Hey yall.
Please excuse the novel that is about to ensue and feel free to skip right to the pictures. I’ve been on here for long enough without a proper intro so here goes.
Who I am.
My name is Eric (E, Easy, Fixer or whatever). I live in a Ft. Worth TX suburb with my beautiful wife Missy and baby girl Layla. I'm a hobby mechanic. Been workin on cars and the ocassional truck since I was little. My dad and grandpa ran the only real full service auto shop in Yukon OK for about 25 years up 'til 1994. I grew up there. I would work with my dad all day and then crash on a creeper with a fender cover until he was done after dark. I learned more than just workin on cars there, I learned how to learn. I don't know much but I'm always tryin to learn something if I can. I've learned a lot from the folks here over the past few years and hope to continue that trend well into the future.
The K5 story...
This whole thing got started when I was a kid, about 6 years old. This fella lived behind us where I grew up and he had what (to a 6 year old boy) had to be the coolest vehicle anyone could ever own. An 86 CUCV.
Any who from a young age I fell hard for the K5. For a long time I saved and pined for one until I got to the point where I could get one April of 2009. I'd been keeping my eye on K5's for sale weekly since about 2005. I came across what I thought was the perfect truck in Paso Robles California. I bought it and a few weeks later it was here in Texas.
What’s this???
That’s me there in the white shirt.
I got a steal on the shipping. It took a while to find the right guy but I only paid $350 to get it here.
This was a very exciting moment for me. I had to sell my '84 Rabbit GTI to make room for the truck, but it was the right move in the end.
So obviously my truck is a '73. 350/700R4 d44/12b NP203. It has a 4" lift and 33" BFG's. That was all on the truck when I bought it and still is. This truck is all but rust free. The interior is out of an '05 Silverado, power driver seat and all. It's a beautiful truck, it really is and at that time I don't think I could’ve been happier.
We promptly removed the top and drove the truck.
Missy riding precariously in the seatless back.
So we were happy as larks.
One night Missy and I were driving it out to her family's ranch. I was cruisin down the highway at about 55-60 and started to smell something funny. No sooner did I smell the "hot" than I heard the noise. T t t t t t t tp tp tp tp tp tp tp tap tap tap tap tap tap tunk tunk tunk tunk tunk tunk clok clok clok clok bang bang bang bang.
It all happened in about 10 seconds. I didn't even have time to think. The smell was something getting fried inside the engine. I wouldn’t find out was it was until some months later.
So with the help of a friend we towed her home and there she sat in front of our house for twelve long months.
We were broke and I was shattered because I couldn’t get it running.
But that can only last so long. The next time she moved was putting her back up on the trailer to tow it to my dad's house cause HOA's blow.
In no time we had it ripped apart.
Hmmmmm. WTF is this?!?!
So the story is that a nut came off the rod cap and that was it. What I smelled was the bearing being turned to dust.
It was a real shame cause I could tell that the motor was brand new, just like the guy said. Everything on/under the truck was fresh. I wanted to build the motor but time and money are at a premium so I bought a reman.
Wasn’t long before we had everything in good order.
So that is up to about two weeks ago. The truck runs great. Got about 700 miles on the new engine and I'm lovin it.
So all that being said I'll talk a little about the direction I want to take. There are a few things on the list to be done yet this year:
Heat (there is none as you can see above)
Stereo (again there is none, gotta have tunes)
Rear seats
Tires (35" KM2's)
Possibly a soft top/roll bar.
That is pretty ambitious for me. I take a long time to do anything and my builds tend to drag on but I think I can do that this year.
I have a set of third row seats from an '05 Tahoe (got them for free from a buddy who no longer needed them) that will be going in the back of the truck. I need to weld the Tahoe strikers to a crossbar I will need to fab, Haven’t got it 100% figured out yet but I will.
I have some serious leaks around my top and want to go with a Softopper. If I do end up getting a soft top (which I will do eventually just maybe not this year) I will need to have a roll bar built or do it myself. I need to take a welding class though, I'm not the best welder there is. No biggie though cause my dad works for a community college and I can take the one week welding course for free.
As for the tires I'm wanting to move to 35's and probably stay there for a while. I will have clearance issues I think and trimming is not an option for this truck so I need to study up on my suspension stuff and figure out what my options are.
The end game with this truck is a daily driveable rig that can handle just about any trail. I camp and hunt so mild offraoding will be a reagular thing and the occasional trip up to see family and do some offraoding in Colorado. Maybe some Blazer Bash in the future. I will eventually go to a D60 and 14BFF along with all the other goodies that will make it bomb resistant. I have a lot left to learn and decide before that though so it will be a while from now.
That's pretty much it. Please let me know what you think.
