The "I thought you said it was only going to cost....." 1991 Jimmy Build

[datmony]

datmony submitted a new Build:

The "I thought you said it was only going to cost....." 1991 Jimmy Build

A little background on this build. My primary mountain truck/daily driver, a 2011 Dodge 2500 Cummins has been proving a monumental pain due to ongoing emissions issues. While I am fighting with Chrysler on that vehicle (not really wanting to buy a brand new truck since I have a paid for pile o' Cummins sitting in the driveway), I decided that I needed to make a reliable daily driver that will double as a mountain truck because I snowboard a lot. This build will be focused directly on that purpose and while very capable offroad..... that will very much be secondary to drivability. I have a very well built restomod CJ7 that will be my trail rig (it also is dual purpose for drivability but very built), so the K5 will be much more focused on daily driver duties, forest road camping expeditions, and tons and tons of time in the Cascades and likely back to the Sierras.

I grew up with square bodies, gramps always had pickups..... my uncle always had K5s, my other uncle a first gen Jimmy and still to this day when I sit in one and look at the dash I am in a time machine and taken back to being a kid exploring the woods with my uncles or grandpa. Naturally I have always maintained a love for these truck and several years ago, living in Reno I bought a 76 C10 4x4 (why it wasn't a k10 I still don't understand but it was a c10 but with 4 wheel drive from the factory..... some funky way it was ordered I am guessing) as my snowboarding chariot. It was an amazing mountain truck. That thing saw more white out blizzards and powder days than could be counted. It saved me endless times in dire scenarios. Old Blue (classic baby blue with the white two tone) was quite frankly amazing and only replaced because I needed a modern tow vehicle. I am sure that beast is still mobbing around California today and I won't be surprised if I see it pop up here one day. PS to the buyer if I do, you still owe me $200....

Fast forward to my current needs, I decided that a K5 would be the perfect candidate for what I needed. Since I also was focusing on functional simplicity but wanted something that would drive well at varying elevations, I targeted the later fuel injected models in my search and found a decent candidate on here. Current state which is continuing to evolve..... I have a '91 GMC Jimmy K5. Stripped as stripped gets because it was some sort of fleet vehicle (forest service, department of interior, something like that based on the radio equipment that had...

Read more about this build here...

 

[datmony]

For reference here it is as it was purchased this past spring before I started acquiring parts...... as you can see not too bad overall.... but also as with anything..... time begins to reveal things you overlooked on purchase......

 

[datmony]

Nicely done frame repair by the previous owner.

 

[datmony]

So now a bit on what has been done thus far and some pics for fodder....

Stripped the interior to find several drivers side floor cracks that have been welded up, a couple spots of rusts on the drivers side where I needed to cut out sheet metal (I have made patch panels but haven't welded in yet due to needing to have this as a commuter). The whole of the padding under the rubber mat was sopping both front and rear so despite the very clean exterior, the interior floor had TONS of spots where some corrosion was starting, most often under the paint and while not terrible (other than the couple drivers side spots) it needed to be taken care of because of my future plans for the refresh on the interior that is underway.

I took out all interior.... all seats, center console, rubber flooring, etc. Everything flooring wise met its maker..... rear seat is being kept (being moved to black at some later date) and the front seats and brackets were sold. To remediate the interior corrosion, all spots were ground down with a die grinder and I utilized Rust Bullet (great product if you have never used it) convertor as well as their covering product. Once all of that was remediated (you'll see some of it in the upcoming pics), seam sealer was applied to all holes, and I started dymatting the interior. Much of the interior is remaining a work in progress because it was less critical and because it is a bit iterative at the moment while I am working through some considerations on tunes......

Here you will see the seats I went with, Corbeaus as well as the tuffy console/lockbox. If you are buying the corbeaus, while nice seats, be aware...... the brackets that they have available for their seats are not even remotely correct. You will have to make your own. These are my gen 1 brackets based off of their design. I am actually going to make another set of them that are a teensy bit lower than these are as I find I am sitting just a little too tall at the moment and that is on bare floor with no dynamat and rubber mat underneath which would compound the height issue. Seats are however very comfortable, recline nicely, have bolsters that inflate via a hand pump, and also are heated since so many days will be spent in a blizzard.

Tuffy box is well a tuffy box.... pretty amazing. I bent the floor under the mounting point so that the sheet metal sits flat and installed some heavy duty nutserts in the floor so that as I remove the console for future fitment I am not needing two people to remove it. Worked well. I will grab pics of those later as the interior "redo" progresses.....

 

[datmony]

In addition to the work taking place on the interior.... here are a few of the other things that have been done on this since I got it. Things that I just consider "simple necessities" for a functional driver. Did they need to be done? Maybe, maybe not. Do they provide additional peace of mind.... most definitely. It received, new plugs, new wires, new air filter, oil change, changed diff fluids, new O2 sensor, new temp sensor and a complete lube of everything. New gas cap, new radiator cap, new belt. Additionally, and this was unfortunately unplanned and not an expense I was wanting (actually set me back about a month in my timing on everything this summer) but the 700R4 started behaving very badly. Seemed like it was a stuck valve perhaps but under review was much much worse. Tranny was totally junked. Transmission guy that is a old school drag racer and super familiar with the 700R4 noted that there were parts he had never seen broken inside, missing springs, clutch plates that were installed backwards, 3rd and 4th were swapped, etc etc etc. Definitely was a bummer but oh well.... it had to be done.

