86 K10-Orion

[toomany]

Been driving this everyday the last couple weeks with out much problem....which is great for a fresh build that had pretty much every bolt off the truck.

Got my VE tuning complete as well as the MAF tuning. Working on the timing currently. For the most part it's taking what I think it should except for 3000ish rpm on the highway when you drop into third or get heavy into the throttle in fourth without it downshifting. Basically high load situations.

Worked on the transmission shift schedule and got first and second about perfect as far as up/down shifts are concerned. Second in/out of third needs some part throttle work. The third/fourth shifts are still stock and way wrong for this truck. Ideally I'll get two tables figured out and use the tow/haul for switching between the two. One for normal driving and a more aggressive one for performance shifts.


A while back I picked up a Gentex 177 mirror. Looked high and low for a mirror with temp/compass and lights. Couldn't find anything of the sort. Either they had map lights/temp or lights and compass. Settled on the the 177

After a couple of attempts at glueing the button on, I finally got it. Turns out the button I got wasn't completely flat. Filed that down and scuffed the glass up a tad. Ran the wiring up the A-pillar along the windshield. Used some P clips stuffed between the gasket and body to hold the harness.




Called LMC the day I discovered they didn't send all four headlights. Lady I spoke with had no problem sending out the two high beams. Apparently the shipping department didn't get the message though and I only received one high beam. Another call to them and had the last one on its way. In their defense, they had no issues sending the parts out, very hassle free. Only gripe I had with the whole ordeal is they take a few days to ship things out, so I just now received the last light today.




Mounted a windshield washer tank on the firewall where the old heater box was. Put a new pump in while I was at it (not a fan of the factory pump in the motor). Moves plenty of fluid. Replaced both ends of the drag link too. One had some play after getting some miles on it, right around 500 on it so far.


Placed an order with ORD last week for some shocks. Bilstein 5100's (the F3's) and 5125's. Picked up some Ford towers for the front and shock braces for the back too. Also got a bunch of shock tabs since the front axle had the originals cut off I cut the ones that were on it off. The rear axle has some weird tabs on it currently that hang low and I don't think I'll use.



Hope to get some time tomorrow to get working on installing these.

 

[Truckman4life]

Did you get the marker lights, grille, and headlight bezels all from LMC? I need to redo the front of my '83 that has the same setup and I like how yours looks.

 

[toomany]

Worked on the rear shocks. Was able to salvage the passenger side mount on the axle after I cut off the link (and I use that term loosely) brackets. The drivers side one was left alone.

Blown out shock mount in the frame. Someone had tried welding the old stud to the frame.





I welded a heavy washer to the frame, then doubled up with a larger washer (cut into that squareish shape) outside of that. Put another one inside the frame too. When the box comes back off for paint I'll finish off the top/bottom.





Shock brace on to help spread the load.




Shock in place.




The drivers side went much smoother because I didn't need to move the axle mount...just cut the link tabs off. If I get time tomorrow I'll work on the fronts.

 

[toomany]

Did you get the marker lights, grille, and headlight bezels all from LMC? I need to redo the front of my '83 that has the same setup and I like how yours looks.

Yes I did. The grill, bezels, marker lights, headlights and trim all come in their "front end dress up kit". They offer two different ones for the 81+ dual headlight trucks...the grill being the difference.

Everything was decent quality for being aftermarket. Trim fit well, but it is thinner than factory stuff. Grill is nice and heavy. Bezels are on the thin side. All the holes lined up correctly. I'm sure once I get the valance panel on, that trim will fit alright too.

I'm most impressed with the headlights. Getting away from the sealed beams and into a housing that takes a modern bulb is great. They have a nice pattern and a distinct cut off, not a s-ton of unfocused light everywhere. Up untill Monday I had been driving with only the low beams and could see very well, even in the rain at night. High beams are fantastic too. If anything, the lighting upgrade was worth the cost of the rest of the parts.

If you haven't already, I'd install some relays in the headlight circuits, just to get the most out of the newer lights if you go this route.

 

[Truckman4life]

Yes I did. The grill, bezels, marker lights, headlights and trim all come in their "front end dress up kit". They offer two different ones for the 81+ dual headlight trucks...the grill being the difference.

Everything was decent quality for being aftermarket. Trim fit well, but it is thinner than factory stuff. Grill is nice and heavy. Bezels are on the thin side. All the holes lined up correctly. I'm sure once I get the valance panel on, that trim will fit alright too.

