Thought My Jimmy Was Big

[special-K]

Here's the Suburban in it's better days:

[DirtyLarry]

Yeah, isn’t that funny how we always tend to veer off topic on these threads. Well, you are right though….that Mercedes is a huge fat pig. Ugly and worthless fat pig at that. Odd that it makes the K5 look kind of small. A while back I parked my rental Impala in front of a hotel. As I was walking a way I looked back at it and noticed that the Impala actually looked small compared to the Honda Accord parked next to it. I couldn't believe my eyes! In my head I still think of a Honda Accord as a little feces box and now it is grown up in to a full blown big car, and a nice one at that. Certainly nicer than the Impala I was driving

That spring house is really cool. I never heard of such a thing even when I lived in Detroit which is a much older part of the country than the relatively young Wild West states like CO. Sounds like they served a pretty darn good purpose.

Man that is such a drag about the Burb especially if knowing that hilljack sued afterwards. I hate people! If you ever get sick of that Jimmy I wouldn’t mind having it. Just a shame you are so far away. How bad is the Burb anyway? Is the frame bent? If you posted up a thread on that debacle I missed it somewhere along the way.

[special-K]

I drove the Suburban for about a month after that. The bumper is bent out from backing off of him. The frame is fine. Really just a fender bender...grille,bumper,brackets,and fender. I drove off and went to work. He got a face full of air bag and a totalled truck. I never posted about it. When the officer told me that guy said I ran the light I said I was going to take pictures of how the light cycles showing the vehicle where he was still there and the one where I was would be turning. He told me a witness stopped and gave a statement supporting his story! He saw it happen,but drove off because he "didn't want to get involved". Then,a half hour or so later when he came back through,he stopped and gave a statement. All makes sense,right?
The guy that hit me rolled out of his truck like he never knew he was hitting anything till after it happened. He was sure on his gas from dead stop till he hit me. I stopped in my tracks,just barely across the center,as soon as I detected his front end lift as he started to take off and he just kept on coming. There was all kinds of room to turn slightly and drive around me...like a lane and 3/4 or more. Once he came to his senses he got on his phone and shortly his girlfriend showed up,so he was local. By the debris he had in his bed it looked like he was doing interior remodeling. This was a Saturday and about lunchtime. I figure he was heading to his house for a lunch break and this supposed witness was working with him. He probably got a call filling him in on the fabrication,then stopped to give a statement. He said he tried to give it to an officer who said the one out in the intersection was handling all that stuff,so he handed it to the girlfriend and left. The judge wouldn't accept that as valid,plus many other things didn't match up and it was plain to see they were full of it. I think they were druggies and they even seemed high in court,to me. I even wonder if the guy had done a line at the light. I'm sure he never looked at the light. Just hit the gas when he saw me start moving. Who knows but I was just a country boy going to get a little work done on a Saturday afternoon and they were urban scum up to no good. Thought they had a bumpkin they could get some easy money out of...wrong!

It seems vehicles got bigger and fatter recently. My '92 K3500 looks small next to F150s,Tundras,and Titans. I guess better fuel efficiency means make them bigger. The 88-98s were made when less excess was the theme. ll I know is even though vehicles are bigger,it's still cramped under the hood and nightmare to work on them,I imagine.

[special-K]

Keeping this thread random and unrelated. Here are pics of the porch job. The one concrete column was gone and was repaired by building a boxed column out of 3/4" board. Pretty shabby. So I laid up 8 x8 block over 4pcs of rebar drilled into the base,poured with concrete with a formed cap,then parged it to match the other home made formed concrete columns:

[special-K]

I tore out the floor boards,beams,and joists,so the roof was supported by the 4x4s from the ground. I did one bay at a time because I was concerned about the free standing columns. I already saw the one I replaced that had fallen out. There were bad spots in the floor and the framing was sketchy. The beams running out to the columns from the house had 1" x 2" ledgers nailed to them and the joists (running into the beams) were notched to rest on them. But,they were all around 1/4" shy with just a few nails holding them. I elected to not use joist hangers to keep it looking older. I ran Ledger Loks through the beam and into the joists. Not sure if that meets code but am sure it will do the trick. I know they are rated for high shear strength. The steps were held up using pieces of steel angle hung down from above. Pretty hokey. So I built something for the stringers to run into up underneath. You can see,I drove the Jimmy to work. Remember the Jimmy?