So tranny is now all redone, shifts amazing and frankly makes me realize exactly how bad the tranny was performing pre-rebuild. All of the replacement parts on the engine really woke it up and it feels strong (oil pressure is a little less than I would like but it'll work for now until I decide the route I want to go motor wise..... more to come on that later....) I do still also have a new throttle position sensor and a couple other doo dads that I will throw on it as time allows and I removed the MASSIVE marine battery that was in there and swapped it over to a Yellow Top Optima and put in a new battery tray from Summit along with some covers for the dome lights and the brake pedal pad since they were missing. No pics of any of that really..... but you get the drift.....

 

[datmony]

Ok so now onto the fun portions of the build. As noted, my main focus here is going to be drivability. As a result I basically removed all suspension and steering from this rig and have replaced. I didn't take any pictures of the rear end as I was doing it but suffice it to say..... it sucked. Every bolt possible despite two months or spraying with liquid wrench had to be cut off. The front was only marginally better..... but I guess this is what they make 7" angle grinders with cut off wheels for. Here is what all was installed:

• Alcan spring packs front and rear, built to stock height and using rubber bushings for a better overall ride than poly (with the exception of the shackle mounts, those are poly)
• ORD Front Shackle Kit
• ORD Greasable Shackle bolts
• Bilstein Shocks
• New sway bars bushings
• Timkin front wheel bearings and races
• Summit Racing Drilled and Slotted Rotors
• Wilwood D52 Dual Piston Calipers and pads
• Warn Heavy duty Lock Outs
• AN brake fittings and Russell Stainless lines
• WFO Tie Rod
• New Tie Rod and Drag Link Ends
• Rancho Steering Stabilizer
• Red Head Gear Steering Box
• Borgeson Steering Shaft w/Vibration dampening U-joint
• US Wheel Steel Wheels in Matte Black
• Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs 285/70/r17

 

[datmony]

Some more..... overall pretty happy with how things have turned out and I can say that this is an entirely different driving vehicle. Steering is tight, brakes are great, good power getting laid down because of the new tranny and comfy ride with the Corbeaus, new springs, and bilsteins....

 

[datmony]

That is it pic wise for now..... I will add some more as I finish up a few things such as new radiator (ok one more pic)..... as you can see here, radiator installed by previous owner (or previous to them even) is not correct and doesn't fit up the top support. As a result it is kinda "floating" in there. I will be redoing that, redoing the heater core because I HATE the smell of coolant, finishing up the interior and stereo, hooking up the seat warmers, etc. Future items will likely include replacing the cracked grill (If you have one like this please PM me, I am interested), winch, bumpers including a swing out rear carrier, rebuilding and balancing the driveshafts, replacing seat belts, dash pad and a few other interior pieces and beginning a build of a new motor to drop in it. There will also then be some little stuff here and there like replacing cracked turn signal lights and some other cosmetic stuff.

Thanks for the read!!

 

[Truckman4life]

Nice looking rig, you've made some really good progress. I like that grille and headlight setup.

 

[datmony]

Thanks, and yea I very much prefer it to the dual light setups of the later K5/Burbans....... only issue being.... it is pretty much the only grill they don't make a replacement of..... or at least not that I have been able to find. If someone knows where to find one please do let me know as I would like to replace it..... LMC shows one that looks similar but they are well, LMC so getting dimensions or detail from them for cross fit proved to be an act of futility....

 

[jeff in co]

So, big improvement on the brakes and calipers? I'm using "yellow stuff" pads and they do grab quite well....but the brake dust!! A lot of it!

Maybe it's too early but curious how they perform and how much brake dust is being created.

Nice job by the way!!

 

[datmony]

They are quite nice based on first impression. I have put a few hundred miles on is all thus far so can't assess yet the brake dust but I don't see anything excessive yet. Grip feels really good. I have all the parts to redo the rear drums as well including wheels cylinders, stainless rear line, new drums, pads, hardware, etc etc. So I am also anxious to get a bit of time and redo the rear fully as well. I want to grab one more AN fitting like these from Inline Tube:

http://online.flipbuilder.com/wmmk/jcvg/mobile/index.html#p=8

HLF-01T

They are what I used on my CJ7 setup and on the front of this. Will make for easy on trail repair if I ever rip a brake line (which been there, done that, $300 tow bill home cause I couldn't repair the stock set up) and allow me to use one "repair" kit across both this and my CJ7.

 

[ZooMad75]

Outside of being a GMC, that's a virtual clone to my 91 Blazer. Even being a Gov't fleet truck. Doeskin tan, non-ac, rubber floor mat base model no frills goodness. I like the build so far. I'm the opposite though, I'd kill for a single headlight setup over the quads I've got. Choices for more modern replacement (ie: non-sealed beam) housings suck. For the bulbs you have there are many choices and they aren't an arm and a leg to buy either.

 

[Bent77]

Did you factor in the cost of the divorce?

 

[datmony]

Oh when I was saying replace this grill I meant one like I have already.... I love the simplicity of the single light. I also love the look to it because it reminds me of the original circle lights since it is just one bulb, that I will not change. Nice that they are already halogens but I will likely swap to LEDs if I can fine a bulb housing that will work for them at some point. Haven't really done any research there because they are already plenty bright at night.

 

[datmony]

Did you factor in the cost of the divorce?

haha..... you have no idea how patient she is.... salt of the earth I tell ya, salt of the earth....

 

[Capt Ron]

I might have the grill you are looking for, check post# 15 in my "Tons of square body parts" ad.

 

[sreidmx]

Wow very impressive build, great mild build perfect for a driver.. plus the thread title is epic

 

[datmony]

thanks!!

 

[Justin V]

Cool approach to this one...