My K5 Blazer Story.

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

Breaker 1-9. You got your ears on Zoomad??

Yeah, I was just going to say the cool kids use HAM radios these days. Lance and Don both had them this past trip and I must admit....they were really nice. The big hold out on me getting a CB is I don’t want to mount an antenna anywhere. The HAM radios were nice as they were entirely hand held, but I guess they need some licensing or something.

Over and out good buddy

HAM is the "it" thing over on Expo. They do require getting an amateur radio operator license. Cool stuff but way over my head for what we do. Take a look at this radio:





Can be run in the truck off the trucks power OR- You unplug the base, screw in a short antenna to the top and snap in the 4 aa battery pack and you got a handheld CB. I was thinking a 10ft stainless steel whip on the rear bumper should be able to get over the camper and get a good signal out. Or just get a handheld unit, no vehicle antenna needed.

Over and out you sum biach.

[MTCK]

Looking good Rob! I can't wait to see the new rig all together. It should be a fun little ride. Console looks good. You might have to get Larry one of those CB's that mount under the dash and all the controls are on the mic. Or stick with hand signals...

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Looking good Rob! I can't wait to see the new rig all together. It should be a fun little ride. Console looks good. You might have to get Larry one of those CB's that mount under the dash and all the controls are on the mic. Or stick with hand signals...

Thanks. Me and Larry's version of hand signals usually involve only 1 finger sticking up. Which is why some form of radio communication is needed. I'm usually behind him on the trail and he's got quite a blind spot to see me.

[Zoomad75]

Wow that really looks good. The landa earned it's keep today for sure! It looks SOOO much better not being black. It cracks me up every time I hear you call those clowns that had this truck honyocks and hilljacks. LOL. Remind me when we are done to go drive by their house and do some donuts in the yard for the mistreatment they gave this poor K5.

Tell me when and I'll be there to get the beast inside the shop. Great work!

[Zoomad75]

Bad news, the foam piece we need to seal the heater core pipes to the inside of the firewall isn't available. LMC don't show a listing and I even popped into the GM parts catalog from work and they don't show it in the drawing much less list it.

My only hope is that the hilljacks left it in the bottom of the heater box and never pulled it out. Otherwise I'll have to find some foam to cut to fit.

[y5mgisi]

Subscribed!

[Zoomad75]

As a matter of fact, Larry's just as excited about this build as I am. Usually if we need to coordinate anything during business hours we text, get it straight and I'll call on the way out of the shop. Nope not today. He pulled the rear seat and rubber floor mat out of the rear to discover a mint, pristine rear floor. He had to call me. The entire rear cargo area where you all know rot out at the rear sill and back is spotless. Not one pit of rust. Paint is perfect except for one spot in the middle where it looks like the muffler looked like it got hot and scorched the paint.

Plan for today was lift the top off and get the beast inside the shop finally! Big Day! Larry had the top unbolted before I got there so after a frosty one we popped the the lid off and set it next to the shop. We then went into action to move the truck with Larry's trusty Craftsman lawn tractor. So with me sitting on a 5 gallon bucket he yanked it forward to the driveway. I darn near fell off the bucket when I ran over the chain. We fixed that and pulled it backwards up the driveway with me just sitting on the floor now. I got to say that little tractor barked and squeeled the tires most of the way up the driveway, but it did it. It is inside the shop now and I got to "drive" it for the first time!

Here's the rear floor:



We hatched a couple of more plans and called it a night.

[MTCK]

That is clean!

[DirtyLarry]

Yeah, I am excited for this K5 project. Maybe a little jealous too! Rob deserves a nice off-roadster for a change. Hell, I wouldn’t let him go with us on our annual Desert Trip as the ’75 K5 was such a POS where we didn’t trust it! This rig will turn out nice and built for the long haul in mind.

Man, I love bare bones rigs like this base model K5 because they are cleaner and there is so much less BS to deal with to try to restore. For Rob’s sake, I wish it did have A/C though. I am just tweetered as hell as to how clean this tub is. Great bones to start a project on!

More pictures…

Clean tube! Odd burn mark on the floor where the muffler once sat below


Not one speck of rust in the usual spots!


Everything got a major douche


Little bit of surface rust on the driver side floor board. Cleaned it up with a spot blaster and will treat with POR 15. Not nearly bad enough to cut out.


Squirreled away in the corner waiting for things to happen. Figures, I have two weeks of work travel so it will be sitting for a bit before things get exciting.

[Zoomad75]

I'm totally floored at the condition of the tub. Floored. Crack myself up. Can't wait to get going further. I can see it in my mind already.

[Zoomad75]

So with Larry heading on the road for work, I've taken to some smaller tasks. I stopped by the Bigassgas garage and picked up my instrument clusters from the 91 and 75. The 91 is in need of a good cleaning.

