1991 Volcano K5 - Family Wheeler - Fully Independent Twin Turbo BBC

[folkenheath]

Got the cage bolted back in, the center bolt on every bottom plate is a 1/2" bolt that threads right into the nut welded inside the cage. I will use feature this to tie into the chassis later.

I thought about staggering the bolts on the 90 but decided there was enough of room, I was wrong. Stagger the bolts, they barely fit.





New carpet started, old carpet had holes and was very stained and looked gross with no center console.

The carpet is darker than I thought it would be, its ACC "dove gray". Perhaps I should of ordered silver but then maybe I would of thought it was too light. I'm just going to roll with it since the seats are darker gray on the bottom and lighter on top.

The rear seat bracket I made out of 1" chromoly tubing.

 

[Blue85]

The 4 bolts for that rear seat base - did you add 1 or 2 holes for that? The one hole could be from unbolting the bracket under the carpet that holds the factory seat strut.

 

[folkenheath]

The 4 bolts for that rear seat base - did you add 1 or 2 holes for that? The one hole could be from unbolting the bracket under the carpet that holds the factory seat strut.

All factory holes there, the front holes are where the factory seat bolted with the hinges to fold forward, and the rear holes are the factory seat belt holes. The weird thing is the front are 1/2" thread and the rear are M12. I did not use the latch bars in the floor where the factory seat clipped in. My whole chromoly seat mount base only weighs under 7 lbs. I used 5/16" thick 1" OD aluminum spacer below the base on the seat belt holes as those were in a recess in the bed floor. The M12 seat belt bolts I had to drill out almost completely to remove even though they weren't rusty, it was weird. I snapped off 3 different Torx bits in the head. The thread was still mostly there, but not 100%, so I added a nut under each one to be safe.

The strut bolted where the factory clearance cutout is on the carpet next to the passenger wheel well, those are two tiny holes, maybe 5/6 or 8 mm, don't remember, I plugged them with seam sealer they were so small.

The large holes for the spare tire mount I plugged with SS set screws.

 

[imiceman44]

All factory holes there, the front holes are where the factory seat bolted with the hinges to fold forward, and the rear holes are the factory seat belt holes. The weird thing is the front are 1/2" thread and the rear are M12. I did not use the latch bars in the floor where the factory seat clipped in. My whole chromoly seat mount base only weighs under 7 lbs. I used 5/16" thick 1" OD aluminum spacer below the base on the seat belt holes as those were in a recess in the bed floor. The M12 seat belt bolts I had to drill out almost completely to remove even though they weren't rusty, it was weird. I snapped off 3 different Torx bits in the head. The thread was still mostly there, but not 100%, so I added a nut under each one to be safe.

The strut bolted where the factory clearance cutout is on the carpet next to the passenger wheel well, those are two tiny holes, maybe 5/6 or 8 mm, don't remember, I plugged them with seam sealer they were so small.

The large holes for the spare tire mount I plugged with SS set screws.

I rarely was able to remove those seatbelt bolts rust or no rust.
Bust or twisted a few torx tips.
I even got an impact torx and stripped the bolt head.
I gave up and left the belts.

 

[Blue85]

I guess that's a change for the late (90/91) shoulder belts. The earlier seats were entirely part of the back seat, with no seatbelt holes in the floors.

 

[Truckman4life]

I found the only way to remove torx head bolts like that is to weld a nut with a center hole almost as big as the head of the bolt to it and then use a regular socket and impact on them. Ford uses torx bolts for truck beds and they will never come out whether they are rusty or not.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

On my ‘89 I couldn’t get the rear seat belt bolts out either. It got Rhino Lined with the belts in place but covered in tape.

 

[Fastereddie]

That dark gray carpet looks great

 

[max 02]

Me and my son were working on an oil change on my Polaris Ranger, I knew the oil plugs for the differentials are a pain and strip out easy.
The front diff plug was being a pain.

My son had his service truck with him so he said hang on! But you’re not going to like it.
We got out his long barrel Snap on air hammer and an adapter for sockets.
It was a torx head bolt, but anyhow with that and a wrench on the adapter it came out like butter!
He called it shake and break, never fails. He uses it on exhaust manifold bolts on tractors.

