TheBeast_88K5
Banned
P.S. Those "7-day car restoration shows" on TV are bull$hit.
-G
QFT.
I love how they do a trans rebuild in 5 minutes,
A paintjob in three minutes,
And they buff the whole car in that 25 second segment, between commercials.
CK5
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'72 K5 - Greg's @MightAsWellK5 Build
- Thread starter Greg72
- Start date
This is the build description. I will improve this later. (GB)
QFT.
I love how they do a trans rebuild in 5 minutes,
A paintjob in three minutes,
And they buff the whole car in that 25 second segment, between commercials.
If you keep logging the hours and pushing yourself eventually you will create what is already in your mind's eye..... and once you see it actually rendered in metal and bolted to your truck, THAT is a very cool feeling.
P.S. Those "7-day car restoration shows" on TV are bull$hit.
-G
thus, why having a shop/tools that can bang out killer components in short order helps tremendously... as opposed to let's say, cruder, methods...
bracket build time getting knock from an hr and 1/2 to 20 minutes becomes key... I did that sh*t for yr's, no garage, out in the rocks with a visegrip and a drill...
neat stuff bud.. keep bangin, you'll get it...
Remember after you think you have everything done, cycle it one more time. Then cycle it again.
The things you are hitting are not things you want colliding when you are be bopping down the trail and don't see the 1' foot deep pothole in the trail.
Once you get everything finalized with the correct material and everything in it all needs to be cycled again.
Looks pretty good though.
The things you are hitting are not things you want colliding when you are be bopping down the trail and don't see the 1' foot deep pothole in the trail.
Once you get everything finalized with the correct material and everything in it all needs to be cycled again.
Looks pretty good though.
Haven't even gotten cleanly to my 29" PS & 29" DS target yet....
But, yes..... I am hoping to start the whole process fresh from the starting point again. Obviously, I need to get through the whole sweep cleanly before I can claim success. Then I still need to run the same test on the opposite side.
It will be good when this part of the process is over. I was trying REALLY hard to push my bump travel up to 7" as you had challenged me to do. But based on how many things are colliding at the 6" mark, I'd have to take drastic measures to gain that last inch of travel.....and I'm not sure the concessions would be worth it. (taller ride height, raise the engine mounts another inch, etc)
-G
Haven't even gotten cleanly to my 29" PS & 29" DS target yet....
I was trying REALLY hard to push my bump travel up to 7" as you had challenged me to do. But based on how many things are colliding at the 6" mark, I'd have to take drastic measures to gain that last inch of travel.....and I'm not sure the concessions would be worth it. (taller ride height, raise the engine mounts another inch, etc)
-G
Hence the reasons I tell people to not get hung up on the numbers. When you get hung up on the numbers you end up doing this that just don't make sense. It doesn't make sense on your truck to change the entire front again just to gain an inch of bump travel.
You get hung on numbers and then it just starts getting way stupid. Where your at now I kind of consider a good spot. Not a ton more modding but some. Didn't quite hit the goals, but real real close.
I'm blown away by your skills, dedication and every little update in this build. I absolutely cannot wait to see this thing moving itself when you get it done. 
Got the new EVO heims last night.
Lost some clearance in the PHB due to the new larger heim bodies.
It turns out that a 10* bend in the PHB directly below the oilpan makes a world of difference in clearance. Gonna have to hit up my friends at ORD to see if they can make me a direct-threaded DOM bar to my final specs.
-G
Lost some clearance in the PHB due to the new larger heim bodies.
It turns out that a 10* bend in the PHB directly below the oilpan makes a world of difference in clearance. Gonna have to hit up my friends at ORD to see if they can make me a direct-threaded DOM bar to my final specs.
-G
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A couple quick ones from tonight's effort before I head off to bed....
New PHB with a 7* bend under the oilpan:
And a weird-cool shot of the axle sitting all the way down on the concrete....
-G
New PHB with a 7* bend under the oilpan:
And a weird-cool shot of the axle sitting all the way down on the concrete....
-G
Holy droop batman! 
chulisohombre
1/2 ton status
Wo that's a lot of movement. Will you be able to get springs that will move that far will be the question. Do you now have your seven inch uptravel you were looking for. Looks like a three ft difference almost. Crazy articulation man.
Well the suspension is going to use struts from ORI, so there won't be any "springs" per se. That amount of droop is pretty useless, but it does make for a fun photo.
The 7" bump travel was a real stretch goal, but unfortunately it's just not going to happen. Even with the new bent PHB I place last night, I had interferences at the oilpan, PS framerail and motor mount bracket.... the tradeoffs to gain the next inch of uptravel are simply not going to be worth it.
Brandon made a astute observation about the PHB mounts too. Every time you change either mount location (even slightly) you change the arc of the axle and the location of the axle (left-to-right) at full stuff. There were places that used to clear the axle that need additional work now that the PHB moved 3/8" up (passenger side), and 1" up (driver side).
Of course the other consideration is that I need to match the angle of the PHB to the draglink... And the last few iterations of the PHB have added more height (a good thing!) but also some additional angularity that I didn't have before. I may need to drop the frame side PHB mount, or possibly raise the mounts for the idler arm bracket to get the angles matched up again.
