very cool am digging your bracket, and those weld threadzerts are nice.
CK5
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'88 K5 - Running Down A Dream
- Thread starter jimmyleetn
- Start date
Ground up restoration of my '88 K5. The plan is to go through every inch of the truck and fix or replace pretty much everything that needs it. This will also be a full vert conversion and I plan to make the vehicle look more like a 73-75 than 88.
Once again I only got a few hours today. I sure do miss having a full day to work on it. I'm about done with the frame though which is good. I spent the bulk of today shaping that bracket. I had to lay some beads down to cover that twist. It is finished though. I have the dimensions. I'm probably going to post a little write up for it. All in all if you had a full day to do it and had the fuel tank dropped you could knock it out. Really all you need is a welder, drill, and a grinder, you don't even need a vise or hammer. I couldn't stand to see those rings where the threaded inserts went so I welded those up today too. I also welded on a spot I had worked on before when I did the suspension a few years back. I wanted the bead to look a little better. In other news, JEGS had a killer deal on the shipping for the passenger inner fender. Only $14.99 for shipping so now all I lack having everything for the front end is the hood and the core support.
Here's the final product. I'll need to get get some nice yellow dichromate grade 8 bolts but I am very happy with results. It will be functional and look sharp once I get the frame painted.
Been working on it some just nothing picture worthy. Today was stupid. Eastwood said my stuffs on backorder. The first picture is of my 1/2in USS washers, which are definitely incorrect. The second was a real kick in the teeth. You may not be able to tell but the bolt holes on the driver's side of the bumper are further from center. Took me an hour to figure out why it fit like poo. Been on the phone with AMD. I think they are gonna make it right but a waste of a day.
Well fun fact, USS washers have an oversized inside diameter by 1/16in or up to an 1/8in. I've never noticed that with any of the other SAE washers I've purchased. Learn something new everyday.
USS is a different standard than SAE. Completely different dimensions between the two.
Yeah I knew they were different OD but the ID really caught me off guard. Lesson learned I guess. I'm going to use them in place of carriage bolts when I put the body back on the frame so for my own psyche I wanted them fit a little snug around the bolt. I found it cheapest to buy bulk from eBay on hardware so I thought I'll just buy a sack full. I went ahead and ordered 7/16in.
Been working the graveyard shift on this thing, but I am chipping away very very slowly. Without getting into too much non truck stuff, we're doing a giant renovation upstairs this summer so I'm doing that during the day, and since the baby is sleeping through the night I'm working in the shop when everybody's asleep. Should be ready to post some pictures of it rotated within the next week. I managed to weld up two old below the tail lights and rework that area where the forbidden lifesaver is that holds the rear seat belts down. You know, the star head one that always rusts out. As for my AMD front bumper, turns out the holes were off 1/4in and it was also bent by a 1/2in or more. They're sending me a new one that's in transit now. The rear one fit perfectly, I just need to fab up brackets for the inner attachment. I can't say enough nice things about AMD's customer service. They went out and actually measured a bunch of bumpers for me.
Rotisserie!!! Definitely top 10 most stressful moments. I'm kind of proud of myself though, I got it balanced on the first shot. I can roll it with one hand with ease. Still stresses me the heck out though. I definitely stress sweated, the stinkiest of the sweats. Most of the welding was done before we ever got to this point, I thought I would be able to get in there and weld better but those rocker boxes are just hard to get to I guess. Picture of one of my nice welds, but don't worry most of them still don't look great.
I do have to admit, it does make welding underneath faster. I'm basically done with welding other than one pin hole I found. I was gonna plug up the factory holes in that one picture but I just don't see the need. I think I'm gonna get another one of the factory heat shields for the passenger's side and then I won't have to worry about my sheet metal plugs melting and it should deflect the floor heat pretty well. The sandblaster comes next Friday.
Piddly stuff. I couldn't leave well enough alone. Welded up those two factory holes in the floor. Not my best work, but whatever. These southern summer nights are getting tiring, and super muggy. Humidity 95% and I can't run the fan with the Mig.
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Meant to snap a picture of it in the driveway. I'm surprised more people didn't slow down to rubber neck when I had it rotated. Pressure washed underneath to take 36 years of grime and dirt off of it. It's pretty solid under there. I don't know why I'm surprised though, I kind of already knew that. Almost makes me feel bad for painting over that nice gray, but deep down in my heart I know that paint is porous and is a liability. Sand blaster was supposed to have came yesterday, he said he's a week out so I have the choice of either Thursday or I get any choice of the first two weeks in August. Kind of waiting to see when the spray foam insulation comes for the renovation we're doing. I don't think I can handle having the spray foam guy and the sandblaster guy at the house at the same time. Stupid house.
Well we had to push the sandblasting out to August due to the potential for rain. I went ahead and masked off the parts I want blasted. They'll put gorilla tape over that before they begin. I'm kinda at a standstill now. I need to paint my inner fenders so I guess I'll use them as practice for my turbine sprayer. Not much left I can do until it's blasted.
Have you checked the local listings for used blasters or compressors? I bought a used sand blaster for $80. Put a new hose on it and and it's like new. I buy blast media and Menards for $10 a bag. It's not fun but it works. I do wear a respirator and I have gloves and a head bag safety thing that was about $30.
I couldn't find a used affordable compressor close enough to outweigh just paying somebody to do it. I found a guy that was much fairer on price and has done several square bodies. If I'm being honest, I kind of paid for simplicity. Between having the newborn and completely renovating part of the upstairs I just didn't really have the time to get into it like I normally would. Plus I don't have exactly have the space for compressor that size. If I had more spare time this summer I probably would have bought everything used and then sold it once I was done.
Understandable, I just mentioned it since it seems you are waiting on him, but maybe you want to be waiting on him....
You know, you called it right. I kinda do want to wait. Little man starts daycare the day I scheduled the blaster so I should be able to actually focus. Should be able to put down the epoxy the next day without interruption too since no one will be here but me. Currently, every time I sneak into the shop this summer my son, wife, or one of the people renovating need me. I yielded today and wired up switches and outlets. First things first I guess I should finish the renovation.Understandable, I just mentioned it since it seems you are waiting on him, but maybe you want to be waiting on him....
Friday was the day. Sandblaster finally showed up after having to reschedule again. Was supposed to have been here on the 6th. Anyways, I'm happy with the work and would use him again. What I'm not happy about are the pin holes I discovered. The last couple of pictures are from where I painted the frame today. That ended up being a colossal goat roping. I sprayed it with epoxy primer using a five stage turbine sprayer. I'm happy with the results, but I'm definitely not a painter. I will probably sell this rig once I get all the big stuff painted. I tried to set it up for the 3M PPS and failed. I got the 2.0 system, but I really needed the legacy. I ended up having to use afterblast because it took forever to get my gun figured out with that gravity feed so the body never got any paint. That afterblast saved me because with this humidity it was going to flash rust soon. I'm hoping to finish the frame tomorrow but I'm going to wait until the correct PPS kit comes in so I can paint more easily upside down and in tight spots when I do the floor pans. All in all a good learning experience I guess. I'd probably give the paint job a "B". I do think if someone knew what they were doing with that turbine sprayer you could churn out some nice work.
Reading along.
This caught me off guard!!!
It took me a second to realize you were talking about the sprayer, and not the Blazer!
Martin
Oh wow it does read that way. Definitely not selling the Blazer. I need to recoup some money in that paint sprayer. I got quite a bit in that set up.
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