-E
Please excuse the novel that is about to ensue and feel free to skip right to the pictures. I’ve been on here for long enough without a proper intro so here goes.
Who I am.
My name is Eric (E, Easy, Fixer or whatever). I live in a Ft. Worth TX suburb with my beautiful wife Missy and baby girl Layla. I'm a hobby mechanic. Been workin on cars and the ocassional truck since I was little. My dad and grandpa ran the only real full service auto shop in Yukon OK for about 25 years up 'til 1994. I grew up there. I would work with my dad all day and then crash on a creeper with a fender cover until he was done after dark. I learned more than just workin on cars there, I learned how to learn. I don't know much but I'm always tryin to learn something if I can. I've learned a lot from the folks here over the past few years and hope to continue that trend well into the future.
The K5 story...
This whole thing got started when I was a kid, about 6 years old. This fella lived behind us where I grew up and he had what (to a 6 year old boy) had to be the coolest vehicle anyone could ever own. An 86 CUCV.
Any who from a young age I fell hard for the K5. For a long time I saved and pined for one until I got to the point where I could get one April of 2009. I'd been keeping my eye on K5's for sale weekly since about 2005. I came across what I thought was the perfect truck in Paso Robles California. I bought it and a few weeks later it was here in Texas.
What’s this???
That’s me there in the white shirt.
I got a steal on the shipping. It took a while to find the right guy but I only paid $350 to get it here.
This was a very exciting moment for me. I had to sell my '84 Rabbit GTI to make room for the truck, but it was the right move in the end.
So obviously my truck is a '73. 350/700R4 d44/12b NP203. It has a 4" lift and 33" BFG's. That was all on the truck when I bought it and still is. This truck is all but rust free. The interior is out of an '05 Silverado, power driver seat and all. It's a beautiful truck, it really is and at that time I don't think I could’ve been happier.
We promptly removed the top and drove the truck.
Missy riding precariously in the seatless back.
So we were happy as larks.
One night Missy and I were driving it out to her family's ranch. I was cruisin down the highway at about 55-60 and started to smell something funny. No sooner did I smell the "hot" than I heard the noise. T t t t t t t tp tp tp tp tp tp tp tap tap tap tap tap tap tunk tunk tunk tunk tunk tunk clok clok clok clok bang bang bang bang.
It all happened in about 10 seconds. I didn't even have time to think. The smell was something getting fried inside the engine. I wouldn’t find out was it was until some months later.
So with the help of a friend we towed her home and there she sat in front of our house for twelve long months.
We were broke and I was shattered because I couldn’t get it running.
But that can only last so long. The next time she moved was putting her back up on the trailer to tow it to my dad's house cause HOA's blow.
In no time we had it ripped apart.
Hmmmmm. WTF is this?!?!
So the story is that a nut came off the rod cap and that was it. What I smelled was the bearing being turned to dust.
It was a real shame cause I could tell that the motor was brand new, just like the guy said. Everything on/under the truck was fresh. I wanted to build the motor but time and money are at a premium so I bought a reman.
Wasn’t long before we had everything in good order.
So that is up to about two weeks ago. The truck runs great. Got about 700 miles on the new engine and I'm lovin it.
So all that being said I'll talk a little about the direction I want to take. There are a few things on the list to be done yet this year:
Heat (there is none as you can see above)
Stereo (again there is none, gotta have tunes)
Rear seats
Tires (35" KM2's)
Possibly a soft top/roll bar.
That is pretty ambitious for me. I take a long time to do anything and my builds tend to drag on but I think I can do that this year.
I have a set of third row seats from an '05 Tahoe (got them for free from a buddy who no longer needed them) that will be going in the back of the truck. I need to weld the Tahoe strikers to a crossbar I will need to fab, Haven’t got it 100% figured out yet but I will.
I have some serious leaks around my top and want to go with a Softopper. If I do end up getting a soft top (which I will do eventually just maybe not this year) I will need to have a roll bar built or do it myself. I need to take a welding class though, I'm not the best welder there is. No biggie though cause my dad works for a community college and I can take the one week welding course for free.
As for the tires I'm wanting to move to 35's and probably stay there for a while. I will have clearance issues I think and trimming is not an option for this truck so I need to study up on my suspension stuff and figure out what my options are.
The end game with this truck is a daily driveable rig that can handle just about any trail. I camp and hunt so mild offraoding will be a reagular thing and the occasional trip up to see family and do some offraoding in Colorado. Maybe some Blazer Bash in the future. I will eventually go to a D60 and 14BFF along with all the other goodies that will make it bomb resistant. I have a lot left to learn and decide before that though so it will be a while from now.
That's pretty much it. Please let me know what you think.
-E
Last edited:
, nothing better then a full vert 
.
one day I wont be able to stop my self.