My initial thought was to install the factory tach and small fuel gauge in the 91 cluster, but that's been thwarted on a couple of counts. First reason is the LS swap, the pulse generated for the tach signal is not correct for the factory tach. Larry's experience with the engine control module we are using here found he had to run his aftermarket tach in 4cyl mode to read correctly. Second reason as you'll see shortly is the spot where the small fuel gauge would go is split up in three sections for additional indicators. Gauge won't fit without work. This cluster is too nice to butcher.



It's dirty for sure. Larry's sand even made it's way in here from blasting. It's coming apart to get down to the housing so I can shoot it with a better reflective color to use with LED bulbs.



Last mileage reading. Going back to zero since we are starting fresh here.


The spot for the battery indicator where a small fuel gauge or clock would go.


Backside. Not sure how many have seen an electric speedo version of this cluster. It's my first. The printed circuit is good though. No cracks.


The rest of the gauges. Just need cleaned up a bit.


The bare housing. Yellow spots on the blue are heat discolored from the light bulbs. No problem, LEDs won't be so hot when installed.


This next shot shows somebody's idea for a fix to the shift indicator. A metal plate has been epoxied on to the back side of the housing with a guide for the cable to ride over when the shift lever is pulled. I can only assume the original guide was part of the plastic housing that probably broke easy and this was the fix for it.


Backside of the plate. It has holes that slid over the existing posts but it was glued in as well. Kinda Crude, but it works.


The Odometer now back to zero to show the start of a new chapter with this K5.

[Zoomad75]

Something I could use but wasn't actively looking for was a good hood. Larry had mentioned one he saw on craigslist, but I didn't pull it up until last weekend. Somebody locally had listed a NOS GM hood for $250. As most craigslist deals are funky at best I called the guy and he still had it. Made arrangements to meet up for monday and went over to check it out.



Couldn't pass it up.

[Jonboy]

Rob, check out GM Sport Salvage for a bolt in tach option. The font is close, and it uses the C60 style fuel gauge in the bottom. Looks pretty good in the cluster.

I'm actually up here in Colorado as I type this. We drove through Pueblo on our way to Breckenridge to escape the Texas heat. I definitely get it now. The scenery is absolutely amazing up here. The natural beauty makes me want to move here, at least until I remember how much it snows.

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

Rob, check out GM Sport Salvage for a bolt in tach option. The font is close, and it uses the C60 style fuel gauge in the bottom. Looks pretty good in the cluster.

I'm actually up here in Colorado as I type this. We drove through Pueblo on our way to Breckenridge to escape the Texas heat. I definitely get it now. The scenery is absolutely amazing up here. The natural beauty makes me want to move here, at least until I remember how much it snows.

I had that same suggestion come up over on CK5. While they look cool, I'm not sure of the work-around for the tach signal from the MEFI4 controller. I'm going to get it running first. I can always pull the cluster apart later.

Pssst... Don't let our secret out! Yeah they get a lot of snow up there. Down here, not so much. If we want to go play in snow, we can be up into the mountains inside an hour. We see alot of you Texans coming through town in Pueblo and where I work in Canon City along US highway 50. You folks traveling through helps our economy! Thanks! Have fun while you are here!

[Jonboy]

Canon city was pretty cool. I saw a sweet '70 Chevelle there when we stopped for gas on the way to Royal Gorge. Looked like there were quite a few older rides around town too.

What are you doing for lift and tires on your new K5? I saw Larry did the 56" spring swap on the rear of his K10; are you going to do something similar? I parted out a 90 Suburban 3/4 ton and am planning on using the rear 56" springs on my Jimmy. Wanting to keep the lift to around 4" front and rear. Curious to see what you guys are doing.

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

Canon city was pretty cool. I saw a sweet '70 Chevelle there when we stopped for gas on the way to Royal Gorge. Looked like there were quite a few older rides around town too.

What are you doing for lift and tires on your new K5? I saw Larry did the 56" spring swap on the rear of his K10; are you going to do something similar? I parted out a 90 Suburban 3/4 ton and am planning on using the rear 56" springs on my Jimmy. Wanting to keep the lift to around 4" front and rear. Curious to see what you guys are doing.

Canon is a cool little town. There's a pretty good mix of old iron around town. Our dry climate keeps them nicely preserved compared to other areas. I've got a pretty good idea were a lot of vintage tin is sitting around. Heck the 59 Apache we are restoring was sitting in front of the garage of a little farm less than a 1/2 mile from the shop. Been sitting for a very long time there.

As far as the lift goes, yes the 91 will get lifted. The plan is to reuse my rough country springs for the front from my 75. The rear is going to stick with the stock 52" springs on the 91 with a ORD shackle flip. Still should net 4" of lift and then I'll be using a similar wheel and tire package as Larry. Desert Rattler rims with Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac in 315/75/16 size.

[Zoomad75]

Picked up a bunch of stuff while I was hanging out with my parents in Denver this weekend. Got to take my little Sister's 51 Chevy truck to Bandimere speedway for The Super Chevy Show too. Didn't win, but cruising a cool old truck is a win in my book.

