Kommuter5

SHINTON

SHINTON

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Location
Triad area of NC
Once upon a time a young man in grad school decided to buy a K5 Blazer and being in the mid 1990s, he was able to buy a 1972 GMC Jimmy in reasonably good shape for about $4000 or so. He started driving it around town, and occasional off-road trips and even on the very first date with the young lady who became his wife! (I still think the 72 Jimmy was what sealed the deal though she continues to tell everyone it was ugly...)

A few years go by and during a fateful wheeling trip where there was about an inch or two of clearance or less between two very solid trees, the decision was made that it was too nice to mess up so it was restored, sold and missed dearly!!

Since that time, Jeeps, Toyotas, ATVs were all purchased, driven and sold until we come to the present day where our intrepid adventurer decides that it is time for another K5!!!

Assuming nothing blows up in the next few weeks, the deposit has been made on a 1990 K5, 172k on the clock and not much else is known except it needs some body work!!

All the story telling silliness aside, the price is cheap enough that if the truck simply starts, runs (as claimed by seller / ad) we are good enough, I can fix the body stuff.

I am hoping that by sharing the pictures here early on, I can get some feedback on parts and pieces to pre-order and help me with my journey!!

My current goal is to run 35s with 2.5" of lift (or less), maybe even enough room to fit 37s AND still fit in my normal garage door!! I will measure that, but assuming a standard 7' door, I want to make sure I can drive in and out easily so I can leave the top and doors off for the summer and park inside at night.

Based on the sellers comments of "needs body work" I think we can safely assume that the rockers are junk and I can sorta see what appears to be a hole under drivers door. The fenders over wheel wells also look distorted in the pictures so I am assuming that needs work too!

The K5 is up in Winchester VA, so 6 hours from me, won't have it in my hands until mid May or so. So I am working from the pictures of a technically challenged seller! (Anyone local want to put eyes / pics on it for me?)

Here is where we are starting! If you see something, say something, tell me what you are seeing in these pictures of interest, example I see cigarette butts so I am assuming LOTS of cleaning or maybe new carpet / seats to get rid of that smell, sigh.

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I think that you mentioned you are planning on taking the top and doors off. If so, I wouldn't bother replacing the carpet, just rip it out. It will end up getting rained in more than once by a sudden thunderstorm and stink.
 
Yeah I am thinking I will do the bedliner thing for the interior, front and rear. Not sure what is hiding behind the side panels along the bed? Assuming that it is really just normal sheet metal, wheel wells, etc. I may pull the sides off too and line all of that at the same time. Maybe fab up just a plate to mount some "waterproof/marine" 6x9s and some led lights for the cargo area, etc.

I know in my Wrangler the bedliner only was pretty cold in the winter, so I would lay in the carpet about October and pull it again in April when the top comes off. Not sure if the K5 carpet is really supposed to be removeable like that or not? If not, may buy some aftermarket stuff that I can use instead.
 
the carpet should be like any other, but may fall apart when pulled. If you pull the panels over the rear fenderwells, it is open behind them IIRC. Could build a metal/wood panel to put back in its place and hold upto weather.

Plan to add some backup lights. The factory ones are non-existent.

Stock seats in that body style arent the greatest. The adjusters on the backs tend to break. Swapping seats/fixing them isnt hard though.

Stock tcase is likely 241 or 208. Looks to be slip yoke rear. Either can be upgraded to a fixed yoke trans. Either should hold up fine as long as the fluid level is good and chain stays tight.
 
Not much to update yet, asking for more pictures so I can confirm the extent of rust, will order some replacements / aftermarket patch panels if I know what is coming so I can get the K5 fixed up and ready to pass the "wife inspection" asap!!

I measured my garage door this weekend, it looks like I am 81-82" all told of room to the VERY top so just a hair under the 7'. I am going to say a max of 80" just to be 'safe', will measure the K5 when I get it home but STOCK is 73.4". Assuming that is with say 30" tires or so, if I go to a 35" (BFG M/T), that will add 2.5" of lift by itself. If I do a 2.5" shackle flip lift and springs up front, call it 3", then we are looking at my MAX of 80" between them.