[special-K]

The bottom of the posts were rotted some,so I cut a little off and put composite post bases under them. The,I wrapped them with a base trim. The rail not only fastened at the bottom where the posts were soft,but were inconsistent in height and generally too close to the floor for my liking (you can see in pictures shown). The top rail was consistent and at a proper height. So,I measured up,struck a line,cut the bottoms of all the balusters,raised the bottom rail,and renailed the balusters.
Also,she never had any rail o the steps. This woman is 90 years old and lives alone! Her daughters agreed,it was time for a rail. The following pictures show the modified rail on the porch and new stair rail.

[special-K]

The porch is 7' wide. I saved money by getting 14' flooring rather than 8'. But,due to the variation in the log wall (and probably inaccurate placement of the columns) the measurement grew to almost 7' 3" at the steps end. I built the ledger against the house double and made a funky trim detail to cover the short boards against the house.
She had me repaint the porch furniture. The love set sat low like a beach chair. They had 4x4s laying under the legs.That was funky and it could work it's way off and tumble. So,I built new longer legs

[special-K]

Here's the fairly big until it's next to a fish bowl body style crossover Euro style SUV Jimmy on the job. I've been using it to work out of a lot this summer. I pull my trailer and put hand tools on the passenger floor. The back seat has been folded up since May with boxes full of diecast and other toy trucks and cars filling the cargo area. Also an ez-up,couple of coolers,tarps,& couple of folding chairs. Many weekends last summer were spent at a flea market vending/camping in Harpers Ferry WVA (old drive-in theater). The Potomac & Shenendoah Rivers meet there,so there's plenty of water recreation to get into,the C&O Canal trail for biking,Historic Harpers Ferry just to look around (shops & food),Appalachian Trail,Charlestown (more shops & food),Shepardstown (more shops & food) which is across the river from Antietam battlefield,just exploring around country roads,and two cruise-ins on Friday night in Charlestown. Lots to do in that area once the flea market slowed down.

[KrazyRay]

I like the block pillars. I bet they will still be there when we are all long gone.

[special-K]

I don't know what happened to the one I had to replace. Prolly hit it with a tractor. The way it was so level and square on top of what remained leads me to believe it was a cold joint...two separate pours. This feller was a self made Mr. Fixit. He was a medical researcher who did all his own repairs on vehicles and his property,as well as built whatever needed built since they bought the place in '57. I had it to him. There was nothing he wouldn't try to do. But...from a professional stand point,he did some pretty sketchy stuff.
Here's the trellis I replaced. I went to buy the lattice and it was $5 per 8' piece! I got out the table saw and planer and made up my own. I primed and painted the pieces first,then wove them through the Clematis (vine). I glued every piece where they cross and pressed two 1/2" brads in using channel locks,then touched up a couple coats over those and my cuts. The other end of the porch had a single section that was still intact. I made the one on the right the same distance inside of the column,put the old one up,and made another the same size to carry it around the corner to kind of balance things out a bit

[KrazyRay]

Was the trellis put there to hide the home heating oil tank? I like the idea of pressing brads. Around here, they would load it up with narrow crown staples. I remember building a fence on the Oregon coast using stainless steel nails.

[special-K]

Yes,her daughter's wedding (20+ years ago) was at the pond,so she had Doc build the trellis to hide the tank and spruce the place up a bit. They rode up i a carriage. Her daughter,Louise,is and always has been big on the horses. She and my sister rode ponies together when they were kids. Now she runs her own equestrian center and buy's/trains/sells horses. Both daughters took after their dad. They are both real handy.
Since I assembled it up and in place piece by piece I decided to try this. Using air would have probably worked ok but I was a little concerned about shooting through the lattice...and didn't feel like fussing with the depth adjustment (and I wasn't carrying my compressor and guns). I still like to do hand work as much as possible.

My Jimmy doesn't look so big with the big background. I took some back roads home out of the hills after Thanksgiving dinner:

[KrazyRay]

My wife has some horses and it works out great as I can have all of the junk cars and trucks as long as she has her horses.

