FlashForge Creator Pro. I didn't fart around with the finish 'cuz I put the decal on top, so didn't matter. I gather you can surface with a slurry of acetone and whatever plastic, but I've never bothered.
-- A
-- A
CK5
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'74 K5 build: Smurf
- Thread starter dremu
- Start date
Late with this comment but... I believe the harnesses are fine with the tube they rest on. That will keep them from pulling down on your spine.
Just read through the build and it was nice getting to see the transition from noob to experienced fabricator. I really like how you do whatever you want regardless of what other people think. When I saw that you welded the half cab on to your former full vert at first I wanted to cry, then I laughed out loud because I knew it was going to freak people out on here. By the way those hubs are one of the coolest and most inventive things I've seen in a while, very nicely done!
Heh, thanks. I do miss the stock feel of the truck sometimes, including the lack of top. But then I don't miss getting sunburned (side effect of being a redhead), so
Blame/credit the hubs on Martin and Rene and Greg, who got me started
about it.-- A
I'll take blame, but definitely no credit.
Martin
Martin
Those are epic, i want a set to go with my late model hd wheels.
@bent72 recently did a thing on using a bike control as a hand throttle, which has been on my to-do list for ever, so I finally got around to doing it. See his build thread.
I took some slightly awful pix and figured I'd post them up here (getting good pix under the dash is a PAIN!) It's a pretty straight-forward project, mostly varying in how you mount the hand control. I put mine on one of the T-case shifters as I am a heathen and have an auto tranny with column shift.
I got the cheapo Sunrace friction shifter linked in the post from Amazon, as it was like ten bucks, and looks REMARKABLY like the Teraflex kit you can buy for Jeeps for $40+
Anyway, you pull off the gas pedal, and notch the top end a bit for the bike cable:
the little slot to the left.
Then you mount it to the pedal assembly
Bottom is a cable stop, good ole Dorman "Help!" #3336 from the parts house.
Top is some sort of conduit clamp or electrical fizzbin I had in the box of miscellaneous nuts & bolts, but you could just use a piece of flat stock and a coupla small bolts/nuts to clamp the cable sheath down.
This is looking at the gas pedal from the right, i.e. the brake pedal is sort of visible in the bottom left corner. You can better see the fizzbin clamp for the cable sheath, and how the throttle cable through the firewall snaps into the gas pedal lever.
Finally,after much swearing and bruised knuckles and ego, I got the cable strung under the floor mat and the bike control mounted to the t-case shifter. It is helpful to lightly lube the cable (on the outside), so it slides under the padding or whatever you have.
Also, you should lube the INSIDE of the cable BEFORE installing it. Otherwise it can get stuck when you're testing it at 40MPH and cause excitement as you approach a stop sign. Or so I've heard
I think Bent72 used a tie rod castle nut as a bushing; I of course got nerdy and 3D-printed one. This will depend on the diameter of your T-case shift rod and the specific bike control you get. You might instead mount the control to the dash or a center console.
Anyway, last thing is to adjust the cable stop, which is a royal pain when you're old and fat and your truck has a roll cage, so ideally you have available a midget with long arms, or a teenager (the only difference being that the midget might be less surly.)
My intended use is as an idle bump for when I'm running the winch, for which I've already found it handy, but it's also the poor man's cruise control. Every now and again when I wanna stretch my knee out, I can just reach down and pull the handle up to match speed. Plus it confuses passengers to no end
-- A
I took some slightly awful pix and figured I'd post them up here (getting good pix under the dash is a PAIN!) It's a pretty straight-forward project, mostly varying in how you mount the hand control. I put mine on one of the T-case shifters as I am a heathen and have an auto tranny with column shift.
I got the cheapo Sunrace friction shifter linked in the post from Amazon, as it was like ten bucks, and looks REMARKABLY like the Teraflex kit you can buy for Jeeps for $40+
Anyway, you pull off the gas pedal, and notch the top end a bit for the bike cable:
the little slot to the left.
Then you mount it to the pedal assembly
Bottom is a cable stop, good ole Dorman "Help!" #3336 from the parts house.
Top is some sort of conduit clamp or electrical fizzbin I had in the box of miscellaneous nuts & bolts, but you could just use a piece of flat stock and a coupla small bolts/nuts to clamp the cable sheath down.
