those turned out pretty good
I wouldn't have known they were welded.
I wouldn't have known they were welded.CK5
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'74 K5 build: Smurf
- Thread starter dremu
- Start date
Nice thread. Good to see life coming back to it. Any action pics of the smurfer?
You got divorced again? 
Is that Redheads 2, Dremu 0 now?
Good to see you working on the smurf again, I'm itching to work on my crap again but am waiting for some stuff to settle down and get decided first.
Is that Redheads 2, Dremu 0 now?
Good to see you working on the smurf again, I'm itching to work on my crap again but am waiting for some stuff to settle down and get decided first.
Thanks. While I do like to hear myself talk, even online
I do strive for a balance between words and pictures. I also assume a certain knowledge and familiarity on all y'alls' parts, so there's no "Grade 8 bolts are gold and have (x) ridges on the heads" 
but there's also intermediate steps and explanations between the before's and after's.Depends on what you mean by "action". At this point I'd be happy if I could get it up to 50MPH on the street without puckering me to the seat
Granted this means I don't need a seatbelt as I'm held in entirely by suction Someday. Sigh.You got divorced again?
Is that Redheads 2, Dremu 0 now?
Good to see you working on the smurf again, I'm itching to work on my crap again but am waiting for some stuff to settle down and get decided first.
Ha! Actually it's Redhead: 1 Blonde: 1 vs Dr Emu: 0 ... but yep. Having gone from short redhead nympho to tall blonde Mormon and finding neither worked out, I am sticking with the middle of the road from here on out
I'm also SLOWLY coming to terms with this hobby being about *working on the trucks* and not *actually using them*. If I wanted a *working* truck I shoulda bought something made in this century ... and prolly Japanese...
-- A
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those turned out pretty good
Thanks! It involved a PRODIGIOUS amount of grinding and there's still a few voids, but they're structurally sound and I got my welding practice in.
Here's the end result painted and installed under the pack, along with a shim underneath. I wasn't gonna try "machining" the shim angle with a grinder, plus the angle is still subject to change.
That welding practice came in handy today, as I crosstied the rear shackles for the front springs. ("Front rear shackles" confuses me
) They're shortened (down to ~6" ctr-ctr from 7.5" or 8"); I had drilled them out to try different lengths. As it worked out, the shortest one was snug against the frame, so I used the middle hole. Here's the "before", so you can see the hole testing:
And then the "after", i.e. now:
The tie is 3/4" bar stock I had in the scrap pile. The unused hole was just about right for the crosstie, so I welded through it.
I also rounded the ends off for purely aesthetic purposes. I use the word "round" loosely here. Once again, in the right hands, a 9" angle grinder can be a precision instrument. At least I imagine that's the case, 'cuz it's certainly not true for my hands
I'll get pix of them mounted once they're painted and dried.
-- A
Ha! Actually it's Redhead: 1 Blonde: 1 vs Dr Emu: 0 ... but yep. Having gone from short redhead nympho to tall blonde Mormon and finding neither worked out, I am sticking with the middle of the road from here on out
-- A
Medium height brunette next? Are you gonna try for one that is sane this time? I've heard it's rare but possible to find.
Medium height brunette next? Are you gonna try for one that is sane this time? I've heard it's rare but possible to find.
I dated one woman for a year and a half or so ... yeah, brownish hair, 5-8", which for me is medium height, and dang near to being sane.
It could happen But no woman in my life, means I have more time to work on the truck, though, right?
In that vein, here's the shackle cut down and rounded and mounted.
I double-checked clearance from the cross-tie to the frame, and even at full compression there's like 3/8". I'm hoping the ties will add some lateral stability, but at least they look kinda cool and I got my welding in. Yes, some days I wonder if the whole truck is an excuse for me to have tools =))
I also discovered the front springs can do like 4" of up-travel (measured at the hub), which is considerably more than I woulda thought. The 52's are very droop-capable, I know, but apparently they can compress too.
Next up is shock mounting. In the back, gonna revert to the stock mounting instead of the inboarding, as I think I'm losing too much damping ability with the shocks angled in like that. Up front, prolly gonna rotate the Ford towers down some, so that I can use a shorter shock overall, and then it'll be time to bite the bullet and get good shocks, see how she drives.
