K5 Camper. My offroad home away from home.

[2Dogs]

CK5 Brother!! ?

So you used the plates on the t-case cross member to protect the frame and correct for a bend....?

I just went through the same thing except I have the 4l80 - everything cleared on mine with the closest area being the ORD front cross member. I was able to bolt the t-case cross member with no spacers - that is temporary until I can build a real skidplate.

 

[nitro_rat]

Damn, you and Larry both have frame issues! Maybe I don't need to come ride with you guys...

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Denver Museum of Modern Art wants that flywheel for display.

 

[zoomad75]

That is the prettiest 8.1 I've ever seen. Nice work! Love the Chevy orange.

We wanted to be different on mine. I'm pretty sure it's the only one like it. Thanks!

CK5 Brother!! ?

So you used the plates on the t-case cross member to protect the frame and correct for a bend....?

I just went through the same thing except I have the 4l80 - everything cleared on mine with the closest area being the ORD front cross member. I was able to bolt the t-case cross member with no spacers - that is temporary until I can build a real skidplate.

The two plates are merely there to tweak my driveline angle. No other reason for them. The bend in the frame is actually side to side. He had to push out on the driver side rail to get the bolt holes to line up.

Damn, you and Larry both have frame issues! Maybe I don't need to come ride with you guys...

Funny thing is normally we are pretty careful. Plus if Larry catches me going "Fall Guy" with the truck again he will likely kick me square in the balls and refuse to help me on the truck again.

Denver Museum of Modern Art wants that flywheel for display.

He's an artist, what else can I say.

 

[nitro_rat]

Funny thing is normally we are pretty careful. Plus if Larry catches me going "Fall Guy" with the truck again he will likely kick me square in the balls and refuse to help me on the truck again.

I've been known to huck my Suburban's from time to time. With the long wheelbase and surprisingly good F/R weight distribution they fly level and land well!!!

 

[zoomad75]

I've been known to huck my Suburban's from time to time. With the long wheelbase and surprisingly good F/R weight distribution they fly level and land well!!!

It might have handled the air time just fine. It was the landing the messed everything up. Rough country springs up front don't have the compliance to soak up a heavy truck from being airborne. Adding a couple hundred more pounds of cast iron goodness under the hood isn't going to make that happen any better.

 

[nitro_rat]

I would recommend Tuff Country HD's for your rig. They ride nice on a heavy rig. Better than stock on my diesel Suburban. I'm running the 2" lift HD's with blown out stock rear shocks up front and everybody loves how it rides. It'll probably be real nice if I ever put some good shocks up there...

 

[Oilbrnr]

Second the Tuff Country's, if they can carry all the weight. Wonder in the end if you're going to have to come up with something semi-custom to get it like you want it.

 

[zoomad75]

Tuff Country or the same Skyjacker springs Larry has on both his trucks. I'd really like to get some ORD custom springs based on the actual weight of the truck. That is going to have to wait until I get done with this phase of the build. In the meantime, I'm going to take it easy.

 

[zoomad75]

So to catch up, Larry was able to get the trans cross member bolted in with the help of his porta-power to get the frame lined up to drop the bolts in.

My project this last weekend was to clean up the inner fenders and prep them for coating with bedliner. I ended up using an angle grinder with a knotted wire cup brush for the majority of it. Note to self, tuck in the t-shirt when using that thing. I was near the end of the work to clean them up when I managed to lean over the inner fender while the grinder slipped of the edge and managed to catch my shirt and reel it in faster than I could react. The cup brush did tag me on the belly but not break the skin. I got a nice bruise from it for sure. I figured I was done at the point. Since I wasn't prepping for paint I didn't go to town with paint stripper or get every ounce of old paint off.
Ready for minor rust repair.

The standard problem area right behind the brace on the backside of the wheel opening.

Same thing, other side plus another small spot to fix.

I had got a text from Ian that offered to patch up the rusty spots and to drop them by. He's finishing up the floors on his CUCV so he's got all the tools out to tackle the little job.