So I was able to pick up a factory air filter box and intake tube for a 02 Silverado and fresh take of truck manifolds from my Dad's stash. I had made arrangements to meet up a friends place northeast of Denver that offered up a Detroit Tru-trac for the front D44 axle. So on Sunday Dad and I blitzed out east in his El Camino to my Buddy Brian's place. After a couple of hours of getting caught up and bench racing We loaded the tru-trac and set back for Dad's place. We then loaded up at his place for me to take the 51 back to my Sister and pick up my S10 for home. Lucky for me Cabela's built a new store on the far south end of Denver I was going to pass on the way home, so I stopped in and grabbed a pair of Larry's favorite seat covers.

So onto some pics. The airbox and tube. We might have to shave the resonator off to make it fit.


Almost perfect truck manifolds. All the studs are there and not tore up at all.


Seat covers. Larry swears by these. They are nearly bulletproof. Fit well and will allow my charcoal Silverado bucket seats to blend into the tan interior. They are a great buy at $24.99 per seat too.


I stopped by Larry's place to drop off another load of goodies tonight. Larry got some work done. Firewall and the inside of the fenders have been treated to some fresh tan. He even put undercoating back on the seams where the factory had it. We worked together to pull the windshield out so he can repaint around the inside without dealing with the glass in the way. His plans are to get the front frame done and new poly engine mounts installed. Progress is happening...

[Zoomad75]

Stopped by to drop off some more tractor paint and got to see some progress. Pardon the crappy cell phone pics.

The effect of a wire wheel cup on an angle grinder is undeniable. Add some black satin tractor paint and we got some clean frame rails!


Again, crappy quality with a load of sun glare but Larry's got the firewall fresh with new paint and replicated the factory undercoating at the seams.


ORD goodies in satin black.


Heater box and blower motor refreshed.


Opposite side of the firewall.


Pass side view of the frame. With the poly engine mounts installed.


Front side of the core support.


Backside of the core support.


Larry plans on taking better pics when he's got a little more done. Still it looks awesome.

[DirtyLarry]

Some progress update pics of Zoo5……….

Heater box getting ready to go back on


The last hack that had the heater box off the firewall used RTV to seal it. I prefer to use Strip-Calk like factory


Frame turning out nice. Didn’t bother with anything on the suspension as it is all coming out and being replaced anyway.




Firewall turned out nice too. I replicated GM's undercoating to make it look as OEM as possible. The engine is getting dropped in shortly


Backside of the firewall resprayed and wiring cleaned up


Interior gutted. Will be starting on the interior next week after the engine is dropped in


Neat piece of the rigs history. Definitely will preserve this when the upper radiator support is resprayed

[DirtyLarry]

Square body essential ORD steering gear brace installed


Almost ready for some red hot poke’n action


Engine is in! Now the trans has to come out the other side so Rob can install the Bowtie Overdrives kit and reseal the trans and tcase. Even though the trans must come out, it was easier to stab the engine now so I could set the Dirty Dingo engine mounts in the right place. Without the trans in there it would have been a guessing game as to where to synch down the dingo mounts.


I’m actually surprised how close the Gen III engines sit to the firewall. I would have figured the 8.1L’s in my K10 and Polar Bear Suburban would be closer but there is actually more room between the cylinder heads on the 8.1L and the firewall than the 5.3L. Surprised by that!

[ryanroo]

Kick ass work that I always feel humbled by! So neat!

[Zoomad75]

I sent Larry a text to tell him I picked up a vent window assembly and the master swapper sends me a one back that said: "Don't bother me, I'm busy". He attached a pic of the 5.3 sitting in it's new home.

Needless to say I had to stop by to see it and toast a frosty one in honor of the occasion. It already looks like it's supposed to be there. The positioning of the engine looks like we should have room for the stock truck manifolds without any butchery. It's bad ass.

[ryanroo]

You will have a super awesome rig when it's done. I love the detail and care going into it. These are my favorite builds to watch!

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

You will have a super awesome rig when it's done. I love the detail and care going into it. These are my favorite builds to watch!

Larry and I were talking about it tonight. He's not going to let me short cut or half-ass it. Which is why all the cleanup and painting is going on. He's right, if it's cleaned up and painted it makes cleanup after a run that much easier. You can see leaks if they happen and address them before you have a cocoon of crap. It's worth it to put the effort in now than later. Larry's level of detail is second to none.

[Zoomad75]

Nothing monumental for updates today, but did spend some time polishing up the best lens I had for the cluster. I put the cluster back together, just need the LED bulbs to finish it. While I was polishing stuff, I pulled out the underhood light/reel cleaned it and polished the lens too. Larry wants the underhood light to mount on the firewall so the pcm location can be finalized.

Here's some pics of the restored cluster..