1985 GMC K10 build

[1967KaiserM715]

haven't done much, but am trying something with the horn badge,

here it is painted(again)


and here is a test sheet, trying some thick epoxy coating, enviro poxy, pour on.


it takes 72 hours to dry, this was after a few minutes, I checked on it a few hours later, and it spread a good amount, but remained at least 1/16" thick, so two coats may work for the actual emblem, remains pretty clear, I'm gonna give it a few more days and see how it looks, maybe set it outside in the sun and see what that does.

also made a tube straightener for my brake and fuel lines, works pretty good, just some spare angle iron, and some patio door rollers, 5/16" wide, spaced 1-1/4" apart, and 1/2" from edge, a couple washers and bolts help space it and keep everything in line, I used the vice to maintain pressure, but am thinking maybe longer bolts and some heavy springs


Before




After

[1967KaiserM715]

Well for wanting to get the truck on the road by end of March, I certainly haven't been moving too fast. Anyways, pushing forward slowly, got a little more cab work done, two more patches, and then I have some dent pulling I need to do...hate bondo men, backside of the cab, along the back pillar, around the drivers door frame and rear window, looked a little funny, turns out there was at least a 1/4 inch bondo feathered out, covering a few small dents, plus on passenger side, and one major dent on the roof.

I will pull the dents as best as I can, then maybe a skim of bondo, although I will likely not, as the truck will be used so it will get a few dents over the rest of its life, so the less bondo the better, my dad used to lead fill, and he still has most of the supplies, so I may try that is a few locations, lead fill is a much better adhesive then the plastic filler, although it certainly takes a bit of practice to work it.

here is the patch for the front windshield all in, filled in hole as well(wasn't rusted through and rusted from the side I was welding so figured it wouldn't need an actual patch.





I am also having my brother get a quote for new front springs, 2 inch lift. They are supposed to come with poly bushings, so a big plus. I was just going to do AAL's but given the extra weight of the 6.5 Turbo, and that it sagged a decent amount with just the 305, I figured new springs would be a better solution to the most likely 30 year old springs on it. I will also be getting all new front end parts, alot of the hardware is rusty, at least 1 wheel joint is bad, and there was an alignment issue, slight cupping of the inside of the tires, so figure it had a little too much toe in, although camber could have had an effect, camber normally gives a smoother wear, toe in gives a cupping wear, based on my previous experience.

and some more recent pictures of the engine, I have mostly got the exhaust routed, it will be tack welded, then finalized after I plant it in the truck and make sure the clearances work out. I also made part of the Glow plug harness, working on the drivers side now, looking over all the wiring diagrams I can to get the truck wired as simply as possible, while maintaining a stock appearing system.







and the Turbo master I made, I do plan on upgrading to a boost referenced wastgate actuator later, but this will get me on the road, and it only cost me less then $5, about $105 cheaper then the mechanical ones that the 6.5 specialists sell

[1967KaiserM715]

Working slowly, lots of examining wiring diagrams, pricing out front end parts, still waiting on a quote for front springs.

done more cab work, removed some more bondo, made a patch for the footwell on passenger side. also took some pics of the doors and fenders I picked up a while back, they are all rust free, although they do have some dents(I can deal with dents, just not the rust on the drivers door I had). the dent that was around the drivers rear pillar was not bad at all, once the 1/4" of bondo was removed, it proved to be rather shallow, much less so then the dents on the roof and passenger side. I will look into fixing it a little farther, but I think a minor skim of bondo will be fine here, just enough to make it look a little smoother if needed








(This is the top of the roof, and will be tricky, looks like something with an edge hit it pretty good)

Guess I didn't get a full shot of the fender, but got the dents I need to work on, I think the dents came from a chain, similiar marks are on the passenger fender, and when I went to pick them up the bet also had similar marks











I will most likely use the passenger door and fender that were originally on the truck, and keep the others as a spare. the drivers door was pretty much beyond repair, and the drivers fender had some issues(although workable, I just grabbed all the doors and fenders when I went to primarily grab the drivers door.)

I'll keep chugging along, slowly.

[1967KaiserM715]

managed to find a glow plug lens, so I cut my bezel and inserted it. I do need to find the light plugs, but this and the oil gauge seem to be the hard things to find.



