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81 FWC, 87 K5

Rebuild of the 81 FWC for my 87 K5
Overview Gallery Discussion
metalneverdies said:
I have also been wondering about using Hook and Loop glued / stapled to the roof frame to secure the headliner. I know its like, "but why?!". But hear me out lol.

The headliner material has to go on prior to the pop-up section which makes handling it a bit of a pain in my garage. Lots of down time between the roof repair, insulating, mounting lift supports. The headliner material is likely going to get pulled, ripped, stretched. I am fairly worried about access to wires, etc. when I eventually go solar after using it for a while (mostly due to budget). If there are ever any roof leaks, removing the headliner will leave me with a very noticeable patched repair job.

If I use hook and loop, the headliner wont sag or fall down over time, its easily removable for future repairs or upgrades. I also don't have to make those annoying super thin wood strips to secure the headliner in place.

Bonus, hook and loop of various widths are available on ebay or pretty reasonable prices lol

Crazy idea or semi logical?
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It’s probably not a bad idea. When I do mine the material for the headliner is going to change on mine. For similar reasons, access to wiring in the roof is the main reason. I’m going to use shower wallboard in a light color. It will be screwed down to the roof framing. I know I’m adding some extra weight compared to the fabric originally used. I’ll be adding lift struts to compensate for that and the added weight of solar on the roof.

The wallboard is composite material and won’t swell if it gets wet. Plus the light color will brighten up the inside and make the lighting more effective in the dark. Plus condensation will wipe right off when the furnace is used.

On your vinyl buy did you go taller than stock or stayed at the stock height?

Great progress!
 
Any new updates? Especially on the canvas ! I’m sorta local to ya , NW Arkansas and just snagged a Blazer Camper myself. Awesome build thread BTW.
 
I've enjoyed this thread and look forward to more updates. You've done an excellent job on this, and your documentation will be a superb resource for others.
 
ZooMad75 said:
It’s probably not a bad idea. When I do mine the material for the headliner is going to change on mine. For similar reasons, access to wiring in the roof is the main reason. I’m going to use shower wallboard in a light color. It will be screwed down to the roof framing. I know I’m adding some extra weight compared to the fabric originally used. I’ll be adding lift struts to compensate for that and the added weight of solar on the roof.

The wallboard is composite material and won’t swell if it gets wet. Plus the light color will brighten up the inside and make the lighting more effective in the dark. Plus condensation will wipe right off when the furnace is used.

On your vinyl buy did you go taller than stock or stayed at the stock height?

Great progress!
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That sounds like a pretty interesting solution!

Sorry, I thought I responded a while back. Been really busy lately. Hopefully in the next week or two I can finish the axle shafts, bearings, rotors, hubs on the Blazer. Was a bit of an unexpected repair when two studs snapped while rotating the tires.

Then back to the camper.

No updates on the vinyl yet. I need to call in a couple weeks of I don't hear anything from the guy. He had a few projects in front of me.

I was planning on around a 39" tall canvas. Should allow me to more or less situp straight while in bed. With the crazy high winds in OK I was a little concerned about the height.
 
RicK5 said:
Any new updates? Especially on the canvas ! I’m sorta local to ya , NW Arkansas and just snagged a Blazer Camper myself. Awesome build thread BTW.
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I debated a few times about picking that one up .

Glad another enthusiast got it! Looks quite a bit more solid than mine was to start.

Excited to see how you handle fixing yours up!
 
I know they are just manual hubs, but I feel fancy lol

Definitely should have upgraded sooner. Just waiting on lug nuts and the K5 will finally be back on the road after 3 weeks of slowly chipping away at hubs, rotors, bearings, u-joints.

Still need to follow up with the shop working on the pop-up.

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Little bites add up to big ones. Keep at it. Bolting on fresh parts has a satisfying feeling to it too.
 
Still waiting on the pop-up section. I have some basic plans in mind for the emt pop-up section but I haven't done anything to the camper really. Plan to get working on the roof soon.

In other news, I am pretty close to having AC back in the truck after like 10 years without!

I need a new intake tube and filter because the stock truck one does not fit at all with the DirtyDingo high mount AC kit. If anyone has a known kit that works with the AC kit I would appreciate any info!

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I got the system all setup and it has held a vacuum for a few days with no issues. Still waiting on my TXV to arrive then I can finally charge the system.

Found some great info on wiring up the AC system to use the stock truck controls and supply the PCM with 12v+ for the AC request line. Unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out what to do about the high side pressure switch. The old switch was in the R4 compressor. LS truck compressors are the same way. I was hoping there was a simple in-line pressure kit or a high side pressure sensor that could mount inline on the high side service port but I have found nothing that will work yet.

Any one else already solved this issue with the high side pressure switch when using a Sanden compressor?

https://lt1swap.com/airconditioning.htm
 
I think this kit may work, but really not sure. https://www.originalair.com/ac-highlow-pressure-safety-switch-kit-harness-switch-only

Something like this kit seems a little safer as it would allow a service port connection AND the pressure switch. I am retaining the factory low side pressure switch at the accumulator so I don't know if this is the best option. Plus it only says fits most 1960s to early 1970s cars. Not sure why the 80's are so hard to find this switch for. https://www.originalair.com/ac-high-low-pressure-safety-switch-kit-o-ring
 
Got with Original Air and after twisting their arm they went and test fit the adaptor to the replacement AC line they sell. For some reason they just use a number system (#6) for the threaded coupler size and had no way to just give me a measurement like 3/8" x thread pitch. The rep said the adaptor should fit in line. Hopefully there isn't really a 2 week delay like the website said when I ordered the parts. Either way, issue solved.

