'72 K5 - Greg's @MightAsWellK5 Build

[Greg72]

Looks pretty nice and a reasonable trade off. I moved my rear seat forward several inches and it hasn't been a problem. The concourse judges probably won't even notice.

Yeah, those concours judges won't have anything else to complain about unless they notice the rear seat is 1" forward. Everything else on this truck is 100% OEM original....

Every time I get pissed for having to redo something X amount of times, I think of this build... and it makes me happy. Sorry

Recently I have been thinking that almost every part I build takes an average of 3 attempts, so if I were to put them on a truck instead of throwing them away... I would actually have THREE trucks instead of just one.

1. The really badly rendered one
2. The not-too-bad one
3. The one I'm actually proud of

Of course, once I finished #3 there wouldn't be any need for the other 2... and I'd probably be too embarrassed to ever sell them, because I wouldn't want them to be out in public as "examples" of my work.


-G

 

[folkenheath]

Move the seat 1" forward to change the shock angle from 3 degrees front/back doesn't really do anything if the shock angle is 15 degrees sideways anyway. I would leave the seat where it belongs for leg/cargo room and put the shock where it clears, 15 degree shock angle isn't enough to matter anyway, and if you have it 15 degrees in laterally it won't really make a difference anyway.

The sideways shock angle is usually determined by what angle is required to clear the tire under stull stuff on that side and the frame at full droop on that side, while being fully articulated both times, that is where the shock clearance is the biggest issue with the lateral angle. Yours might be at full stuff for both since your shock is a little higher with the portal tube.

 

[Greg72]

Move the seat 1" forward to change the shock angle from 3 degrees front/back doesn't really do anything if the shock angle is 15 degrees sideways anyway. I would leave the seat where it belongs for leg/cargo room and put the shock where it clears, 15 degree shock angle isn't enough to matter anyway, and if you have it 15 degrees in laterally it won't really make a difference anyway.

The sideways shock angle is usually determined by what angle is required to clear the tire under stull stuff on that side and the frame at full droop on that side, while being fully articulated both times, that is where the shock clearance is the biggest issue with the lateral angle. Yours might be at full stuff for both since you shock is a little higher with the portal tube.

Heath,

Thanks! Beyond the irrational OCD-type crap that is forcing me to move the seat forward, there is also a practical consideration that the mount will land on the framerail in a more favorable spot.

As luck would have it, in the stock seat position, that down tube lands right at the point where the "jog" in the framerail happens.... so about 1/2 of the tube ends up hanging off the framerail instead of sitting flush.

IF... I can get away with only 10* of lateral angle instead of 15* I could shorten-up the horizontal dimension of that new tube, and land it on the frame properly.

Do you think a single bar is going to be enough? I was going to triangulate a second bar up from the framerail for good measure and call it done.... I just don't see that doing a bunch of other lateral triangulated tie-ins to the bedrail cage area is going to add much value or strength...


-G

 

[folkenheath]

We'd have to see the bar you are talking about to make a judgement call, way too many ways to mount that bar to the frame. Depending on how its mounted, 1 bar might be just fine.

 

[elbekko]

Does the tire still fit in the wheelwell when flexed out with the seat there?

 

[76zimmer]

Yeah, those concours judges won't have anything else to complain about unless they notice the rear seat is 1" forward. Everything else on this truck is 100% OEM original....
-G

Your rear cage "spotwelds" don't match the factory assembly manual for placement, I see 1/4" discrepancy, deduct 10 points on inaccurate placement of welds. Still ranking at 960/1000 though. Keep the quality up!

 

[Greg72]

Does the tire still fit in the wheelwell when flexed out with the seat there?

The wheel track is pretty wide, so I don't think it's going to be very much interference. I had originally planned to do a large mini-tub on each side, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be necessary. If I had to guess I'd say that I will need to do a small extension to the tub at the lower inside corner....I think most of it will be hidden as it tucks under the rear seat area.

Your rear cage "spotwelds" don't match the factory assembly manual for placement, I see 1/4" discrepancy, deduct 10 points on inaccurate placement of welds. Still ranking at 960/1000 though. Keep the quality up!

Damn!..... Sounds like a preview of how this truck will be received by enthusiasts once it's finally finished and on display. "That's wrong"... "Chevys never had 17" steel wheels"...."that rear view mirror isn't correct for a '72".... Etc, etc.


-G

 

[76zimmer]

Not to worry Greg
I knew the resto crowd would be checking things over on the Vette too so when I built the engine it was decked giving me a nice clean surface to stamp F@ck Off....it gets some very strange looks from those that are checking for originality

 

[ryoken]

and they deserve it for looking at that stuff...


anyone giving this rig cr@p deserves a ballpeen to the temple...

 

[Greg72]

Not to worry Greg
I knew the resto crowd would be checking things over on the Vette too so when I built the engine it was decked giving me a nice clean surface to stamp F@ck Off....it gets some very strange looks from those that are checking for originality

I remember you telling that story!

Gotta be a funny thing so see them peeking in to read the block code....seeing your custom stamping.....going back in to read it again.... And watching the puzzled look on their face when they realize that they got slapped-down.




-G

 

[76zimmer]

It has its place!
Its fun to sit and watch....when someone comes up to take a lean into that side of the engine compartment I get a little on the edge of my seat to see if they notice it, then if they do, see what their reaction is...sometimes its like I just slapped their girlfriend, others have had a nice grin with their chuckle and totally get why its there!

