Guess who's back!?! Atl-atl's K5 Blazer + Four Wheel Camper "The Crawlin Cabin" documentation thread!

[Atl-atl]

I’m also in AZ just the other side of the state. I have a 95 half ton dodge and plan to do some stuff to the old tired 318 and will need a 4500 instead of the 3500 if I want to make any real power. I also wanted to ask you what kind of paint you’ve been using for your interior trim? I have some door panels I want to paint and was curious if your using just basic spray paint or if there’s a specific paint for the plastic panels


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Oh cool, yeah look on car-part.com there were actually a few places in AZ that had NV4500s. As for the interior trim paint, yep just basic Home Depot spray paint. I used Rustoleum primer and then Rustoleum Flat Protective Enamel in a random brown color that was a close match to my interior. Just took my time and did lots of thin coats of primer and lots of thin coats of paint. It turned out really good, much better than expected.

 

[Atl-atl]

So in between the times when Im waiting on parts or I get frustrated by something and need to step away Ive been working on the thousand other little projects that Im attempting to do at the same time as the motor swap. One of the biggest projects is replacing the lift panels and canvas on the camper. I got new lift panels made by All Terrain Campers. My DIY one started failing already because I tried to install it last year with the canvas still in place and its nearly impossible to do so correctly. Also I only had a hand riveter which is not powerful enough so I decided to use screws where I shouldn't have, on the ceiling side of the upper hinge(the screw heads interfere with each other and cause too much pressure on the hinges when in the closed position) and it wound up splitting the panel material. Lesson learned so I bought a pneumatic rivet gun and its friggin amazing. Cant believe I didnt spend the $70 at Harbor Freight for one of these a long time ago.


I put together a little video that talks about lift panel install with some tips. This whole youtube thing is really friggin hard and incredibly time consuming. Props to all the people out there making entertaining and educational videos.

Old lift panel still in place. This is the rear one which was still in good shape but I figured it made sense to have them match and also replace them preventatively since the canvas is off.


Bottom hinge removed. This is also a good example of what happens when you install a new panel. Starting at the top is easiest because the hinge is so strong it wants to suspend the entire thing parallel to the roof and there is basically no way to keep the hinge bent 90 degrees and be able to screw or rivet it into place. Its best to let it fly, fasten some or all of the holes with screws to get the hinge flat, then install the bottom hinge with the panel in its fully upright position, then go back and replace the ceiling screws with rivets.


Here is a comparison of the old panel on the right and new panels on the left. The new panels are slightly narrower but the hinges are identical, down to the hole locations, so they bolt right up which is incredible. They are also much shorter in one particular dimension. The bottom half of the panel is not as tall as stock. The middle hinge is still in the stock location but the bottom panel is shorter, which helps it not scrape the ceiling as you raise/lower the roof. This is a welcome improvement, my ceiling trim is destroyed from rubbing every time I raise and lower the roof.


All done. Im not super happy that theyre different color but didnt really have a choice. Ill be replacing my counter tops soon so Ill be back down to 2 wood grains/colors and I might also try to tint or stain the lift panels to match the darker wood. I also think it will be less egregious when the canvas is back on.


An interesting thing to note on the new ATC lift panels is their "hold down" for when you have the roof lifted. Its a button. It works great when the roof is up but when its in the down position the panel just flops around and there is no way to secure it "up" unless you install a button on the roof trim which I dont think would be strong enough. So I removed the old slide bolt from my stock panels and reinstalled them, much happier with it.


Here it is with the snap strap removed and the slide bolt in place.


I also had new canvas made but when I went to install it, its WAY off. Im quite PO'd about it too because I purposely sent my old canvas so they would make sure to get an exact fit. I didnt want to be trimming the canvas or hand sewing a seam that needs to be strong and waterproof. I wanted a single piece of canvas professionally made and ready to install. It looked good as I was starting to install it. Seams are all high quality, windows are done really well, velcro flaps for an insulation pack looks great.


ITS SHORT!!! And not "a little short" like it just needs to be pulled tight. Its 9 inches short. I ran a string around the circumference of the roof where the canvas mounts and it was 9 inches longer than the circumference of the new canvas. The lower portion of the wall where the bottom of the canvas mounts is 6 inches longer than the new canvas. I just dont understand how this was possible given I sent in the old canvas. The old canvas could not have shrunk that much. It would be one thing if this were a one size fits all but its not, it was custom made and it was over $2000. Im quite upset if you cant tell. Now the best case scenario will be I get the canvas back and it will have 2 seams instead of 1 and there will be no other issues. and it will fit perfectly. Im not going to publicly shame the maker until they have a chance to make it right, but its a person who works with a well known camper remodeling company that has a lot of experience with vintage campers including Four Wheel Campers.