-G
Seems like that amount of droop will make it fun for you to go play with ktmoutfront!
I did that same droop shot also. Can't find the picture.
Running struts does not give the dampening for high speed stuff. But for what this is being built for, extreme rock crawling, struts work great.
What length of travel struts are you trying to run?
Running struts does not give the dampening for high speed stuff. But for what this is being built for, extreme rock crawling, struts work great.
What length of travel struts are you trying to run?
14" front / 16" rear....
Seems like a traditional and successful combination from what I see around.
-G
Seems like a traditional and successful combination from what I see around.
-G
TheBeast_88K5
Banned
This rig is so cool....
Another side-project going on..... Building a set of one-off 17" steel wheels (painted factory white) for a set of 12" Chevy hubcaps.
My sample Dodge 2500 Truck wheel (17" x 7.5") compared to an MRW (barrel only) at 17" x 12"
The BFGoodrich site recommends between 10" and 12" wheel width based on the 14.5" section-width of my KM2s... I bought a single MRW barrel at 12" wide to see what it would look like. Um yeah......it looks HUGE.
Based on some simple measurements last night, it does look like the center of the Dodge wheel would drop perfectly into the MRW barrel. After carefully cutting a small length of rod to the EXACT size of the inner dimension (edges of the welded flange) it looks like the center stamping is 15-7/16" across. When that rod was held up to the inside mounting area of the MRW barrel, it looks to be a perfect fit!
So you can see from this closeup photo, that the inner plate is perimeter-welded all the way around on the Dodge wheel. I am trying to come up with a clever way to cut this weld without destroying the center or the barrel in the process. Ideally, the center needs to come out cleanly and then get bolted to the axle.... then the MRW barrel can be slid over it to play around with the backspacing to see how "deep" the wheel will go before it hits the new steering arms, etc.
My suspicion is that the 12" wide wheel is simply going to prove to be WAY too wide, and the final product will probably use a 10" wide MRW barrel with the Dodge centers.
Once a successful mock-up is done for a single wheel, it will be time to locate more Dodge wheels and cut out all the centers so that they can be shipped to MRW for final assembly into their barrels, checked for runout and fully-machine welded for safety.
-G
My sample Dodge 2500 Truck wheel (17" x 7.5") compared to an MRW (barrel only) at 17" x 12"
The BFGoodrich site recommends between 10" and 12" wheel width based on the 14.5" section-width of my KM2s... I bought a single MRW barrel at 12" wide to see what it would look like. Um yeah......it looks HUGE.
Based on some simple measurements last night, it does look like the center of the Dodge wheel would drop perfectly into the MRW barrel. After carefully cutting a small length of rod to the EXACT size of the inner dimension (edges of the welded flange) it looks like the center stamping is 15-7/16" across. When that rod was held up to the inside mounting area of the MRW barrel, it looks to be a perfect fit!
So you can see from this closeup photo, that the inner plate is perimeter-welded all the way around on the Dodge wheel. I am trying to come up with a clever way to cut this weld without destroying the center or the barrel in the process. Ideally, the center needs to come out cleanly and then get bolted to the axle.... then the MRW barrel can be slid over it to play around with the backspacing to see how "deep" the wheel will go before it hits the new steering arms, etc.
My suspicion is that the 12" wide wheel is simply going to prove to be WAY too wide, and the final product will probably use a 10" wide MRW barrel with the Dodge centers.
Once a successful mock-up is done for a single wheel, it will be time to locate more Dodge wheels and cut out all the centers so that they can be shipped to MRW for final assembly into their barrels, checked for runout and fully-machine welded for safety.
-G
I have 35x14.5x17" Goodyear tires mounted on H2's right now. They are only 8.5" wide, and they are plenty wide for those tires.
Martin
Martin
I have 38x14.5x17" KM2s mounted on H2's right now....
They are also 8.5" wide. The problem is the Dodge wheels are even NARROWER at only 7.5" wide so no matter what I'm going to have to take some sort of action to get the wheel widened..... I'd prefer to stay within the manufacturer's spec for wheel fitment but clearly, going to 12" wide (their suggested maximum) was a bad choice.....
I think the next experiment will be a 10" wide barrel with the Dodge center. There is enough room to add maybe 1/2" of the extra width toward the steering-arm side, but the remaining 2" will have to go to the outside of the wheel. Visually this will probably look better anyway. The Dodge wheel is a strongly offset wheel and the wheel face is practically "flush" with the front of the rim.
Photo of flushness:
Adding a couple of inches will give the wheel more of a deep-dish look and should help to fool everyone into thinking my truck is still stock.
-G
The taller the tire is, the easier you can get away with running it on a narrow rim. Ebke (80'427) has 39.5x13.50x16.5" Iroks on factory GM wheels, and they are only 6.5" wide.
I understand that you like things to be perfect, but it just seems like a lot of extra work. I would just mount one of those tires on the Dodge rim and see how it fits.
Martin
I understand that you like things to be perfect, but it just seems like a lot of extra work. I would just mount one of those tires on the Dodge rim and see how it fits.
Martin
