I'm finally close to being finished with my project, so let me introduce it to the rest of you all. My daughter and nephew have called it the monster truck, but because it is a mid-sized truck my wife has nick named it the Mini-Monster. It wasn't supposed to be as physically big as it turned out, but it is pretty cool.
It started it's life as an old rusty 73 K-5 rescued from the crusher. When we went to lift the body off of the chassis, it literally folded in half. So the body went to the crusher, but the frame and drive line stayed for rebuilding. As with anything, nothing stays the same. The tired original 350 was swapped for my built-to-the-hilt 358 chevy limited late model stock car motor (detuned for the trail), the th350 trans was traded for a rebuilt sm465 trans and np205 adapter. The original np203 t-case was replaced by a np205 t-case in some horse type trading. I started pricing out building the original 10 bolt front and 12 rear with good quality parts (so they won't fail under all that power), and soon realized that it would be expensive to build these correctly. I soon stumbled upon a deal, a Dana 60 built w/5:13 gears and detroit locker and a 14 bolt floater built like the front for the same price as building the weak stock axles. Deal Done. I also did a disk brake conversion in the rear to get rid of the heavy rear drums. I built my own rear shackle flip, and put 4 inch E-Z ride front leafs on. While I had the body off I also went ahead and repaired and strengthened the frame where the steering box mounts.
With all of the drive line installed I started looking for a body with 4-doors (so the family can go wheelin also)and the same wheel base to match the frame. I found a reject S-10 4-door Blazer with a good body at a used car lot for a song-and-a-dance. I got it home and made some big saw horses and lifted the body off and rolled the S-10 chassis out. After getting some help, we got the K-5 under the body and got it centered up. I cut off all of the original body mounts on the frame and built new mounts to match the body. I also had to move the body back 4 inches to clear the extra cylinders of the V-8. That presented other problems.
The alignment of the rear axle to the body was off about 4 inches forward. So I swapped the rear K-5 springs for the stock S-10 springs and then flipped them around 180 degrees to offset them about 2 inches rearward. I also built some 2 inch offset zero rate blocks to make up the other 2 inches. I still had to trim the rear door corners for tire clearance. Finally after wiring up the ignition, and motor, installing the aluminum radiator, gauges, and building front and rear bumpers and side sliders we were almost ready to ride. I purchased the swamper TSL's 38-12.50-15 on 15x8 black steel wheels, and we're ready to wheel. Here's my build pics of our rig.
http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg289/goodolemrwilson/?action=view¤t=9a01f5af.pbw
I hope to see ya'll on the trail soon.
It started it's life as an old rusty 73 K-5 rescued from the crusher. When we went to lift the body off of the chassis, it literally folded in half. So the body went to the crusher, but the frame and drive line stayed for rebuilding. As with anything, nothing stays the same. The tired original 350 was swapped for my built-to-the-hilt 358 chevy limited late model stock car motor (detuned for the trail), the th350 trans was traded for a rebuilt sm465 trans and np205 adapter. The original np203 t-case was replaced by a np205 t-case in some horse type trading. I started pricing out building the original 10 bolt front and 12 rear with good quality parts (so they won't fail under all that power), and soon realized that it would be expensive to build these correctly. I soon stumbled upon a deal, a Dana 60 built w/5:13 gears and detroit locker and a 14 bolt floater built like the front for the same price as building the weak stock axles. Deal Done. I also did a disk brake conversion in the rear to get rid of the heavy rear drums. I built my own rear shackle flip, and put 4 inch E-Z ride front leafs on. While I had the body off I also went ahead and repaired and strengthened the frame where the steering box mounts.
With all of the drive line installed I started looking for a body with 4-doors (so the family can go wheelin also)and the same wheel base to match the frame. I found a reject S-10 4-door Blazer with a good body at a used car lot for a song-and-a-dance. I got it home and made some big saw horses and lifted the body off and rolled the S-10 chassis out. After getting some help, we got the K-5 under the body and got it centered up. I cut off all of the original body mounts on the frame and built new mounts to match the body. I also had to move the body back 4 inches to clear the extra cylinders of the V-8. That presented other problems.
The alignment of the rear axle to the body was off about 4 inches forward. So I swapped the rear K-5 springs for the stock S-10 springs and then flipped them around 180 degrees to offset them about 2 inches rearward. I also built some 2 inch offset zero rate blocks to make up the other 2 inches. I still had to trim the rear door corners for tire clearance. Finally after wiring up the ignition, and motor, installing the aluminum radiator, gauges, and building front and rear bumpers and side sliders we were almost ready to ride. I purchased the swamper TSL's 38-12.50-15 on 15x8 black steel wheels, and we're ready to wheel. Here's my build pics of our rig.
http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg289/goodolemrwilson/?action=view¤t=9a01f5af.pbw
I hope to see ya'll on the trail soon.