 

[CyberSniper]

I have a preposterous amount of experience with sound deadening. I don't know if there has been a product I haven't tried. Some are truly terrible for the price (Noico). On my motorhome I probably put $4,000 worth of sound deadening into it.

In cost per performance per weight, these are the products I prefer:
Design Engineering Boom Mat Liquid Sound Deadener
Design Engineering Boom Mat Spray-On Sound Deadener
Design Engineering Floor & Tunnel Shield II Heat Barrier (peel and stick fiberglass panels with a perforated aluminum shield)
Design Engineering Muffler Shield (wrap the muffler)
Dynamat Xtreme
Dynamat Hoodliner
Design Engineering Titanium Exhaust Wrap
Siless Max 120 mil (adhesive is iffy at high temperatures)
Siless Liner 157 mil

The DEI Boom Mat liquid stuff stinks really bad. It's basically glorified paint. However, it dries nicely eventually, and is paintable. I use it a lot anywhere the surface is irregular or I need to seal/flatten spots to run Dynamat Xtreme over. It makes more of a difference than it should. I usually apply Dynamat Xtreme over it.

The reason I bring all of this up is you are building something really nice, but often people get tired of riding in something like that because it's loud.

 

[folkenheath]

I found the only way to remove torx head bolts like that is to weld a nut with a center hole almost as big as the head of the bolt to it and then use a regular socket and impact on them. Ford uses torx bolts for truck beds and they will never come out whether they are rusty or not.

Yeah the weld on trick works pretty good because it adds heat at the same time. I thought about doing that but the belts were bolted in through the carpet, I was afraid to start a fire, and at the time I didn't plan to remove it. I ended up removing it to try heat and even welded a stud on it but that was after I drilled it through so much there wasn't enough to weld to. So I just kept drilling...

That dark gray carpet looks great

Thanks, I think it will look fine, even brand new vehicles have two tone interiors so dark and light gray should look just fine together.

Me and my son were working on an oil change on my Polaris Ranger, I knew the oil plugs for the differentials are a pain and strip out easy.
The front diff plug was being a pain.

My son had his service truck with him so he said hang on! But you’re not going to like it.
We got out his long barrel Snap on air hammer and an adapter for sockets.
It was a torx head bolt, but anyhow with that and a wrench on the adapter it came out like butter!
He called it shake and break, never fails. He uses it on exhaust manifold bolts on tractors.

I used my M18 impact gun, that one rated for 1200 lb-ft, and it snapped off 3 torx bits almost immediately. I didn't try my air hammer, what is this air hammer socket "adaptor" you speak of?

I have a preposterous amount of experience with sound deadening. I don't know if there has been a product I haven't tried. Some are truly terrible for the price (Noico). On my motorhome I probably put $4,000 worth of sound deadening into it.

In cost per performance per weight, these are the products I prefer:
Design Engineering Boom Mat Liquid Sound Deadener
Design Engineering Boom Mat Spray-On Sound Deadener
Design Engineering Floor & Tunnel Shield II Heat Barrier (peel and stick fiberglass panels with a perforated aluminum shield)
Design Engineering Muffler Shield (wrap the muffler)
Dynamat Xtreme
Dynamat Hoodliner
Design Engineering Titanium Exhaust Wrap
Siless Max 120 mil (adhesive is iffy at high temperatures)
Siless Liner 157 mil

The DEI Boom Mat liquid stuff stinks really bad. It's basically glorified paint. However, it dries nicely eventually, and is paintable. I use it a lot anywhere the surface is irregular or I need to seal/flatten spots to run Dynamat Xtreme over. It makes more of a difference than it should. I usually apply Dynamat Xtreme over it.

The reason I bring all of this up is you are building something really nice, but often people get tired of riding in something like that because it's loud.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind, I'm doing this in stages, and if I add sound deadener it will be at the painting stage, which for me paint is last. I'll probably stick to spray on stuff mainly do to moisture traps in the midwest but also weight. That stick on sound deadener is usually pretty heavy from the little I have used. Is that boom mat liquid not a spray on? You just brush it on or how does that work?

I got more done...

