taythegibs

and i got my ugly chicken as a DD i am going to try and fix up my 72 K5. Now i say try because if i cant get a good small block cheap enough within the next month or so it will have to go bye bye too.
A little background on this thing- "The Beast"
We picked it up about a year and a half-2 years ago. It was a project for me and my dad, he has always loved the first gen k5's and i wanted something to offroad since i had a 2wd xj (that did remarkably well for a 2wd offroad) and wanted to be able to go on trips. We traveled for a couple of hours to the south of Atlanta GA to look at it and ended up getting it for 1/2 what the po was asking.
This will be my build thread up until now and as long as i can remember to keep up with it until i sell it.

taythegibs

Pictures from the Ad-

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it had a 2in lift and "33's" that were the same height as a mid sized 32 and nearly bald.
on the way home the drivers side rear wheel came off and rolled half a mile down I-75, across 3 lanes of traffic, across one bridge, and then stopped in the middle of a second bridge. THis was on a saturday at about 6-7 in the evening. wh had to drive the hour and a half home and then return early sunday morning with a borrowed trailer to pick it up. After i wallowed in the mud for 45 minutes replacing the wheel studs (the 2 that the auto store had) we were able to get it on the trailer and head off. about halfway home the soft top that was "professionally made" by a previous owner ripped in half and the free ends whipped around tearing up the otherwise nearly perfect seats
a few days later we took it for a little ride....and my dad got it stuck.

here is a picture of the ruts 2 months later. nobody else had driven through and you could still see where the diffs were dragging and the rocks and brush we used to try and get traction.


sometime after i went to Mt. Aetna with a group of locals and the front axle wouldnt engage so i had to turn back and ended up having to reassemble the whole drivers side

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from there we got it home and it stayed as is for a few weeks until i put in a radio and speakers. a month or two later when i got a free cheapo winch off of my uncles banana yellow cj7 and had a buddy help me get it installed.

taythegibs

it sat pretty much the sane way for a few months





i drove it around a bit didnt really do much, it got cold and since it doesnt have a top it sat.

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i drove it here and there over last summer but i was busy pimping this at the camp i was working at.



that thing could go through any trail on the property...and off trail (found an old dump and started clearing it out) too.

the person in the background...she drives a red 91 xj and

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Back on topic... i got home and a few days into august i went to a buddies to try out the k5 again.




yes this is me, yes i had long hair........

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And Videos-

It is basically a big circle with a few little hills on the side.

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i finally got rid of those funky bald 33's and got a set of used 35's mounted for cheap

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since it started getting colder i made a tarp "top" for it and shoved a piece of plywood behind the front seats. even with that 25 degrees is damn cold.

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"The Beast"'s Final Day!
it was a chilly 16degrees out that fine Saturday morning when i packed her up to go on a day long trip with some buddies. little did i know what kind of crappy day was to come..... We were heading off to Prentice Cooper, not much more than some simple trail riding.
The damage from the day-
1 bumper, 3/8ths thick bent badly from a Tree...
1 battery thrown across the engine bay when the batt box halfway disintegrated
1 dead winch....that was not used that day
1 dead starter
1 destroyed u Joint and bent trac bar (iirc) from the tree
Me almost falling off the side of the mountain trying to retrieve my spare
and lastly on the way home, 1 dead chevy 350

pics of the group, the damage, and the end-



the denim was all that i had that was insulated and i still hadnt gotten a haircut





continued in next post

taythegibs

when i realized the spare was gone





the tree that bent the bumper and killed the u joint-


me blocking the trail head while they fixed the k5 and returned. the tree was one that shouldnt have been hard to move but it seemed as if it was a giant metal rod blocking our way



this is the final resting place of "The Beast"



After the engine threw a rod on the interstate i began frantically calling around to borrow a car trailer to get her home, the vehicles in that area get impounded when left on the side of the road, it is a dangerous curve. As that was happening a friend of one of my buddies happened to pass by and pulled over. he pulled me home in his little chevy truck , through rush hour traffic for 15 miles, saving my ***. Then the k5 was parked and not touched again until we moved it to the other side of the property where she now sits waiting...

taythegibs

My Rebuild of the k5 has been named "Project Rehab" and im thinking of calling her Reba

So that is pretty much where i am as of right now. my plan is to-
-redo pretty much all of the electrical because some PO went through and hacked it all up so only the brake lights and the headlights (on high beam) work.
-also (money permitting, this will be the big burden) going to get another 350 SBC and having it installed (i dont as of yet have the ability to do that)
-i will add on to the rollbar and put in a pillar bars and redo the whole top in order to better work and be attached to the front halo
-the rear seat is going to be removed and better bucket seats will be installed
-still depending on the money situation i want to get hummer 37's and double beadlocks
-other than that im still undecided on things


Any questions, comments, bad jokes to my misfortune on an easy day?

ckysodkorn_xj

sounds like you've got your work all planned out for ya.

taythegibs

I forgot to add in that if all goes as planned i will be Working at the same camp starting the last day in may up until the first in August with a few random days back home mixed in. Then i leave early on Aug 7 to move to orlando where i will be working at Walt Disney World for at least 5 months until Jan 7 2011 but i might extend that until may 2011.