Bigblue7-2
1/2 ton status
Hello everyone! Perhaps I am jumping the gun here...but who cares! Tomorrow I will be picking up a 72 K5 CST. The cool part about this 1st gen is it has been in the hands of the same man for 42 years! No modifications except a missing rear bench and I am assuming the ugly front push bar. Aside from the rust and bee nests I am very excited about this.
It has been a long time since I have been in the garage for such a project, but I figured it was "about time"
I got back to it. In fact I have been eying up this 72 for a little over 3 years. The old man who had it didn't want to sell it. I stayed in touch with the old man over the years and unfortunately he passed away around labor day. I stopped by the house when I saw one of his daughters outside to offer my condolences. She asked how I knew her father, I said it all started with the K5. She said would you still be interested? I said yes. We agreed on a price and here we are!
As I can tell by snooping around some of these build threads, a lot can change throughout the builds. But I have some ideas where I will be headed:
1.)Obviously a complete frame off body restoration.
2.)Repower with a ZZ454 Block with the holley terminator EFI mated to a TH400. Transfer case is debatable for now.
3.) Mild lift for now. This is not going to be a major off roader/rock crawler. 4"-6" 35's-37's can assure you this will see the road more than anything. It will be more of a beach vessel taking me to the state park to go fishing. In NJ we have a state park where we can drive on the beach.
4.)Interior I want to bring it back to 72 with modern amenities.
5.)I would also like a soft top of some sort.
I am sure there will be much more things to touch base on over the next few years but this is it in a nutshell.
Look forward to sharing with you all!
Bill
It has been a long time since I have been in the garage for such a project, but I figured it was "about time"
I got back to it. In fact I have been eying up this 72 for a little over 3 years. The old man who had it didn't want to sell it. I stayed in touch with the old man over the years and unfortunately he passed away around labor day. I stopped by the house when I saw one of his daughters outside to offer my condolences. She asked how I knew her father, I said it all started with the K5. She said would you still be interested? I said yes. We agreed on a price and here we are!As I can tell by snooping around some of these build threads, a lot can change throughout the builds. But I have some ideas where I will be headed:
1.)Obviously a complete frame off body restoration.
2.)Repower with a ZZ454 Block with the holley terminator EFI mated to a TH400. Transfer case is debatable for now.
3.) Mild lift for now. This is not going to be a major off roader/rock crawler. 4"-6" 35's-37's can assure you this will see the road more than anything. It will be more of a beach vessel taking me to the state park to go fishing. In NJ we have a state park where we can drive on the beach.
4.)Interior I want to bring it back to 72 with modern amenities.
5.)I would also like a soft top of some sort.
I am sure there will be much more things to touch base on over the next few years but this is it in a nutshell.
Look forward to sharing with you all!
Bill
It's a lot more fun to work on a clean truck anyway.
