'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.

[cruizin01]

Recently I looked into converting it over to 2wd to make a "street" truck out of it. Something I can drive around on the weekends, haul some light loads, do burn outs, etc. :-)

My wife gave the ok to start bring the project together this fall. I just didn't know exactly how to go about it. I considered trying to find a LWB 2wd truck and redo the frame restoration, upgrade, etc on it. But I think just doing the front and rear swap might be better. I already have a very nice frame, all new lines, fuel tank, new mounts, exhaust hung, etc. Along with the fact I wont need to remove the cab.

The plan is to remove the Dana 60 and 14B FF rear along with the TH350 and NP205. Swap the 2wd crossmember, control arms, brake, etc over. Do the same with the rear axle. Id like to find a 4L80E for this swap since I'm having to find a 2wd trans anyway. Ill just use a standalone controller for it.

August 2017.
Luck would have it that I ran across a 2wd frame and junky cab on craigslist for $300. It was a 76 so it was a 12B which seemed like the right move and shortbed which makes keeping it in the garage slightly easier.



I decided to start on the rear end since it was less parts to deal with. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Powertrax No Slip LSD had been installed sometime recently. One of the springs is broke so I ordered a new spring kit.



Ive removed the rear brakes to prep the axle for a rear disk conversion. I decided to do a weld on bracket and Astro rotors with GM metric rear calipers. (ordered non ebrake) might switch them out for ebrake calipers at some point.



I also ordered a TA rear diff cover for it, rear brake hoses, fluid, new axle studs, etc.

I did uncover a broke rear leaf which got my thinking about how Im gonna do the suspension. Initially I was gonna do the std 4/6 drop but Im thinking slightly more advanced. Id need new leafs and new coils (they were cut) anyway.

My current plan is the RideTech Street Grip setup. So that the plan for now. We'll see how this all comes together over the next few months.




My plan is to ready the front and rear suspensions over this fall winter. Order the Ridetech and in probably in the spring bring the blue truck over and swap the 4x4 parts off and put the 2wd parts on. (axles, transmission, tcase, etc.

So wish me luck!

[daddyjeep]

That's quite the back story. I will follow along to see where this goes from here.

Welcome.

[cruizin01]

Got a few new parts and did a small amount of work the past couple days.

-New wheel seals installed
-New axle studs installed
-New Powertrax rebuild springs came in. Need to install and put pin back in.
-Brake parts except the pads (waiting on them so I can get the caliper brackets ready to weld.
-New rear cover from TA arrived.

[cruizin01]

Managed to get the rear diff back together with new springs. Cut the seized ubolts off and removed the rear axle from the truck. Spent a little time cleaning it up. Still have quite a bit to do. Want to get it cleaned before welding the caliper brackets on. And yes I put the wheels on backwards so the axle wasn't hidden "in" the wheel.

[cruizin01]

Anyone have any suggestions on prepping this axle for paint? Its covered in surface rust that was under the paint that I'm scraping off. I'm considering using a rust converter, then some epoxy primer followed by some chassis saver or something similar. Thoughts?

[daddyjeep]

I was real happy with the POR15 metal prep. You could watch the rust disappear.

[MTCK]

Cool build. I'll follow along. Keeping the BBC I assume?

[cruizin01]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Cool build. I'll follow along. Keeping the BBC I assume?

Yeah, thats the plan. Assuming its runs ok. It hasn't been started since the build stopped. So we'll see. Ill do everything i can to give it a good return to life. 😁

[cruizin01]

Got the calipers brackets welded on.

Decided to return the non ebrake calipers and order the Cadillac calipers. I hope they fit the same..lol

As far as a coating I ended up going with Rust Bullet stuff.

I did a prep and etch phosphoric acid base then the Rust Bullet coating. I was able to get 1 coat of black top coat on last night. I figure one more coating will be enough.




Not totally thrilled with the overall finish but I guess that's what I get when I don't totally strip the axle down to completely bare metal. I think the prep and etch created a rough'ish surface that I didn't intend on. oh well. It seems to be very durable and hard. Not like the truck will ever see salt anyway.

One more coat of the top coat, then I can install the new rear cover. Then install the rear brakes. That should about do it for the rear. Then onto the front susp prep.

[MTCK]

Looking good. What are you going to do with all the 4wd stuff? Good start on a wheeling rig.

[cruizin01]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Looking good. What are you going to do with all the 4wd stuff? Good start on a wheeling rig.

Thanks.

