project: Gangreen

[Devillusion]

Well...let's see if I can get this build done before someone offers me something I can't refuse for this thing...lol. That seems to be the norm as of late.



Picked this unit up from a buddy for a decent deal, and finally got a chance to drag her home the other night. She needs some serious TLC such as panels, floor pans etc. She is not going to be restored or any show truck, this will be my weekend warrior/trail rig/plow truck all in one to justify having yet ANOTHER toy in the arsenault....lmao.



It is a 1990 K5 (obviously), with a 6.2L diesel, automatic, and fully loaded. She will be getting stripped of her axles and put in my D60/D70 combination I have here, or maybe slap in my 14FF...have to see. Have a set of 35" grapplers here for now just to get her going, will be doing a 52" spring swap, and gutting her of some of the un needed items. Have a good set of fenders off of my burban I am gutting/stripping right now as well. Starter bolts are snapped off, and had the Tcase rebuilt not long ago. Interior is in pretty good shape, but definetly needs a good cleaning. Someone had a antenna on the roof and never plugged the hole, so I am assuming that is why the floors are toast. But they are reasonably flat so I think it just might get cut out and replaced with some diamond plate or something. Also have some 16x8 wheels that are getting drilled out for monster valves. Will get a cage of some sort along with some stingers etc....might even eventually exoskeleton the rig. I have my mandrel bender here so might as well use it for it's purpose...lol.



..anyways, this I guess is the start of my build and will keep updated as I go. Never owned a K5 before but have owned many MANY GM truck projects in the past. So any useful advise on the K5s is welcome and so forth.



Have a look at the pics and let me know what you think...

[N2TRUX]

It's got a "little" rust, but looks like it can be saved. Lets see a progress report.

[Devillusion]

Not much progress as of right now, working on my 59 Impala dash conversion on my 89 crew cab right now. But did manage to get it off the trailer last night...lol.

Still have a few parts to collect as well....52" front swap brackets, new front shackles, rear shackle flip, starter bolts, etc.

Will update as parts/time allows.

[BigBlocksRule]

Holy smokes, man! Are there ANY cars over 15 years old in the great white north that don't have rust holes in 'em?
Ought to make a great trail rig, though...any water that gets in can drain right back out!

[Devillusion]

Originally Posted by BigBlocksRule

Holy smokes, man! Are there ANY cars over 15 years old in the great white north that don't have rust holes in 'em?
Ought to make a great trail rig, though...any water that gets in can drain right back out!

You have to remember, this thing has just about 400,000km on original sheetmetal, driven all year round with salt/snow etc. We are only summer weather 9 months or so out of the year.

And yes they do exist here and there....my 89 crew cab project is 99% rust free with 130,000km and my 98 SAS project has no rust on factory sheetmetal and 130,000km as well. Depends alot on how they are treated. My 96 Tahoe has just shy of 400,000km and only has one small area starting to discolor a small bit.

...gets hard to find decent old rigs/vehicles around for projects. Damn salt they put on the icy roads kills alot of them.

[BigBlocksRule]

Come on down to the desert, we have plenty so bring a hauler!

[Devillusion]

I'd love to....If I had the time and resources, I'd bring a flat deck and a semi I'd bring back a crap load of them, among other things.

[Devillusion]

Well, got the suburban out of the shop...and dragged the K5 in. Got it up on stands and had a look at these starter bolts. Needless to say I would like to track down the moron (previous owner) who "attempted" to drill out the bolts. At least he gave up on the first one....ughh. First one the "idiot" didn't drill straight and got off to the side...he didn't wreck anything TOO badly but try to drill a straight hole where there is a crooked one....good lord! Got it somewhat straight with minimal damage to the upper threads, but the ones near the outside of the hole are hurtin'.

Sooo....my dilema is and would have been regardless of past owners mechanical abilities is that I want to try to drill them out to 1/2" NC, then tap them accorndingly, then drill out starter housing, and put in some grade 8 bolts, and make a better bracket for the front of the starter for support.

Anyone tried this in the past? They seem to be hard on bolts and appearantly the bolts don't fit tight in the holes anymore and there is play in the housing where the bolts go as well. I personally think this would help if there were some tighter tolerances to get rid of any side to side movement/play. Might as well rectify the issue while I'm at it. I don't think the cast should be that hard to tap.

..or hell, maybe even put studs in instead.

[BigBlocksRule]

I've seen a few folks use studs. Last resort, weld the studs in place.
Makes it a pain to swap starters, but it can be done.

My buddy tells me starters are on their way out. New stuff will shoot a blast of fuel in a couple of cylinders and fire it off. Only obstacle right now is being able to inject directly into the cylinder, but there are a few direct injection gasoline engines in production, shouldn't be too long now.

