1990 K5 Build ( Ol' Blue ) : Rocker rust...

[bix]

I was completely unAware he was american.. I apologize for seemingly being defensive but i even tried to tone it down.. Im a bit of an asshole i guess, my apologies stein. No hard feelings on my end. I hope you find a good place in canada thats suitable for you!

 

[tRustyK5]

Yes, this was it. It's odd that a guy from Nebraska happens to that much in Canadian cash sitting on the desk at the time of your photo. I was just joking.

To answer tRustyK5 I just got back from Canada fishing two weeks ago. Going back in September. Met with the realtor to buy a place where we have been going fishing for the last 20 years. It was seed money for a Canadian bank account as they want $1500 minimum in the account to avoid monthly fees. We looked at a couple properties but didn't make an offer yet so I didn't drive down to Kenora to open the bank account. Looking in NW Ontario north of Lake of the Woods in the Winnipeg River. Hope to make an offer before or when we visit in September. I love it up there.

I do really like the Canadian money. So thin. 100 bills fits in the same space as 50 of ours.

Good luck finding a property!

I don't mind the new polymer bills, except they're so damn slippery. You gotta be really careful counting it out.

 

[bix]

I have I think 2 extra clusters if ya need em

thatd be awesome. mine suffers from the tabs being all broken and heard its a common thing...What would you want for one of them?

 

[bix]

Ive been wanting to ditch all my old fuel and brake lines for awhile now as they are cruddy and rusted to chit.
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But with the value of our dollar and the price being 1140 canadian to have them shipped from inline tube i have been a bit hesitant.. That being said with the ORD brake lines sitting on my shelf taunting me this whole time i decided to give it a shot ( adding the extended lines...) My plan was to get them on clean up what i could of the old ones and wait until our dollar got better.... Well the first one was so rusted but managed to get the fitting loose of the brake line at the drivers bracket.. with the rust it was hard to tell what size of wrench was actually needed and that made everything a struggle on its own.

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So after that one was done i headed to the passenger side. This side was a pain the ass... And after fuggin around with it for awhile it broke.. I was a little frustrated as this is the first vehicle i have ever had the time and money to work on but realized things happen and its a sign to get new ones anyway... So i removed the old one and put the new ORD one in its place for now.

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I then continued to disconnect all the fuel and brake lines along the frame, making a massive mess along the way. I knew my fuel gauge was somewhat accurate and reading 1/8 of a tank i was hoping it was less.. that wasnt the case..

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I made my way towards the front of the truck knowing that area with my crossmember would be tight since i have my core support and everything in...helping rene with this while his truck was apart was so much nicer. crawling around under mine was painfull. i think i ate more rust, gas , and brake fluid today than food...
I tried to lay out my lines so that i could match the new set of SS brake lines i ended up ordering from inline tube. The fuel lines were the real spender, the SS brake lines ( with all new clips,bolts, prop valve ) with shipping came to 350 which is 433 CAD.

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I forgot to mention i started to clean up the 14 bolt in the photo above which has the 3.73 gears and the ten bolt is down to the spindles for now... ANYONE have any tricks for getting those rusted things off... ive tried cold chisel and hammer but i have no air tools so im a bit stuck but the gear set i ordered wont be here for another week or 2 and even then, im in no rush for now..

Once i made it up the engine bay i started to disassemble the mess of a useless ABS system i have that doe not work..

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Was there 2 prop valves in these models..? either way this abortion of a braking system had to go!

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I cleaned up the master cylinder and added the two lines and put some fluid back in as to not dry it out. I scuffed and painted it black and cleaned out all the gunk around the connections and put it all back together..
Looks so much cleaner and less cluttered.

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[bix]

Also wanted to ask if anyone could help me out with dropping the thank? I got the front 3 bolts off the skid plate but the rear ones are burried in there. I removed the galvanized steel piece that is in between the bumper and the tailgate but it just moves around inside. Im really hoping the bumper does not need to come off to reach them..?

 

[max 02]

Looks like your having a good ol time!

Will be nice to have all fresh lines it her though!

On the 10 bolt spindles...smack the threaded end of the spindle down,sideways,up...with a hammer. Carefully BTW! Use a nice piece of wood to protect the threads. That is actually the way they tell you how to remove them in the manuals.

If you do end up screwing one up I got spares you can have. So go to town on them!

 

[bix]

Looks like your having a good ol time!

Will be nice to have all fresh lines it her though!

On the 10 bolt spindles...smack the threaded end of the spindle down,sideways,up...with a hammer. Carefully BTW! Use a nice piece of wood to protect the threads. That is actually the way they tell you how to remove them in the manuals.

If you do end up screwing one up I got spares you can have. So go to town on them!