I can't do much today, the severe swing in temperature caused a lot of condensation, so most everything in the garage has a light coating of "mist", for lack of a better term. I should be hearing from my brother tonight about my quote for the front springs.

[1967KaiserM715]

pulled front end, and springs. New springs, 4 leaf, were quoted at $175 a side. so I am leaning towards add a leafs/overload springs, enough to add about 500 lb capacity to the front, which should hold the weight of the diesel better, I'll proceed with pulling the packs apart and inspecting the leafs for any cracks.



I will also commence with pulling the axle apart and getting new parts put on that, definitely new wheel joints, tie rod, drag-link ends, maybe ball joints-see how they feel and look outside of the axle(most likely will replace anyways) also inspect the bearings and maybe(very big maybe) spring for locking hubs and get rid of the auto locs

I will also need to see what i can do about the backing plates, my set have some sheet metal shield attached to caliper bracket, rather then being one thickness all the way around(like every other axle I've seen), and they are pretty rusted(I'll take some better pics later)

[1967KaiserM715]

Got a new power steering pump, engine is about done.

Started tearing into the front axle, needs everything, bearings are shot, pretty sure the auto locks are shot(the outer bearing in the hub was in pieces), upper balljoint is bad, lower seems fine but why risk it. wheel joints shot, and of course the tie rod end is shot(already knew this)

as soon as photo bucket accepts my uploads(it is currently "uploading" my pictures as a lost image) I'll get pics up.

I'll post this pic, maybe it will show up, but my computer ain't showing it to me

[1967KaiserM715]

well, lets see if this works, I can see the pictures on Photobucket now

besides being rusty the calipers are in really nice shape, I think the guy had put all new brakes in it, the rears were all new(shoes hardware and drums), but then again as we tear into it I don't know


cap off


Hub bearing-no good, race is all busted and is missing 2 balls, outside of the two that were loose


then here is the auto lock hub assembly. I didn't see how to take it apart at first,, so I then removed the spring. finally figured it out so I put the spring and clip back on





this is the clip that hides the wire clip that you need to hold when pulling on the assembly


here is the clip and the hub partially removed, it is just shitting there,nothing holding it in now


disc/hub is off, this is the outer bearing, inner looks just as bad, mix of fresh and dirty grease,(clean streaks of blue in a mash of dark grease, so I guess it wasn't as clean as it should have been, which probably led to this...that and the nuts were barely hand tight(as in I reached in after removing the circlip and washer and managed to spin it off by hand



small ding on spindle, nowhere near the bearing, so should be fine, little scoring where the bearing sits, hopefully it is fine, I'll get it all cleaned up and make my  decision from there


next removed the six nuts holding the backing plate one, and in the process managed to completely knock off that guard portion in the front



this was the hard part, but I got it off, sprayed it with WD, little heat from propane torch, and using a chisel around the edge. start at about the 7 o'clock position, there is a notch cut out you can start there and give a couple good wacks out, then it started to separate, so I worked my way around with a sharp chisel slowly breaking it apart, adding WD to keep everything wet.



knuckle and axle off, ball joints weren't too bad, needed a 6 ft breaker on my dads 3/4 inch drive socket to break nut loos on bottom, used the impact on top. Turn the castle nut upside down and bang away with sledge, popped out with a couple good hits. top joint had wet grease, but had this weird "wear" spot, you could feel it when spinning, and rotating it, it also felt loose when hitting that spot.

[1967KaiserM715]

got front axle all apart, drivers side looked better, bearing stub nuts were definitely torqued(or at least tight), I will be cleaning all the bearings tomorrow make sure there is nothing wrong. Drivers inner bearing may be bad, looks like the outer race got a little hot, and the bearing it self seemed like it had a groove around it, but was hard to tell with the grease.



also got the power steering pump and pulley on. I used the Harbor Freight(think it was the Pittsburgh brand) pulley installer, much better design and quality over the OEM Autozone brand-which I had broke trying to install the old pulley on the old pump, which led to me getting a new pump and pulley

[1967KaiserM715]

sand blasted one set of springs and one caliper backing plate, painted them. Using a SEM rust preventive paint, seems alright, couple local guys swear by it.

started cleaning up the axle and knuckles, will finish tomorrow and hopefully paint those as well, as well as the other spring set. Got most of my front suspension stuff in, waiting on a few final packages.