I'm most impressed with the headlights. Getting away from the sealed beams and into a housing that takes a modern bulb is great. They have a nice pattern and a distinct cut off, not a s-ton of unfocused light everywhere. Up untill Monday I had been driving with only the low beams and could see very well, even in the rain at night. High beams are fantastic too. If anything, the lighting upgrade was worth the cost of the rest of the parts.

If you haven't already, I'd install some relays in the headlight circuits, just to get the most out of the newer lights if you go this route.

Thank you for the input. Sounds like the way to go.

 

[toomany]

Front shocks on.

Eyeballed a spot where I thought the tower would end up and hit it with the hole saw. After hitting myself in the side of the head when the drill caught...I wished up and ran it backwards to cut the holes.





Tower in place. Bolt was just to hold in position to make sure I had it at an angle I was happy with. Once I was good with it, I welded it in.





Poking through the inner fender.




Didn't get any pictures of the axle end, but that was fairly straightforward. Two tabs with a little bit of an angle on them to point the shock like how the factory had it.

While I was in there I put a thicker shim on the drivers side caliper. Was rattling with every bump in the road.

 

[jekquistk5]

I need to do that to my 60 calipers. They rattle a lot and clunk on bumps. Stops great though. Do the parts stores carry different thicknesses?

 

[toomany]

I need to do that to my 60 calipers. They rattle a lot and clunk on bumps. Stops great though. Do the parts stores carry different thicknesses?

I know I've seen a post on here about the different thickness shims for the calipers. Had Napa part numbers in it I think. I'll see if I can dig it up.

All I did was take another of the springs that sit above the retainer and slid it in between the stock spring and retainer. Did have to cut the "legs" off the sides so it was flat.

I don't know if there is a spec on the opening for the calipers, but I can't see mine being that worn out. It had probably close to 1/4" of up/down movement in it. I'd bet that it's the caliper that is out of size as that is a reman. FWIW, my passenger side is tight with just the original spring/retainer.

 

[toomany]

Carpet came in today. Went with cut pile w/mass backing from ACC. Along with the piece that covers the back wall of the cab.


Seat pulled and dirt/wire scraps/zip tie tails brushed out. For anyone considering Lizard Skin without any top coat (carpet) for their interior...mine has held up great. Granted I've only been driving it a few weeks now, but I've spent quite a bit of time in/out of there during the build. The only places it has damage is from me dragging the seat across it and the tracks digging in (the two seats and frame are heavier than a normal bench). The spots it would see wear during normal use still look the same as when it was sprayed. I see no reason why it wouldn't hold up long term.





Back wall piece in. This just attaches with some Velcro around the edges. Would have liked to have gotten some with jute on the back but it just isn't offered that way. In hindsight I should have put this on after I had the bottom down. It didn't affect the way it fit, just would have been easier to do it last because of how the bottom tucks under it.





Bottom in place and roughly trimmed in. The directions say to unfold it and let it sit for a bit then pop the contours back into place. I went straight from the box into the cab. The box was a cool 20* so I had to fight with it a little. Shape was pretty spot on. Could be a little wider at the front, but I'm not going to complain. Top of the transmission tunnel had a weird roll that I can't quite get worked out. I think once it settles some I'll have better luck with that.





Seat back in and door sills on. Mounted my dimmer switch and tucked up some of the wire harness. I did run some speaker wire to both rear corners before the carpet went in. Ran a power wire for the seat lumbar as well. Picked up a set of generic floor mats to keep the carpet cleaner longer too.





Driving it now, it's so much quieter I can't even describe it. It wasn't bad at all before, but now it's like a whole nother level. I've ridden in brand new cars that were louder than this thing. Easily the quietest square body I've ever been in. With an average of 5 layers of insulation/sound deadener (some parts of the firewall have 6, some of the rear wall only has 4), I got exactly what I was after.

 

[toomany]

1500ish mile update...have more than that on there now, just been lazy about update.

Not much has changed. Just been driving it and everything has been working great. Ordered patch panel to straighten out the front corner of the box on the passenger side.




Used it to move my big trailer around the yard yesterday with 4 sleds in it. Handled it just fine and had no problem getting it through the mud in the back yard.

 

[beags86]

 

[toomany]

Not much has happened lately with this. Started a little of the body work on the box, still more to do. The drivers side taillight still fits like ass. Once I can get that tucked in a bit better I can sand/prime/paint it. Other than that...the truck just works great for what I want/need it to do. Been having a few other things in/out of the shop that have taken my time.

 

[toomany]

Been laid off for a few weeks now. Haven't done much with the truck other than drive it and do truck things.

Got close to 150 miles on it running back/forth to Home Depot.