Yea itll be nice to eliminate all that bull**** ABS crap. so many unions all over and it just looks too busy. I ordered a new prop valve as well, i have that one from your place but rene hasnt reset his yet, as the rears wont bleed so i figured having an extra one for him to is good to have.

I didnt get around to too much today, my sister ended up coming to town so i was a bit busy. I did manage to drop the tank skid plate without taking off the bumper, which was nice. And the hitch is still on for now. I will be dropping the tank and continuing to grind my way back to the bumper, i will most likely take the bumper off aswell if its not too difficult to grind all the way back and coat with por15 and some paint.

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The only thing stopping it was this trailer brake connector that i have taken off as i cut all the trailer brake controls out of the front dash anyway. The thing is an electrical disaster so far so i am getting rid of anything not stock and will redo anything i feel the need for down the road, as for now i dont even own a trailer so its going in the trash.

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I also managed to get the spindles off... good lord that was a battle. Cold chisel and a 5lb hammer. i kept telling myself it doesnt have a brain and i do so i can figure this out. i tried everything and had to result in brute force.

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I am going to clean up the axle shafts and keep them for spares. New ujoints and all that before they get stored for trail spares.

I also managed to coat one side of the frame rail with por15, i got the side with all the lines run on it done now as the other side still needs to be wire wheeled and prepped. I didnt want to leave the steel exposed so I covered it for now and ill wait until its all done for now until i paint.

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There was some left over tar like rhyno liner that used to be on the frame.. Was going to burn the grinder out trying to take it off so i just got the rust off and went over it.. Id like to meet the old owner of this thing one day....

All the rivets had been removed from this truck and replaced with bolts except for the crossmembers in the past which leads us to beleive this has been frame offed at one time. I pulled a CARFAX report and it states it was purchased in 89 and from 99-2005 it wasnt registered.. They definitely could have done alot better of a job on the frame off... Lots of things werent touched or done well.. and this gooey rhyno liner crap is annoying as hell. But its nice in a sense because some parts of the frame i cant get too are still in good shape so im not too worried about those areas for now.

i will be tackling the drivers side frame rail and the bumper and hitch later this week and dropping the tank. I was hoping to get alot more done this weekend but it all took alot longer than expected and being alone and doing this for the first time is alot of trial and error haha

 

[max 02]

My wife always asks me how long will it take to do that?

I'll say no problem! Done in a hour!???

It takes all weekend!!

 

[Bowtie85]

Most of the spindles I've ever pulled required a chisel like you did.

I want to take and old spindle nut and make a slide hammer attachment, some day.

 

[bix]

Most of the spindles I've ever pulled required a chisel like you did.

I want to take and old spindle nut and make a slide hammer attachment, some day.

That'd be wicked. Rene offered to lend me his compressor and air tools for the weekend and i was wishing i had it but you dont get a "built not bought" truck with clean and unbeaten knuckles. The small chisel was nice to seperate it just big enough to get the tip of a bigger chisel in there and smash it all the way down to the stem and get it apart.

My wife always asks me how long will it take to do that?

I'll say no problem! Done in a hour!???

It takes all weekend!!

tell me about it... im learning that more and more everytime i start something new.
The girlfriend was in bc so it was a good time for a project to take alot longer than expecting! I had high hopes of adding the zero rate 1 inch steel plates rene gave me for the rear sag but i had to try and track down spring pins and what not and i was too drunk to drive by about noon, so that wasnt going to happen figured id stay in the garage and work on the truck some more. Im trying to fight off the urge of the " might as well " BUG thats so easy to get. But i do enjoy driving this too much to go down that road at the moment.

I am still hoping to get that nv4500 from you at some point. The OD would be nice, need to do some research and make sure when i go LS as i keep being told WILL happen, that the bellhousings match up and i can keep the standard tranny. Rene put the bug in my ear about the idea of maybe putting an NV3500 in there and eliminating the bull low since the 241 is still good in low range.. where this truck will be in 4-5 years is still a mystery but im never parting with it!

 

[tRustyK5]

You been busy!

When you get the knuckles off that 10 front bring it over...we'll make a tool run to KMS and start the gear swap here.

 

[bix]

You been busy!

When you get the knuckles off that 10 front bring it over...we'll make a tool run to KMS and start the gear swap here.

Sounds good. Maybe by sunday ill have it done. Need to get the right socket for those castle nuts.

 

[tRustyK5]

Come borrow the socket...

 

[bix]

Come borrow the socket...

Ill have to take you up on that as they are the last thing I need to remove for now. The richmond gears have arrived but i have missed the post man twice so i will be picking the 3.73s on Tuesday. It is not on my immediate list but too good of a deal to miss out on. The TIMKEN master rebuild kit and RICHOND (excel) gears came to about 300 bucks shipped Ebay has some real gems on it sometimes from shops selling off stock.