I'm just planning to sell the D60, 14B rear, 205TC, lifted springs, crossover steering and TH350. I'm hoping that will cover the cost of a 4L80E, harness, controller and a driveshaft.

[cruizin01]

Finished up the rear axle. All but bolting the brakes on. Still waiting on the ebrake calipers. Not happy with the rust bullet top coat. But I didn't follow the directions 100% so Im going with that as an excuse. Its super glossy as well. Im gonna try something different on the front susp parts. I may go back at some point and strip the rear but itll be fine for now.



Decide to remove the front susp from the frame so I could get the rest of the frame cut up and make some more room in the garage. Also wanted to move the front susp from the detached garage to my regular garage so I could work on it easier. Im only keeping the front part of the frame to use as a jig for the swap to the blue truck.



It came out quite a bit easier than I was expecting. I thought I had read that it was riveted in place but everything unbolted. I didn't break a single bolt. The hardest part was trying to get it out from under the frame by myself.



I finally managed to get it out and through a doorway to the yard. I then was able to get wheels back on it so it would roll. I had to bolt the tie rods back in to keep the wheels from collapsing left or right. I then used a 2x4 so I could "drive" the assembly back to the garage. First I had to degrease the thing from the 40 years of grime. Used some spray 9 and a pressure washer. Cleaned up pretty decent.




Now I need to disassemble everything. Clean everything being reused and prep for paint. Im about to order all new Moog susp and steering parts this week. The calipers, rotors and hoses are new from the previous owner so Ill reuse those.

[aggie91]

The rig was looking good when you and your Dad stopped. Interested in seeing the finished 2wd product.

[cruizin01]

Originally Posted by aggie91

The rig was looking good when you and your Dad stopped. Interested in seeing the finished 2wd product.

I appreciate it. Thank you.


Finally got the ebrake calipers in yesterday from my pops. They fit! I had to space them with 2 washers to center everything but they should work fine. Ill get them painted and all mounted up maybe this weekend.



I also got in most of my front end parts.

All new Moog steering parts and new ball joints. I picked up some different chassis paint to try from summit. I went ahead and bought a ridetech control arm bushing tool to try and make my life a little easier on these old arms. The ridetech susp kit comes with new bushings so I didn't order them.

[daddyjeep]

So, are those the Caddy calipers?

[cruizin01]

Originally Posted by daddyjeep

So, are those the Caddy calipers?

Yes, 80'ish Seville. Astro AWD rotors. The astro rotors are thicker than the stock rear Caddy rotors, so I had to grind some of the pad material off. Other than that everything seems to line up and fit correctly. I have brake hoses but haven't fit them yet. And I'm unsure how the ebrake lines will work out yet.

[cruizin01]

Not anything too fun to update with but,

The front end is completely in pieces. I had a heck of a time separating everything. The balljoints were pretty well seized. The control arms bushings were terrible. Lots of drilling and air hammering to get those SOB's out. But its done.

I took the subframe and upper and lowers to a sandblaster early this week. Hoping to have those back maybe tomorrow. Im gonna try and do the rest of the small stuff with a blasting cabinet at work.

I ended up having to order new lower control arm cross shafts. Mine were worn badly and they were splitting where they are rolled together near the end. Rock Auto had some for quite a bit less than the TRW ones I found elsewhere. I found the thread on modifying their location to help with caster so I may do that mod before painting everything.

Speaking of painting, I ordered some Chassis Shield epoxy paint from Summit to try. I ordered a cheap HVLP to spray it with. I got semi gloss in hopes it matches the frame closely on the blue truck.

This week decided I couldn't live with the finish on the rear axle. The super high gloss was all wrong and I just wasn't happy with the way the black adhered to the undercoat. It flakes WAY too easy. So last weekend and a couple nights this week I set to removing 2 coats of black and 2 coats of the silver under coat. What a PIA! The black came right off but the silver had adhered pretty well. I could have left it but I didn't want any issues with the new paint. So I set to scraping and scraping and more scraping. Just finished up tonight. Put some prep and etch on it to seal the light surface rust. But its ready to "re" paint.

Ill try and get some pictures of things as they are in the next week days.

[cruizin01]

Got the front end parts back from the sandblaster. Everything looks good.





Ran into a snag on these new lower cross bars. Anybody see the difference?