Worst case I can always just put on a triple steering stabilizer
-- with the neon colored boots, 'cuz that changes the damping, just like stickers add horsepower, right? -- A
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Thanks!
I finally ordered shocks. I ended up choosing Bilstein 5125's; I'll post up with the results once they're mounted. I bought 'em from Summit, which worked out to be cheaper than 4WPW's deal (and I hate dealing with 4WPW anyway.)
While waiting for Brown Santa to bring forth the goodies, I got bored (always dangerous) and did up a steering stabilizer mount for the tie rod. The factory tie rods have an eye in them for the mount, but the aftermarket ones are basically just tube.
It's made from a piece of tube whose ID is the same as the tierod's OD, split in half, with tubes welded to the sides for bolts to clamp the two halves together. Yes, any sane person would just BUY one -- here are some examples I got from random Googling:
and there are some really sexy ones out there too...
but as we know I am cheap, and always come up with these ideas on a Friday when there's no way in hell I can get something shipped to me for a week even if I did spend the $$
My design is basically just like the first one, but done with whatever stuff I have on the scrap shelf and with my trademark booger welds on the little stuff. The big welds I do pretty well on, but the little ones never look nice. (I welded the nuts in place on the back side for ease of tightening.)
It then has a tab welded on it like a shark's fin. Here it is clamped on a piece of scrap tube for reference:
Then a stud goes into the tab for the steering stabilizer:
The photo is at a weird angle and the nut's loose, so the thing isn't actually as cock-eyed as it looks. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it
It may need a little adjustment with the sledge though 
And the Brown Santa has just brought Christmas on Friday, or something ... even a nice blue boot for the steering stab, to go with the Smurf camo
-- A
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All wimins is bat**** crazy, you know this.
Hey, the Smurfmobile has a page! Like the thought you've put into the build. Hopefully those shocks do some good for you. Even with a stock suspension, but 200k on it, my Blazer wallows around a bit and I'm planning on some better shocks eventually. The ACDelco "Premiums" are skinny and not cutting it.
Hey, the Smurfmobile has a page! Like the thought you've put into the build. Hopefully those shocks do some good for you. Even with a stock suspension, but 200k on it, my Blazer wallows around a bit and I'm planning on some better shocks eventually. The ACDelco "Premiums" are skinny and not cutting it.
Sweet. Looking good! I just got the same shocks also. Haven't even installed the rears yet. I also am working on my hydro assist. I got that mount ypu posted from Google. The second picture you posted. I paid $36.00 for it. I don't have Tue fab skills to make one like you did!
That they are, but they are nice to have around on occasion!
Sweet. Looking good! I just got the same shocks also. Haven't even installed the rears yet. I also am working on my hydro assist. I got that mount ypu posted from Google. The second picture you posted. I paid $36.00 for it. I don't have Tue fab skills to make one like you did!
Were I a patient man I'd have gotten one of those, as they bring teh seckseh. But I had all the stuff to make this one, so what the heck. (That and I just dropped a chunk on those Bilsteins... I saw you scored yours on CL -- I'm jealous
)After the usual misadventures (fix one thing, another breaks), the Bilsteins are on:
The picture is actually sort of anticlimactic, 'cuz there was a TON of work that went into it getting there. I rotated the shock towers down for best fitment of the shock, but this meant clearancing it around the factory mount, drilling the holes the wrong place once or twice, and there may have been an incident involving a Sawzall nicking the transmission hard lines
Moral of that story: QUADRUPLE check that there's nothing behind the thing you are sawing/drilling/whatever!And here's the steering stabilizer mounted up on its new clamp. It doesn't look right in this pic, but it is parallel with the tierod looking from the front (i.e. it doesn't bind in its admittedly limited travel -- I checked.)
In her current state, I couldn't tell the difference with vs. without the stab. OTOH, while I've got the toe roughly set, I figure she still needs to visit the alignment shop. Maybe after that I'll pop the damper off, easy to do, and see if I notice any difference. At the least it has the pimpy color boot, right, and more is better?
The Bilsteins are definitely stiffer than the beatup Gabriels I had on there, and in a brief drive around the block I like the feel better. However, that's an apples and oranges comparison, possibly even apples and kumquats since I changed the mounting a bit at the same time. We'll see how I like them as time goes on.