For the carpet cage and seat holes I chuck a tube the size of the hole I need in the lathe and put a 20-30 degree edge on it. Smaller stuff 1" or less you can just whack it with a hammer and punch the hole, bigger holes you may need to heat it up with an induction heater or a propane torch.

Ignore my poor cage painting skills, I got some bubbling in spots I think from too thick of coat but I don't know, I suck at painting.





The seats just pinch the carpet but since the cage is bolted under the carpet I used spacers for where the front harness bar bolted to the floor so it's solid but the carpet still slides under it then drop the spacers in and pull the carpet back to bolt it up.







Big thank you to the generosity of @Blue85 for the front seat bases and sliders. He would not accept any money for the seat parts. If you take factory seat bases and blast them and punch holes in them and dimple them, then paint them, they start to look like race parts....







I made adaptors to bolt the PRP seats to the factory driver's seat slider. My 1st mockup set was angled back too far, I tried pivoting them up but then my head was too close to the ceiling, so this 2nd set I made so low I had to use a flathead screw in the front to not rub on the seat but they fit well.





The passenger side I was planning to do the same for rear seat passenger access but I changed my mind for a few reasons. It was a little longer and hit the seat so it would of had to have been higher. Plus with the front harness bar behind it sliding it forward still left acrobatic access to the rear seat. So I changed plans and made the cage so you could walk through the middle made adaptor brackets to mount the passenger seat rigid to the factory seat base. This also saved weight without the 3 sliders on that side.








Add rubber guards and ran 14 awg speaker wire to all the speakers. Sounds a lot better with 4 speakers than 1. The rear speakers were already there, Pioneer 4x10, but not hooked up at all. The front 3.5" speakers are Alpine, but one had a bad connection. So only one speaker was working. Not they all have 14 awg wire and sound much better, probably overkill since its larger than the power wire for the 200W Pioneer head unit.



Tied the cage into the bedsides in one of the open factory hard top holes on each side. Made them removable so I can get the rear side panels in and out. This winter I plan to make custom side panels and put maybe some 6.5 speakers toward the front of the side panel instead of 4x10 all the way in the back.

 

[shady]

That trick with the seat bases was fuggin cool
Awesome!

 

[Truckman4life]

These....air hammer socket adapter. You put a wrench on it to apply turning force while lightly hammering. I have a snap-on one that has bits and it's own handle. Works great to break stuck screws loose. Never tried the ones that take sockets.

 

[shady]

I wouldn't think the socket ones would work as good.
Not as good as a hammer tip and a wrench.
Because all the hammer action would be on the part, not the bolt.

 

[Blue85]

Wow, those seat bases look way cooler than what I sent you. The dimples make the parts look like they go together, too.

 

[Truckman4life]

I wouldn't think the socket ones would work as good.
Not as good as a hammer tip and a wrench.
Because all the hammer action would be on the part, not the bolt.

You'd need a real shallow socket or they would work best on a flange head bolt.

 

[max 02]

These....air hammer socket adapter. You put a wrench on it to apply turning force while lightly hammering. I have a snap-on one that has bits and it's own handle. Works great to break stuck screws loose. Never tried the ones that take sockets.
View attachment 538460

Yup!

 

[CyberSniper]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind, I'm doing this in stages, and if I add sound deadener it will be at the painting stage, which for me paint is last. I'll probably stick to spray on stuff mainly do to moisture traps in the midwest but also weight. That stick on sound deadener is usually pretty heavy from the little I have used. Is that boom mat liquid not a spray on? You just brush it on or how does that work?

I added 15.5lbs of sound deadening to the JKURubicant and it saved me 9db inside at 75mph. Now all that is left is... all wind noise from the roof rack and the howl of the sad NSG370. Can't hear the tires, even with 1" rocks stuck in the tread at 18psi.