 

[ITTOG]

So in between the times when Im waiting on parts or I get frustrated by something and need to step away Ive been working on the thousand other little projects that Im attempting to do at the same time as the motor swap. One of the biggest projects is replacing the lift panels and canvas on the camper. I got new lift panels made by All Terrain Campers. My DIY one started failing already because I tried to install it last year with the canvas still in place and its nearly impossible to do so correctly. Also I only had a hand riveter which is not powerful enough so I decided to use screws where I shouldn't have, on the ceiling side of the upper hinge(the screw heads interfere with each other and cause too much pressure on the hinges when in the closed position) and it wound up splitting the panel material. Lesson learned so I bought a pneumatic rivet gun and its friggin amazing. Cant believe I didnt spend the $70 at Harbor Freight for one of these a long time ago.
View attachment 810957

I put together a little video that talks about lift panel install with some tips. This whole youtube thing is really friggin hard and incredibly time consuming. Props to all the people out there making entertaining and educational videos.

Old lift panel still in place. This is the rear one which was still in good shape but I figured it made sense to have them match and also replace them preventatively since the canvas is off.
View attachment 810958

Bottom hinge removed. This is also a good example of what happens when you install a new panel. Starting at the top is easiest because the hinge is so strong it wants to suspend the entire thing parallel to the roof and there is basically no way to keep the hinge bent 90 degrees and be able to screw or rivet it into place. Its best to let it fly, fasten some or all of the holes with screws to get the hinge flat, then install the bottom hinge with the panel in its fully upright position, then go back and replace the ceiling screws with rivets.
View attachment 810959

Here is a comparison of the old panel on the right and new panels on the left. The new panels are slightly narrower but the hinges are identical, down to the hole locations, so they bolt right up which is incredible. They are also much shorter in one particular dimension. The bottom half of the panel is not as tall as stock. The middle hinge is still in the stock location but the bottom panel is shorter, which helps it not scrape the ceiling as you raise/lower the roof. This is a welcome improvement, my ceiling trim is destroyed from rubbing every time I raise and lower the roof.
View attachment 810960

All done. Im not super happy that theyre different color but didnt really have a choice. Ill be replacing my counter tops soon so Ill be back down to 2 wood grains/colors and I might also try to tint or stain the lift panels to match the darker wood. I also think it will be less egregious when the canvas is back on.
View attachment 810961

An interesting thing to note on the new ATC lift panels is their "hold down" for when you have the roof lifted. Its a button. It works great when the roof is up but when its in the down position the panel just flops around and there is no way to secure it "up" unless you install a button on the roof trim which I dont think would be strong enough. So I removed the old slide bolt from my stock panels and reinstalled them, much happier with it.
View attachment 810962

Here it is with the snap strap removed and the slide bolt in place.
View attachment 810963

I also had new canvas made but when I went to install it, its WAY off. Im quite PO'd about it too because I purposely sent my old canvas so they would make sure to get an exact fit. I didnt want to be trimming the canvas or hand sewing a seam that needs to be strong and waterproof. I wanted a single piece of canvas professionally made and ready to install. It looked good as I was starting to install it. Seams are all high quality, windows are done really well, velcro flaps for an insulation pack looks great.
View attachment 810964

ITS SHORT!!! And not "a little short" like it just needs to be pulled tight. Its 9 inches short. I ran a string around the circumference of the roof where the canvas mounts and it was 9 inches longer than the circumference of the new canvas. The lower portion of the wall where the bottom of the canvas mounts is 6 inches longer than the new canvas. I just dont understand how this was possible given I sent in the old canvas. The old canvas could not have shrunk that much. It would be one thing if this were a one size fits all but its not, it was custom made and it was over $2000. Im quite upset if you cant tell. Now the best case scenario will be I get the canvas back and it will have 2 seams instead of 1 and there will be no other issues. and it will fit perfectly. Im not going to publicly shame the maker until they have a chance to make it right, but its a person who works with a well known camper remodeling company that has a lot of experience with vintage campers including Four Wheel Campers.
View attachment 810965

Wow, that does suck. Being it is a place that does this on a regular basis I can't believe they agreed to make it without having the camper on hand. I just had one made for my home built pop top and they required I leave the camper with them. They absolutely wouldn't go off of measurements. Good luck and I hope it works out for you.

