'76 K5 w/mods - UPDATE - FIRST DRIVE 11/24/09

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This is a '84 clip on my '76. I don't really have a core suppt anymore, or inner fenders, or wheelwells... I really wanted to run Hella 4000s in place of the quad light setup, and I think it turned out pretty decent. What do you guys think?

 

[StevoandaRedK5]

i like it, but i'm biased towards round headlights

 

[dune jump]

i like it, but i'm biased towards round headlights

thanks, yeah, I am a round headlight kinda guy too

 

[dune jump]

Update!

Here's some pics of the 2nd maiden voyage - feels so good to have her back together again and running very well...

This is how excited I am-

 

[raymos]

that thing is sweet! now lets see some air under those tires

 

[phreddei166]

Might want to check passenger brake light !

 

[KirsL]

Looks good man . I'm curious about your coilover conversion on the front. Do you have a write up for it? Hell even some pictures would do, looks pretty sweet.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Cool.

Going to be done for Silver Lake in April?

 

[dune jump]

thanks guys, I'm really happy it's come this far now, sometimes projects go on so long they fizzle out or you lose interest in them, but I have been very determined to make this thing happen.
I'll try to do a summary of the build here, no problem. It's been a lot of fun, and well worth the effort to plan things out, and do whatever has to be done to make stuff happen.

I have triplets that came about 6 months after starting this project, so this is very much a budget build. That being said, I make sure to get the right stuff in the right areas, even if it means waiting 3 months to sell something in order to buy the stuff I need. Nothing goes on credit.

I have this set of 35" MTRs for street/sand and a set of 38" TSL's for trail running, in case anyone wondered why it looks like it is way too tall for 35's.

 

[dune jump]

How it all started

I bought my K5 when I was 14, a 1976 K5 originally a 400/350/203/D44/12bolt truck but someone had swapped a 350 in it and the trans was blown out. I grew up in Palm Desert, CA, so I was always following my fiberglass clad-ranger buddies around the powerline roads, etc and glamis, loving it always but I got tired of bombing around in such a heavy turd.

I ended up coming to MI to go to Kettering, formerly GMI, and settled here afterwards. I brought the truck up hoping I could keep getting some use out of it, but only ended up getting one trip to the mounds and one silver lake trip in before tearing the front end off and starting the build.

The plan:
radius arm front with coils or coilovers
cage
gasket set on the clapped out 350, maybe a set of rings

The result was slightly different and more involved than the plan, but fun nontheless.

Started getting torn down-

Beginning of the new tranny x-member, front lower arms

A quick shot of the rear

And the lower arms - these are 2.5" tube with 2" tube sleeved into the ends to bump it down for the weld in tube inserts. Pretty sure they will also work as rock sliders. I'm going for the radius arm hard-arm thing like the Clayton setup. The upper arms are going to be 2" tube and the drivers side will be removeable.

 

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1) Upper links fabbed and installed
2) Drilled out main link pivots to 3/4" and swapped 9/16" bushings into front pivots
3) Added flat plate to bottom of tranny x-member and bolted tranny in place
4) Plasma'd off rivets for LH body mount, removed, ground frame, and moved up body mount to get rid of rubber/poly body mounts altogether. Cage will be tied directly into the frame, so there is no need for rubber isolaters.
5) Plated frame for track bar bracket, and installed bracket

Then I started on the cage-
1/11/08 - More cage work done, and made it a convertible :naughty:
Also pics of relocated body mounts

passenger side tube is just sitting there, not yet tacked.

 

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then...
Got a bunch of odds and ends sorted out this weekend and today.
-Steering shaft is done
-Bump stops are in
-Front cab floor tubes are done
-Drag link is done, 14" vertical travel and zero bind, priceless :naughty:
NEXT UP:
-Coilover mount tubes to frame
-Finish cage work inside
-Mount seats
-Fab dash and maybe a console
-Spare tire mount
-Tube work for front sheetmetal
-Radiator mounting and fan
-Bare bones wiring
-Fire up and systems check
-Replace distributor, cam, heads, timing set, seals
So much to do!! No time to sleep :sonicjay::sonicjay:
LOTS OF PICS

 