I will start off with stock / no lift and see how much clearance / trimming on the fenders it would take to fit the 35s, I don't think I want to go any smaller. If I am having to cut rust out around the wheel wells anyway, I will weld in the new patch a couple inches higher and wider from the start.
 
Sub'd....I picked up an '81 Thursday. Sounds like we are looking for the same type build. Good luck:beer:
 
Just thought I would throw this out there too, one of the considerations is to install a small lift, 2.5" shackle flip in the rear and 2-3" springs in the front, fresh shackles, etc. from ORD. Has anyone here locally done this? I am watching the videos and it is pretty intense, looks like I might have to drop the gas tank to get to the rear side of the frame to remove the old hardware, not really sure this is something I want to tackle on my own?
 
You cant lift it with other stock springs.
52s 63s etc.

If its going to be road driven Id leave the rear shackles alone, personal preference.
Front, thats a different story
 
Shackle flips suck. Screws up the roll center on the rear axle.
 
Interesting / had not heard these things at CK5, they tend to recommend the shackle flip "first" but maybe that is because they are all thinking harder core offroad? I won't run out and lift it first thing but you guys are thinking I would be better off to leave the shackles alone in the rear? Should I leave the suspension stock and just clearance the fenders for the 35s? (33s at a minimum figure I might as well get 35s if I am buying tires anyway for the show, not the go...)

The side shot above makes it look like there is a little bit of saggy butt, maybe just 'fresh' stock or say 2" height springs on all 4 corners instead to even it out?

I am fully planning on daily driving this rig on a combo of I-40 and city streets, 50 miles a day about 3 days a week or more in the summer with the top and doors off. In the winter it will likely not see as much road time, and of course a few trips to URE but nothing extreme by any means. (No lockers, mount the winch on receiver hitch basket)

Someday down the road I may come back to building it for off-road / I know I can, but not in the next 12 months for sure.
 
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Im betting you change your mind on the I40 top and door less.
The late k5s have a weird aero effect, imho, in that trim. The roof catches the air and makes it feel very light on the tires. You dont a rear shackle flip, imho for interstate driving.

Stock K5 invented the carolina squat. They all were slightly ass low.

a small block/wedge out back and a zero rate up front will clear 35s easily, although it may rarttle out any loose dental work.

CK5 isnt what it once was. Once upon a time it was the home for GM tech. These days....its more show and shine than true wheelers.

If it were me, and this is what I made my son do last august when he bought his k5, when I got it home I would do a quick tune up and then I would commit to modifying nothing for 500 miles.
Find out what you have first. That can greatly alter where you are going
 
SHINTON said:
Interesting / had not heard these things at CK5, they tend to recommend the shackle flip "first" but maybe that is because they are all thinking harder core offroad?
Click to expand...

Wheelers do it because it's cheap, I guess. Everybody else that's concerned about performance switches compression shackles to tension shackles. I had them once. It sucked. I wouldn't do it again.
 
