The Brandy Build

[Jake_C_]

Put the bed in the back of the vandura to good use today. It’s crazy how much different it looks with just new wheels and tires. I love how they turned out and although I think the 33s filled out the wheel arches better I think 31s still look really good and they won’t get into the fenders anymore. The wheels actually look too nice for this thing now.

 

[Jake_C_]

Waiting on some AC parts to come in. I figured out a way to get the ac condenser mounted since this one isn’t for this style core support. Anyway I put the grille up to make sure there were no issues and I had to snap a pic it looked so good.

 

[Jake_C_]

Ok kind of a not so good update. I’ve gotten the ac system put together and I’m chasing a small leak right now. But I fired it up the other night and it was running rougher than normal and I had a lot of white smoke billowing out of the passenger side exhaust. It obviously has me a little concerned right now and since this is my first motor I’m now second guessing everything I did on it. Last time I fired it up before this it was running really well I was actually really happy with it. The white smoke concerns me because my first thought is coolant in the cylinders but I’ve been going through my head and I’m not sure how that would be possible. I’m going to check the oil tomorrow and pull all the plugs and crank it with some paper in front of the plug holes and see if there’s anything in the cylinders. Any and all advice and opinions would me much appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

[imiceman44]

Ok kind of a not so good update. I’ve gotten the ac system put together and I’m chasing a small leak right now. But I fired it up the other night and it was running rougher than normal and I had a lot of white smoke billowing out of the passenger side exhaust. It obviously has me a little concerned right now and since this is my first motor I’m now second guessing everything I did on it. Last time I fired it up before this it was running really well I was actually really happy with it. The white smoke concerns me because my first thought is coolant in the cylinders but I’ve been going through my head and I’m not sure how that would be possible. I’m going to check the oil tomorrow and pull all the plugs and crank it with some paper in front of the plug holes and see if there’s anything in the cylinders. Any and all advice and opinions would me much appreciated. Thanks guys.

Before you condemn the motor, is your fuel old?
If so, either drain it or if it's not much, add lots of fresh fuel.
Old fuel will run bad and will smoke, happens to all my vehicles that sit a long time

 

[78SWB]

What did it smell like?

 

[Jake_C_]

Before you condemn the motor, is your fuel old?
If so, either drain it or if it's not much, add lots of fresh fuel.
Old fuel will run bad and will smoke, happens to all my vehicles that sit a long time

It is old fuel but I added a few gallons before I started it up this time, the new fuel probably didn’t make it to the carb though I didn’t run it long. It does sit awhile between startups. But it’s only coming out of one side and if it was bad fuel it would be smoking out of both sides wouldn’t it?

 

[Jake_C_]

What did it smell like?

Hard to say, strong for sure. Not burning oil I know that smell well. I guess I’m not very familiar with the smell of burning coolant so it could have been that but honestly nothing tipped me off about the smell it just smelled like strong exhaust to me. There’s also a lot of smells with the new exhaust and the header wrap too which doesn’t help.

 

[Bent77]

Try the plug check first and go from there

 

[78SWB]

Coolant will smell sweet. Did you run it very long and try to let it clear up?

 

[Jake_C_]

Coolant will smell sweet. Did you run it very long and try to let it clear up?

I didn’t because it was running rough and I didn’t know what the problem was and didn’t want to damage anything. It didn’t smell sweet. Going to pull the plugs and blow out the cylinders and if I don’t notice any big problem I’ll let it run for awhile and see if it clears up.

 

[Jake_C_]

Ok pulled all the plugs on the passenger side, they weren’t wet, didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, just smelled like gas. Pulled the drivers side and they looked identical. Put a bunch of paper in front of the spark plug holes and cranked it for awhile. Nothing at all on the paper. Not even a little bit of something. Put them all back and made sure all the wires were well connected at the distributer. One of them possibly could have popped off a little I was able to push it down a tiny bit. It was cylinder 2 which is passenger side. Fired it up and didn’t get any smoke at all. Ran nice and smooth with not even a little smoke. So I guess it could have been that plug wire and there probably was some moisture in the cylinders after sitting for awhile. Either way there seems to be no problem so it looks like I over reacted although I think I had good cause to worry. Thanks a ton for all the input I can’t tell you how nice it is to know if I have a problem like this I have a group of guys there to help bail me out. I’m going to be more diligent about starting it weekly and letting it run for awhile.

