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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)
Great solution and looking good!
You did better than I did. When I found the tires on the SAAB's brand new massaged and painted fenders rubbed I sulked for a day, cut out the offending sheet metal, welded in new and...there it has been sitting for the last three or so months. I just lost motivation and it's so close to being done. Don't be like me and let it sit for any amount of time or it just gets easier to ignore it.
Good deal.
Things always work out better than you think they will when you step out for a bit.
Things always work out better than you think they will when you step out for a bit.
Yeah, I remember seeing that update on your build thread.....definitely a heartbreaker ESPECIALLY after paintwork was already completed.
It's hard to put off the "fun" parts of the build (like shiny paint) but after going through struggles like this, I'm reminded that no matter how careful and meticulous I try to be..... There are always going to be mistakes and surprises along the way.
-G
I also liked seeing the sharpie method. Did the same on mine. I just needed everything all around the trunk flat and parallel to the floor so I mounted it on a furniture dolly and rolled it around on the floor.
We had confidence you would find a solution that doesn't look bad. I think you have dealt with worse problems in the build before. Nice job!
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Looks good!
That blows. I remember running short on time with mine and not cycling anything out and hearing my tires rub the fenders the first time I pulled out of the driveway I still need to refinish my front fenders and make new inners. And replace the rear floor. And build a cage. And install a stereo. Dammit.
Anxious to see what you find on the drivers side. I don't think MC will be any concern at all, but possibly steering shaft. Hopefully it's kind to you.
I still need to refinish my front fenders and make new inners. And replace the rear floor. And build a cage. And install a stereo. Dammit.Anxious to see what you find on the drivers side. I don't think MC will be any concern at all, but possibly steering shaft. Hopefully it's kind to you.
Glad it worked out without too much heartache. Going to do the drivers side next, or do you have other issues to do first?
That blows. I remember running short on time with mine and not cycling anything out and hearing my tires rub the fenders the first time I pulled out of the driveway
Anxious to see what you find on the drivers side. I don't think MC will be any concern at all, but possibly steering shaft. Hopefully it's kind to you.
It is truly amazing how MUCH room a "stuffing" tire actually requires (while turning left or right).... I know that everyone always warns about that, but until you see it with your own eyes it's hard to really appreciate it. One minute you've got LOADS of clearance all around the tire, and then as you slowly start to turn the wheel to one side those gaps just vanish into thin air and the tire hits the fender (or firewall)!!! A lot of lift (or limited bump travel) are really the only options to keeping the fender arches at a reasonable size and scale with the rest of the truck.
The PS "bump" travel testing was really just to confirm (or deny) that I had the necessary clearance around the axle-side PHB mount. When I'm in that configuration, the draglink gets REALLLLY close to the underside of the PHB mount and heim, and partially travels underneath it. Since the PHB mount is just about the only part left that hasn't been plated-up in it's final form I need to get that done next..... It's the only item left that's keeping me from filling the struts with nitrogen and unbolting those caster wheels from the front frame horns......ifyouknowwhatImean.
The cool thing about this firewall mishap is that it forces me to finally learn some metalforming skills that I've wanted to try for a long time. For Christmas about 2 years ago, I got a set of mallets and a lead shot bag (filled with 50Lbs of lead shot) which is used to hammer out curves in sheetmetal and create more complex formed shapes. The area that I cut out of the firewall was actually a very cool curved shape for the smaller factory tire, so now I'd like to replicate that shape in a larger format. It almost has a "clamshell" type shape to it..... curved in two different axes.
It will be fun to mess around with some thin metal and hammerform some parts, do some dolly work and see if I can get a shape that is professional and believable for that area. In the meantime, I can use the existing hole I cut to make up a set of templates for the driver's side.... it should be fast to transfer the "cut lines" over to the drivers area, and go immediately to the final shape without all the intermediate steps that I took last night.
Utimately, closing up those holes is probably NOT a high priority since I'm not really sure if I need to make any other "adjustments" later on. I'm really glad I didn't spend a ton of time metal-finishing the floors/firewall back when I first did the rust repairs, because a good chunk of that area ended up in the "tuition pile" of scrap steel in the corner!!!!
-G
If you look at any rig set up for 50/50 travel the wheel well opening is always huge. It should be fun at speed.
Are you checking full bump and droop with everything hooked up? It needs to be checked full bump may seem more important but full droop is important too.
