Restorations

So I took the longest trip yet with the K5.  120 miles round trip to Webster and back.  Not a lot, I’ll give you that, but up until this trip, all I have driven it is 15 miles at a shot around town, etc.  The purpose of this trip was to pickup a rust free tailgate I located on Craigslist.  Paid $45 for the tailgate and the seller threw in a replacement floor pan for the passenger side and some miscellaneous trim I didn’t even know I was missing.  Another $20 and I had a fully rebuilt front driveshaft in hand.  All in all, it was a very worth while trip!

The trip up to Webster went quite well.  It held 65mph just fine cruising down rte 104.  The oil pressure was fine while cruising down the road.  When I finally pulled off of 104, it dropped a bit low and I could hear a slight noise (I hesitate to call it a knock) from the motor that I did not recall hearing before.  This kind of troubled me… 

I stopped at my destination where I was for about an hour and then started on my return trip.  On the way back home, the temperature started to creep up.  It wasn’t getting too high, but still high enough to worry me.  Every other trip that I had taken never resulted in the temperature rising this high.  I turned on the heat (it was a bit chilly out anyway) and dropped the windows.  I used the heat to gauge whether I was loosing any coolant.  While driving down the highway, the heat stayed steady on the high side of the factory gauge.  Every time that I would drive through a small town, it would drop down…  I think I know what’s going on..!  I’ll elaborate when I get time to dig into it.

I have located a VERY poor condition Jimmy that I am currently negotiating a price with the current owner.  This truck has not title with it so it would be a parts truck only.  The body is rusted quite badly, but the frame and running gear looks pretty good.  12-bolt rear and Dana-44 front.  I am unsure of the gear ratios yet, but the truck has the straight 6 engine with a 3-on-the-tree manual gear box.  Behind the manual transmission is a NP205 transfer case!  Hopefully I will be taking possession of this in the next couple of weeks. 

I will be using it primarily for the frame and plan to completely detail the frame then install my 3/4 ton running gear under it.  The doors will be gutted for their inner supports and other miscellaneous brackets/trim required to convert the pickup, suburban, and later model doors for use on a full convertible.  This will save me from having to cut apart my current doors.  This truck also has a rough set of low back bucket seats in it.  The plastic trim still looks to be in good condition so I may restore those seats and use them in my truck instead of the high back buckets I currently have installed.

All in all, I should be taking this home for between $150 and $200 depending on current vehicle scrap prices.  I’ll be going down there with cash in hand and the flat bed in tow…

The holes in the floor board on the driver side were covered up with some sheetmetal.  I took it back to the shop and the sticker went on.

Had a little hiccup on the way home from the shop though…  The night before when I was buttoning everything backup inside the truck, I decided that it was time to rip out the “security” valve that the previous owner had put in.  Well, I did not have enough time to remove the valve itself, but I did remove all of the wiring associated with it.  That was a mistake…  The truck started to falter on the way home.  Decided to die about a 1/4 mile from the house.  I had everything in the truck to make repairs on the side of the road and did so.  Gotta love old vehicles!

I have been driving it around all weekend, messing around here and there and am surprised at how nice this truck drives.  My biggest complaint is how loud the damn tires are!  Those 33×12.5-15 BFGoodrich Mud Terrain tires really howl when cruising down the road.  This will be addressed in a bit.  New 33×9.5-15 BFGoodrich A/T tires will be put on for the everyday driving.

I have also realized the need to put an overdrive transmission in.  I am in the hunt for a 700R4 transmission right now.  I know where I can pick another 2wd version up for relatively little money and then swap in a tail shaft to allow it to mate up with my NP203 transfer case.  I also know where I can pick up a very nicely built 700R4/241C combo with driveshafts good for a 6” suspension lift for around $1200 OBO…  I just do not have the money right now and do not know if the deal will be available until I do have the money.

After a useless work detail at the fire hall which wasted all morning and accomplished absolutely nothing, I started back at the ‘burb.

I continued with the trim removal on the inside, getting all of the plastic trim removed carefully so that I could attempt to sell it to regain some of the money I spent on buying the truck.  This was not a difficult task and after about 45 minutes, It was done.

The carpets, headliner, and side trim in the back were junk and treated as such.  The main reason why the previous owners were getting rid of the truck were quite evident once the interior was gutted.  The entire passenger side was sagging 4” below the bed floor inside.  The center two body mounts were busted up through the floor.  There was absolutely nothing but the roof holding up the rear quarter at the C and D pillars!