I'll get a few pictures tomorrow, forgot to take a few earlier.

[1967KaiserM715]

guess I missed a post about popping the ball joints out, have pictures of one of the and joints, and the knuckles after pressing them out





two joints were dry like above, one was tight, the other getting loose, one was really loose and full of grease(only joint that still had a grease fitting ) last one was fine, but got this far gonna go all the way

forgot to grab a few pics before getting all dressed up to finish sand blasting, and since I went straight to paint, never got any pisc of the sandblasted parts.

but here they are with a few coats of that SEM rust sheild stuff, part number 28104 Black,







I ended up doing a light mist at the end to make it look flat, it is a semi gloss paint, and they do carry a full gloss one(think the part number for that is 28064)

also leaking some oil out of the ends of the axles, when I flipped it to do the bottom, forgot the oil would fill the cavities, I plug it with a large round magnet and o-ring, but I knew that would only be enough to limit the sand getting down the tube,so odd are, I will likely need to strip the ends and repaint, not a huge problem

 and here is the Warns and wheel joints the Post Office delivered earlier(at least one auto hub was getting to be toast, plus I guess they unlock in reverse!! )





my overloads sound like they just showed up, should have my energy suspension bushing as well,

[1967KaiserM715]

got a little farther, new ball joints are pressed in, still need to torque to axle, but I kind of want it on the truck before torquing everything down, figured the frame should keep it more stable.



and got one spring set done, haven't cleaned up the other side yet(it got dark, and the next few days were windy), hopefully by end of the week the other pack will be done, I should be finally getting the inner bearing race for the passenger hub, so that should pretty much conclude the front end, minus tie rods and draglink





I used Rancho's add-a-leaf, gave the spring pack an extra 3/4 to a full inch more free arch over stock, so hopefully with the heavy diesel it won't bottom out all the time, and ride more level

There is a military swap meet over in Milford I will be hitting in the morning, so like today and probably for the rest of the month, most of my time on this truck will only be spent in the afternoon and weekends-this also depends on how fast work picks up, nice weather like this could mean full hours by next week.

[1967KaiserM715]

found a few goodies at the swap meet, like new, if not a completely rebuilt waterproof distributor for my M35 gasser, new cargo cover end curtains for same truck, and a few other small items for my M715

anyways, got the other springs, top u-bolt/swaybar plates, and the gas tank supports for the drivers side sandblasted and Partially painted. I have no good way to hold the gas tank supports or springs, so I need to wait for the paint to dry, then flip and do the other side.



that's it for today

[1967KaiserM715]

passenger spring pack all finished painted and assembled, leaf shackles, and gas tank supports are all painted now as well, waiting for some dry time to install on the frame, then I can mount the axle and start reassembly...forgot, still need to clean and give a quick coat of paint on the axle shafts, but want to pull the u-joints first.

some pics, more updates later

[1967KaiserM715]

wheel joints removed, pretty bad, this was the best cap-kind of like damp dirt, the rest were more like dry rust colored sand, they look like Duralast bearings-with the red seal, and no other identification marks, I've only gotten like 2 years at best from Duralast/Autozone front end parts, although one of the receipts from this truck I have is an alignment/inspection slip from 2011, so I assume that is when these got put on.







passenger side is the red rag, drivers is blue, although I ended up stripping, cleaning, and painting only the drivers for right now.



drivers axle-shaft cleaned up and painted,







And got the other leaf pack on, everything is about ready to get the axle up and mounted, waiting for a really good day, so I can go ahead and do everything on the front end, spindles, bearings, hubs, seals, torque ball-joints.



once everything is all mounted on the front, I plan on dropping the engine, and tranny on the frame, start routing brake and fuel lines. saving rear axle/springs clean up and spring bushings for the rear for later, need the truck on the road by end of the month. Kind of a rush job now, but my daily driver is getting to be more of a money pit then I want to deal with.

[1967KaiserM715]

one axle shaft all together, drivers is painted, wheel joint will be pressed in later after the paint dries a little more

sorry for the horrible pic, haven't got a good shop camera



Axle is in, waiting on some nuts to replace the stub nuts, had to go online, none of the local places could source a serrated flange grade 5, in a 3/8-24 fine thread. With any luck they will be in tomorrow, and Saturday I can finish up. once the front is done, the engine and tranny goes in.