hoodride
1/2 ton status
yikes! 
CK5
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colbystephens' '73 blazer build!
- Thread starter colbystephens
- Start date
cegusman
3/4 ton status
Do not use radiator hose it is not intended for gas or diesel, and will deteriorate over time and cause problems. They tend to dry up and crack\leak. Fuel filler hose is going to be somewhat expensive thou, If I remember $20 a foot.
I think its cheaper than that. I bought a couple feet from my local Napa store. I think it was around $10 a foot
i went in and they steered me in the right direction (thank goodness i spoke with a parts guy who knew something about vehicles!). it would've been $20/foot for the fuel hose, which i can't afford right now, so I decided to use some left over tubing from the cage and have a nice tight 90* on it, so I'll use that and adapt everything around what i've got.
nope.
talk to me about mounting bumpers to the frame. what i'm curious about is the clevis mount. i want my mounting point of the bumpers and the clevis mount to be one integral piece.
i know some folks will do a lamination of two pieces of steel - this makes the actual point of mounting to the frame thinner and the clevis mount is laminated onto it, thickening only that part. how thick in in total are we talking? i was thinking of picking up a couple 3/4" slabs and making them from that material. overkill?
perhaps i should use 2 laminations of 3/8" steel? that would make the actual frame to mount thickness thinner, which might be preferable?
i know some folks will do a lamination of two pieces of steel - this makes the actual point of mounting to the frame thinner and the clevis mount is laminated onto it, thickening only that part. how thick in in total are we talking? i was thinking of picking up a couple 3/4" slabs and making them from that material. overkill?
perhaps i should use 2 laminations of 3/8" steel? that would make the actual frame to mount thickness thinner, which might be preferable?
Are you are incorporating the mounts into your bumper where the load will transfer into both frame rails? If so, I would use 3/8" plates attached to each the side of the frame. Laminate the area where the clevis will mount. I would add a piece on each side of the frame plates to create a thickness similar to the shackle opening. I don't like the shackle to shift side to side in the hole.
I'm not too worried about that, because i'm tying the bumper into my cage/sliders/etc, so the load will be distributed to a network of tube and frame.
huh?
Attach 3/8" plate to side of frame rail. Weld 1/4" plates to each side to make a total thickness of 7/8", on the end where the shackle will be mounted. This will keep the shackle from sliding side to side in the hole.
ok, so based on your description, I'm able to imagine 3 laminations of steel. there's one 3/8" plate bolted to the frame. This plate sticks forward (assume front bumper) off of the frame, and then laminate 2 1/4" plates on either side of the 3/8" plate. This gives me a shackle mount that would be 7/8" thick. I like that idea, but I don't see how it would prevent a shackle from sliding side to side in the hole unless the shackle happens to have 7/8" distance between the two ends of the C form.
what are the thicknesses you're working with? in the second pic, did you insert something in there and then weld all 3 together?
on the left is the B-52 bracket at 1/4", the frame horn gap is 3/16", then the inner clevis piece is 3/4... so 1 3/16" thick all together..
and yeah, thats a 3/16 fill piece, chamfer cut, then welded lam...
and yeah, thats a 3/16 fill piece, chamfer cut, then welded lam...
Brocky
1/2 ton status
Very nice and solid tow point ya got there.
thanks, just ideas for anyone to work off of... obviously variations can be configured. I'm sure Colby will come up with something effective...
I made some great progress today on the Blazer. I'm nearly done with the fuel tank tunnel/cover, I got my reverse lights working, and i trimmed my tailpipes down so they won't get crushed under my tires.
FUEL COVER:
Before I could move on to building a top for this tunnel, I had to figure out how I was going to run my fuel filler neck. I wanted it to be sturdy enough and or hidden enough to withstand the abuse of being in the cargo space in the back. I think I accomplished that.
After some talking with folks, and a suggestion on here, I learned that using radiator hose for fuel would be a major mistake. Fuel filler hose is really expensive - about $20/foot, and my budget for this project is LOW. I decided to use a piece of tubing left over from my cage build that had a nice tight bend in it, and run it through the side wall of my tunnel - using a piece of the old fuel filler hose to connect the tube to the inlet of the tank. So I cut a hole in the side of my tunnel and fit it up nicely. The biggest challenge then was to figure out how I would run a cap on this piece of tubing and additionally have an air-return line to the top of this new filler neck.
I decided to retrofit a piece of the old filler neck to the new tube.
I sliced the very end of the filler neck off - right behind the raised portion that is behind the large skinny flange ("behind" refers to the left side of this image). Conveniently the piece I cut off then had an opening large enough to slide the new tube filler neck into. The tube I'm using is a 1.75" OD, this cap-holder has an ID of perhaps 2". Then I welded the two pieces together.