[Devillusion]

Ok....well, made some progress over the past few days. Decided to drill out and tap the block to 7/16 NC, and put in some grade 5 bolts with a bit of locktite, and some lock washers. Tightened up the front bracket and seems to have worked pretty well. And I am happy to say that with a bit of coaxing, she's ALIVE! Running/driving up and down my lane a few times. Tossed in some SeaFoam to the crankcase and in the fuel tank for a bit, ran it for a while and will let sit and repeat a few times before I dump the oil again. Runs pretty smooth too....Trans seems to be excellent as well.

Did run into an issue with the back window though. The steel channel on the bottom of the window was rotten and the glass came out of it....no longer useable (channel that is, glass is fine). Anyone know if you can buy just that piece? This one is also electric to cable operated....window mech. wants to go down, but not up? Worked at first but now not. Tried a different handle/switch, same thing, and tried a different motor, still same thing only one way. Tried from the dash mount....same thing. I'm thinking it has to be a bad wire in the gate possibly? Just a guess at this point though. Took the whole gate apart and cleaning up the mechanisms etc to get things running clean and free again once I figure out what to do about this glass. I really hope I don't have to buy a whole new window just for that.....

[ASEASIDER]

LMC has the channel for the rear window. I got one but when I recieved it it was twisted up big time. I took pix and called customer support, I e-mailed the support tech the pix while I was on the phone and that day they sent a replacement out to me. It actually is pretty good, no complaints from me

[Devillusion]

Shackle flip brackets removed, blasted and painte ready for install....front brackets for the 56" spring swap done as well (springs were 56's, not 52's like I originally thought). Stripped one pack of springs apart, removed the overload, ground them down, couple coats of chassis paint...just gotta get some new plastic pads from somewhere. Differential (D60) stripped down, cleaned up and painted with a couple coats of chassis paint.

Also fabed up a skid plate and weled it to the front differential cover. Nothing spectacular, but will be better than nothing at this point on the factory cover. Turned out alright. Gears/guts look mint, no issues what so ever. Someone even put in some new gear oil by the looks of it...nice and clean.

...anyone have a set of zero rates kicking around they want to sell? Also looking for a 1420 yoke for the 60 as well....long shot I know, but gotta ask. Going to need a set for the front spring swap to bring the differential back an inch.....it will move forward 2 inches. Might just have to order a set when I order my crossover steering.

[Devillusion]

Front sheetmetal that I raped from the parts burban, nowhere near mint, but once I'm done cutting and welding them it ain't going to matter anyways....



Front spring hangers for the 56's, and the shackle flip brackets for the back. Might have to consider putting in some 63s out back if I could find a set on the cheap.



56" springs blown apart, ground down, couple coats of chassis paint, new center pins, squeek pads, and then new bushings on Friday. Then they will be getting swapped into the front of the K5 along with some longer shackles I have to fab up yet.



Made up a front diff cover with some plated areas....nothing crazy but will help a bit regardless for now.




D60 ground down, and painted

[Devillusion]

Change of plans a bit I think. I think the 56's are going to go on the rear, then rebuild the rears (52's) for the front. Just makes more sense for now. If I need more flex I'll link the biatch!

Got the factory front out (***** of a job), got some useless crap taken off/cleaned up off the frame, factory 1 ton 47s up front for now to get her rolling till the 52's come out. Taking out the upper bushing assemblies to rebushing them with some neoprene kits I picked up on the cheap. Antisieze doused onto the bolts this time so I can get them out at a later date.

Getting ready to order up a crossover steering kit (unless someones got one to sell), and some new bushings with greasable bolts for the other spring pack and the front eyes for the 56's. New cables for the batteries, new batteries themselves, and front bumper off. (good excuse to get the bender mounted to the floor in the shop)

Also took the factory hangers that I am using for the shackle flip and moved the frame bracket upward 3" to make up the other 1.5" of lift that the othere hanger kits give. Gives alot clearer shot of the nut on the backside now instead of it just filling up with dirt and screwing the bolt. And found some shackles from ORD that I had laying around/left over from the SAS project a few years back. They are only 5" long, but are way stronger and still longer than the stockers by an inch or so. Will work for now I'm sure.

[Devillusion]

Managed to get some things done today, stretched and sectioned the drivers side front fender and get it 80% completed. Finally went and got some .025 wire/tips today about 3/4 of the way through it....MUCH better...wish I had of done that from the start.

[mooseknuckles]

your fender mod turned out great!

[my4by2]

Love the work on the fenders man, looking great! Keep the pics coming!!!

[Devillusion]

[Devillusion]

Playin around with some paint ideas. I think I am going to grind down the area with flames, leave grind marks, clear coat or let rust that area, then mask and hit
the rest with spray on box liner, then paint.



Removed the rocker panels and trimmed things up for a set of rock rails I'll make out of some square tubing, and weld to the body and factory side mounts.


Also trimmed out the back, bumper will come to just the bottom side of the panel, and will weld back on the bottom of the factory quarter.



Got the rear differential out, cleaned up the frame, removed the **** load of crap off the frame, and added a couple coats of chassis paint. Drilled the holes for the shackle flip kit, and should have them mounted in a couple days.

