Just go back and paint that rig white and let me know when it’s ready to pick up.
I’ll be on my way.
I’ll be on my way.
CK5
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Nice, some L29 inspiration!
Awesome build, I don't know how I missed this before....
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Once the annual Desert Trip passed I was able to get back on the K5 project and with still being pissy with the rocker panel situation I decided to stab the transmission and start working on the crossmembers instead. As we all know, the late 60’s and pretty much all of the 70’s had great crossmembers with an optional heavy duty skid plate. After 1981 during the huge GM truck weight loss reduction, they lost any meaningful skid plate and what GM gave us was crap. I’ve always liked the 70’s dual crossmember with HD skid plate that was on the 78 K20 I grew up with as well as what my K10 has. I had plenty of these 70s crossmembers laying around and one skid plate so the retrofit began.
First order of business was to make another rear trans mount for the 4500 to work with a 70’s crossmember. This is exactly how the rear trans mount in my K10 is done too and its worked well for the past 14 years
After all these years I didn’t realize the frame on a K5 widened up after the rear crossmember, so my plans to use two 70’s crossmembers with the big skid got foiled for a few minutes. Luckily, I had several of these 70’s truck crossmembers laying around so 2 got welded together to make one wide one. In this photo you can see the rear crossmember is actually two stacked on top each other during mock up. Our buddy, Bill, loves that kind of work so he took on the project of glueing the two crossmembers together. Keep in mind, this rear crossmembers only purpose is to hold the big skid plate so I wasn’t too worried about it being cut and rewelded.
Before I could throw in the 205 and bolt in the new crossmember concoction I had to do the ole wood spade machine job to the 4500s rear cover for the 205 shift rail to pass.
Cuts a perfectly round 1” hole like butter. The wood spade pretty much has to go in the trash after this but still cheaper than taking it to a machine shop or buying a 1” drill, hole saw or whatever.
Then when mating a round 205 to a 4500, the rear cover of the 4500 needs to be filed in 4 places for the 205s front bearing retainer bolts to pass. This isn’t needed if using the big aftermarket spacer that goes between the 4500 and 205 when using a long input gear. I like to use the short input gear without the need of an aluminum spacer.
This gap is what you’ll see before beginning to file the rear cover for the bearing retainer bolt clearance. I pulled them together to get witness marks inside the rear cover so I knew exactly where to clearance it
And the final verdict on the crossmembers
It looks exactly like the K10! (I still need to pick up some flat stock and space the crossmembers down a little bit)
The K10’s crossmember….twins!
The crap skid plate on my 89 Suburban intended to protect the most fragile transfercase they ever offered. It’s the same crap Rob has on his K5 and why he cracked his 241 open like an egg. We’re going to have to do something better with both of them
First order of business was to make another rear trans mount for the 4500 to work with a 70’s crossmember. This is exactly how the rear trans mount in my K10 is done too and its worked well for the past 14 years
After all these years I didn’t realize the frame on a K5 widened up after the rear crossmember, so my plans to use two 70’s crossmembers with the big skid got foiled for a few minutes. Luckily, I had several of these 70’s truck crossmembers laying around so 2 got welded together to make one wide one. In this photo you can see the rear crossmember is actually two stacked on top each other during mock up. Our buddy, Bill, loves that kind of work so he took on the project of glueing the two crossmembers together. Keep in mind, this rear crossmembers only purpose is to hold the big skid plate so I wasn’t too worried about it being cut and rewelded.
Before I could throw in the 205 and bolt in the new crossmember concoction I had to do the ole wood spade machine job to the 4500s rear cover for the 205 shift rail to pass.
Cuts a perfectly round 1” hole like butter. The wood spade pretty much has to go in the trash after this but still cheaper than taking it to a machine shop or buying a 1” drill, hole saw or whatever.