Ian drilled out the spot welds and pulled braces.
One side don't look too bad.

The other side, not so good.

Larry has been working on the shifter boots. Following what he's done on his Suburban, the 241 shifter is trimmed of the parts that would normally mount the big black shifter bezel and replaced with a boot and ring from a 205.

Another view. The 205 boot is pretty ratty, but all we got for the moment. CaptRon's gonna see what he's got in his stash for anything better.

I was planning on using some rattle can bedliner on the inner fenders, but we are using some Raptor liner at work on one of our used trucks so I'm going to bring them up and sneek them in the booth.

 

[nitro_rat]

Me and my angle grinder fight sometimes too.



There, that should get everybody back on track...

 

[Oilbrnr]

Tell Larry that the guys over on the Portal want him to paint those liners. I'm sure that will illicit some words.

 

[zoomad75]

He's delegated that task to me. I must do it.

 

[zoomad75]

Progress dump. Larry's been busy since his daughter gets to go back to school and that allows Mama to go to work too. In between work calls he's picking away at the list.
Single headlight core support cleaned up and fogged black.

Sorry for the glare, but the afternoon sun really lights up Larry's shop. He's pulling some fuel from the tank since Murphy struck again since I didn't run out the last tank of fuel I put in it after the Desert trip.

With the tank down he pulled the sending unit to install the higher pressure pump (ac delco ep381). But he may have found why my fuel gauge has always been a little wonky.

He used a little epoxy on the arm and buttoned it up after it cured. Tank back in he started to tackle the fenders. I still had a couple of cans of tan I had mixed up from the last go-round so at least the insides would match and the outside will be done with the rest of the truck.

Meanwhile, I've had the inner fenders that Ian did some excellent repairs to the rust on at work for the last two weeks. I've been waiting for my body guys to squeeze them in and shoot them with bedliner while they shot one of our used trucks. Didn't happen last weekend and didn't happen today. So I ordered a couple of rattle-cans of Raptor liner and picked up some primer on the way home. I got home and got with it. At the point of the pics below I had a single coat on each after the primer. The Raptor was pretty thin so I had to run for another couple of cans and put another coat on each.

Larry's got the starter in too.

We are getting down to the nitty gritty of wiring. But we want the front clip back on so we can map out the layout of the harness, set up the ECM mount and fuse panel.

 

[zoomad75]

Lets get caught up on the recent progress. Larry's been picking away at it when he can. We are really close now.

The Howell harness was unwrapped and a few extra circuits we didn't need got pruned. He added length to the knock sensors to allow routing from the front of the engine vs the rear and a couple other routing changes based on where the ECM is going to land.

Initial layout on the engine:

While Larry plugged away on the electrical, I took some homework back from his place in the form of the inner fender panels. After our buddy Ian fixed the rusty bits, I scuffed and primed with some rust converting primer. I followed it with some rattle can Raptor liner. I would have preferred to have the body shop at work shoot them with the right gun for that stuff, but they were way behind on customer rides.

Larry shot the last of the rattle cans I had mixed with the doeskin tan paint code on the fresh fenders I picked up to replace the cracked and broken ones we peeled off.

He also shot the new to us radiator support (single headlight version) with black paint after he cleaned it up.

The fuel tank was drained and fuel pump swapped over to the EP381 for the correct pressures on the 8.1.

I spent last Saturday over there helping out and re-doing the mount for the onboard air tank. We were able to get the front clip reinstalled and adjusted for decent body gaps.

Core support mounted.

Fenders:

Hood back on.

I took some more work home to let Larry work on the ECM mounting. I have the task to convert the 4 headlight forward light harness to a 2 headlight system plus installing an HD relay kit to properly power the new headlights.

90% done, still had to install the headlight connectors.

Larry built the bracket to mount the ECM and attached it to the inner fender and got the harness routed.

The air intake was assembled and mounted.

The Wiring is complete, cooling system completed and filled and the fuel system is complete. Pretty close to light the 8.1 off.