Mountain Man's K5 Extended Cab Flatbed Project

[MountainmanID]

MountainmanID submitted a new Build:

Mountain Man's K5 Extended Cab Flatbed Project

I recently acquired a 1975 K5 Blazer from a guy in town for $800. I did this because I know inevitably my current 4x4/Winter rig is going to have a catastrophic failure at the worst possible moment and that can kill you up here in North Idaho. It gets pretty cold up here and we currently have the title of being the most remote state in the lower 48, although I really think Montana is more remote. Either way, reliable transpo on highways and side roads with up to 18" of snow (the State/County plows are few and far in between) is pretty important to live an uninterrupted life up here from October/November to April.

My current 4x4 driver is a '94 Toyota 4Runner with taller coils and a mild body lift sitting on 33"s. The 4Runner has been a great reliable rig for 3 years now, but the mileage on the drivetrain (244k) has been concerning me. The 3VZE 3.0 V6 has never had a head lifted off of it to my knowledge and these engines are notorious for blown head gaskets by 100k miles. I did a timing belt at 220k, all new brakes/radiator/hoses/belts/plugs/front CV axles/HD coils/body lift when I bought it at 212k. The 4R had worn out 32x11.50 MTs on it when I bought it and was pretty slow with the stock gearing, its even worse with the 33x12.50 ATs retreads I put on it after the lift. The transmission doesn't like to shift past 3rd gear until it has been running for at least 15 minutes and every other time its driven on the Highway at 62MPH (50mph on the speedo) it likes to intermittently drop in and out of overdrive for no particular reason. I was toying with the idea of a Solid Axle Swap (SAS) along with a 5VZE (3.4 V6 in newer 4Rs) Engine/Transmission swap and converting to leaves front and rear/going to 35-37"s. After doing all the math, it looked like I'd end up spending $10K+ to do it right and frankly I don't really like the SUV body that much. I have had no backseat since the day after I bought it and the front passenger seat has been replaced with a HUGE plywood carpeted console that houses my ground bar and fuse block directly off the battery with 2 gauge cable to run my CB, 10 Meter radio, VHF, UHF, and 2 RF amplifiers which I'm not going to specify the bands they are being used on. The console also has a slick 6" wide compartment with a hinged lid for quick access to my plain jane M4 AR15 truck gun. In short, only me and my 100lb red lab "Mick" ride in the car and the SUV body is a big waste of interior space. I also have to smell the...

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[MountainmanID]

MountainmanID updated Mountain Man's K5 Extended Cab Flatbed Project

Added pics of rot and disorder

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[MountainmanID]

A few more pics of why I have no interest in restoring the back half of this. It looks like the original restorer used the smaller LMC repair panels over the rear arches. I would likely have to buy the whole rear side to fix the rot at this point. Man this guy used a lot of body filler. He did a decent job at the time and most of it is still sealed, but the spots where salt and water crept in and sat are pretty much gone. You can see where he used the smaller LMC arch repair panels in one of the pics. I imagine the passenger side looks similar under the paint and bondo....

Mick watching the action

• MountainmanID
• Jun 30, 2018

rear arch pretty well gone

• MountainmanID
• Jun 30, 2018

you can see the repair panel welds under the paint and bondo

• MountainmanID
• Jun 30, 2018

 

[MountainmanID]

Took both doors off tonight after a day of setting posts for a pole barn/hangar. Only got about 3 hours of work in before PBR-induced anti-motivation set in. I forgot how much fun it is standing up 14' pressure treated 6x6" posts and getting them plumb is. The good news is all the posts are now upright and the 40x50' hangar ended up surprisingly square using only a tight string and a measuring tape. The Hangar is attached to a 50x50' foot insulated shop that was mostly finished last fall. 40' doors on the shop allow even the big planes to be pulled into the shop from the hangar. A 2 post chassis lift is going in the shop which will help tremendously when doing the rust bullet work on the frame and the 1 ton axle swap.

The driver's door needs to be realigned to account for sag, the passenger door needs to have the spring rod replaced on the hinge. I kept wondering why the passenger door wanted to hug me every time I went to work on the floor boards, turns out the rod that the door wheels/cams ride on is missing. Mystery solved.

Main reason for door removal is to wire wheel off the surface rust in the upper front corners of the door wells and to strip/rust bullet the bottom 4" of the doors that is solid but surface rusted under the paint that was applied 20 years ago. I'm fairly confident the skins that are on the doors now will be strong enough once given the rust bullet treatment. I have read that it acts like "Quik Steel" when it catalyzes on bare metal and reinforces thin metal caused by surface rust.

The hood cracked when someone went to shut it quickly with rusted hinges. Does anyone think That rewelding the crack and welding in a LMC hood brace kit will be enough to fix the problem? Also, for whatever reason, the rear of the hood near the windshield likes to sit about 1.25" higher than the fender. I'm assuming this is because of the buckled hood. I'd like to use the current hood if possible since it's in pretty good shape other than the slight buckle.

7/1/18 Hood fitment

• MountainmanID
• Jul 1, 2018

Hood crunch

• MountainmanID
• Jul 1, 2018

Driver's side upper cab rust cleaned up with wire wheel

• MountainmanID
• Jul 1, 2018

Upper cab pass side rust under paint

• MountainmanID
• Jul 1, 2018

Pass

• MountainmanID
• Jul 1, 2018

Driver

• MountainmanID
• Jul 1, 2018

 

[obijuank5]

The hood raised up is usually hinge related. You can probably work that good and be ok.

 

[Truckman4life]

I welded up a broken hood once and just welded a piece on angle iron on it for a brace. Lube the hinges real well and I bet the back will come down some when they actually work.