[Devillusion]

At full weight, minus fuel tank...and spare tire/bumper. Should be close to the right angle I hope. Ended up putting the 56's in the back for now, moved the rear shackle bracket back 2", and removed 2 leaves and overload from the 8 pack.


Full axle droop, 7" of drop.


front fenders getting close to being....close enuf!



nabbed a manual rear window/gate assembly, and a decent fuel tank.





repaired the passenger side floor area, floor brace, etc. Was fairly rough, but came out ok considering I used some fairly heavy gauge steel. Drilled out the holes for the seat, and welded on some new nuts. Will start on the drivers side tomorrow. Not nearly as bad, but still will need some TLC.

[Devillusion]

Made some progress lately, now just waiting on some brake lines, leaf spring bushings from ORD, and some light force lights I picked up dirt cheap today!

Had to move it out of the shop for a couple days as I have to work on my little guys new bed I am building for him. Been putting it off for a couple months and now that he is in a "big boys bed"...I guess the matress on the floor is not cutting it...lol. Bed is going to be killer when it's done though..

[Devillusion]

Finally making some slow progress on the K5....got some 16x8 Cragar soft 8's, homade snorkle is half done, fenders still need a bit of masaging but not going to spend alot of time on them to be honest. Floors are done, just have to buy rear quarters and stretch them as well. Shackle flip and 56's are done in the rear, waiting to find a good set of 52's for the front. Fuel tank swapped out with new fuel lines etc, and now having to deal with some running issues that have popped up recently. Hoping it is just water in the fuel or something.....REALLY hoping, or at least just a lift pump.

Will be a bit before I get back at her again I think. All focus now is on the crew cab to get her back together and in one piece again so I can clean up some of these damn parts laying around....lol.

[Devillusion]

Been a while, but some progress made non the less. Had a huge running issue for the past few months and took a break from it before I lit a match under it.


Long story short: Swapped out tank for the undamaged one, and only had it running in short time periods for the most part of the last few months here and there. Everything seemed to be good.....had around a quarter tank of fuel and I also had 2 other saddle tanks that were mostly full from a 1 ton dually diesel I stripped. So I took the fuel from them and obviously filled up the K5. At this point I decided to run some seafoam in the tank to get things running a bit better/efficient. This is where things went to hell....

The truck would start chugging, water in fuel light would come on, and if you panned it to the floor you would only get around 2000rpm out of it at best. Let off and she would die. Let sit for a bit and once it fired up again it would idle fine on it's own for a short period then chug, then die. This went on for a while....figured...bad fuel right? So, after leaving it alone for a couple months now I decided to either fix it or pitch it. Got some fuel in a jerry can, hooked it up at the frame rail/electric pump and fired it up. Ran great...perfect I thought....bad fuel. Sucks...but fixable. Then realized it went through $13.00 in fuel in 10 minutes. WTF!!! After debating the issue at hand for an hour or so, figured out that the fuel return was still on the tank.....was just putting the extra fuel back into the "crappy fuel". Failing to mention that I tried the fuel additives as well prior to this to rectify the assumed water in fuel issue.

So at this point it was decided to drop the "FULL TANK" of fuel..."uggh". And so it would be....dropped the tank, emptied it out into 5 gal pails and dumped it into my parts burban tank in the yard/truck. Reinstalled tank, bough new fuel, attempted to bleed lines....killed batteries trying to start.



Walked away for the night....

Put the charger on trickle for the whole night/day, then when I returned from work on Monday tried to start again. Cranked and cranked and cranked.....nothing. Again WTF????

Walked around the truck to see if there were any wet lines, leaks etc and just so happened to notice when I looked between the frame rail and the body at the tank....the fuel line I had replaced with all new stuff was appearantly to long and was kinkded off. Bent the steel line back a bit and straightened out the line, the electric pump picked up rpm and I opened the bleeder/filter. Fuel bled out faster than it ever did, closed it off and attempted a start again.

Vaaaroooooomm, clackity clackity clack....."are you F'ing kidding me?" I had no choice but to start laughing. At this point what else can you do. One simple little oversight causes sooooo much bull**** it's crazy.

So, long story short...lol......thought my little mishap may create a fix for someone else that may be put into the same situation as myself and hopefully not cause them as much greif.

[Devillusion]

On a positive note....

Picked up an old crew cab dually the other day for a parts truck on my crew cab shortbox dually build....and had a nearly mint dash pad in it. For the condition of the parts truck, can't believe the dash pad was still good. Must have been the 4" of dust/dirt on it that saved it.

Scuffed it down with 80g and a DA sander, hit it with bed liner (aerosol), then with some olive drab green paint. Seems to have worked out pretty well. Will paint up the door panels etc the same way I think. Easy to clean/maintain and durable/looks decent for a daily/trail rig/plow truck.

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Wow that's crazy can't believe you had that problem and it turned into such a damn nightmare. Glad you got it figured out. Looks good so far keep up the good work and keep on plugging away bit by bit it will be done in no time