Neither belt on DirtyDingo's website fit. So that has been pretty frustrating. Searching for belts on Gates website is absolutely awful. After hours of looking up alternatives and trying to track down the part number I needed that would actually be possible to find on rockauto or at the local store, I found something that I think will work. Funny enough it was on a hot rod parts website and they listed completely different part numbers and lengths for belts than the DD website. I checked the length and it is just slightly longer. If everything fits I will post up the part number. Should be in for pickup at Oreilly's later this afternoon.

Found my water pump was leaking, so that has been replaced as well lol
 
Well it has AC! It's not great at idle. Works pretty awesome when actually driving, it was pretty hot and humid out yesterday at 93F and 50-60% humidity when I was driving the truck. I think that would be improved with a newer style parallel flow condenser and / or a set of E-fans. I re-used as much of the OEM system as possible because it had been previously converted to R134a and everything worked well enough.

The belt I ended up using is Gates Micro-V K061123 (6PK2854) - 13/16" x 112 7/8" OC (20mm x 2869mm OC). Spoke with Dirty Dingo and told them I had to use dirt bike tire spoons to get this belt on, which is longer than the one they recommend. The belt did stretch a bit after being in place on the truck and running the truck to get the coolant system bleed / AC charged. I had a near squeak on start up but it didn't actually have belt squeal. I guess when it starts to squeal I will try going back to the one Dirty Dingo recommended and force it over the pulleys since they seem to stretch quite a bit after install.

Now I need to replace my vents because they all flop around and the passenger side broke years ago when I was doing some under dash work. The desert heat was great for keeping the metal in good shape but it has made everything inside a gamble on if it will crumble when removed lol.

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Quick update:

Called the upholstery shop and got a bit of a run around on the project. Sounds like it's not really been started, yet again. Dropped off in March and feel like I am being pretty patient. May have to get my supplies back from the guy and find someone else if he can't get moving on it.

A/C is still working, not as well as I had hoped but its functional. I really need to upgrade to E-fans at some point. The K061123 / 6PK2854 belt is working great, no squeaks or issues! Ended up swapping to a spare fan clutch I had laying around because the one I was running was borderline failing. Wasn't out right bad but it didn't lock as well as it should have when doing the spin test and it just felt a little weak overall.

Installed a new air intake and made a little bracket to keep it away from the serpentine belt.

Had the down pipes back re-done on the exhaust by a local shop.

Finally scheduled the dyno session I won from my local region SCCA at the beginning of the year. Just a basic cleanup from an awesome local shop; he fixed a lot of things and invited me to hang out in the truck so he could explain what all he was doing. We couldn't do a power run because the double roller style dyno he has at the shop would delaminate and destroy my tires and mess up his equipment. The truck doesn't feel any more powerful overall but the drivability is far better, mpg increased, and the AC works slightly better while driving because of the changes in shift points. I got 17+ mpg running on the highway and averaged 16.5 mpg from his shop to my house (about 29 miles of driving mixed state highway, interstate, city). Have had a few short trips where I averaged 13.5 - 16.3 mpg! Way better than the 11-12 no matter how hard or easy I drove the truck previously. At 16 mpg, the blazer is officially cheaper to drive than my CTS-V LOL.

On the look out for a good deal on a light-ish car hauler so I can start hauling the Mini to events with the K5!

K5 on dyno.jpg
 
Off topic a bit but I am really digging the new wheels, 3 month back order was worth it. Excited to test them out!

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Capt Ron said:
Any progress?
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No :( I really need to get back at it. I am loving seeing yours and zoomad in action on Instagram!

I won't list my excuses for not working on it but I definitely need to figure out a solution to holding up the roof outside in windy oklahoma while attaching the lift portions. Keep putting off repairing the roof and getting it on lifters.

Need to just commit to an insulation for the roof as well. Thinking 1/4 R-max faced foam board. Still worried it may squeak. Has anyone from CK5 gone with the rigid foam board?

Need to finish some of the inside and source some steel sheet to rebuild the rusted out propane cubby so I can finish the water proofing of the shell.

Been daily driving the K5 and even used it to haul the Mini to an event a couple months ago. 12.5 mpg towing an estimated 5000 lbs. Trans never even got over 160F or so lol.

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I haven’t insulated my roof yet, other than the fiberglass batting that is up there stock.

I doubt there would be any excessive noise over an above the rest of the noises coming from the camper. Wind noise dominates everything at highway speeds. Plus the framing on the roof is tight enough I doubt it moves any if at all when latched down.

I was looking at a high r-value foam though when I finally get around to it.
 
metalneverdies said:
Has anyone from CK5 gone with the rigid foam board?
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I actually did replace my stock insulation with rigid foam board. Seems to work good and probably a lot better then the stock stuff if you get it fitted well.
Like Zoo said, all the other noise coming from wind and stuff you inevitably end up hauling around will make any squeaks less noticeable.
 
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