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'74 K5 build: Smurf

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beags86 said:
80's??? Hello 2015! Back up cam, holy crap!
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Yeah, I know. :doah: I also put a front camera on my F150 (2014, came with backup but no front) and it's just so handy in parking lots.

The front cam on the Blazer may be handy a trail cam, too, who knows. It doesn't go down far enough to be real useful for getting it on the dolly, but I suppose I could put it under the bumper or something for that :thinking:

-- A
 
I find this interesting as I didn't realize it could be that cheap.
I have only driven rentals withes cams and find them annoying. How do you really like this?
For that price it makes me think...
 
beags86 said:
I find this interesting as I didn't realize it could be that cheap.
I have only driven rentals withes cams and find them annoying. How do you really like this?
For that price it makes me think...
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Well, this one isn't quite as nice as the built-ins. The screen-in-mirror idea is great for retrofits, but the screen is what, 3" or whatever, versus the 6-8" of the builtins, so it's like a quarter of the area. It's also not as easy to see with polarized sunglasses.

As you say, however, it isn't spendy, especially when compared to the nav/camera kits in the new cats. Both my DD's have 'em (both 2014's). The Maxima has rear-only camera, and the F150 came with rear camera and a beeper that tells you which side, and beeps faster as you get closer. I added an aftermarket box that allows use of a front camera, comes on automatically in Drive on below 7MPH and then switches off. Very clever (but spendier than this sort of kit.)

I am ... less than skilled :haha: ... when backing up, so I'll take all the help I can get. I find them a useful PART of the process, coupled with a knowledge of the car, actual use of the mirrors, and general situational awareness. Are they a life-saver on their own, no, but handy overall.

-- A
 
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Yup, just another tool to make the process safer/easier etc. Driving a garbage truck I'm so used to having the cameras it's wierd to get in something that doesn't have em. I have four cameras on the garbage truck. Rear view from about 8.5 ' up and angled so I can see the bumper of the truck out to about 25' behind. Then also on the rear of the truck I have two cameras facing sideways for looking around corners. Great for backing out onto a road from between buildings. I can see about 200' which sounds like a lot but really isn't. My last camera points at my packer blade so I can see if crap is coming over the top when I'm packing.

I have the guide lines turned off, and I have it set up so it's in split screen all the time. In drive one cam shows the packer blade, the other is the rear cam. In reverse it shows the rear cam view and the passenger side cheater camera.

I generally put it in reverse, check the rear and side cams, then move if things are clear.
 
So I bought a new house, with a shop the size of my last house. I can finally park the trucks inside AND work on them, yay! Can't believe that was last year, time flies, but moving is time consuming and buying and selling real estate is annoying and ... well, I just haven't had a lot of time for CK5, never mind the truck.

I have done some stuff here and there, though, and of course took some pix along the way.

There was a thread here recently about "What do you DO with your Blazer?", and it set me to thinking (always dangerous, thinking is) about little things to do, make the truck a bit more driving-friendly, enjoyable in my actual usage pattern. (Which is mostly grocery shopping. Embarrassing really.)

Further in the "Going to the dark side", we have tunes. A pair of generic wakeboard speakers and a cheapo DIN media player are all I need. First I took a whack at my pristine and virgin new dashboard with the Dremel:

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The hole is precisely marked :surepal:, but is at least carefully undersized so I could make the hole just big enough for the deck, filing it out a smidge at a time. Making too-large holes smaller is such a bitch.

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The little red "Sandisk" on the right is a short USB thumb drive, holding the tunes. I've come to the conclusion that while Kraftwerk and synthpop work in the house, or even sometimes in the shop, the truck just plain runs better when I'm playing something more guitar-driven, Y&T or Ronnie Montrose or Joe Satriani.

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And yeah, a 6x9 right behind your head seems a bit much, but with minimal wind blockage you kinda need it. Plus it was the only place I could fit speakers. I might try a set of those kick panels with speakers in them, but I donno that they'd fit around my cage, and they have tiny speakers ... and these work okay. Between the wind and the road noise of the Toyo's, sonic quality just ain't gonna happen here.
 
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Yeah, Toyos. It was time to get new tires, which kinda snowballed. See, it's hard to get tires for 16" wheels any more, and new wheels basically only come in black and chrome, neither of which are "me" (or Tankie :D ) ... and then if I'm gonna get 17" wheels, the tires gotta have the right visual aspect ratio of wheel-to-tire, don't wanna look like those 22" rim ballers in Escalades.