This whiteboard is my list of things to do, as i have been bouncing from task to task and getting carried away with all my hopes for this truck, in the end it is making me loose the fun, and real joy out of the build. So we made a list and i am going to follow through without adding anything unless it is necessary.


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[bix]

So tonight i had some free time after work and decided to work on the k5. I managed to drop the tank without taking off the bumper and that i was happy about. I still may take off the bumper but im not sure at this point. I want to cross some things off the TO DO list...

I had removed the skid plate a few days prior to tonight's crack at things.

3 of the 4 gas tank strap nuts were nice and loose as the tank had been down to have a new SPECTRE pump put in when I first got the truck. But one kept binding. I had tightened it back up and brushed the rust, and loosened it but once the strap got loose the momentum was put into the strap and it started to twist, got all bent.... so i ended up just cutting it off. I didnt have anything to put on the jack to balance the tank while I cut the last strap, so I grabbed one of the 10bolt spindle knuckle guards and it sat on the jack perfectly

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Not such a bad idea when you have these laying around


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It was also nice the anti squeak straps were replaced at the time the tank was put in before i purchased this blazer.

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I lowered the tank, disconnected the return line that was still hooked up, as it stretches across the rear cross member, along with the ground for the fuel pump. ( Noticed the ground was in rough shape so that may help my gas gauge reading )


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Once the tank was down, i looked up at what i was going to have to tackle for frame cleaning in that area. It wasnt as bad as it could have been, but i wish it all looked like it did ontop of the tank!

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After work i stopped off and bought some paint stripper, brushed and rubber rock guard.
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Once the tank was down, I rubbed some stripper on it, let it soak while i had a beer. Once the stripper was soaked in a bit, i went to town scraping, and buffing the old cracked paint on the tank.

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The stripper purchased was nice, as it was a gel. It sat on top well, didnt require a bathing method, but did burn a lot on exposed skin..
I got the locking ring out, and sprayed and brushed the seams out surrounding the fuel pump assembly. Used a pick and cleaned out the little cracks once i got the pump out.

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Once i got the Tank buffed down to the metal, and ready for rock guard and paint.. i forgot to snap a photo..

But here are some of the tank rock guard'd and painted.

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[blazinzuk]

On those spindles...... a rubber mallet and some full force both hands types of hits. The kind where if ya miss no matter what ya hit it's gonna hurt alot.

 

[bix]

Hahah yea i tried that method, but being as its on jackstands and im always working alone, i only hit it as hard as i could without potentionally knocking it off the stands. The cold chisel method worked well , but it did ding ,and knick the spindle. It would be nice to do this on the garage floor next time so i can really whack the crap out of them.

 

[bix]

Sooo about 2 weeks ago while i thought it was a great idea to separate frozen chicken, with a knife... I was soon to be reminded about how bad of an idea it can be..

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i know you cant see with the blood, and muscle swelling but it is pretty deep. I could clearly see all the nerve endings, muscle before the blood started 4-7 seconds after. After realizing i didnt know where any hospitals were, i called a great friend , got it all cleaned, and got a tetanus shot..

After about a week it started to heal but still wasnt drying up.IMG_5019

The worst part of this was how sensitive the finger was to pressure, even when it felt fine, the minute it was hit on something, it made me want to punch someone! Now a week after that , it is healed enough to get some work done on the blazer So out to the garage i went today.

I had left off around the time of getting the tank down and part of the frame grinded and por-15'd. So when i went back out today i started grinding away in the fuel tank area. I got the rear of the passenger side frame grinded down aswell since the flaky rust i had left was bothering me.

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I then applied the metal prep to the gas tank area.

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By this time i had grinded quite a bit of the tank area, frame, cross-members, and i had eaten enough rust.. so i decided to take a break while the metal prep air dried. I then decided to fit the rear brake lines as they needed some bending, and fine tuning to fit just right.

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[bix]

Im very pleased with the quality of the brake lines from inline tube, along with the prop valve, although the prop valve didnt come with new mounting bolts i picked some up at the local partsource

I then broke out the por15 and started to coat the passenger side to the tank as i make my way around the truck back to the drivers side brake line.

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My goal is to continue grinding and por 15ing my way to the drivers side by friday, and then over the weekend install all the brake and fuel lines and hopefully have it back on the road for monday. I miss driving this thing too much.

Im so happy this site exists as i can document my build as a work log, even if no one could see this and help me with it as people have, It'd still be worth the 25$ a year just to document the build for my own record.

 

[bix]

i apologize for the por15 being all wet and drippy in the photos, i brushed out alot of drippy sections , and i will post different photos when its dry.