78 K5 ToWmater Build

[ToWmaterK5]

I dub the..."Mater"! As in "Tow Mater" from the movie CARS. Yes I know its not a tow truck, but the paint was in a condition that
resembles the character's. pronounced (May-durr).

Caged on 42" IROKs

.

Engine:
fresh 350 (10k), stageII RV cam, edlebrock alum intake, gear drive, all new acc. (water pump, alt, starter, ect) rebuilt 800cfm Quadra-Junk w/ offroad mods, Headman shorty tube headers. new 4 core radiator, all belts and hoses, new heater core, re-man HEI dist w/ 50K volt coil, Morroso 10.2 plug wires, AC plugs, Optima red top.
Suspesion:
TC EZ-ride 4" fronts, ORD shakles, F-250 shock towers w/ 14" travel shocks. REAR 57" f-150 springs, shackle flip, 14" travel shocks. Rear M.O.O. track bar (similar to DIY's)
Axles:
CUCV, (d60/14b 4:56 detroits) both have M.O.O. diff covers, the rear has M.O.O axle truss and rear disks. 35 spl stubs.
Steering: ORD crossover w/ HD tierod, new West Texas Offroad steering box and ram assist, ORD steering box brace.
Drivetrain:
Rebuilt T400,np205 & np203 Auto with double cases)
truck also has all new exaust w/ glasspacks (2" aluminized true dual) and new brakes (braided lines and calipers, pads, rotors, ect) New 1ton Master cyl.
Tires: 14/42"x16.5 IROKs on recentered Hummer wheels
Body protection: square tube rockers w/ tube sliders, 1 3/4" tube rear bumper.
Converted to truck tail gate w/ new hinges and bolts from LMC truck.

 

[ToWmaterK5]

My Planned Mods:
Done:
#) First thing first ...Full ROLL CAGE front & rear, seats tie in by Drake at Tangent Design Johnson City
#) Install the detroit locker, 35 spline outters, and warn hubs in the D60 up front
#) Now sitting on 42" IROKs with re-centered Hummer beadlocks (With Stazworks lightweight inserts)
#) Turbo400 swap and doubled transfer cases (203/205 with Nortwest Fab Doubler & triple shifter kit)
In-process:
#) Great Lakes Offroad 14bolt yoke guard
#) 1 piece removable fiberglass hardtop, from windshield to tailgate ( Full convertible conversion (layman: sawzallin the roof off ))
Coming Soon (still considering):
#) Dove tail front & rear
#) custom soft top for the winter or rainy season
.
78 K5 350/th400/np205/203/d60/14bolt/detroits/42"IROKs
Step 1 was to pull the existing sm465/205 and begin cage work while waiting on a doubler.
Started cage work done by Drake Walsh at Tangent Design Offroad here in Johnson City, TN.
I wanted to go ahead and do a full cage since I'll be haulin a centered rear seat for my kiddo.
We left enough room to be able to do a dove tail rear end.

 

[ToWmaterK5]

Tying in the Courbou seats/harnesses in with the cage.

My Son's throne

I done a little trading and ended up with some 42" IROKs on recentered Hummer beadlocks with stamped centers and Drake added rockrings....

203/205 transfer cases doubler & Turbo 400 progress.

 

[ToWmaterK5]

Not ready to cut out the floor to do a tummy tuck yet....maybe later, just gonna ride it with a few inches below the frame for now.

Here are a few pics of the doubled cases. skid plate/support, and the shifter set-up from the creative mind of Drake at TD Offroad.

The Shifters tied into the cage:

.....thats all fur now

 

[blazeproc]

Awesome K5, man I love those things. I had two of them growing up in between Jeeps.
Bad A$$ rig

 

[336wheeler]

That is a really nice K5. Nice to see another Echobit shackle flip. I'm running chevy 56s with the same shackle flip turned backwards like yours. Now I just need to throw a doubler in mine and we're even, haha.

 

[spraypaintman]

Sweet! Nice rig & bling parts!

 

[Hilla-GO-Rilla]

Absolutely loving it...got it out and crawwwled some steep banks...tried to get it as close to rolling over as I could to see how the carb acted. The prior owner NCgamedog done some kind of mods to the carb, it was awesome I could not get it to spit/sputter on her side or up/down on the dirt banks.
Low-Low is so sweet...it idles thru some of the rocks and can pull nicely at 1000rpms on steep climps slo-n-low.