The real world occasionally presents problems that cannot be foreseen. I have seen everything work perfectly in a shop setting and nearly everything need to be modded just a tiny bit to actually work.
I suggest getting it running and driving before yoh blow it apart for final paint and assembly
Are you checking full bump and droop with everything hooked up? It needs to be checked full bump may seem more important but full droop is important too.
The real world occasionally presents problems that cannot be foreseen. I have seen everything work perfectly in a shop setting and nearly everything need to be modded just a tiny bit to actually work.
I suggest getting it running and driving before yoh blow it apart for final paint and assembly
Eric,
Still can't check everything with all linkages attached yet. I didn't want to mess around with the idler last night because I was still too stressed-out about the tire rubbing issue, so I just disconnected the draglink so I could get max steering quickly.
The issues are definitely still showing up all over the place, but I guess it's a good sign that USUALLY they are smaller things that just require small "tweaks" to resolve....
"Running and Driving before teardown"???? Wow, that's a lot to ask...... do you have ANY idea how hard it's going to be for me to deliberately take my truck apart once it's running (and I haven't actually driven it for 6 years.....and counting)????
-G
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Greg
As soon as I read that you didn't have the axle at full droop on one side I laughed. Made that same mistake a time or two. It's unbelievable how much the clearances change in the last few inches of droop travel when the other tire is at full stuff.
It's all good man.
As soon as I read that you didn't have the axle at full droop on one side I laughed. Made that same mistake a time or two. It's unbelievable how much the clearances change in the last few inches of droop travel when the other tire is at full stuff.
It's all good man.
Greg
As soon as I read that you didn't have the axle at full droop on one side I laughed. Made that same mistake a time or two. It's unbelievable how much the clearances change in the last few inches of droop travel when the other tire is at full stuff.
It's all good man.
I'm glad that my pain and suffering can be a source of happiness and laughter for you.....
Experience is something you get right after you really needed it...
-G
Greg, I don't mean to bash you but I went through the same thing with mine and everyone thought I was nuts for being so paranoid about clearances. Multiple people said just put it together. I'm sooooo glad I was able to get my axle at full droop and bump.
Sounds like you got it taken care of though.
Keep on keeping on buddy.
Sounds like you got it taken care of though.
Keep on keeping on buddy.
Greg, I don't mean to bash you but I went through the same thing with mine and everyone thought I was nuts for being so paranoid about clearances. Multiple people said just put it together. I'm sooooo glad I was able to get my axle at full droop and bump.
Sounds like you got it taken care of though.
The irony about all this is that I made the decision to go to a multi-link suspension as a strategy to eliminate a lot of the undesirable axle motions of a leafspring/shackle setup.
With the leafsprings, the tire goes WAAAAY back under bump, and if the opposite side is drooping at the same time it's actually pulling that side of the axle slightly forward which amplifies the problem even further. Since I didn't want to hack the fenders to get the necessary clearance, it seemed like a logical idea (on paper anyway) to go with a multi-link suspension with nice long links so that the axle would travel in nice gentle arcs through it's up and down motions. This theoretically would allow me to preserve most of the sheetmetal of the fenderlip, especially the trailing-edge where almost everyone with leafs ends up doing a LOT of cutting for clearance....
Where I think my logic failed me, was when I got greedy and decided that since I was doing all this suspension design.....I "Might As Well" go for the biggest amount of wheel travel that I could reasonably get. The 6" of bump travel didn't really seem THAT excessive, but what ended up sneaking up on me was the effect of the 8" of droop from the opposite side.
Who knew?
-G
I literally know exactly what you are saying, remember in my thread? Even though I don't have a exact 50/50 numbers, I'm at around 41% bump travel. That was enough for me to go crazy in the head and having to toss out brand new parts or think about modifying the frame like you did without ridiculous amount of CG.
This is very true, steering while articulating fills the spaces very quickly, and I think that your portal boxes exaggerate this because there is probably a greater distance between the steering pivot on the knuckle and the outside of the tire.
One thing I noticed is, the tire moves more than you would think. When I set my axle steering stops to clear my links the tire could never hit it, but when I drive it, I notice the paint is rubbed off the link there, the tire flexes enough to rub even halfway up the back side, keep that in mind when trimming your fender, leave some extra wiggle room.
