Walosi - 68 K10 lwb - VA

[kursed]

Just picked up a 68 K10. It will eventually go to my youngest daughter. She nicknamed it Walosi which is Cherokee for frog, since it bounces so much. She also picked out a Hot Rod Flatz dark green for now since it's currently sporting silver rattle bomb.

283 / sm465 4 speed

Headers and 2 into 1 exhaust with a Flowmaster

73-87 front axel

Power steering and brakes

Utility bed for now, picking up a lwb fleet off a 68 tomorrow

Replacing the Edelbrock carb with a new Holley 600 electric choke, vac secondary

Roughly 6" lift

33x12.50-15 BFG All Terrain KO, two new tires already on the front, but BFG no longer makes them, so in order to get two new tires to match for the rear, I had to get some shipped from NC.

Plan is dark green interior to match the planned paint.

SPID is shot, could barely make out "SIDE TRIM, STEP, HEAVY DUTY, and TINT" after cleaning paint off with tons of Q-tips and brake clean. Then coated it in clear laquer to help darken the letters a little.

Should be fun.

[kursed]

Picked up the bed today, and with the help of two good friends we got it unloaded.


This is what it looked like when the previous owner bought it in the early 90s.


He painted it Hugger Orange and removed the bed, built the homemade utility bed. Said he regretted spraying over the orange with silver spray bomb immediately after doing it. Oh well, what's done is done.

[msgross]

sure it's a 283? My 68 K-10 had a 327...

looks like a fun project? Is the front axle original? Easy disc upgrade by swapping for a newer axle.


BTW, I think those are Ford mirrors.

[kursed]

Originally Posted by msgross

sure it's a 283? My 68 K-10 had a 327...

looks like a fun project? Is the front axle original? Easy disc upgrade by swapping for a newer axle.


BTW, I think those are Ford mirrors.

Previous owner said the 283 was swapped in place of the original 6 cylinder years ago as well as the square body front axel and power steering.

I haven't run the block numbers or anything else yet, so I can't say 100%

[kursed]

Junkyard score today! Picked up a grille with chrome trim and chrome headlight bezels, a bench seat, paint able front bumper, and a step rear bumper with the chevy dealer stamp in it from Marshall Chevrolet Port Lavaca TX.

[kursed]

So I ordered 2 of the Gen1 BFG All Terrain tires to match the 2 new tires on the front. Went to pick them up and have them mounted. One of the dry rotted Generals on the rear ate crap about 2 miles from the tire shop.


Then the spare I had ate crap right in front of the tire shop.


Finally got the new tires on. YAHOO!


And apparently my 4 year old Joe (aka: Goose) thinks the seat is the most comfortable thing around for mid day naps.

[kursed]

With the help of my gorgeous wife and three close friends and fellow members of my hot rod club "the Frankensteins," we got the utility bed off tonight and sat the long fleet bed in place. She needs some one inch body lift pucks and bolts now, then we'll be hauling again.

[swamp rat]

I love the name of your truck, my wife calls my K20 Bouncy Truck.. LOL!

BFG stopped making the 15's too? dang i thought it was just the 16.5's.. That bed makes a diference!

[rgunlock]

Looks like a solid truck. Gonna make all the guys jealous of your daughter

I just ordered 15" BFG AT KO2's off tirerack.com so they're still available at least in the second generation design.

[kursed]

Thanks guys.

Yeah BFG still makes the All Terrain KO2, but the designlooks slightly different than the Gen1 A.T.

Since the P.O. didn't drive the truck much and the Gen1 tires on the front were almost new, I wanted all 4 to match. Luckily my good friend Adam that works at a local tire shop found some of the Gen1 A.T.s and had them shipped from SC to VA for me.

[kursed]

Got a little work done today, no pics though. Got the Holley 600 installed, running WAY too rich. I adjusted the floats, air screws are almost all the way in, checked timing, got frustrated and called it a day.

I would have never thought a 600 cfm would be too much for a 283, but I'm starting to wonder now. I called Holley and they confirmed it should be fine on a 283. It comes stock with #65 jets, so I ordered some #62s today, we'll see how they do.

I'd like to check the cap, rotor, and plugs tomorrow. They look fairly new, but if somethings a little off causing it to not burn right, I suppose that could cause a rich condition.

I had to order my 7/16x4 carriage bolts from Fastenal for the bed mounting bolts. Couldn't find anyone local that stocked anything close. Everyone skipped from 3/8 to 1/2 inch. Picked up some rubber washers from Tractor supply. All my nuts, washers, bolts and everything to mount the bed came to about $15, so I'd say that's quite a bit better than the $50 catalog bed mounting kit... if it works hahaha.

I decided against adding 1" body lift pucks to the bed and will instead remove all the 1" pucks from the cab and front clip. Lower C.O.G. and not really needed when running 33" tires.

[msgross]

I'd replace the cab bushings at the same time then. Don't use the poly one's either unless you want a stiffer ride. LMC has an OEM replacement kit that includes the right parts for the rad support too.

