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K5 Project truck

S

Snowy Rivers

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Location
Newberg Oregon
New here but not to the boards.

A little bit about me.
58 year old gal
Commercial trucker for over 20 years
Diesel Mechanic
Have worked as a mechanic, welder, machinist and anything else I could get my fingers into

Moderator over at TDP
Member if The Truck Stop

Been a fan of the K5 For years (73) and have owned several.

A few years back I bought a fairly rough 84 K5 diesel. Sold it to a young lady (just into high school) back in 07.

Rig finally gave up the ghost back a couple months and her dad was going to scrap it. :eek1:

NOOOOOOOOOOOO way could I let this happen.

Got the truck back for a small trade (Older Ford explorer) and they paid me $500 to boot.

Decided to rip the truck all the way down and start from the bare frame.

The body had a lot of rust (Rare for western Oregon)

Got the body off this last weekend.

I decided to replace the body due to the rusted out stuff.

Found a really clean 85 K5 for $300 that had seen a small underhood fire.

Interior is nice and clean.

The plan is to install the 85 Body on the 84 frame, rebuild the 6.2, the 700R and all other things that may need it.

Have a complete rough country 6 inch lift with all the goodies. Going to use 33/12.5 x 15 rubber on 10 in wide alloy wheels.

Scrounged up a set of 91 Burb front doors with the electric outside mirrors :D and also got the complete wiring harness for the underdash and the doors.

Have a complete 87 Burb 1500 with a 6.2 and 700R thats in good shape to start with.

Going to use the 3.73 axles from the 85 (it had a 305 engine)

I have been doing 6.2/6.5 stuff for years so this is going to be a really fun project.

Also adding a 91 Front clip to get the late front end look.
Actually going to trim out as a GMC Jimmy

Recently did a complete rebuild on our 1995 Dually crewcab 4x4 6.5 truck.

Hope to keep this thread updated as things come along.

Here are a few piccy's of things as they are now.

** To clarify** The gray truck is the diesel 84 and the tan/brown is the 85 donor truck (Body is good)

Always happy to offer assistance to a fellow GM owner :D

Long live the K5

Snowy /AKA Missy Good Wench (other forums)

OH BTW for those who happen to notice, the winch strap is not hooked to the mirror on the 85 but instead thats the long tail thats wrapped around and stuffed through the wing window.

84 Body.JPG

85 donor truck3.JPG

85trip6.JPG

Bodyoffframe5.JPG

Bodyoffframe6.JPG
 
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The tow rig was handy that day and the "Borrowed" trailer has a Pintle hitch so it worked well.

Did not even know the thing was behind me. :haha:

Really enjoying the project.

So far I have gone through a huge box of Zip Lock bags to coral all the different bolts nuts and screws.

A lot of the stuff from the 84 diesel must be used on the 85 body shell.
Wiring harness, HVAC system and a host of other little items that are peculiar to the diesel.

Picking up my complete wiring harness today from the bone yard.

Did not want to have to make a harness to run the electric mirrors.
Not hard to do but I got a complete wiring harness from a Burb for $65 so I can have everything just as the factory did it.

My new front doors had the wiring chopped off at the rubber flex coupler so this will make life far easier.

I will spend some time and install the new wires in the doors and get all that stuff ready.

Once the stuff is all clean and sorted out, getting the truck back together will go fairly quick me thinks.

Getting old stuff apart can be a bit tedious at times.

The Body bolts on the 84 were a real PITA.

Got 3 to come loose, one broke off and the 4 in the bed area had have the heads drilled off and driven out the bottom. (Nasty)

I hope the stuff comes off the 85 easier. The underside is cleaner than the 84 was.

Truck had been garaged until the fire ?????/ We shall see.

As soon as the weather drives me indoors, I will concentrate on building a fresh 6.2 and a nice well blessed 700R4 tranny.

Will post more piccy's as stuff happens

Snowy
 
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Tooled on down the valley this afternoon after I got in from deliveries.
Picked up my wiring harness for the Project.

Everythings there to do the doors and the under dash.

Door windows, power locks, and the power mirrors.

All in pristine condition too :D

I am going to do a few mods to change the Plug on the LH harness so the double switch plug for the door windows is on the new harness.]

Dont need all the extra wires and such that ran the rear windows in the Burb.

The harness plugs have all the little locking tabs too. The parts puller even removed the little plastic snap in buttons that hold the wire looms to various metal parts.

I am totally amazed that nothing was trashed during the removal.:waytogo:

When I get some time here soon I will pull the doors apart on the 85 and start plucking what I need off of them and then make up the new hybrid harness for the project.

Once its all right, I will install everything in the new doors. :)

I was lucky a while back, and found a factory wiring book on ebay.

OH my, what a blessing that is.
Later troops

Snowy
 
since the wires are already cut at the boots, and you are wiring in your own stuff, why not put some kind of connector in there to make door removal a snap. That way you can pull them off and take it out doorless. :) I personally am going to try using a trailer connector, something like a 7 pin, or the older smaller round ones, to make connecting/ disconnecting the doors easier.
 
That could be done easily enough.

I am not into the "Doorless" thing though. The aim of the project is to get the truck back as close to the look of a 89-91 K5 Diesel.

All available creature comforts installed and operational.

This truck will be a daily driver, an on occasion see some light off road stuff.
Most 4x4 operations will be winter snows and such.

Getting the doors on and off these rigs is not a 15 minute job anyway, and then to get them back on, lined up and fit properly :eek1:. OH My.

I plan on a nice paint scheme too, so brush busting is not in the offing me thinks.:D

If you are into the "less doors" scene though, it would be very easy to install either individual wire "Bullet connectors" or some other type of connections.

The doors I am using have a total of (11) Eleven wires running through the flex boot. Now thats going to be tough to find one single conector that will do that.


Snowy
 
UPDATE

Got the lead out of my sweet tushy this morning and moved the 85 truck over close to the shop door to allow easy access to tools and such.

Started in on removing the dash and stuff too.

If all goes well my plan is to get the dash assembly, duct work and such all removed tomorrow.

Maybe even start ripping the front clip off too.
Sold the custom grille that was in the rig the other day.

Found a great pair of aftermarket oil coolers (engine and tranny) behind the grille. These will be great on the 6.2 engine install.

Nice cool dry weather this weekend until late sunday when we may get showers.

Here is a Piccy or two.


Snowy

85moved.JPG

85moved2.JPG
 
This should probably get moved to The Driveway...
 
Sounds good to me.

Looks like that would be a better place, or at least more appropriate.

Maybe one of the Mods will send it over there and I can continue to add to it there.


Thanks

Ms Snowy
 
Got loads of work done today.

Removed the dash and all the wiring under there from the 85 truck.

Getting this all sorted out so I can install the harness from the 84 Diesel rig.

Next trick will likely be to rip the front clip off and get at the engine.

The firewall needs to be cleaned up and repainted sice it had the little fire.

Got to install the sound deadening panels from the 84 diesel on the 85 body too.

One step at a time for sure.

Snowy
 
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