Project Git-R-Done - 72 K25

[ronh72c10]

Todays update, removed the rear crossmember and as you can see it was fairly rusted at the ends, the rest was pretty solid so I decided to save it. I fabbed some patches and tomorrow I'll weld them in.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Whole lotta welding thursday. Repaired the crossmember by tigging in the patches I made yesterday, I'll drill the missing holes once I mount the crossmember back in the frame.

Repaired the torch work in the back of the frame by opening up the forward of the torched set of holes with a hole saw and cutting a patch with the next size up of hole saw, those were migged in front and back. As well I just cut out the section at the back and migged patches in there as well.

Cut a new patch for the parking brake bracket and will probably weld it up saturday.

I also decided to remove the lower rear crossmember brackets and am not to happy with what the frame looks like in the bottom. most probably I'll cut those sections out and weld in new patches there. I'll have to be careful as this is directly over the leaf mount and is obviously a pretty critical structural area. I'll V groove the edges and weld top and bottom for full penetration.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Well I cut out an 8 inch section of the lower frame on the right and 5 inches of the lower frame on the left and welded patches in. I wasn't satisfied that the patches would be strong enough so I added a 12 inch plate on both sides and fully welded that in as well. I'll have to modify the lower crossmember brackets but they needed work as well anyways.

Ron

[semperfidoordie]

it's looking real good man keep up the good work

[ronh72c10]

No update for today, but for yesterday I repaired the top part of the frame at the rear, welded up the cracks on the frame horns and removed the old front crossmember. That means all of the frame repairs are done, sandblasting is next. Unfortunately I didin't get to the point of priming the frame by the end of the week but I'd rather have things done right so the delay was worth it.

[ronh72c10]

Wire wheeled the frame on sunday and finished it today. No pics but hopefully this weekend I'll get started on sandblasting. Found out that the wirewheels work really well for cleaning up the diffs as well.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Finally caught a break from the rain and got some sandblasting done, only got about 20% done though. I really can see why people are willing to pay somebody to do this.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Wow it's been a month since I did anything, maybe I should call this Not Gitting-R-Done. After swaping an engine for a freind and other misc BS, not to mention the weekend weather not cooperating I finally got to it yesterday.

I did a little blasting with some improvements, first off I changed out the pressure pot line to a larger interior diameter (1/2" as I recall) and used my new air suppy system and things went pretty fast. I got most of the driver outside rail, that leaves 1/2 the pass outside, and 75% of the rest of the inside left to do. I'll probably have to reblast some of the other side but it should got fast. Probably won't get much done today as it's raining.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Some more progress today, I moved the rear crossmember forward to make room for the rear fuel tank, as well I moved the spare tire carrier to the rear to act as a spreader bar.

Did some work repairing the mid? lower crossmember brackets, still have to do some trimming and welding on those.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Tack welded the mid lower crossmember brackets together. Will finish weld them together tommorow if I have the time.

Next project that finishes the frame work is the tranny crossmember. After that blasting and painting the frame is next.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Yesterday I went out and finish welded the mid-lower crossmember brackets and as well welded the rear brake cable bracket I repaired. That was supposed to finish the frame work, but I decided to install all of the crossmembers and make sure everything would fit before I went onto blasting and painting the frame.

Good thing I checked too, the measurements don't add up, from the motor mount to the back of the engine is 16", from the front of the tranny to the tranny/t-case support is ~24" for a total of 40", the engine crossmember to the tranny crossmember is only 37", so somewhere I lost 3". The tranny seems to be sitting in the right position for the front driveshaft but it is 2" too far back for the rear driveshaft which collapsed (maybe, I have to recheck) is 56" but I only have 54" of space.

Very weird, I can probably explain the rear driveshaft since I don't think it's the original, and maybe can explain the missing 3" at the front as it isn't the proper tranny crossmember as well. But I can't help but think I'm missing something obvious.

The project may end up getting altered as well, since I'm thinking about picking up a cheap diesel van pulling the engine for this project.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Did some moire sandblasting, not much left to blast, just the inside of the passenger framerail. Unfortunately the older blasted parts will have to be reblasted and of course it rained before I could roll the frame back into the shop so I'm already seeing some flash rust on the top of the newly blasted frame.

I tried flap wheeling the frame where it had already been blasted, the results we fast and pretty good, every bit as good as sandblasting, where I can I'll use that to clean up the remainder of the frame.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Finally! Yesterday I finished cleaning up the frame with a combination of sanding, wire-wheeling and sandblasting the areas that I couldn't get otherwise. Just rolled the frame into the shop as it started to rain again.

Looks like it will be time for epoxy primer today.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

DONE!!! The frame work is done. Well not quite, but the main frame rails are primed and ready to go.

I'm not really planning on top coating the epoxy primer, it looks pretty good already. Next steps are to blast and prime all of the crossmembers and install them for the last time.

BTW, I used SPI Black epoxy primer, good stuff.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

No real progress on the K25 but I had a look at a 95 3/4 ton GMC diesel van with a 6.5L diesel that was for sale and ended up buying it for $1000. The engine ran great and was well maintained with 194,000km on it (~121,000 miles), so it will become the powerplant for the K25.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Spaceship Vandura rattling away and ready for take-off, take off the diesel engine, take off the tranny, take off any other parts I need and finally take it off the farm.

Ron

[thirdstreettito]

Any progress? I love this build!

[ronh72c10]

Not much happening, I've stalled because of house renovations.

One expensive build related thing, the Vandura killed two brand new batteries I bought to make it easier to move around. No idea if they'll warantee them, currently it's buried in snow and I have no interest in climbing underneath to pull one of the new batteries.

It's bitter cold up here so probably no progress until spring.

Ron

[thirdstreettito]

Originally Posted by ronh72c10

Not much happening, I've stalled because of house renovations.

One expensive build related thing, the Vandura killed two brand new batteries I bought to make it easier to move around. No idea if they'll warantee them, currently it's buried in snow and I have no interest in climbing underneath to pull one of the new batteries.

It's bitter cold up here so probably no progress until spring.

Ron

Aww.

[Big J'72 GMC]

looking good Ron, always nice to see other ontarians on here, any parts kickin around lemme know

[ronh72c10]

It's been a while since I've been here, but I'm back and will be posting some progress on the truck over the summer. Still things to do around the farm (2 failed floor beams and one failed roof beam in the barn), but those shouldn't prevent me from working on the truck.

Now that things are starting to warm up I've been cleaning up the shop and should get some paint on the remaining frame crossmembers, then I can get the springs and axles done.

Ron

[ronh72c10]

I posted some info on the Pressure Pot Sandblaster in the painting forum. Another member asked about it so here is is.

Pressure Pot info

Ron

[ronh72c10]

Well I'm finally getting going again on the 4x4, I'm going to start video blogging my progress on youtube. Here's a start video and run around the farm of the diesel van before I start dismantling it friday.

Ron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2u69CZXHZ8

[Chevymaniac]

Can't wait to see how the install of the diesel turns out.

Why did you decide to go this route any ways?

[ronh72c10]

I decided to go with the 6.5 NA diesel because it was alot cheaper than a cummins would be. As well I've never been a big fan of turbos, just heard to many stories of them failing. As well I'm a purist, gmc engines in gm vehicles, ford in fords, etc.

I'm in the process of uploading yesterdays video, should be available shortly.

Ron