system.

While back somebody here was appreciating a place in DIP, can't rem the name. I think @desertdude or @Jeh made that recommendation.

I got that from the notification itself and thought sale announce again. Damn it.

1) 2003 Lexus GS 430 in 2005, bought for 65 as a distress sale and sold for 60 after a year and a half.

2) 2003 Land Cruiser in 2006, bought for 100 and sold for 90 in 2008, with regular off road use.

After many nice areas, its due time to visit Shuwaib. It's a very challenging area that has a great mix and twist of technical dunes of small, medium and large sizes. Everything in Shuwaib is gonna keep you awake and require your constant focus and instant reaction. The plan is to enter from Al-Shuwaib side and to exit from Iftar bowl after having a good fill at Super Bowl to Iftar Bowl stretch that offers most amazing tall but rolling dunes.

When: 01 Aug 2019

Meeting time: 11:00 PM, the convoy will move at sharp 11:15 PM

Where: ADNOC station on Dubai Hatta Road After Bidayer Shops

GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/XrPwrrig7zegPRDF6

Level: Strictly intermediate and above

Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 10 inches of ground clearance. 

Please check your fluids levels and make sure you have the complete intermediate level off-road gear. 

Plan: Drive, train and enjoy till about 4:00 AM 

What to bring along: Snacks - whatever you like with little extra to share, water, liquids, smiles, stories.

Approximate finish time: 5:00 AM

Please RSVP on the below calendar:

2 hours ago, Barry said:

I remember going to look at a new Patrol Safari a few months ago. Dealer wouldn’t even give me a test drive.

That's very strange, are you sure they have understood you correctly that you wanna buy....?

Why would any dealer refuse for test drive when they pay 100's of dollars for getting 1 test drive lead from marketing agencies.

I feel new car is only for people who are not concerned about the resale value and take the full car amount as usable or disposable. Means buy new car and commit to use till its end of life 5-10-15 years. OR get ready to dispose (not SELL) at any stolen car price offered by used car dealers, resellers or auction sites.

So if you are among those 28% people who prefer new car than 72% prefer used cars, go for it.

It all depends on how they actually predict market value after set number of years.

It could be crap to promote their used car business like auto mall. OR

It could be good to promote new car sales genuinely. 

Unless you have real numbers its difficult to comment any good or bad.

I have an easy solution to that, keep driver grills facing you and passenger grills facing other side pointed towards window.

Whenever I need quick engine cool down while driving even, roll down all windows, AC Off, heater on, close my side vent and open passenger vent. Max 30 sec temp drops to normal even while pushing the car in full heat. I

This way have never exceed temp above 110 while 90 is ideal, so I keep waiting till it reaches 110 occasionally to do this trick otherwise it keeps dancing between 100 and 105 range while offroading.

I also want to know more how disabling heater helps in cooling?

On the contrary, heater is a blessing while offroading as occasionally when engine temp start rising and doesn't come to previous level, switch on heat and open all windows and within 30 secs engine temperature drops instead of waiting for 10 mins in idle with hood open. Reason behind this is heater uses engine heat to throw out from the blower and help dissipate lot of heat in seconds.

In UAE I have only used heater once in last 17 years of driving, but every year used heater in summer at least more than 5-10 times while offroading.

Central mounted tow hook is always better than tow hitch for recovery. Hitch are designed for constant load and not strong tugs, although hitch will work fine for soft or medium tugs.

Recently friend of mine gave me a tug and and his hitch came off from the bolts, luckily his car was at an angle and I saw hitch flying 50 meters ahead of my car like a catapult. Maybe it was a bad installation of weak hitch but proper rated tow hook is always better.

The best in class is the Pintle hook that comes standard in LC and Patrol.

7 minutes ago, shadow79 said:

Mobil 1 is pretty expensive...

Yeah you are right, 180 for 4 liter instead of 90 dhs for 4 liter is double the price but not at all expensive considering the quality and peace of mind while hitting your car at redline every week.

One fuel tank cost 125

One engine cost 7000 - 12000

One engine swap cost 1500 - 3000

Downtime for busting engine: 7 days - a month time, in my case 3 months as sourcing rare engine is painful.

And this 100 dhs extra on engine oil will last for 6K kms for offroad and 10K for road use.

I have used this Mitsubishi same Engine oil which is manufactured by LUKOIL (check at backside) and within 1000 kms it turned black and started giving some strange knocking noise from my Pajero engine. Switch back to my all time favorite Mobil 1 and never heard those knocking again.

Yeah very good made by and we forgot to ask this primary question.

What do you mean by offroading?

1) hard core dune bashing, long hill climb

2) easy to medium dunes and tracks, camping.

If you buy for 1) u can do 2) but not vice versa, as it has to be different animal for 1) than 2).

@Adel Muradov please RSVP on the drive calendar if you are joining tonight. 

@Michael sammy please confirm from maybe so that we can reach 30 mins early to the meeting point for newbie briefing .

I had 2006 swb manual gear and it never climbed big red, let alone iftar bowl, faya and other tall dunes. It was a total disappointment. Stay away from that shape I think 2004 - 2010.

@baselsm83 had old shape nissan patrol, maybe 2001 model, if he is reading this then he can share his experience as I have seen him doing quiet good offroading with us.

In 20k budget try for Xterra, as you might get on road used version. Best for offroad + less maintenance. 

Second could be jeep wrangler as a play toy but not very reliable tbh and expensive to maintain compare to nissan.

Third could be old shape Jeep Cherokee, 3.5 pathfinder until 2003 shape, but finding these clean one now is very difficult.

This is making me excited again to do it.

I give up on self stitching after reading few reviews

13 minutes ago, Sidshk said:

I never found a good shop selling quality Steering Wheel cover here  

I agree and Isn't that supposed to be the basic most thing any accessory shop should keep.....?

Unfortunately price race to the bottom killing the quality, now.

OK Thanks @Javier M after going back from your link, I think I found something that can fit.

Real leather cowhide, stitched one. 

https://www.amazon.com/AULLY-PARK-Universal-Steering-Genuine/dp/B071F1C7X7