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'89 K5 The Bulldozer

1989 K5, linked, caged, backhalfed, LS3, Hero case, on 42's
Overview Gallery Discussion
From there everything looked good. Had to get some more tube in and some tie-ins to the outer tubes. Then move onto skinning the truck.

I used aluminum for the skins. I'm not a great body and paint guy, or sheetmetal guy, by any means. I figured though if it was weathertight and gave enough room for stuff I'd be happy.

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Here is the finished product. This turned into a serious endeavor for the seam sealing. I used a 3m 2-part seam sealer that had a fixture time of 5 minutes.
That 5 minutes was ridiculous. It also was a mixing nozzle, so if I was getting clsoe to 5 minutes I had to squirt the gun or I'd risk screwing myself.

The idea here is that if I junk a panel I can replace it, but not nearly as easy as straight up skins. The seam sealer does however make this whole thing not nearly as loud as I'd thought it would be.

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I really need to see your truck again. I guess that means I'll have to buck up and plan a Spring Creek run since that's the only way I can get you on a trail. :haha:
 
mrk5 said:
I really need to see your truck again. I guess that means I'll have to buck up and plan a Spring Creek run since that's the only way I can get you on a trail. :haha:
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Lol. Not true at all. I enjoy wheeling just about anything. We will get out this year I'm sure of it. But SC is always a fun trail. I'm sure there are alot of other CK5 rocky mountain region guys that would run it too.

I will however say this, lets not do it when the shelf road is covered in snow again and we have to turn a big group around at the end of it. :haha:
 
I like panels!

Glad to see you sealed them. My buddy just did a bunch of new panels, and said he wasn’t worried about sealing them. That bothers me. Haha.
 
GWeakland620 said:
I like panels!

Glad to see you sealed them. My buddy just did a bunch of new panels, and said he wasn’t worried about sealing them. That bothers me. Haha.
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I need the truck to be weathertight. Basically to function similar to an actual truck instead of a buggy. That has been a hard thing to do and it has taken alot of compromises, but its what I wanted.
 
I was more or less working on all systems here in tandem. These are some pics of the underside and the new pump.

I decided to go with a Fuel Lab Screw pump. Using this with my Fuel Lab pre-filter and post filter setup. I also have a Howe cooler plumbed into the return line for fuel cooling. The downside here is I couldn't really get it into the airstream, but it will give atleast some temperature delta. If I find a problem here I have a plan for airstream ducting to flow over the cooler.

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Exhaust in process and fuel system close. I have since added a peterson shutoff valve coming out of the dual inlets from the cell:

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I ran an exhaust crossover to a borla dual in/out muffler. I've also got some heat shielding on the underside of the floorboard.
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I had alot of little stuff to do. But didn't take too many pictures after this. Had to rewire the back of the truck. Mount the C02 bottle (which I wanted mounted in the middle so I never had to undo the bottle to air up. This can be seen in the pic above).

Needed to finish plumbing stuff.

I am running lines down the links. So I made some line holders which mount to the aluminum links:
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GWeakland620 said:
Top notch work man!

Guys like you make me slow down and do stuff as correct as I possibly can.
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Haha. Thanks man.
There's alot of stuff on my truck you can nitpick, from design to execution etc... I always make alot of mistakes but the number one thing has always been to push forward. Keep it running for each season, or end up in the design and planning black hole you never get out of. Life's just too short.
 
I got all the miscellaneous pieces together. Then had a custom soft top made for it. I went with a sound deadening material. Also the sides are able to be rolled up. We utilized the front section of a softopper and then made some brackets for down the side of the tubes. Worked out pretty well.

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Did a little shock tuning and whatnot. Springs came in nicely. Everything so far has worked out well.
I still want to figure out a bit of tubework above the fuel cell, but I want to do it with storage in mind. Possibly some sort of netting or something like that hanging off crossbracing. Either way things are currently working out pretty well.

We ran Wheeler after my test and tune trails. Was a fun day out. Then ran a few other local trails. I started running some trails at speed seeing how quick I could blast through them and then working on the shocks here and there.

Went camping with the family up on Holy Cross. Our campsite was about 25 yards from this obstacle on the trail. But we got there late in the day and didn't get to watch anyone on it. Fun little rock. My daughter enjoyed it alot.. haha!!

Holy Cross 1

 
Didn't get to run Carnage this past year but I did check one off my bucket list. I wanted to clean drop Indy to Patriot. So got that done. But it was not without a bit of carnage. The doors took a real beating and both regulators were junked. So, unfortunately no more power windows. And in fact now there is no more door glass. I ditched the whole thing and went with tinted lexan for the windows. I had to plasma cut the regulator assemblies out of the doors. It gets sketchy when the springs let go. :haha:
The lexan slides up and down in existing glass tracks and its held up with a strap. Much like some of the old german or british sports cars, but this strap is made from a ratchet strap cutoff and wraps around a bolt head. So like a porsche after its been in the ghetto. :woot:

Here's some pics form Indy and Patriot
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My buddies yota in A-hole. Swallowed it right up.
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Edited to add... I forgot I made new sideview mirrors. I broke my passenger mirror for the last time and wanted something a little more tucked in. I always utilized dome mirrors with my side views to see in the blind spot area by the quarters. So I made mounts for school bus type dome mirrors which would mount on the front fenders. So far I like them.
 
So my list to do before the winter ends is pretty short.

Easy:
-Figure out a better tailgate seal solution as the sticky seals left the party after two trail rides.
-I think it may be time for new front springs.
-Have my two old driveshafts I have left to retube into replacement shaft length.
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More thought needed:
-Find a solution to tie the front bumper tube to the radiator support. I think I may use this to store two replacement heims for the rear links, and two heims for the front panhard.
-Crossbracing on the rear cage downtubes. I almost think I need to pack the truck for a longer trip before I make this call on how to do it. The best way kills a ton of space.
 
Such a bad ass setup. If you come down to Penrose to run Indy or Patriot again, let me know. I pass through Penrose going to and coming from work and would love to watch a rig like yours roll through it. No way in hell am I driving mine through it, but it would be cool to check out.
 
I think I've got this tailgate seal solved. I cut up some aluminum door seals (the ones with the bulb end), mounted them on tabs, added a little right stuff, and it seems like to should be good to go. It was amazing how much dirt came in without seals...

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Got sidetracked on the list when doing some maintenance. Front cover was leaking and it needed resealing. Some of the bolts needed to be replaced too. Every cover bolt was loose.

But inside I found some shim walk. The tight ARB cover saved these shims from being eaten by the axle as they couldn't walk too far forward.
Time to reshim it. I can' give an exact reason as its kind of a common problem, I'm sure no bearings spun on the carrier but I'll find out when I drop it out. My money is on the axle housing moving, either from welding new stuff on and off over the years, or beating on it against rocks and whatnot.

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