 

[Atl-atl]

The only part of this truck that had any rust(other than some of the sheetmetal) was the front of the frame and it was only surface rust. Naturally I decided to eliminate it which is a bigger pain in the rear than youd think, even for just surface rust. Frames have all sorts of nooks and crannies that are hard to sand even with special tools. I also decided to order new inner fenders which were not very expensive and were literally identical to OEM, Im quite impressed and happy I decided to get them.



Lots of respirator time lead to these pictures.




That Seymour Paints Industrial High Solids flat black paint looks soooo nice!


Also refinished the triangle shaped motor mount supports and got the crossmember, supports and motor mounts installed.


Installed the new inner fenders and it finally feels like Im putting things back together instead of taking them apart, huge milestone.

 

[Atl-atl]

Up next, fuel tank. Thankfully its easy to LS swap K5s because they came factory with EFI in the later years. So I grabbed a new 31 gallon baffled tank and Holley Sniper EFI in tank pump. I also decided to run a returnless style fuel system using a Hot Rod Fuel Hose swap kit. It uses a factory C5 Corvette fuel filter/regulator that (supposedly) keeps the system at 58psi like LS motors need and sends the excess fuel from the in tank pump right back to the tank so you only have to run one line up to the fuel rail. Theres definitely mixed opinions about this system versus a return style system but the good thing is its relatively easy to convert if it doesn't work for my needs. This was the first time I made my own -AN lines and it was relatively easy, although I think I overtightened one of the tank fittings so I ordered a new one just in case it springs a leak.

New tank with pump/sender installed and return/feed lines hooked up.


Corvette filter/regulator.


I ran all new wiring from the engine bay/wiring harness to the tank and even grabbed some factory Delphi Weatherpack connectors for the most OEM install possible. First time using these connectors, I really like them.




All hooked up.


Regulator installed on the passenger frame rail about 12" in front of the tank. The flash really makes the underside of the truck look bad but that is actually just a small amount of dirt on the surface.


Heres a quick video of everything installed.

 

[Atl-atl]

Pedals part 1.

This is probably going to bore some people but its necessary, for science.

I think I finally completed what was possibly the biggest/most daunting/most time consuming part of this entire build, the pedals. The other night my wife asked what the single most difficult part of the project has been thus far and I replied immediately "figuring out the pedals." Trying to wrap my head around all the variations of engine and trans options that came in these trucks and all the variations that came in modern trucks that an LS based motor might have was extremely difficult. In square body trucks there were mechanical clutch linkages and hydraulic linkages, each with their own specific pedals, slave cylinders and bell housings. That is relatively clear cut in terms of what years got what parts but certain square body trucks were made alongside GMT400 trucks for a few years and that really muddys the waters. Also there were vacuum assist brakes and hydro assist brakes which use different pedals as well. Then in the newer trucks that used the NV4500 manual trans I decided to run, they had two different slave cylinder styles which also had unique bell housings. There are different pilot bearings depending on which input shaft you have which is determined by whether your NV4500 is 2WD or 4wd and Dodge or GM.

Things as simple as making sure you get a shift knob with the correct pattern become an insurmountable obstacle. Figuring out the breakdown of which year vehicle all these things came in and how they factor into what I was trying to do and then figuring out where to buy all of these parts, many of which came from junkyards across the country sight unseen, was a task that never seemed to end. For months I scoured craigslist, car-part, a hundred different forums, a million images on google. I tried to add up the amount of time I spent researching all of this but gave up, its surely in the hundreds of hours. After all that I still had to guess, based on random potato phone pictures Ive scraped from the internet, to figure out just how to install the pedals(which Im still not entirely sure are correct for my situation) and hope that it would all line up.

So I spent an absurd amount of money on a rusty used pedal assembly from a hydraulic clutch, hydroboost brake 1980-something Chevy or GMC truck on ebay and proceeded to disassemble it after taking 100 pictures and while filming video because I wasn't willing to take the chance of forgetting how to reassemble it correctly.


If you care to bore yourself with 18 minutes of pedal disassembly, be my guest.

Undone


Aaaand after. I really need my own blasting cabinet and powder coating oven.