As I was planning on chopping the truck up anyway, I busted out the saws-all.  The passenger quarter panel was my first victim and two cuts is all that it took to be removed!

The truck was quite rotted underneath.  The next time I am down there, I will take a picture of the underside of the rear floor to show just how bad it was. 

Jason (my cousin) and I were able to get a good start on tearing down the ‘burb tonight.  We started by removing the doors. 

The “barn door” style rear doors were a cinch to remove only requiring the impact wrench.  The rear doors on the sides were also quite easy requiring some trim to be removed, electrical connections disconnected and then removal of the mounting bolts for the hinges. 

The front doors on the other hand…  After removing the trim on the inside it became evident that the wiring had to be disconnected from the components inside the doors and then fed back through the hole in the door first.  Only then could the doors be unbolted.

Once the doors were out, we pulled the glass.  This was made very easy with the way the glass was installed at the factory.

So $250 later and the Suburban is sitting in the shop!  No real excitement in picking it up.  Just drove it up onto the flatbed and chained it down. 

The ride back down off of the flatbed was interesting though.  It was raining outside which left the bed of the trailer quite slick.  The practically bald tires on the ‘burb offered no traction and the truck just slid on down.  There is no real problem with that, it just came as a surprise to me.

So I now have the opportunity to pick up a 2wd 1990 Suburban.  It is currently drivable, however, the body is rotted quite bad in the back.  So much so that in order for the previous owners to utilize the back door, they had cut the top of the bumper off to provide clearance.  Clearance which is now gone because the body has sagged even more.

Here are some pictures:

Parts retained for the K5 include:

• TBI 5.7L engine and full wiring harness
• Tilt Steering Column
• 2wd Steering Gear box – for future cross-over steering setup
• Full dash, firewall, and all A/C components – for a future swap to add A/C and the later model dash
• Front doors – good doors with minimal rust and full power windows/locks
• Center console
• A portion of the rear bed floor if it is still in salvageable shape.

For my Chevelle, I will be keeping the recently rebuilt 700R4 transmission

The rest of the Suburban will be parted prior to finally scrapping it.

So the Chevelle headers do not fit to my liking.  The passenger side would have a problem with the front driveshaft if the suspension were to hit the bump stops.  Going to full static articulation (lifting the front passenger wheel until the rear passenger wheel begins to lift), I still had enough room for a wrench to fit between the driveshaft and one of the header primary tubes.  But with more than an inch left before the spring would hit either of the two bump stops, I decided to play it safe and get the proper headers.

I was able to get a set of Hooker headers for $146 delivered next day from Amazon.com.  The headers and the exhaust system I have purchased are made to work with each other nicely.  However, not as nice as a true bolt in.  Some "massaging" of the exhaust will be necessary to get the mufflers and tail pipes located where I want them. Nothing a cutoff wheel and a welder will not fix.

The good news is that I was able to save the Flowmaster Series 40 mufflers that were on the truck and they will get welded back into the system.  I am trying to find some high temp cold galvanizing paint locally right now so I can spray down the welds to try and prohibit rust formation.

I also did some more digging into the speedometer calibration and what needed to be done.  I pulled the driven gear out of the back of the transfer case and had a look at it.  It has a 7 tooth drive gear and a 19 tooth driven gear. I would need to step up to a 23 tooth driven gear to get the speedo to read right.  However, only up to a 21 tooth gear is available.  So I will need to purchase an add-on unit (speedometer ratio adapter) to get to the proper ratio.

I have pictures of all of this stuff, but will have to update later.

So Friday I was able to take the Blazer for a longer drive, ~15 miles one way.  Back roads are great at seeing how the suspension works over bumps, pot holes, and wash boarding.  Nothing but smooth driving.  The snow made it a little bit of a challenge on the way back as the 33×12.5×15 BF Goodrich Radial Mud/Terrain tires are just too wide and aggressive to get any bite on snow covered asphalt. 

I did notice that the speedometer is noticeably off.  I am assuming that the gear ratio is left unchanged and since the original tires for this truck were H78-15B which had around a 27.8″ outside diameter, the speedometer is off by ~20%.  This was using the information on the following websites:

NovaResource.org – Speedo & ChevelleEngineer – Speedo

My next task before I actually put this truck on the road is to patch the hole in the bed floor which at this point in time will just include some silicon sealer and sheet metal screws.  I will also have to get the exhaust so it exits out behind the rear wheels to pass an inspection.  I am not sure if I am going to slap on the headers just yet as the temps outside have been quite frigged and I will need the cooperation of the weather to get it done.  Time will tell.