It appears these arms have there own specific bushings made for them. The new crossbar bushing area is smaller in diameter than the OEM part. The crossbar will only accept the bushings that it comes with.
So that sucks, I cant use the RideTech bushings with these cross shafts. So I either need to try a different brand crossbar or just use these bushings and hope for the best. They seem well made but its hard to tell with bushings.

[MTCK]

That's a bummer. It'd be nice to be able to go to the parts store if you ever need a new bushing.

[cruizin01]

Originally Posted by MTCK

That's a bummer. It'd be nice to be able to go to the parts store if you ever need a new bushing.

Sooo, I'm an idiot. Its the inner bushing that's still on the crossbar. Once that's removed the old and new look to be the same. Now to decide whether to return the new and use the old or use the new ones.

[cruizin01]

I was able to get the suframe, upper and lower arms painted recently.


I also stripped the rear axle AGAIN. What a pain to strip off layers of 2 different coatings. I got it repainted with the Summit stuff through an el cheapo hvlp gun. Looks way better. And adhered 10x better. Rear brakes are also complete and installed.


I bead blasted all the small stuff at work. I need to get it sprayed in the next few days. I need to spray the new steering parts as well. I did go ahead and paint the front calipers. They were new but had some surface rust that I cleaned off. I brushed them with VHT paint.




I did also have a friend drill new holes in the lower crossmember cross bars so that I can get the increased caster. I forgot to take pics but Ill post those up soon.

At this point Im about finished with what I can do with the parts I have. I need the blue truck here so i can start removing the 4x4 stuff from it and fit up the 2wd parts. I need to get the ridetech susp kit ordered as well. It has the bushings I need to complete the upper and lower bushings. Obviously I need the other components as well to bolt everything together.

My only delay is moving stuff around at my house. Im in the process of getting a storage shed so that I can move some stuff from my detached garage into it. Both of my "spots" are full with a car and lawn mowers, etc, etc. This will allow me to have some storage for parts and get the truck in the garage.

My plan is to get my $hit together in the next couple weeks so I can get the blue truck to my house before we get any snow, etc.

[JoeinT.O.]

Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures. I will follow along!

[cruizin01]

Couple things to update.

I got all the small items for the front end painted last weekend. So everything for the most part is painted as far as the parts I have.

I ran across a 4l80e on CL for $300 so I went ahead and picked it up. Im planning to pull the pan. Cut the filter apart and look for any signs of damage. The trans was supposedly removed from a running driving van so I plan to run it as is for now. Worse case if its not right Ill have to pull it and have it gone through. For now Im hoping to do get away with a TransGo shift kit, filter and fluid. I figure the stock converter will be fine.



Im getting a 10x18 shed delivered this week so that will put me closer to being able to get the truck to my house. I need to quit spending money for the next month and get the ridetech suspension kit ordered as well.

[cruizin01]

Yesterday was an exciting day for the project.

I was able to arrange getting the blue truck to my house!

I went up to my dads in the morning where my gpa and I loaded all the spare parts into his truck and trailer and we pushed the truck out of my dads garage and got it ready for its trip home. It filthy but thats to be expected from something that wasn't covered very well and sat since 2001. Overall condition is still very good. Minimal surface rust on just some of the random hardware bits. Paint is good, aside from a few light scratches here and there.

The rollback showed up around lunch and got her loaded up.


Its less than an hour from my dads to my house so the trip down was no problem. The fun started when we went to unload it into my detached garage. Its sort of a weird setup and the garage door is on the back of the garage and leads into my yard. Its been cold for several days here and it never crossed my mind that the grass would be so soft. We all but buried the rollback in the yard. yikes. It was worse than the pic shows.


Luckily after a few failed attempts at getting it unstuck we were able to use the winch and a tree to get it to harder ground. The downside is I wasn't able to get it in the detached garage.

So for now we unloaded it into my attached garage. My wife lost her parking spot which she isn't overly happy about but she understands.




So for now Im gonna try and clean it up a little bit. First step is to find out if the engine is ok. I ordered some oil, filter, plugs, etc from summit. I picked up an oil priming tool to use on it. So assuming the engine starts and runs ok Ill then pull the tcase then remove the engine and transmission. I figure thats just easiest so I can work to install the 2wd stuff. I figure itd be easier to mount the new trans to the engine that way anyway.

Its exciting and slightly overwhelming just because of the amount of parts that need installed and or replaced. Im hoping most of its pretty straight forward as my memory of things that were removed is slim. Ive got loads of old parts and Im hoping I can put them in their respective places. Probably need you guys to help me along the way. Thanks for following along.