 

[Hilla-GO-Rilla]

My reference pic:

My K5 door:
Playing with some paint.....
Used some water droplets to try to get a faux rust texture/appeal

My kid likes it !

 

[ToWmaterK5]

Done a shakedown run this weekend. Gotta trim somemore off the fenders or add more bumpstop. The carb is insane...poor man's fuel injection It ran without sputter on some good angles - works for me. It did however cut out when bouncing on angles.
pics:

 

[ToWmaterK5]

I swapped in an XJ steering shaft finally...way much stronger than the GM design. Was an easy swap in, had to file down the plastic bushing inside the XJ shaft to get it to collapse enough to install. Also had to grind the two sides flat on the shaft coming from the firewall.

Relocated the battery to the cab since the fronts getting narrowed and had to leave room in the back since its getting narrowed next:

Heres some shots of the Tennessee Sawzall Massacre for the dove tailed front in progress.

 

[ToWmaterK5]

Project I'm broke dovetail is finally wheel-able:
extended the fenders 7", didn't like the straight line from the body to the radiator support, so put a arc in fenders. The hood is a skin secured front and rear with hood pins, cut the grill down.

Next?
Looking at a winch bumper, tubed going thru the engine compartment into the cage. Either adding newer 1 piece headlamps/signals into the bumper tubing...or...just adding my old headlights someway...or a set of hellas.

 

[wheelNC94GC]

That looks great man, I love dovetailed fronts.

 

[336wheeler]

Sweetness. Looks great man.

 

[ncgamedog]

Chris, bravo man! that thing looks killer. You've done the things to that rig that i could have only envisioned. how's the over-hood vision now? can you see your tires better?

 

[ToWmaterK5]

The visability is better...and things are tucked in for what I can't see .....my eyes are closed mostly anyway.

 

[ncgamedog]

I have seen people section the core support horizontally to move the hood line down a little in the front. but it looks great as is... -j

 

[ToWmaterK5]

It actually is a little lower. I bent down the lip that the front of the hood rest on, so the top hood skin now rests ontop of the rad support.
It'll all change again if I ever get an electric fan, move the rad back toward the motor, secure the rad support to tube, and then cut down the top rad support.
I didn't really plan, have materials, or equipment...just one day started tearing it down on a whim and realized that I had just cut away the front with a sawzall then started calling my buddies that have welders...thats one way to commit to change.
Now, I have alittle more courage to cut it up...I'll plan better.

 

[1stgenxxx]

that looks pretty kickass....when are you going to dovetail the rear?

 

[ToWmaterK5]

Hope before the end of Sept/Oct...
Since the back is getting slightly bobbed and theres going to be fuel tank & fuel filler issues anyway, I'm going to save my pennies for a fuel cell.
I'd like to notch the sides and bring the back of the fenders in to touch the cage. Start the pivot bend right behind the door frame:

 

[bowtieman55]

that's pretty damn cool. good job

 

[ToWmaterK5]

Here is my trial & error shade-tree version of rear bob & dove. Got the rear chopped and almost where I want it trimmed down to before welding. Still gotta trim down my wavy "wondering" sawzall cuts. But, 12" was bob'ed from the rear and the sides cut to meet the cage. Going to tube under the floor panel and add some plate tabs for the side sheet metal to the vertical cage tube. Still have some fine tuning to trim up, but the majority is cut.
Bat Winged!

 

[ToWmaterK5]

All Mocked up :eusa_think:

I do believe the Sawzall can be addictive :sad4:
I got plans to tube the rear gate and add tail lights buggy style. Like I said lots to come...cut the fenders, tube, skin, lights, ...oh and a fuel cell. But, I'm so broke right now my bologna don't have a first name !

 

[WARRIORWELDING]

Yep, your hooked! As you've probably figured out the only cure is to run out of sheet metal to mod or start a new project. It such a harsh cycle. No wonder people started building buggies! No sheet metal afflictions. I like it.

 

[nocompromiseoffroad]

the truck is looking awesome great job!