Project "Scope Creep" 84 K5 Crawler

[92yamaha]

92yamaha submitted a new Build:

84 K5 Camping/Crawling Rig

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Figured I would start my first build thread.

This is an 84 K5 Silverado that I picked up from my father who purchased it from a customer. Purchased for $450 (Dad deal). Someone converted her to TBI, but she also has a stock 700r4. She's an absolute rust bucket, but the drivetrain and frame are solid, so I'm building her into a rig mainly for camping and wheeling.

The rust repair certainly isn't professional nor am I trying to restore this. I have a 5-year lease on the body before the Earth decides to reclaim the sheet metal. Then I'll be searching Arizona for a rust-free body.

Overall plan:
14-bolt rear, Dana 44 front, 4.11 gears, Youkon rear locker, NP241c swap with SYE, Diy4x B52 kit with 54" springs, ORD rear shackle flip, anything that makes it a great camping rig.

The day I got her home.
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TBI 350 with about 180kmi.
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Rocker rust
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More rust
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I HATE door speakers
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Interior shot
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Comparing her to my 84 K10 (amazing how close they are in height with such a difference in tire size)
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Starting to tear her apart
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Measuring for lift and new tires
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Read more about this build here...

 

[92yamaha]

Repair of the passenger floor pans. I had rust all the way up the trans tunnel. In doing this project, I lost all confidence in aftermarket floor pans. I also realized that this thing will be built to drag across rocks, so hide the floors and my welds with carpet and move on. I just want to keep my feet dry and make sure the body can handle offroad flex.

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[Bent77]

5 years to the day?

I'm in

 

[92yamaha]

Decided to cut out driver side rocker and quarter rust. The door wouldn't seal if I didn't fix this. I decided to just bend my own patch panel. I'll smooth out the welds with some seam sealer and cover everything with rubberized undercoating; should hide it quite well.

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[92yamaha]

On to the driver's floor. The rocker was totally rusted out where the cab support was supposed to be attached. I welded some 3/16 angle in place on the rocker to re-brace the cab support. It's braced on the bottom sides, and along the top two ridges via a plug weld and seam weld on angle welded to the kick panel. Everything here was handmade (clearly) because I'm done with aftermarket floor pans.

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[92yamaha]

Currently working on the rear floors. I'm going to cut everything out and weld in place a 72" piece of 0.188 2x6 rectangular tube. Weld 3/16 angle up the sides to brace the quarters, and rebuild the hinges for the tailgate. May need to buy a new tailgate.

Note the easy-access fuel pump? haha

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[brans87]

Damn nice work there and looks like you got your work cut out for you!

 

[campfire]

Looking nice. Will you still need to replace the body after you get done repairing all the rust?

 

[92yamaha]

Looking nice. Will you still need to replace the body after you get done repairing all the rust?

Haha, probably. Seems my bodywork has a 5 year shelf-life.

 

[92yamaha]

Got to cutting out all the rust by the tailgate. Going to weld in a 2x6 piece of 3/16 rectangle to replace/rebuild rear floor and tailgate mount.

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Body settled after the first cut. You'll see that I used unistrut to support the body. Jammed them under the wheel well and deflated the tires.

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Major pain to remove old body bushing mounts. Have to remove gas tank, jack up the bolt, cut as much off as possible, then you can maneuver it out.

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Look at all the rust between the original bolt and sleeve!!!

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Cab corners before and after everything was fully cut out.

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Going to use 1979 Ford F-150 radius arm bushings for the new cab mounts, fits PERFECT!

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[92yamaha]

Everything all cut out.

 

[92yamaha]

New 2x6 test fitting

 

[92yamaha]

More cutting and final cleanup

 

[92yamaha]

Required a ratchet strap to the wall to get this thing in place

 

[92yamaha]

2x4 tied to the body using 3/16 angle

 

[92yamaha]

This is how it finally rested on the Ford radius arm bushings. Couldn't have turned out better.

 

[92yamaha]

Just filling in gaps

 

[92yamaha]

Gaps filled

 

[92yamaha]

Cut dowel pins to fill the gaps on the floor. Also used a computer heat sink to reduce warping of the floor while welding (total nerd-boner that this worked so well).

 

[92yamaha]

Final product after seam sealer.