This is looking at the gas pedal from the right, i.e. the brake pedal is sort of visible in the bottom left corner. You can better see the fizzbin clamp for the cable sheath, and how the throttle cable through the firewall snaps into the gas pedal lever.
Finally,after much swearing and bruised knuckles and ego, I got the cable strung under the floor mat and the bike control mounted to the t-case shifter. It is helpful to lightly lube the cable (on the outside), so it slides under the padding or whatever you have.
Also, you should lube the INSIDE of the cable BEFORE installing it. Otherwise it can get stuck when you're testing it at 40MPH and cause excitement as you approach a stop sign. Or so I've heard
I think Bent72 used a tie rod castle nut as a bushing; I of course got nerdy and 3D-printed one. This will depend on the diameter of your T-case shift rod and the specific bike control you get. You might instead mount the control to the dash or a center console.
Anyway, last thing is to adjust the cable stop, which is a royal pain when you're old and fat and your truck has a roll cage, so ideally you have available a midget with long arms, or a teenager (the only difference being that the midget might be less surly.)
My intended use is as an idle bump for when I'm running the winch, for which I've already found it handy, but it's also the poor man's cruise control. Every now and again when I wanna stretch my knee out, I can just reach down and pull the handle up to match speed. Plus it confuses passengers to no end
-- A
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Also, you should lube the INSIDE of the cable BEFORE installing it. Otherwise it can get stuck when you're testing it at 40MPH and cause excitement as you approach a stop sign. Or so I've heard
-- A
I enjoy your highly-detailed and specific caveats. It makes me wonder where you find the creativity to dream them up out of thin air.
-G
I enjoy your highly-detailed and specific caveats. It makes me wonder where you find the creativity to dream them up out of thin air.
-G
Sheer unadulterated fear, in this instance, being puckered to the seat. The intersection was clear, actually, nobody on the street at all, so worst case I coulda just blown through the stop sign, popped into Neutral, and then braked, just fine... but a truck this big driving on its own is still, you know, exciting!
-- A
The mod turned out nice. When I had a manual tranny I always wanted to do this just to free up my foot to work the brake on hill climbs but never got around to it.
Huh. Mine bound up before I siliconed it, but maybe it was just the sheath sections weren't set quite right under the carpet. It only bound up that once and has been well-behaved since.
-- A
That's a good idea, going to the pedal like that... I've been trying to figure out some way to go to the carb like an idiot... I tend to do things the hard way. Think I might have to get seeing to doing that soon now that I know an easier way...
Strictly speaking, I suppose using the pedal adds another failure point, but it is a ton more convenient. Other than getting up behind the pedal to adjust the cable stop (again, use a midget if available.)
-- A
Yup my old version went to the carb linkage... this is way better... and now I have a factory, or not.
Hand throttle that goes to the peddle.Can't find the pic right now!?
If you guy want to see it I'll take a new one?
Edit!
That was worded porly! What I wanted to say was attached to the pedal is a way better option.
Nice job on that!
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I also went to the pedal in my '78 and it works pretty good. I used the factory throttle lock cable from a '74 C60.
Been doing house projects, but did find some time to work on the Blazer a bit. Called Kert @ DIY4X in the spring and ordered a set of tube doors, he says nine to ten week lead time. I was pleasantly surprised when about five weeks later, the UPS guy shows up with a VERY heavy box on my doorstep. Surprised that guy still delivers to me with all the weird crap I get (and he's nice about it!)
So, without further ado, the requisite pimping pic:
The joy of "Do It Yourself Fourby" is that you get to do it yourself to some degree, leave the bending and jig welding up a to pro (Kert) and then do the detail work yourself to fine-tune it for your particular truck/situation. So, let's walk through the details.
The doors of course come as a tube frame, empty. I wanted an approximation of half doors, to keep feet and water bottles in, and gravel out. The Toyos' tread picks up the driveway gravel like magnets and expels it at warp speed, didn't want it tearing into shins and making my passengers bleed. Don't really want sheetmetal, though, that'd be too much like a half door, and I had a half sheet of mesh left over from when I did the grille.
First, cut a cardboard template for the curves and bends. The front part pops into the curve of the sheetmetal.