-- A
C.Berry
Newbie
Hey how do those folks out in cali like the ole beat up chevys and what not? Im from out in sticks so its normal out here just curious really my womens from cali and she calls my k5 a damn "beaner mobile" i take offense to it but she claims only mex drive em out west!!!
To mis-quote The Hunt For Red October, "A little parts pron now and again is a healthy thing"
I rarely do it, since most of my parts are the home-made variety and totally anti-pimp. But the Bilsteins are so... shiny
Some day if I get really bored -- or maybe angry at the truck -- I want to take all the parts off, lay them out in a nice pattern and do the thing from "xXx", where Vin Diesel says to the nerdy guy "I want all of this" (pointing to the parts) "in that" (points to the GTO.)
-- A
ah, if only it was that easy.where Vin Diesel says to the nerdy guy "I want all of this" (pointing to the parts) "in that" (points to the GTO.)
-- A
Were I a patient man I'd have gotten one of those, as they bring teh seckseh. But I had all the stuff to make this one, so what the heck. (That and I just dropped a chunk on those Bilsteins... I saw you scored yours on CL -- I'm jealous
Were you talking about getting my Bilsteins on CL? I easy would have been cheaper. No, I got them from a local off road shop. $79.00 each out the door.
Looking good by the way!
Thanks. Huh, I thought I saw in your build thread you got 'em on CL ... never mind, not important. I think I paid $82 per, so not bad either way.
-- A
I've had a chance to drive her now on the Bilsteins, and I'm pleased. I think once I get the alignment dialed in she'll be comfortably streetable. (I also re-shuffled leaves in the rear packs, and though one side is maybe 1/2"-3/4" taller than the other, I think it's smoother now. At some point I'll prolly swap the two packs left-to-right, should equal out some. The truck is old enough that it's a bit tweaked anyway.)
After diddling with the front driveshaft, I can offer the following general observation: dropping a tranny crossmember on your head hurts like a sumb!tch and is not recommended (Things Not To Do #405.) Didn't require stitches or nuthin', but will likely leave a scar.
I also built a U-joint steering shaft a la the XJ shaft favored by you guys with later steering columns. Early steering columns like mine have a splined end instead of the D- or double-D shaped thing the new ones have, so I welded up a stock shaft and a U-joint off some a Jeep shaft I got at the PnP, replacing the rag joint.
Notably, I had a spare shaft and rag joint, so I figured I was just out the time to build the thing and could swap back if it didn't work. Which is good, as unfortunately I didn't align it right -- I *swear* I double-checked -- so the steering wheel was waay off when installed. (Both ends are keyed, as far as I can tell, so I couldn't adjust for this.)
I also seem to recall replacing the rag joint in the last decade or so, so the U-joint one didn't feel much if any better than my stocker. I think you guys with the XJ shafts are comparing a new U-joint shaft to a worn-out rag joint, which isn't fair to rag joints =))
Someday when I've got nothing better to do with $250 I'll spring for one of the Borgeson bling shafts and be done with it.
Top, the stock style shaft, bottom, my Frankenstein:
After diddling with the front driveshaft, I can offer the following general observation: dropping a tranny crossmember on your head hurts like a sumb!tch and is not recommended (Things Not To Do #405.) Didn't require stitches or nuthin', but will likely leave a scar.
I also built a U-joint steering shaft a la the XJ shaft favored by you guys with later steering columns. Early steering columns like mine have a splined end instead of the D- or double-D shaped thing the new ones have, so I welded up a stock shaft and a U-joint off some a Jeep shaft I got at the PnP, replacing the rag joint.
Notably, I had a spare shaft and rag joint, so I figured I was just out the time to build the thing and could swap back if it didn't work. Which is good, as unfortunately I didn't align it right -- I *swear* I double-checked -- so the steering wheel was waay off when installed. (Both ends are keyed, as far as I can tell, so I couldn't adjust for this.)
I also seem to recall replacing the rag joint in the last decade or so, so the U-joint one didn't feel much if any better than my stocker. I think you guys with the XJ shafts are comparing a new U-joint shaft to a worn-out rag joint, which isn't fair to rag joints =))
Someday when I've got nothing better to do with $250 I'll spring for one of the Borgeson bling shafts and be done with it.
Top, the stock style shaft, bottom, my Frankenstein:
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