Then when mating a round 205 to a 4500, the rear cover of the 4500 needs to be filed in 4 places for the 205s front bearing retainer bolts to pass. This isn’t needed if using the big aftermarket spacer that goes between the 4500 and 205 when using a long input gear. I like to use the short input gear without the need of an aluminum spacer.
This gap is what you’ll see before beginning to file the rear cover for the bearing retainer bolt clearance. I pulled them together to get witness marks inside the rear cover so I knew exactly where to clearance it
And the final verdict on the crossmembers
It looks exactly like the K10! (I still need to pick up some flat stock and space the crossmembers down a little bit)
The K10’s crossmember….twins!
The crap skid plate on my 89 Suburban intended to protect the most fragile transfercase they ever offered. It’s the same crap Rob has on his K5 and why he cracked his 241 open like an egg. We’re going to have to do something better with both of them
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This build is speaking to me. It is on point. Not sure about that bent orange though.
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Bent77, aka your neighbor. He has an issue with Chevy Orange don’t mind him anyway. His brain is foggy from dialing in cam timing on his Camaro and he gets cranky.Bent Orange?
I’ve seen this project in person and it’s way better than pics show. Larry is hitting it out of the park! Wait until you guys see some of his other arts and crafts projects going into it.
Look what I found.
I will be loading up a bunch of stuff for the Tri State Swap Meet the first weekend in February but I will rat hole this for you. I know you are gonna want to do some trading for it.
I'll try to think up something I need.
I will be loading up a bunch of stuff for the Tri State Swap Meet the first weekend in February but I will rat hole this for you. I know you are gonna want to do some trading for it.
I'll try to think up something I need.
Nice detailed build
I have atleast 2 of them skid plates if you need more .
I would of never thought you could drill a hole in iron with a spade but for wood, I thought the bit would destroy itself before any progress was made, nice way to save some time/money. 
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Heck ya! We'll figure something out!
We might just need them for Rob's K5 and my Burb
The rear NV4500 covers aren't iron but aluminum. A wood spade eats up aluminum just fine....I couldn't imagine it would even scratch ironI would of never thought you could drill a hole in iron with a spade but for wood, I thought the bit would destroy itself before any progress was made, nice way to save some time/money.
That makes more sense, in the picture it looks like iron to me, but I've seen people cut aluminum with wood bits often, just never a spade bit, still interesting.
Nice work on the whole project.
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Yes, I'm definitely aware they can be shifted many different ways but I want it to be as mechanical as possible.....so, cable for me
Is it weird I was way into the idea of a fuel injected 292 for the sheer freak out factor?
Too bad it was a boat anchor. But then again I’m not sure you would know how to react if we left you behind driving to a trailhead in the mountains. So I guess the fat block was a wise choice.
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I know, I totally wanted something unique like an old straight 6 with modern tech. Total bummer that the engine was a turd and so expensive to rebuild. It just didn’t make sense.
And now for the rest of the story…..
Well, I couldn’t ignore the rocker panel situation forever as it was holding up progress with Raptor Lining the interior, installing the pedals and steering column. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I would have been so much better off just making my own inner rocker out of a flat panel and added a 1” 90 degree bend to one end. That could have been made out of much thicker material than this Taiwanesium trash. The pieces that I got that were supposed to make up the inner rocker made zero sense how they were to fit together so I did the best I could. The pieces left a pretty big gap right in the middle, which I decided to leave open for ease of cleaning and getting in there to add rust prevention.
I POR15’d every possible thing I could reach. I even had POR15 in the crack of my ass once it was done. That stuff is just as bad as antiseize
The outer rocker fit pretty well for the most part. I welded some tabs on the back side of the rear portion so the rocker would sorta clip in place
In true aftermarket panel fashion, things never fit perfectly, but one little cow lick sticking up wasn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things and was easy to fix
So glad this bullshit was over and the only rust to deal with on the entire truck
Somewhere along the line I also made a removable cover for the NV4500 hole and to plug the old transfercase shifter assembly hole. This is the first time I’ve used an early 4500 with the SM465 style shift tower. I had gotten used to the 4500s with the removeable shift tower that creates a lot of clearance when yanking or poking the transmission where as the earlier style shift tower doesn’t. The panel provides more room for yanking and poking. It also allowed for nutserts to be used for the 465 style shifter boot to screw on to.