You probably remember Big Bird, my yellow 85 full size Bronco. It had the same rear suspension as a Blazer. I originally installed a 6" Skyjacker lift kit which came with 5.5" lift blocks for the rear. Six months later I removed those and did a shackle flip. I had removed the top, tailgate, and rear seat from my Bronco to 'lighten it up'. I figure I dropped 300 lbs right there. I thought the rear suspension was too stiff and didn't flex enough, so when I did the shackle flip, I also removed the third leaf from the spring pack. I ended up buying a pair of rear spring front hangers for $20 and used those in the rear (see pic). I 'beefed' up the stock shackles by welding a trailer shackle on the sides so they wouldn't fold over in compression. To get it to sit level, I still ended up needing a 3" block but no longer needed the stock 'wedge' block for proper pinion angle. I originally had the stock wedge block PLUS the 5.5" lift block, so about 6.5" of block, LOL! I also built a traction bar during this swap. My gas tank had ruptured on Kodak Rock and been repaired with putty a couple of months before I did the shackle swap, so when I did got around to the shackle flip, I removed the stock tank to replace it with a plastic one form JBG so I didn't have to deal with any difficulty in accessing the hanger bolts. The tank was easy to remove, just get as much gas out of it as possible. I didn't notice any big changes in the handling of the Bronco. I never used it as a DD, but I did drive it around town occasionally, and of course drove it everywhere I went wheeling because I didn't have a tow rig and trailer. I drove it as far as Tellico. I was happy with how it turned out and performed and I think I only had maybe $40-$50 invested. Here are some old pictures that I saved.

rear view.jpg


side view.jpg


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The shackle flip would re-use the same old 25+ year old saggy springs too and costs say $190 versus just putting in new / fresh springs for a couple hundred more and leave the shackle system alone. That lead me to looking at specific "all springs" lift kits and ORD uses Tuff Country / they seem to have a MUCH better reputation than say Rough Country, etc?

Chevy Blazer Lift Kits

So I am eyeballing the 12731KN lift now, 2" springs x 4 corners, new shocks. That also includes new u-bolts, springs already have bushings in them, so I was thinking of adding new / beefier shackles as well and the greaseable bolts for it all. Might look at new bushings for the front (steering) and possibly new body mounts as well while I am in there?

That should not change my pinion angle too much, renews the whole suspension with fresh hardware (if I am missing something let me know) and 2" here plus 2.5" of new tires (30s to 35s), should put me at 78" or so when I am done!? Even if I get a little more lift without the top and doors (lighter) I should be under my goal of 80" or less I am thinking?

Man, 10 days to go before I get the K5... trying to wrap up my Subaru now, 2007 Forester, fixing dents, freshen up the paint and possibly tint the windows and trying to sell it to free up the cash to FUND the actual build of the K5!!
 
They were 35's and yep long gone lol......and it fit in the garage 78" tall!
 
K5 rebuild

My old K5 build as well. Miss that thing.
 
So after driving 4+ hours to the $1000 K5 blazer location in Winchester VA, I was fully expecting the rockers to be shot and over the wheel wells. The tailgate was actually in good shape, but the floor was GONE! I noticed the "extra" mats all sitting around and everything was damp (carpet) and mushy, and when you got underneath the blazer and looked up you could see LARGE sections of carpet! I honestly think the seats were held in by the carpet at this point and the floorboards were essentially rotted away.

Still, for $1000, a running truck that is not the worst price and for a few hundred dollars I could have bought new pans but it was the 40+ hours of extra work to gut the interior, and essentially weld in 4' of metal from side to side that made me decide I was not ready to spend that much time on this project. It would have been parked at dads, I was thinking something smaller that I could park and rebuild in my driveway one patch at a time but this was full on rebuild.

So it was a great trip, I got to spend 9 or so hours on the road with my dad, talking cars and life and that is time I really treasure at this point as he battles cancer (treatable, but recurring) and so this was not the right K5 even at the right price ($1000) I will eventually end up with a "Kommuter" K5!

For the moment, continuing to swap around, sold/traded the Subaru and got some cash and a 1999 Miata that is a blast to drive! At the moment, that is my convertible, will likely drive it all summer and try to sell this fall and THEN buy a K5 (or full size Bronco... or yet another Wrangler or CJ!!)!!!

If I was really smart I would keep the Miata as my convertible and buy a dedicated trail rig / either a M1008 truck that already has the 1 tons, or something else I will not be tempted to upgrade anything except to add a winch and tires!? That durn $2500 CUCV posted on here and CL is on my watch list... more than I have budgeted unless the Miata gets sold off but def have my eye on it.

Sam... 4x4less at the moment other than the pristine CJ2a!
 
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