'78 K20 to C10. Almost 20 years in the making.

[cruizin01]

This project started in '99 with me and my dad. I was 17 at the time. It had been a monster/mud truck when I bought it. All red with ~16" of lift and 44" tires. We bought it without an engine.

The plan was to pull some of the lift out of it. Put smaller wheels and tires on it, put an engine in it and drive it. (for some reason Im without better pictures when I got it)





That all changed as we started fixing bits and pieces. The cab floors, rockers and corners needed replaced so we attempted to patch them in but we didn't reinforce the cab correctly so nothing fit back together correctly.



A guy my dad new brought body parts from the south up to Ohio and sold them. We had him locate and 87 AC cab for us to swap over.



We then proceed to do a frame off on the truck. Pulled everything off, cleaned, replaced all the bits and pieces. etc. etc.





We decided to leave the TH350 and NP205 in the truck. My dad had an 396ci engine from an Impala that we tore down and rebuilt. Mostly stock but with different heads and aftermarket camshaft. Edelbrock carb and headers.



We took the truck to a well known exhaust shop and had 3" exhaust with an H pipe and 50 series Flowmasters installed.



We built a crossover steering for the Dana 60 before there was such a thing available elsewhere. I thought it would look cool to put dual shocks all around so we found plates and order up 8 Ranchos for it.

We bought brand new doors and fenders from GM for the build. My dad and I spent many hours refinishing the bed, it didn't need any panels replaced though. I for whatever reason wanted a blue truck, so we tried a few random colors and nothing hit home. Dodge Viper GTS's were one of my favorite cars at the time so I said "lets just paint it VIPER GTS Blue!" So that was that.

We had a friend come spray it in our garage. We sprayed everything but the bed floor (planned to bedline the floor only) and the hood. For some reason we didn't have a hood when the truck was sprayed.




We bought some interior panels to switch the color over to gray. New Dash from GM and I think GM door panels. We installed the AC box and some wiring.



The engine was fired up and ran for break in. The engine has less than an hour or run time on it. We didnt even put fuel in the tank.




This was roughly 2 years worth of work from 98-99 to 2000-2001. I dont remember the exact time frame. At this time we both were sorta burnt out on working on it. I was seeing a girl, had bought a camaro to be stupid in and my dad got remarried, so his time was limited too.

So the truck sat and has sat in his garage since then.

Over the years Ive went back and forth about what to do with it. From finishing it as it is, selling it, parting it out, etc. I really have minimal desire to complete the truck as is. Lifted, with big tires, etc. I guess that's just not what I'm into anymore. Ive had newer 4wd trucks since then and I just don't enjoy driving them.