I put it in the drill press and put a hole through the tubing to fit a piece of the old filler-neck's air return tube. I drilled a matching hole in the side of my fuel tank tunnel so the skinny tube would run through it. If you look close in the next image, on the lower right corner of the box, you can see the little piece of tube for the air return.
Got it all primer'ed up, but was dissapointed to find that my remaining 1/3gallon of herculiner from when i coated my truck's floor had hardened in the can - so I didn't get the tunnel coated. Someday I'll coat it tho.
Here's how much space I have to spare when the tailgate is up. It's a nice tight fit - about 1.5" from the edge of the gate - I'm running a truck gate, so I've got a little extra space. This is looking down at it, installed.
Here's what I'm thinking of doing to finish it off. I want to mount the high-lift to the front of it, like shown, and build a recess into the lid of the box so that the foot for the high-lift sits flat on top. It'll save some space, and look real clean too. That foot has a little hole in one corner of it, so I'll put a nut in the bottom of the recess so that I can hand-screw a bolt through the foot to hold it in place, nice and snug.
I'm really excited about how this is coming together. It looks real nice, and I think the added funcitonality of storing the high-lift and its base in the tunnel is pretty trick. (The base to the highlift is upside down).
So, I'm well on my way for the schedule of my spring break projects. Next project is to build some sturdy battery hold-downs and terminal-covers. I've got to re-build my cage mounts. Then I'm going to start on the bumpers. If I've got time, I'm going to fix some wiring too - we'll see about that. I've got alot on my plate!
FUEL COVER:
Before I could move on to building a top for this tunnel, I had to figure out how I was going to run my fuel filler neck. I wanted it to be sturdy enough and or hidden enough to withstand the abuse of being in the cargo space in the back. I think I accomplished that.
After some talking with folks, and a suggestion on here, I learned that using radiator hose for fuel would be a major mistake. Fuel filler hose is really expensive - about $20/foot, and my budget for this project is LOW. I decided to use a piece of tubing left over from my cage build that had a nice tight bend in it, and run it through the side wall of my tunnel - using a piece of the old fuel filler hose to connect the tube to the inlet of the tank. So I cut a hole in the side of my tunnel and fit it up nicely. The biggest challenge then was to figure out how I would run a cap on this piece of tubing and additionally have an air-return line to the top of this new filler neck.
I decided to retrofit a piece of the old filler neck to the new tube.
I sliced the very end of the filler neck off - right behind the raised portion that is behind the large skinny flange ("behind" refers to the left side of this image). Conveniently the piece I cut off then had an opening large enough to slide the new tube filler neck into. The tube I'm using is a 1.75" OD, this cap-holder has an ID of perhaps 2". Then I welded the two pieces together.
I put it in the drill press and put a hole through the tubing to fit a piece of the old filler-neck's air return tube. I drilled a matching hole in the side of my fuel tank tunnel so the skinny tube would run through it. If you look close in the next image, on the lower right corner of the box, you can see the little piece of tube for the air return.
Got it all primer'ed up, but was dissapointed to find that my remaining 1/3gallon of herculiner from when i coated my truck's floor had hardened in the can - so I didn't get the tunnel coated. Someday I'll coat it tho.
Here's how much space I have to spare when the tailgate is up. It's a nice tight fit - about 1.5" from the edge of the gate - I'm running a truck gate, so I've got a little extra space. This is looking down at it, installed.
Here's what I'm thinking of doing to finish it off. I want to mount the high-lift to the front of it, like shown, and build a recess into the lid of the box so that the foot for the high-lift sits flat on top. It'll save some space, and look real clean too. That foot has a little hole in one corner of it, so I'll put a nut in the bottom of the recess so that I can hand-screw a bolt through the foot to hold it in place, nice and snug.
I'm really excited about how this is coming together. It looks real nice, and I think the added funcitonality of storing the high-lift and its base in the tunnel is pretty trick. (The base to the highlift is upside down).
So, I'm well on my way for the schedule of my spring break projects. Next project is to build some sturdy battery hold-downs and terminal-covers. I've got to re-build my cage mounts. Then I'm going to start on the bumpers. If I've got time, I'm going to fix some wiring too - we'll see about that. I've got alot on my plate!
StevoandaRedK5
1/2 ton status
Looking good colby, I bet it'll be nice to have that tank up out of the way even if you sacrifice some cargo space. Nice job on the filler neck using what you've already got and saving some coin.
bensub90
Registered Member
that thing looks really nice i live in medford and would like to take a look at your k5 sometime
anytime. shoot me an email via ck5 (click on my username to the left of this post and click "send e-mail to") and we'll hook up.