So I ran into one issue with my pedals. I have not been able find a suitable donor or parts to swap in a hydro-boost brake master cylinder. Back to the drawing board, in a sense. What I discovered is the hydro and vacuum brakes use the same pedal "housing" and only the brake pedal itself is different. So Im able to run my stock pedal in the new housing, just need to cut down the auto pedal to match the size of the manual pedal and send it out to get refinished. There are a few differences between the pedals, one being the location of the hole where the rod going into the master cylinder attaches. The hydro pedal hole location is higher on the shaft of the pedal to give more leverage, which is interesting because the hydro brakes are supposed to be stronger. Anyway, the brake light swtich bracket is also slightly different but mounts in the same way so I was able to use the stock bracket as well.

Auto/vacuum brake pedal on the left. Manual/hydroboost pedal on the right.


To aid in anyone researching this in the future, here are measurements to help you determine pedal dimensions. Auto/vacuum on the left, manual/hydro on the right.



Here are the different brake switch brackets. Hydroboost on the left, vacuum on the right. Sorry for switching sides.


Last thing I realized there is a pedal return spring on the hydro brake pedal but it does not translate to the vacuum brake pedal. It has a cover to protect it from your shoe (or bare foot if you're from the south) but its rubs the cover when you use the vacuum pedal. It also rubs the wiring that goes up the steering column. I decided to delete the bracket because the vacuum brakes keep enough pressure in the system that the pedal doesn't need help returning. Kinda hard to tell in the picture below but the spring sits too proud for the cover to bolt on.


FINALLY the pedals are in. More on that accomplishment in the next post.

 

[Atl-atl]

Pedals part 2.

While going through everything on the firewall and deleting what I could to clean up the mess, I came across this bundle of vacuum line and wire that was just shoved into the fender and not connected to anything. It was coming from underneath the fuse panel in the drivers footwell. Since it was just loose what I wanted to do was cut it and forget it but I needed to trace it back to make sure it wasnt something I needed.


After a little digging I found that it was for the cruise control system that this truck had. Since it wasnt working before and I dont plan on using it with my new setup I went ahead and deleted the entire thing. Here is a picture from underneath the dash of the stock brake light switch and cruise control vacuum disconnect swtich where they attach to the brake pedal. The switch on the left with the vacuum line attached to it is a secondary backup cutoff for the cruise control system in case the electronics fail, pushing the brake pedal actuates vacuum to cut off the cruise control. I deleted the entire system.


Here is a closeup pic of the new pedal assembly with the auto/vacuum brake pedal and the stock auto/vacuum switch bracket, just not the extra cruise control switch and vacuum line.


Ok, onto the clutch master cylinder. Here is a picture of it. The rod that connects to the clutch pedal is(I think) permanently attached to the assembly. Or at least I wasnt going to attempt to remove it. So I had to make a template to see where the master is supposed to bolt to the firewall.


Here is my template.


Here is a picture of the area the master is supposed to mount on the firewall. Its really tight in between the fuse panel and the "ridge" which is represented by the white lines Ive drawn on the pic. You want to keep as much of the master on the flat part as possible. Lots of people online talk about the location for the bolt holes being dimpled in the firewall from the factory. That was not the case on my truck. There are numerous dimples in the vicinity but none of them are where I need to make holes. So I spent quite a while going between videos and pictures on the internet, the firewall and the footwell trying to line things up before I decided to just cross my fingers and make some holes.


Its really tight between "the ridge" and the fuse panel mounting screw.


There is only so much you can do to assure yourself before you need to send it. You can see in this pic that none of the dimples are anywhere near the required holes for the master.


At this point there is nothing you can do but install the master, mark the holes for the studs to come through and hope the support rods/studs line up correctly.


And they do!!!!!!!! Holt ******** was this a big deal. Sigh of relief that all the research and guesswork came out correct in the end. So happy it all lined up and the pedals and master were able to be installed with ease. Whats crazy is you can see that the master actually hangs over the edge of "the ridge" by a little. I cant believe it would have come from the factory this way but there is no room in between the ridge and the fuse panel. Id really love to see a factory manual transmission K5 some day so I can compare it to mine. Got the fluid reservoir mounted up, just need to shorten the hose and figure out how to bleed this **********.

 

[Buddha.]

That’s a lot of work.

 

[vintageracer]

Ya Gotta Luv Old Trucks!

 

[Atl-atl]

Pedals part 3. Kind of.

Here are the remaining parts that attach to the pedals so Ill count it. When swapping an NV4500 into a square body truck or k5 blazer there are a few parts that make it easy. In my instance I wound up using a "late" NV4500 which is 96 or newer and uses the internal or concentric slave cylinder. Thanks to the help of numerous people on here, mostly @zoomad75 , I was able to gather all of the correct parts and figure out how to install them. Hopefully this post and thread helps make the picture a little more clear and concise for the next guy. I will concentrate on late GM NV4500 stuff only, the early GM and Dodge versions are slightly different.