I got one of these I'm going to put on the Maiden if I ever get around to painting it...

 

[Greg72]

2015.06.01 - UPDATE!!! - HAVE A SEAT!!!


Some good progress has been happening, and I'm a bit behind on my updates and photos... so this one is going to be a bit pic-heavy! Hope nobody minds....

The fight for a full-width seat has been a fierce one, and it took a lot of head scratching, and standing back 15 feet away from the truck and just staring at things (for a long time) to finally come up with a workable idea to located the struts AND save the seat width....

Because I wanted to keep the struts as vertical as possible (from the side view) I knew that the upper mount would have to be as close to the seatback as possible or it would end up laying-back by a few degrees. So I started with a couple of angled tubes that matched the seatback angle perfectly.

Using a single tube for this application just didn't "feel" like the right amount of beef, so I added a second tube and dropped it at exactly 90-degrees to the top of the framerail. This gave me a bit of triangulation between the two tubes, and ample opportunities in the future for speed and flare hole plates to connect them!

The truck was sitting at "full bump" at both front and rear, so I collapsed the strut all the way and figured out where the upper mounting hole needed to go. I cut out a crescent-shaped plate to follow the tube and tacked it into place at a 15* angle....

As of Sunday morning (yesterday) this is how things looked...

I spent some time building the second crescent shaped plate to complete the double-shear mount. Since the tubes are mounted at different angles, the plates end up being slightly different as well. The seat-facing plate has an angled through-hole, and the tailgate-facing plate gets a conventional 90* hole...

A couple of the templates I worked on for this project. The crescent mount plate, and the frame plate to extend the mounting point of the rear tube where it was hanging partially off the frame...

The PS mount ended up looking pretty good. I ended up with 90* of strut angle (side view) and 15* of lateral angle (leaning in at the top) which seems to be a generous amount to accommodate the wheel/tire articulation... So I put some bracing together to "force the squareness" of both strut towers to each other.

Since I'd already been through the process once, the second hoops went in pretty simply and quickly. Here's how it all looked by the end of last night (after I'd cleaned up my tools and messes)

The side view of the 90* strut...

.....and just a cool "peek-a-boo" shot of the tubing through the missing quarterpanel sheetmetal.

I've dumped a TON of hours into these mounts, and I'm really hoping that the flex testing doesn't force me to scrap all of this and start over. I guess I'll find out in the next few days.


-G

 

[folkenheath]

Looks good Greg!

So will the two bent tubes be inside the fenders and only the shock show from the outside?

Is it just me or are you missing the tapered spacers for the shock bolts?

 

[Greg72]

Looks good Greg!

So will the two bent tubes be inside the fenders and only the shock show from the outside?

Is it just me or are you missing the tapered spacers for the shock bolts?

At this point, the entire strut sits to the inside of the factory wheeltubs, and the lower part of the strut drops through a hole in the floorboard right next to the vertical part of the wheeltubs..... of course, if the wheel tubs have to get any wider (mini-tub) all bets are off!!!

ORIs have a small set of misalignment spacers for either side of the heim ball... maybe 1/2" wide each. Hard to see in the photos, especially with that really thick DOM spacer I'm using to build the mounts with... but they're in there.




-G

 

[GWeakland620]

I like.

 

[max 02]

Glad you came up with a solution. A narrowed seat would have looked dumb.

Maybe not so much dumb looking but everything else is so nice and your trying to make the rig look factory and all that...the seat would have been a dead give away that something has been done to the truck.

 

[Greg72]

Glad you came up with a solution. A narrowed seat would have looked dumb.

Maybe not so much dumb looking but everything else is so nice and your trying to make the rig look factory and all that...the seat would have been a dead give away that something has been done to the truck.

I agree..... it's frustrating how long it takes sometimes to get that "lightbulb moment" when you finally figure out a clever way to accomplish what you want. It's been a couple of weeks and I just couldn't really wrap my head around a solution that gave me everything that I wanted. This one isn't perfect, but it has the fewest compromises and ultimately I think it's going to work well.

Besides....with those two hoops-per-side being nice and level across the top, I'm creating quite a lovely lumber rack setup!!!! I'll be hauling plywood and drywall in this thing after all!!!!


-G

 

[max 02]

You and Mike with your lumber racks!

 

[Greg72]

Last night's progress.... Plasma cut, shaped and dialed-in.



I ended up changing the lower strut mount bracket slightly as an experiment. On the PS bracket I put the lower Schrader valve toward the inside of the truck (for easier access) but since the strut is angled inward, the valve ends up angled downward too and needed a large cutout in the bracket to give it adequate clearance in articulation. If I rotate the valve to the outside instead, it will be angling upward at about 15* and sits above the bracket completely.....it might not even need clearancing at all.


-G

 

[westn11]

Imagine how nice its going to be when you're done with the cage, suspension, brackets, etc, etc, that require so much thought and time. Getting back to some of those easier tasks that give a little more instant gratification is going to feel like Xmas. I know when I'm stuck on something and need a breather, I go work on my 67 C10. I does have air bags and a few other mods, but all-in-all, its stock and cake to work on. I could rip the whole truck apart in an hour if I wanted.

Looking good as always.