 

[MountainmanID]

I'm gonna look for some 1/2x1/2" angle and see if I can run it up both edges of the hood the full length. That should pretty well take all the flex out. I'll give the hinges a good coating of grease after they get the rust bullet treatment on the springs and non-contact surfaces. I was always raised to push the square body hoods back while pushing them down.

 

[MountainmanID]

That awesome feeling when you see the LMC fairy has dropped off goodies. Apparently that sticker on the box is there for a reason...

 

[MountainmanID]

Got some more work done on the old girl today. I had no idea how many bolts were involved in getting the front fender/inner fender removed. Had to yank them anyway to install the new inner fenders that just showed up from LMC yesterday. Also had to get them out of the way to cut and weld in the new rocker panels.



It looks like I need to order the rear floor board section and the inner rocker replacement panel and weld them all at the same time. I'm going to do the passenger side first then bolt it all back together then do the drivers side so I don't have to deal with an unsupported core support on the front.









Really hoping the Rust Bullet stuff works as well as it supposed to. Everything not visible is going to be brushed off, acetoned, Rust bulleted, then roll on bed linered (lots of made up adverbs in that sentence). I picked up a gallon of the "Van Sickle" brand roll on liner from the local North 40 (kinda like a home depot/bass pro/cabelas/truck shop rolled into one) since that is their house brand. The herculiner was only available as a kit to do one bed lining and I'm fairly sure I'm gonna need more than a gallon to do the whole interior and bottom half of the exterior. While waiting from the next shipment from LMC I'll have plenty of time to cut out rust and get stuff coated.




Anybody had any luck doing the bedliner on the whole exterior then painting the rubber coating? I'm thinking either flat Khaki, flat OD green, or CUCV camo. I can't get ahold of CARC paint but the colors are pretty easy to get ahold of. I really don't want a flat black truck but if I can coat it then paint it, that would be tits.

 

[MountainmanID]

The factory "front cab mounts" (number 12 on the below LMC diagram) are pretty well gone on the truck. I picked up some 1.25"x.125" thick angle iron today. Should I go ahead and order the sheet metal cab mounts or should I just use the angle iron?



The cab mounts are only 19 bucks each but I feel like the angle would be stronger (although more localized in it's strength) than the stamped sheet metal version. Also gain some ground clearance with the angle iron although its not in a real critical area.

 

[6872xtc]

I believe that it is your call. The angle will be slightly more work to install because of the fitting that you have to do. And from my perspective, welding thicker metal to thin can take more welds to distribute the force so the thin stuff doesn't crack or tear too soon.
But I also bet that you will have to work on the replacement panels to fit them in.
And you have to decide what you want it to look like when done.

 

[MountainmanID]

I believe that it is your call. The angle will be slightly more work to install because of the fitting that you have to do. And from my perspective, welding thicker metal to thin can take more welds to distribute the force so the thin stuff doesn't crack or tear too soon.
But I also bet that you will have to work on the replacement panels to fit them in.
And you have to decide what you want it to look like when done.

Your definitely right about the replacement panels, the floor boards require flattening right off the bat since they are patterned after the pickup and not the slightly different blazer. The outer rocker is an almost perfect fit though. Just gotta nibble and bend a little more factory metal to get it aligned and set flush with where the old rocker was.


Ideally it'll look factory ish from the doors forward when I'm done, so I guess there's my answer.

 

[MountainmanID]

Looks like I may be picking up a D60 rear tomorrow. Guy had it built for a 84 K5 build he was working on a few years ago and never finished the truck. It's got rebuilt drums, new 4.10s installed along with an LSD but he is unsure of the LSD manufacturer. It was apparently built by a dragster tech so hopefully he knew what he was doing when he put the gears in. I gotta move the spring perches but other than that it should be a good fit. I'll be hauling it away for around $175.

Now the hard part, finding a front axle. I'll be breaking open the pumpkin when I pick it up to confirm gearing and LSD condition. 4.10 and 4.11 are close enough to work without any real issues, right?

 

[obijuank5]

Correct. No issue with that.

 

[MountainmanID]

Just got home with the D60 hanging out of the back of my '89 accord's trunk. Guy was in a real tough spot as he got evicted from his place and it was either I bought it at 2 in the morning or the landlord was gonna throw it away. $100! I'm gonna see if I can get it out of the car in the morning and pull the cover and see whats what in there. According to the guy the whole thing got rebuilt (seals/bearings) and regeared/LSD installed then it just sat for a year. It even came with lug nuts!

 

[MountainmanID]

Well that was fun to do by myself. Gotta run across the county to pick up some pork from the butcher then I'll probably be back to pull the cover.

 

[MountainmanID]

looks like a factory LSD. I'll give it a shot. Didn't count splines but its pretty fine on the axles. So far I'm pretty happy for the time/money (same thing right?) invested.

 

[Justin V]

That's an open carrier...

Edit: appears I am wrong

 

[MountainmanID]

That's an open carrier

Well thats a bummer. Good thing Lockrights are cheap!

Did some rust bullet testing today with my 1/4 pint (8 oz) can. I got the tiny can just to try out and this stuff goes a long way!

Did the recommended 2 coats and was able to do the entire under lap area of the roof where the fiberglass tops attaches, the right back side of the core support, and the right front 1/3 of the outside of the frame.

Stuff looks pretty good and apparently dries very hard. I could see someone using it as a first and final coat on a body. If you used a roller, you could get a pretty nice looking coat. I got the metallic silver but there are a few other colors available.

Before:



After:

 

[Justin V]

I might be wrong. Missed the middlepic...