First thing I did was order a new master cylinder from LMC truck for an 85+ manual transmission K5 Blazer. Then I ordered a slave cylinder from a 2001-06 Chevy 2500 6.0 gas engine, manual transmission. After that I used adaptors from Earls to be able to run a -4an stainless braided hose. The stock GM slave cylinder uses quick connect style hoses which are easy to remove. Just push out the roll pin, insert Earls part #LS641001ERL and reinsert the roll pin. Then into the master cylinder insert Earls part #592054ERL and you are ready to simply attach your -4an line and your system is complete. You'll also need to find a reservoir for the clutch fluid, I was able to find an OEM Blazer unit and hose.

Here is the stock slave cylinder. Im pointing to the roll pin that needs to be removed and reinserted. Pull the pin and ditch the stock line.


Here is the stock line removed and a picture of what the factory quick connect fitting looks like. These wont be used, pics are just for reference.



Here is Earls #LS641001ERL installed in the slave for the -4an conversion.


Here is Earls #592054ERL being installed into the master cylinder.


Here is the system all put together. I used a -4an stainless line 36 inches long which looks like it will be a perfect fit.


Here is a picture of how I hung the system in the engine bay so I can "bench" bleed it. Hopefully it works ha! Also please ignore that other thing in the engine bay, I haven't gotten there yet. The gist of the bleed process is basically this. (watch the vid below for more details) Make sure the slave is rotated so the bleeder and line are pointed up and at the lowest point of the whole system. Make sure the line stays mostly vertical so bubbles cant hide, make sure the master is as level as you can get it so the nipple is on top and bubbles cant hide and lastly make sure the hose to the reservoir is as vertical as possible and the reservoir is on top and as level as possible. Fill the reservoir, leave the lid off, pump the master cylinder rod in and out by hand a few times, quickly crack the bleeder on the slave and retighten it after it blows its load. Then pump the slave cylinder by hand a few times, you should hear air bubbling up into the reservoir. Repeat these steps until bubbles no longer come out of the slave bleeder and reservoir. Obviously this will need to be rechecked once its all installed in the vehicle and you're actually pushing on the clutch pedal. So far none of the fittings are leaking which is great news. Also a nice thing to note is you can do this because the shape of the bellhousing allows you to install the slave cylinder and then put on the bellhousing afterwards. Really easy to do when the trans is out of the truck.


Here is my 96+ GM NV4500 bellhousing freshly back from blasting/powdercoat. Turned out amazing. So happy I didnt waste my time trying to clean and paint it.



And finally here is the bellhousing bolted to the trans and the slave installed, before I pulled it apart to assemble and bleed the system. So I figured out on my own that the slave to trans the bolts are M6x1.0 and the length can be anywhere from 16mm to 20mm. 20 is pushing it and you need to use a washer. Thanks again to @zoomad75 the bellhousing to transmission bolts are M12x1.75 45mm long grade 10.9.

 

[Atl-atl]

Now that the pedals are done we're on to the next project, gauges. I wanted to keep the gauges as stock as possible and since Ill be running a Fitech standalone EFI system which does not have any provisions for gauges(other than a tach signal wire) it made sense to try to use my stock gauges and dash instead of spending $1000 on something like a Dakota Digital dash. I was quite happy to stay stock because I love the vintage look and dont want a bunch of bright LEDs with colors that dont match the vibe of the truck. In stock form my truck had no tach, just a speedo and a HUGE gas gauge for the two main gauges. My speedo didnt work well, most likely because the gear in the transfer case was worn. Thankfully that would be getting replaced. I researched at length the pros and cons of an early mechanical speedo vs. a later VSS(vehicle speed sensor) speedo. I opted to try keeping my stock speedo which would require a transfer case that was meant for the mechanical speedo. Unfortunately those transfer cases are becoming incredibly rare, only made in 1988 and 89. Thanks to car-part.com I was able to source one that was in good shape. Which will be its own project/post forthcoming.

Here is what the stock cluster looked like. Mine was in pretty good shape, other than the lens being dull from age/cleaning and the odometer being busted, likely from rolling over so many times hahaha. All of my factory gauges actually worked too. It was time for an update though.