 

[Jake_C_]

It’s a little crude but it gets the job done:
I went ahead and threw a tach in the ashtray while I’m waiting for an a/c thing. Figured it was a good use of space since I’d never have used the ashtray otherwise. I had to cut the top as you can see but it works great and I can close it up if I don’t want to see it. I think it’s pretty slick I like it.

 

[Big10]

It’s a little crude but it gets the job done:View attachment 403204
I went ahead and threw a tach in the ashtray while I’m waiting for an a/c thing. Figured it was a good use of space since I’d never have used the ashtray otherwise. I had to cut the top as you can see but it works great and I can close it up if I don’t want to see it. I think it’s pretty slick I like

I did something similar. PO had already cut the radio hole out, so i improvised that space. It doesn't look pretty but it works.

 

[Jake_C_]

I got the A/C finished up a little bit ago, time will tell if it develops any leaks but so far so good. It feels nice to have working A/C. I’m finally digging into the body filler.
So I’ll be doing this for a little while.

 

[greatwhitez71]

Looks great. Haven’t been on in awhile and just found this build.

Good job so far

 

[Jake_C_]

Looks great. Haven’t been on in awhile and just found this build.

Good job so far

Much appreciated.

 

[Jake_C_]

Got the main hoop of the roll bar made I tried to design it to look like the factory bar as best I could. I think It’s pretty spot on.

I’ll tack it to the plates at the base and take it back to the metal shop to have them finish weld it. Then I can get the measurements for the kickouts that go to the wheel wells.

 

[Jake_C_]

Dang it’s been a long time since I posted, I hate how time can get away from you so easily. Starting from where I left off, the roll bar is completely welded up and the kickouts are made

all that’s left to do is paint it. Im very happy with how solid it turned out. I’m not very happy about the dust situation but there’s not much that can be done about that until body filler is finished which I’m sad to say it isn’t. I had an issue with my right shoulder last year, late winter/early spring, that continued on well into the summer. I believe I must have hurt it doing weighted dips although I can’t pinpoint a workout where It happened. Regardless, I went through a pretty frustrating cycle of healing and reinjury trying to sand the body filler. Id give it a week or two to heal and when I thought it was better I’d dig in to the body filler only to wake up the next morning with it killing me, I’d take longer and longer breaks between sanding and eventually it fully healed I guess. Anyway I made very little headway on the filler over the summer and then I started a new job in the fall. I’m traveling out of state weekly and don’t have nearly as much time to work on the K5 as I’d like. In the end it’s all excuses, this thing should have been done by now if I’m being honest with myself. It’s time for the final push. I’m going to be having a lot more free time come late march, but until then I’m committing to working an hour on the Blazer every night. I’m going to go ahead and get all the panel gaps perfect before I do any more body filler. I feel like that’s smarter than doing them as I go. If anyone has any tips on lining panels up I’m all ears. Thanks for the constant support and motivation.

 

[Jake_C_]

Making progress on the blazer, I have a fairly long checklist of little things I want to knock out before I start on body filler again. One of the things on that list is figuring out a solution to the problem of the exhaust being very close to my fuel filter and pressure regulator


I did use rubber hose and hose clamps in a couple spots, the one you see in the picture is the return line. After I got my exhaust done the guy that did it recommended I move those somewhere else because of how close they were, that’s what I’ve planned on doing but was wondering if doing header wrap and maybe making a heat shield would work instead? What do you guys think, it’s about 2.5 inches away at the closest. For me the rubber hoses melting are a bigger concern than vapor lock but I’m worried that both might be a problem. Opinions?

 

[78SWB]

Personally I would try shielding them first before going to the trouble to move them and changing things.