After much soul-searching, posting to CK5 for opinions, discussions with a coupla local tire places, and photochopping, I waved the ultimate power tool (the VISA card).

Eventually Summit sent me some things -- not quickly, as apparently even a boring "common" item had to be made to order.

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And yes, Martin, I'd rather have had round-hole wagon wheels or even factory-ish ralleys, but I also like cheap and simple. Then we go off to the powdercoaters, and they go from shiny black, which while nice, is boring, to shiny white, yay!

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Then a trip down to Les Schwab resulted in an F150 full of big gnarly rubbery-smelling goodness.

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Them tars is 37x13.50 Toyo MT's on 17x9's, which I am hoping will be grippier than my last tires which were like aggressive all-terrains. They're also fricken HOOGE. Here's one of the 37x13.50's next to the old 305-75-16 (metric for "35x12.50")

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and for laughs, next to my Nissan DD:

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So the net result is going from this

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to this

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it's a bit taller, cuz, duh, them tars is bigger, but visually I find it much more appealing, not least due to the white 70's-looking wheels.

Also took her down to the shop and had 4.88:1's put in both ends, as my old 4.10:1's with 37"s would have made baby Jeebus cry, or at least made my poor TH350 rather toasty.

Haven't had a chance to get her out to Hollister yet, but I have used her to do some interior demolition in the shop, pull the lawn tractor out of a stuck (SERIOUSLY? What idiot gets his riding lawn mower stuck??) and whatever other tasks around the property arise. Thus far the only issue is that my driveway gravel is apparently magentic and sticks in those giant voids, and then I go down the street with frighteningly loud PLINK PLINK noises underneath like the truck is being shot with a pellet gun. I may have to rethink going doorless this summer...

-- A
 
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Holy Crap! That update delivers the goods.... :bow:

If that was in my thread it would have been spread out across 3 months worth of posts.... :haha:


-G
 
LOL, thanks guys.

Martin, if center caps would go on those wheels easily, I'd do it in a heartbeat. They're just random aftermarket steelies, so I don't know how/if the caps would mount/fit.

Greg, I still have a back log of pix, little projects I did before the move, like the steering cooler mounting, and then the poly bumpstops in a can (like air bumps, but without the air :crazy: ) and whatever else. It's just that whole moving and new-house thing, you should still remember from when you did it. It's a crazy time.

And then there's the projects we don't talk about, like the really booger-assed welding I did on the spare tire carrier ... which I swear was measured for a 37", but not apparently for 37x13.50's ... and certainly wasn't built for the WEIGHT of these monsters. I patched it on the corners where the welds kinda broke :doah: but I may have to relegate the existing carrier to my tuition pile and build a new stouter one.

In that vein, the 37" spare is heavy enough that I hafta winch the tire carrier up & down, so I put a plug for the winch control on the back bumper as well as the front. It's the little things that save your back...

-- A
 
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dremu said:
Martin, if center caps would go on those wheels easily, I'd do it in a heartbeat. They're just random aftermarket steelies, so I don't know how/if the caps would mount/fit.
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They do. You just need new lug nuts. I buy them from some guy in California, he charges me $30 for 32 lug nuts.

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Martin
 
Wow that looks awesome against the blue camo right on dude! I didn't realize the 16 inchers we're going by the wayside too??
 
82355 said:
They do. You just need new lug nuts. I buy them from some guy in California, he charges me $30 for 32 lug nuts.
Martin
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Yep, I remember seeing a thing about the lugs in a thread somewhere, I'll dig that up.

Next Q is where to get the center caps. I wouldn't mind getting nice new shiny ones, but LMC doesn't list 'em. All the ones on Ebay I saw are closed for the rear, no open ones for the front hubs. Any other recommends, part #'s, whatever?

-- A
 
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sreidmx said:
Wow that looks awesome against the blue camo right on dude! I didn't realize the 16 inchers we're going by the wayside too??
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Yeah, I fussed over the powercoating idea as it cost about as much as the wheels proper, but damn, once I saw it in person I knew I'd done the right thing. Black wheels and that truck just didn't work :haha:

And yeah, big wheels are the norm any more. I don't know if it's the OEM's going to larger wheels (both my DD's have 18" from the factory, smallest option I could get!) or if it's pimp fools driving the change. Not all the manufacturers make 35-37" tires for a 16" wheel any more, and those that do don't always have them, so for some it was "Backordered Until Hell Freezes Over" kind of thing. The 37-on-17 actually looks right, in my mind, kinda like a 31-on-15 only stretched :)

-- A
 
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