Most of the weight was in the floor on the driver's side (I have two mufflers in series on the driver's side instead of a rear muffler) where I added the liquid Boom Mat to smooth out the floor and seal for rust... then 100% covered from the tunnel to the sill from the firewall to the rear seat hump. 7lbs went into the hardtop. For the hardtop I have Dynamat Xtreme behind a DEI Boom Mat (entire top is covered with Boom Mat which is basically 1" thick closed cell foam with a plastic layer for color on the human side). Someday I might do the tunnel, cargo area, passenger side, and doors... but I doubt it. If I'm ever in the doors I'll probably just do a 30% coverage of the center of the panel and call it good. It's no longer like riding in an empty cargo van.

The spray liquid Boom Mat is really expensive. It's like shooting rattle can undercoating. So whenever you start or end the spray there is a cloud of mess so I usually use a paper plate to spray on at the end or beginning of a stroke. Kind of wasteful, but then I don't have to mask. And it's like $15+ a can now. However, it builds nice *and* flows into cracks nice. Like say you want to fill behind a crash bar that is tacked to a door. Perfect for that. Pinch welds. Upside down where it is a PITA to brush.

I put four coats on with a brush before spray painting the wheel wells on the Rubicant below. You can see the brush marks.

I put Dynamat Xtreme on the back of the wheel well liners (Nemesis industries aluminum ones) and put some patio grill mat for dirt redirection. The tire side has Rustoleum bedliner on it. I find it works to absorb tire howl better than a hard surface. Kind of like when GM started using the soft wheel well liners ~2014.


I've been putting Dynamat Xtreme on both the outside and inside of cars and trucks... for like 20 years. As long as you prep the surface for good adhesion and it wasn't a material meant to rust, it lasts forever. Rocks from tires never break through the butyl rubber, even if it does get through the aluminum foil. Shittier products like kilmat or lizardlicker or whatever all have cheaper foil. The Dynamat stuff is annealed and you can even get it to stretch. The real difference in the Dynamat products is the adhesive. Both DEI and Dynmat have the best adhesives.

My 2015 GM K2xx Sierra I put Dynamat on a little over 11 years ago and the only place it isn't rusting is where the Dynamat was. When it got smashed last time the dude asked if someone had repaired it before because of the Dynamat I had inside the doors (I had sprayed them Duplicolor body color after I put the mat inside) and I said no. He said he'd never seen a door rust from the outside on one of these trucks. I wash the truck constantly all winter with hot water at the house (at least once a week) but it has 130,000 miles of Michigan salt on it. Everywhere there is a pinch weld is rusting, plus anywhere the paint is thin (below door handles).

 

[folkenheath]

That trick with the seat bases was fuggin cool
Awesome!

Thanks, I thought it turned out pretty good myself.

The dimples didn't save that much weight, probably only a pound or so total with all the seat bases, but it made them quite a bit more rigid. I think most of the weight savings comes from using a thinner material but it was lighter too.

Wow, those seat bases look way cooler than what I sent you. The dimples make the parts look like they go together, too.

Thank you, and thanks again for the seat bases Luke, they work great!

These....air hammer socket adapter. You put a wrench on it to apply turning force while lightly hammering. I have a snap-on one that has bits and it's own handle. Works great to break stuck screws loose. Never tried the ones that take sockets.

I wouldn't think the socket ones would work as good.
Not as good as a hammer tip and a wrench.
Because all the hammer action would be on the part, not the bolt.

You'd need a real shallow socket or they would work best on a flange head bolt.

Yup!

There has been times when I need to push on a regular bolt or nut without a flange that I drop another nut or two in a shallow socket before I put it over the actual bolt, which makes the socket so shallow you can control the depth. I think this trick would work with that tool but obvisouly not necessary on a Torx head. Thanks guys, I might pick up a set of those to try next time.

I added 15.5lbs of sound deadening to the JKURubicant and it saved me 9db inside at 75mph. Now all that is left is... all wind noise from the roof rack and the howl of the sad NSG370. Can't hear the tires, even with 1" rocks stuck in the tread at 18psi.

Most of the weight was in the floor on the driver's side (I have two mufflers in series on the driver's side instead of a rear muffler) where I added the liquid Boom Mat to smooth out the floor and seal for rust... then 100% covered from the tunnel to the sill from the firewall to the rear seat hump. 7lbs went into the hardtop. For the hardtop I have Dynamat Xtreme behind a DEI Boom Mat (entire top is covered with Boom Mat which is basically 1" thick closed cell foam with a plastic layer for color on the human side). Someday I might do the tunnel, cargo area, passenger side, and doors... but I doubt it. If I'm ever in the doors I'll probably just do a 30% coverage of the center of the panel and call it good. It's no longer like riding in an empty cargo van.