All the disassembly/reassembly happened in my clean room(aka kitchen) which the wife was quite happy about. On the right is the new gauge cluster backing plate, the bezel and hidden in the clear plastic is the new lens. Thankfully there are companies like LMC truck that make not only OEM reproduction parts for old trucks like this but also updated parts that use modern tech but match the vintage aesthetics. From LMC I was able to get a 7000rpm tach instead of the factory 5000. It also has options for hooking up to modern wiring so Ill be able to use the tach signal wire from my Fitech system and then simply run power and ground to the gauge. I also got a small fuel level gauge to replace the dummy/CEL that was in the bottom left corner.


I imagine for some of the gauges, such as volts and water temp, its simple enough to hook up an electrical connection and have the gauge work. Im interested to see how well the oil pressure works using an adaptor in place of the factory LM7 sensor. The picture below(of the round brass lookin thingy) is a new stock oil pressure sender for an old Chevy 350 like what came out of the truck. I found an adaptor that mates it to the hole in the LM7 block where the factory oil pressure sensor would go. Im expecting it to work with no issues, fingers crossed.


Fully disassembled.


Here is the back of both clusters. LMC even sells new printed circuits that match the gauges of your choice so everything is essentially OEM. Pretty rad.


One of the drawbacks with squarebody gauge clusters is their horrenedous visibility at night. One of the ways people combat this is LED lights inside the cluster. That only goes so far unfortunately. Another thing people do is paint the inside of the cluster backing plate and backside of the gauge bezel in chrome or white paint to help with reflection of light inside the cluster. The before and after pictures are pretty decent so I figured Id give it a shot. I chose stark white gloss spraypaint and warm white LED bulbs. Time will tell how well it worked. This pic shows the post-paint, pre assembly. The cluster backing plate was kind of a sea foam green and the backside of the bezel was black so this should make a pretty big difference.


One of the drawbacks with squarebody gauge clusters is their horrenedous visibility at night. One of the ways people combat this is LED lights inside the cluster. That only goes so far unfortunately. Another thing people do is paint the inside of the cluster backing plate and backside of the gauge bezel in chrome or white paint to help with reflection of light inside the cluster. The before and after pictures are pretty decent so I figured Id give it a shot. I chose stark white gloss spraypaint and warm white LED bulbs. Time will tell how well it worked. This pic shows the post-paint, pre assembly. The cluster backing plate was kind of a sea foam green and the backside of the bezel was black so this should make a pretty big difference.

 

[tyler.armijo]

So with the new gauge set up does it still have any sort of CEL? That tach will be really nice to have but those old giant fuel gauges were cool to watch it drop if you really got on the throttle although with today fuel pricing it would probably be painful to watch


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Atl-atl]

So with the new gauge set up does it still have any sort of CEL? That tach will be really nice to have but those old giant fuel gauges were cool to watch it drop if you really got on the throttle although with today fuel pricing it would probably be painful to watch


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah the fuel mileage hurts bad enough, a small gauge is fine ha. The Fitech system doesn’t have support for a CEL so no, I wont have one.

 

[Atl-atl]

And now, your moment of zen.



Here we go!!



Et voila! It looks so tiny in there

 

[Atl-atl]

Ive gotten so much done over the last few days that its going to have to be a few posts. First will be some small misc. items. Before the motor went in I installed a Borgeson steering shaft, hopefully this will take care of the last of my steering slop. The stock shaft with the rag joint is such a piece of crap. Happy to have a beefy new shaft with u-joints. The fit was so tight at the steering gear that I really had to slam it on. So much so that I deformed the metal where the shaft slides into the joint collar(not sure what its called) and had to dremel it out a little once I finally got the splines all the way on. Im all for tight tolerances but this was ridiculous. Hopefully I didnt **** up my nearly new steering gear.


Got some more stuff from powdercoat. The battery trays were in rough shape and I had already refinished them once before. Nothing compares to blasting and powder coating though.


Refinished my brake booster. Sanded it by hand and painted it with rust converting paint from Seymour. Hopefully it holds up, looks great right now.


Got the remaining bits for the trans. This shifter from Advance Adaptors is pure beef. The stick alone must weigh 3lbs.



Installed a full set of pedal covers. Dont mind the crap on the carpet, its gonna get cleaned up before the truck runs again ha. One odd thing to me is the pedals are all at different distances away from the seat, especially the clutch and brake pedal, anybody with a K5 know if this normal? Clutch is hooked up and bled, same with the brakes. In theory they are all good to go.


Test fit the headers, they look amazing but unfortunately arent going to work. More on that later. These are the Jegs ceramic coated LS swap headers for Chevy trucks.