[dune jump]

then I mounted up the set of plastic bucket seats I thought I was going to run...

and did some more cage work-

http://www.greatlakes4x4.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=29786&d=1219541233

 

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then a bunch of my buddies came by for a Blazer day and we got this stuff knocked out-

Remove stock tank, lines, and plumb fuel cell
tranny cooler lines
Water pump pulley installed
coolant overflow installed
exhaust hangers and collector gaskets
FIRE UP ENGINE, (carb needs a rebuild, rad leaks, but it sounded good)
rear brake prop valve mounted outside the frame rail for quick adjustments
Pull engine, need some long bolts to get it on the stand, then the teardown will begin
Pics!

Thanks DANZA!

 

[dune jump]

bought a dimple die so I could make these:

I got this 350 real cheap thinking I would use it-- and maybe add a set of aluminum heads.

[New] powerplant getting torn down and prepped for installation:naughty::naughty::naughty:

350, forged flat top pistons, 1.94 valve heads, going to be adding an air-gap intake, either pocket porting the heads, or adding my set of 2.02 heads after porting, adding comp cam & lifters, cloyes timing set, MSD distributor, 750 double pumper, and old set of headers. Should be ~325-350hp

 

[dune jump]

WOW, what a mess!!

The RH fender needs to be trimmed at the turn signal lens still.

The rear of the fenders will get trimmed to fit the door opening eventually so I can run my door skins. I pulled the hood/fenders back into the cowl about 6" and got rid of the cowl top closeout panel.

Next up I'm going to fab up a front bumper so I can mount my lights and grille.
Thanks to my father in law, I got a sweet aluminum radiator to put in as well.

 

[dune jump]

Front tube bumper, comes accross just to the edge of the fenders

Almost done with my D44 truss, used 1/4" plate along the bottom, and 3/16 plate for both sides to box it in. Seems very beefy, and should help the poor axle survive some harsh landings. It spans knuckle to knuckle-

I also got all the 6-lug stuff off the knuckles last night, so they're almost ready for the 8-lug components. So close to having matching bolt patterns finally!
I'll toss in the 4.10 gears before putting everything back on though, no sense in doing it twice.
More OD green on this thing for now, but it will be short lived in favor of some rustoleum primer...

At this point I decided that I have engine commitment issues. I have gone through these ideas since the start of this build:

rebuild my stock 350
build 383 stroker from extra .020 over block
run 355 I bought on craigslist
find 400 to rebuild or put 400 crank into my 355
All in the quest for torque.
I found this on Craigslist, a 454 rebuilt .030 over, 10:1, solid LS6 cam, roller rockers, stud girdles, weiand intake... I can use my MSD distributor, and other parts on it, just will need a set of headers and a water pump. This should give me all the torque I'm looking for. My Dad is going to run the 355 in his '52 Chevy truck, with a set of Trick Flow alum heads should be sweet
So now I run into issue #2. (#1 was getting 38" tires). I still have a TH350/205 combo, which is in great shape since it was behind a very mild 350 and has super low miles on the rebuild. I want to do the right thing, and run a trans that can handle the extra torque, and not toast the trans.
This is getting long, so I'll cut to the chase- I'm going to swap in a SM465/205, which should handle the torque.
Pic as promised.

 

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And to go with the 454, I needed a new trans and tcase! 400/205 this time...

I have to swap the output shaft out and find the right nose cone for fixed output. Anyone have one?
Here's a pic of the LH light mounted, and my plan for the bezels.
Link crossmember finished up and painted
Tranny xmember fixed (flap) and painted tonight-

One headlamp bezel is 90% done, and the other is cut out, needs to be bent and drilled.
I have been chasing down elusive seals and gaskets, but I finally got the trans and tcase together and bolted up.

Picked up a gated Winters shifter on ebay, really like it-

Also got a trans temp gauge to help out-

 

[dune jump]

painted up the heads

decided not to carry over my running out of gas reputation to the K5, so I got some more gauges

and I got the right fittings for the new radiator tranny cooler lines -6 to 1/4NPT

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Wow, awesome work.


Just out of curiosity are you also posting this somewhere else? The verbage gave me that impression.