I should have done it long ago, before the barn started filling up...but I got to insulating it. Started because I wanted to move the big shelf into the corner. That thing usually has a bunch of heavy stuff on it so it only made sense to do it once and finish out that corner.

 

[jekquistk5]

No vapor barrier?

 

[toomany]

No vapor barrier?

We've never had any problems with the couple other barns done this way. If I was using"un-faced" batts, then I'd put up a separate barrier.

On my ceiling, I ran some plastic before putting the OSB up because I plan on blown in up there.

 

[toomany]

After way too long, I've started to work on this some more. Took a new job and don't have near the free time I used to, plus I've been busy with other projects.

One of those other projects was putting in a driveway to the barn and working on spreading the extra dirt around. Now I'll actually be able to get back there without tearing up the yard or worry about getting stuck with one of the cars.




Not much has changed on this, haven't driven it a whole lot lately either. With the new job I'm out of town every other week or so and I get a company truck to use the rest of the time.

Pulled it into the barn in preparation to finish the body work and get the AC going. Along with change the oil and address a few other things.




Picked up a patch panel to attempt to use to fix where the previous owner tried shaving the gas door. With some creative cutting I think I can get it to work. I mainly wanted it for the curve that's in the bedside.

Also found my hubcaps and started modifying those to work with my wheels. Apparently it's the ones from the aluminum rims that bolt right on to H2's. Guess I got the ones for steel rims when I bought mine. They fit once you trim about 3/8" off the back.

 

[toomany]

AC compressor, condenser, hose kit and brackets came in.






Assembled




In the truck. I used the holes they suggested for the top but drilled my own for the bottom as they weren't even close.




Under the hood, everything is hooked up except the soft hoses. Waiting on two fittings for the compressor end before I can cut those to length. You'd think that when you buy the evaporator kit, condenser kit, hose kit and their compressor, you'd get all the fittings needed. But no, the two O-ring to #8/#10 fittings are sold separately.




I still need to come up with a way to secure the hard line from the evaporator to the drier. It's just kind of hanging out...the shock coming through the wheel well is where that wants to be. Might try some creative bending.

 

[toomany]

Picked up a new belt for the accessories along with stuff for an oil change. Oil that's in there is still the stuff I put in after I had a few minutes of run time on it. Came out looking nice and clean still, probably had more life left in it. Only had 2300 miles on it but was coming up on a year old.

Was having intermittent issues with the drivers window. Figured it was the motor as I didn't replace them when I installed the regulators. Turns out it was a broken wire at the plastic connector on the motor. Was broken right at the end to where I couldn't repair and had to order a new one. Swapped out both window motors anyway since I bought them. Passenger side is quite a bit faster than before.

While I'm waiting for the AC parts (fittings and crimp tool) and the window motor plug....I'll get a start on the body work. Hopefully it'll cool off some, not fun doing that when it's 85+ with all the humidity we've been having.

 

[toomany]

Got sent out of town Monday and Tuesday. My fittings came in Monday and the crimper came in today. Took advantage of being home after work today to get the hoses cut and installed.

Crimp tool. It's supposed to be MasterCool brand, but fairly certain it's a knock off. MasterCool sells for around $200+. This was $89.00 shipped on eBay. Seems like a quality piece though. Heavy and the fit/finish is really good.





Fittings. Nothing special, just O-ring to #8/#10 hose.




Installed on the compressor. I ended up having to rotate the back line (high pressure) a little. Took worked great and the crimps look factory made.




Ran back into the shop to use the AC machine. Pulled vacuum for 25 minutes then charged the system.





System blows every bit as cold as anything else I own. I need to tie into the AC signal wire for the PCM yet so the idle doesn't drop/hunt when the compression kicks in. That will also kick one of the fans on. For now I just turned it on through HpTuners. Once I got moving I kicked it off and had no problems.

 

[toomany]

Window pigtail came in yesterday, installed that this morning. Lubed rollers and tracks while I was in there. Both windows are much faster than they were. On the hunt for some decent door panels to finish off the doors.


Got a start on the box.

Cut out some of the bad.




Trimmed a patch panel.




Test fitting. The gap on the front side will be taken care of with another panel.





As seen here.




I was betting that the curve on the backside was the same as the front and cut this out.





In place. The weld through primer sort of burns off weird.




After a few coats of filler. The box side had some dents ahead of my patch and a low spot that I couldn't quite get pulled out. Rain forced me inside before I could finish sanding (was doing the dusty stuff out side). Probably one more coat and it'll be good enough for primer. It looks like a lot, but it's not, this is the second coat.