The spray liquid Boom Mat is really expensive. It's like shooting rattle can undercoating. So whenever you start or end the spray there is a cloud of mess so I usually use a paper plate to spray on at the end or beginning of a stroke. Kind of wasteful, but then I don't have to mask. And it's like $15+ a can now. However, it builds nice *and* flows into cracks nice. Like say you want to fill behind a crash bar that is tacked to a door. Perfect for that. Pinch welds. Upside down where it is a PITA to brush.

I put four coats on with a brush before spray painting the wheel wells on the Rubicant below. You can see the brush marks.

I put Dynamat Xtreme on the back of the wheel well liners (Nemesis industries aluminum ones) and put some patio grill mat for dirt redirection. The tire side has Rustoleum bedliner on it. I find it works to absorb tire howl better than a hard surface. Kind of like when GM started using the soft wheel well liners ~2014.


I've been putting Dynamat Xtreme on both the outside and inside of cars and trucks... for like 20 years. As long as you prep the surface for good adhesion and it wasn't a material meant to rust, it lasts forever. Rocks from tires never break through the butyl rubber, even if it does get through the aluminum foil. Shittier products like kilmat or lizardlicker or whatever all have cheaper foil. The Dynamat stuff is annealed and you can even get it to stretch. The real difference in the Dynamat products is the adhesive. Both DEI and Dynmat have the best adhesives.

My 2015 GM K2xx Sierra I put Dynamat on a little over 11 years ago and the only place it isn't rusting is where the Dynamat was. When it got smashed last time the dude asked if someone had repaired it before because of the Dynamat I had inside the doors (I had sprayed them Duplicolor body color after I put the mat inside) and I said no. He said he'd never seen a door rust from the outside on one of these trucks. I wash the truck constantly all winter with hot water at the house (at least once a week) but it has 130,000 miles of Michigan salt on it. Everywhere there is a pinch weld is rusting, plus anywhere the paint is thin (below door handles).

View attachment 538470

View attachment 538471

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

If I use that same sound deadener, will it also make my calipers and rotors look that much better?

--------------------

So after I got the blazer mostly nack together at midnight wed night, we loaded up thursday morning and left or the dunes to hit the last weekend before they closed.

The blazer is down to almost 4600 lbs as is now...














Bruce says we hauled 4 cars in the trailer...(the RZR is in front of the blazer)







Out on the dunes the blazer was great. The whole family fit in it, and the ole 388 was running great. In fact being almost 900 lbs lighter than the K10 was while having about 100 HP less, it about felt just as fast, you tromp on it and it would shoot up the hill easy peasy. Everything stayed cool and it went everywhere I wanted and pulled the RZR out since the front axle stopped working in the RZR.











After Friday in the dunes we went to dinner saturday night still aired down, was only a mile or so from camp. When we came out I started heading down the road and I thought, man this 10 psi after sitting in the cold feels horrible. I drove less than a 1/4 mile and I thought, this feels worse than 10 psi. I got out and the tire was flat, I think we developed a leak at the dunes and the old tires couldn't take it for more than one day. I ran a mile to get the compressor, but it wouldn't hold any air, tire was trash. So I just said F it and drove it 5 MPH the remaining ~1 mile back to camp. The next morning it looked like this.

I think I can patch it...



Craig was meeting me there Saturday, he saved the day and brought me a tire. He had an old 33 laying around he mounted one of @Deuling old rims, it even matched! Thank you!



Kids went to Truck or Treat on the dunes on the last day of the season...




Found a few weekpoints...

I had to bypass the heater core because it decided to puke antifreeze all over my new carpet. I'll fix that this winter.

I also was going to make one more run in the dunes but the power steering pump started making a horrible rattling noise. I got a new one from Napa last night. I had replace the alternator and water pump with new but not the power steering pump.

 

[Truckman4life]

Your one daughter does not look amused with the photos!