So, the plan with the trans tunnel is to use a SM465 boot at the trans tunnel, then build a box over the tunnel for the J&B triple stick shifter a place to mount. I’m basically stealing Carl Sandvik idea that he used in his K5, which works well with the Tuffybox Rob gave me last Christmas. Once the box is secured to the floor I plan to use a NV4500 shifter boot above that so the trans will actually be double booted. Hopefully this will cut down on the dust intrusion like I get into my K10’s twin stick shifter boot.
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FINALLY it was time to move on to painting the door jambs and laying Raptor Lining the cab area as this has been holding up the show for the dash assembly, pedals, column…yada yada yada. The entire interior floor will get Raptor Lined but starting with the cab area first.
I was totally surprised how nice the DIY Raptor Liner turned out
It covered up the rocker panel replacement scars well!
I loaded up the inside of the rockers with Raptor also
Then I was finally able to get the pedals and column installed
I was totally surprised how nice the DIY Raptor Liner turned out
It covered up the rocker panel replacement scars well!
I loaded up the inside of the rockers with Raptor also
Then I was finally able to get the pedals and column installed
I had a 73 k5 that had very little rust, mostly at the inner rocker and the top of the rocker so I was working with an old school body shop and they built it all from thick gauge sheet metal and it turned out great and is much stronger.I know, I totally wanted something unique like an old straight 6 with modern tech. Total bummer that the engine was a turd and so expensive to rebuild. It just didn’t make sense.
And now for the rest of the story…..
Well, I couldn’t ignore the rocker panel situation forever as it was holding up progress with Raptor Lining the interior, installing the pedals and steering column. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I would have been so much better off just making my own inner rocker out of a flat panel and added a 1” 90 degree bend to one end. That could have been made out of much thicker material than this Taiwanesium trash. The pieces that I got that were supposed to make up the inner rocker made zero sense how they were to fit together so I did the best I could. The pieces left a pretty big gap right in the middle, which I decided to leave open for ease of cleaning and getting in there to add rust prevention.
I POR15’d every possible thing I could reach. I even had POR15 in the crack of my ass once it was done. That stuff is just as bad as antiseize
The outer rocker fit pretty well for the most part. I welded some tabs on the back side of the rear portion so the rocker would sorta clip in place
In true aftermarket panel fashion, things never fit perfectly, but one little cow lick sticking up wasn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things and was easy to fix
So glad this bullshit was over and the only rust to deal with on the entire truck
Somewhere along the line I also made a removable cover for the NV4500 hole and to plug the old transfercase shifter assembly hole. This is the first time I’ve used an early 4500 with the SM465 style shift tower. I had gotten used to the 4500s with the removeable shift tower that creates a lot of clearance when yanking or poking the transmission where as the earlier style shift tower doesn’t. The panel provides more room for yanking and poking. It also allowed for nutserts to be used for the 465 style shifter boot to screw on to.
So, the plan with the trans tunnel is to use a SM465 boot at the trans tunnel, then build a box over the tunnel for the J&B triple stick shifter a place to mount. I’m basically stealing Carl Sandvik idea that he used in his K5, which works well with the Tuffybox Rob gave me last Christmas. Once the box is secured to the floor I plan to use a NV4500 shifter boot above that so the trans will actually be double booted. Hopefully this will cut down on the dust intrusion like I get into my K10’s twin stick shifter boot.
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A 73 with minimal rust is definitely rare! Pretty sure they build 73 to 75s out of prerusted sheetmetal
Thicker gauge metal would definitely be wiser on the inners that are basically flat. Not much to them
