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

[ITTOG]

Love that engine. It seems that AC compressor is sitting too far out. That is wild.

 

[vintageracer]

Finally I started to clean up the engine bay. Man there was a lot of caked on crud. It looks clean because its not rusty but the grey film on the firewall wouldnt come off with simple green and there was an old power steering leak that had cooked itself onto the driver wheel well liner so hard I had to scrape it off with a screwdriver. The weather is supposed to be warm this week so Im hoping to get the engine bay and front frame rails clean up and painted and also finish installing the new crossmember.
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For future reference I have had great luck with White Wall Tire Cleaner removing the gray film. Spray it one, let it soak a little bit, do not let it dry and pressure wash off. ALWAYS worked great for me and readily available at Wal Mart or other retailers.

Bleche-Wite® Tire Cleaner

www.blackmagicshine.com

 

[tyler.armijo]

Where did you source your 4500 from? I am gonna be in need of one but all the ones I have found lately people have been asking for its weight in gold


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[tyler.armijo]

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

 

[Buddha.]

That’s a lot of work.

 

[vintageracer]

Ya Gotta Luv Old Trucks!

 

[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


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[Kingsize24]

This thing is looking amazing 👏

 

[mortonm]

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.
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For what its worth my 2022 Bronco is the exact same, clutch is furthest from the firewall, then brake then gas

 

[djp73]

Dream build. Excited to see more

 

[ajmaudio]

Looking good! I haven't seen it covered, perhaps I missed it, but why the aftermarket short runner intake? Will cut a significant amount of low end grunt from your LS? Just curious if there was a reason?

 

[ajmaudio]

I vote for the blower

 

[ITTOG]

It definitely doesn't look good but the seals do work better after a few heat cycles. Or at least they did in the 80's and 90's when I was building engines. I never used an alignment tool so I don't know what that is.

 

[Kingsize24]

Congratulations on the new welder. It does make a HUGE difference. When I went from my HF to my Miller it was an absolute game changer. Like you will see with your Lincoln.

And glad you got the screw. I've had to pull an engine due to one falling into an under engine frame support cavity. It happens. Definitely sucks though. Lol