Tacked along one edge, then welded into the sheetmetal, and finally around the whole edge. I hate welding thin stuff, so I started the bead on the tube, then rolled it real quick over onto the mesh. I did each V of the mesh which seems like total overkill. This way it prevents rattling, and makes it a bit easier to paint. I did a headache rack in mesh once and only welded like every third or fourth spot, and within a year it was breaking loose and rattling and generally crappy.
The mesh also makes the door look more like a half-door and less like, well, bare tube, lending a slight sheen of legality to the arrangement. In driving around town the local constabulary has yet to hassle me about it. Donno I'd take her at highway speeds with these doors, but then the truck doesn't go long distances at great speed under her own power.
So, without further ado, the requisite pimping pic:
The joy of "Do It Yourself Fourby" is that you get to do it yourself to some degree, leave the bending and jig welding up a to pro (Kert) and then do the detail work yourself to fine-tune it for your particular truck/situation. So, let's walk through the details.
The doors of course come as a tube frame, empty. I wanted an approximation of half doors, to keep feet and water bottles in, and gravel out. The Toyos' tread picks up the driveway gravel like magnets and expels it at warp speed, didn't want it tearing into shins and making my passengers bleed. Don't really want sheetmetal, though, that'd be too much like a half door, and I had a half sheet of mesh left over from when I did the grille.
First, cut a cardboard template for the curves and bends. The front part pops into the curve of the sheetmetal.
Tacked along one edge, then welded into the sheetmetal, and finally around the whole edge. I hate welding thin stuff, so I started the bead on the tube, then rolled it real quick over onto the mesh. I did each V of the mesh which seems like total overkill. This way it prevents rattling, and makes it a bit easier to paint. I did a headache rack in mesh once and only welded like every third or fourth spot, and within a year it was breaking loose and rattling and generally crappy.
The mesh also makes the door look more like a half-door and less like, well, bare tube, lending a slight sheen of legality to the arrangement. In driving around town the local constabulary has yet to hassle me about it. Donno I'd take her at highway speeds with these doors, but then the truck doesn't go long distances at great speed under her own power.
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Also in the "do it yourself" motif is that the doors are pretty basic, i.e. you get a door and a striker, period. I still wanted my dome lights to work (went through a bunch of work to redo them when I switched to LED lighting), and it's fairly easy to do this with Kert's doors.
Tacked a short 1/4" bolt to the inside of the door panel that bolts to the hinges, parallel with the push switch for the lights.
I put a nut underneath, then a fender washer, and finally another nut. This allows the fender washer to be adjusted up and down until it just pushes the switch.
This is the passenger side, with the door open; you can see as it swings shut the washer will contact the plunger.
And here it is closed. Works just like the full doors.
Tacked a short 1/4" bolt to the inside of the door panel that bolts to the hinges, parallel with the push switch for the lights.
I put a nut underneath, then a fender washer, and finally another nut. This allows the fender washer to be adjusted up and down until it just pushes the switch.
This is the passenger side, with the door open; you can see as it swings shut the washer will contact the plunger.
And here it is closed. Works just like the full doors.
Finally, I wanted more of a handle than just the flippy bracket on the latch. In retrospect, I should done something lighter, like a 5/16" or 3/8" bolt, but I used what I had on hand. Found a coupla knobs with 1/2" threads, think they were the old shifter knobs from the triple stick. Cut the head off a bolt and trimmed it down to length, weld it onto some flat stock and then whack the flat stock with the grinder to make what looks like an electric guitar, but is actually a bracket to mate with the latches. Tack some 1/4" nuts on and the assembly bolts into place, in case I wanna remove it to change later.
I like to weld shit.
I like to weld shit.
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This is the part where I say they weigh too much. I had to add a spring as otherwise they would pop loose if you looked at 'em funny. Don't want them coming undone over bumps and letting the doors open.
But there's just enough throw that they're easy to open, convenient from inside and out, and sorta obvious to passengers as to how to operate.
Actually, the doors are low enough that you can do a Dukes Of Hazzard thing and just hop over them, which is great fun in parking lots.
But there's just enough throw that they're easy to open, convenient from inside and out, and sorta obvious to passengers as to how to operate.
Actually, the doors are low enough that you can do a Dukes Of Hazzard thing and just hop over them, which is great fun in parking lots.
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