[special-K]

A perfect balance. My x-wife didn't try to keep me from my stuff,but I did have to hear comments from time to time. I'd always say she needed to have her own interests rather than criticize me for having mine. Shopping/buying/spending money was her thing. It's never ending with no goal and often not really much to show. Everything I blow money on I can sell and get my money back. She liked antiques and collected some vintage things. I ended up buying 1/2 of what she had because I love the hunt and would find things she collected while hunting my stuff. But collecting is just another form of shopping. I think she would have been happier if she had something more active to engage herself into. Arguing can be exciting and raise your pulse and all,but that's not what I'm talking bout here...Donna!

[special-K]

This was the biggest challenge on that farm:

[fencepost]

To be continued?

Still working on it or is it finished?

[special-K]

Oh yeah,I finished it. That thing had a little lean to it,eh? Here are some of the progress pictures. I dug out and set 6 x 6 deadmen in concrete,then fastened come-alongs to stabilize and pull straight. I put up posts and beams inside as crooked as the building with only one bolt fastening them. Then,let them move with the building till straight. Once straight I put other bolts in and added diagonal braces. Also,some floor joists were broken. I jacked them up and I sistered another one on each side then bolted:

[special-K]

They thought the building was lost. I told them I should try to save it.If not,they better get everything out because it would be one big mess once it came down,then what will they have for a shop? Nothing fancy,just saved the structure at a minimal cost and it's good for many years to come. But,walls could easily be built,new windows,siding,and it would look as good as any new building.

[fencepost]

Thats really cool.

[68Timber]

Love the pics, cool stuff with a cool K5 in the background.

[Oklahoma_k5]

I'm kinda surprised i read all the way through this one. But I am interested in building trucks and looking at old buildings so this might be the perfect country and western song so to speak. My hats off to you on getting the old building back up and straight.

Anyway.

I have have an off road design crossover kit on my k5 with a D60 and i think it drives pretty good. On the highway I can drive it with a couple of fingers and it tracks straight. I did wind up taking off the sway bar because it was in the way of the crossover. I had plans to modify it or find a different one to go in its place. Four years latter I've gotten used to driving without it and don't have any plans to put one back on.

I try to never have the K5 on a trailer. Drove it 800 miles to Colorado last summer. With D60/14B, Winch, Bumpers, Rock Sliders, 203/205 doubler and 35s its too heavy and I don't really have trailer that will haul it anyway.

The best thing about it is i can still turn when the drivers side tire drops out. Couldn't do that before. Turned the wheel all the way and the front tires would be a little past straight.

One thing to make sure of is that all the parts in the front end are good. Had a horrible death wobble when I first put the crossover and D60 in. Everything but the rear upper bushings in the frame side of the swing shackles was reasonably new. Finally replaced those thinking it was a waste of time and bingo. No more death wobble.

[special-K]

Let's see pictures of that big K/5. This is a ramblin' thread. Mines what I call somewhat big...until next to a less capable pregnant crossover. I have 1t axles I've been tempted to install and keep on going with building up this Jimmy. But honestly,it has been more my road machine and I don't see any real heavy off road use in it's future. It can do very well as is and my focus is for getting a pre-88 truck to build my next work truck out of. I'd like a K/30 but condition is most important.I'm thinking with way more K/20s out there I'll probably get one of those (or even a K/10) and use the axles on that. Also,my '72 will be getting a Dana 60 up front and an HO52 in the rear (hopefully this winter). The Jimmy is my light duty rig (car).

Those 2 x 4s you see against that wall are holding that section up. It was totally loose and free standing with a prop leaned against it to hold in place. The bottoms and tops of the studs were rotted. I talked them into doing this and felt obligated to only do what was necessary to keep it standing w/o spending any more money than needed. I bolted through the 2 x 4s into the posts,then tacked the window sash into place to keep it there. This has to be the funkiest thing I've done in a ling time...but it did the trick! I left the concrete for the deadmen below grade. When I was done with them I cut them down below grade and back filled. If anyone goes to change the grade or any other digging they'll be cussing me

Ok,getting back to K/5 related. Here's the Jimmy in front of the old shop:

[Oklahoma_k5]

[Oklahoma_k5]

Here is one from a few years ago.

[manimal]

Tim, you do some nice work!