[kursed]

Originally Posted by msgross

I'd replace the cab bushings at the same time then. Don't use the poly one's either unless you want a stiffer ride. LMC has an OEM replacement kit that includes the right parts for the rad support too.

Previous owner replaced them a couple years ago. They have spray paint on them from him as well, so they don't look new, but they're okay.

[kursed]

Got a little more work done yesterday. Swapped the plugs, that helped a lot with the running rich issue, but it's still running a bit rich. Waiting on my MSD cap and rotor to arrive and some smaller jets I ordered. If that doesn't solve things, I guess we'll try running a 500 cfm carb. Was hoping to get the bed mounted and body lift removed from the cab and front clip, but I ran out of time.

[RANDY COX]

Hey just saw where your from Staunton area, do you know any body with the last name Lockridge, I sold a 70 Burb 4x4 that went down to that area yrs ago, it was blue and silver and black had a 250 six 3 spd 4x4...

[kursed]

Originally Posted by RANDY COX

Hey just saw where your from Staunton area, do you know any body with the last name Lockridge, I sold a 70 Burb 4x4 that went down to that area yrs ago, it was blue and silver and black had a 250 six 3 spd 4x4...

I know a Lockridge, but not from Staunton. Sorry

[kursed]

Tank and seat have been pulled out. Bed mounted and body lift pucks removed from cab and front clip. Lots of rut in the tank so I'll swap it for a clean spare I have. Hopefully get to tinker with the carb some tomorrow.

[72LSK10]

Nice build, cool name, hope your daughter helps you out, that would be an awesome Father-Daughter build.

[kursed]

Thanks for the compliments.

Both daughters and my son have all been helping quite a bit over the past few days. They've helped with getting tools, mounting the bed, and removing the body lift. They had to go back to school today, so only my son there to run tools for me.

Got the new tank in today, seat back in, shortened the clutch rod that goes through the firewall. Also shifted the steering column a little toward the driver. It's going to need some bearings and stuff for sure. The bottom shafts that rides in the bottom bearing moves all over. Called around a few junkyards and couldn't find a donor colum, so I guess we'll rebuild the original eventually.

Also thinking I have a vacuum leak on the intake gasket which may be causing the issue with running too rich. Going to try swapping the intake gaskets tomorrow. Oh yeah, and I installed the gun rack slash fishing pole rack. Lol.

[swamp rat]

Actually a vaccum leak would make a lean condition due to more air being introduced into the combustion chambers.

Keep up the progress!

[kursed]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Actually a vaccum leak would make a lean condition due to more air being introduced into the combustion chambers.

Keep up the progress!

That's what I would think too, but the PO seems convicted the intake gasket was leaking, so I'll check it when I go back to the shop tomorrow.

I've got the smaller jets and stuff to take with me also. Going to check all sorts of stuff and see what I can figure out.

[ryanroo]

Sweet old truck for a young gal!

[kursed]

Thanks.

No leaks at the intake gasket or anywhere else.

Carb started acting ridiculous yesterday. Idle air screws would make no difference and wouldn't even stall it out when I tried them all the way in. Then it started spewing fuel from the front vent tube. I thought maybe the float was set too high, took the bowl off and it was set correctly, so I returned it to the parts store and swapped for another.

Didn't have time to swap jets. So I'll do that the next time I go down to work on it. Might try a hotter plug also.

[kursed]

Haven't had much time to work on the old gal this week. Got all the rear lights routed, soldered, shrink tubed. Just need to do a little more tucking and get some more conduit.

Took it to the tire shop and had the bent rim exhanged for the new rim. A lot less vibration now, the rest is in the driveline age.

Also swapped over the old side markers for Chevy van style smooth markers.

[kursed]

Went hunting this week with my father-in-law and a friend. Our hunting camp is about 30 miles from where I live and mostly long twisty country roads with an average speed of 55. Once you get to the area, the camp is a couple miles up rough road into the Allegheny mountains. As I turned into the camp site and straightened my steering wheel out, POP! The steering shaft snapped in half inside the steering column.

I knew the bottom bearing was getting bad so I had already picked up new bearings in hopes of rebuilding the column soon, I just didn't have any idea it would be this soon. Apparently the bottom column bearing was not only bad, but it had been long gone and only the outer bearing race was left long before I even got the truck. So long that the shaft had worn down to a taper and finally snapped. Thank God it snapped as I was pulling into the campsite and not on the main hardball at 55 mph. I would have ended up in the river upside down for sure. I pulled the column Tuesday evening at camp.



So we hunted Wednesday morning and headed back into town on Wednesday afternoon. I ran to my favorite scrap yard and pulled a column from a donor truck there. I snagged everything from the rag joint to the steering wheel just in case I ran into trouble. Showered and threw on a clean pair of work clothes and headed back to camp. Hunted Thursday morning and headed back to campsite that afternoon to get to work. I performed emergency surgery on the two columns in the bed of the truck. I just pulled the shaft from the donor column and put it in the old column. The donor was from a 3 on the tree truck, my old column was 4 speed floor shift.

I used the new top bearing, but the old 3 speed bottom bearing was actually in good shape so I left it for now. Plan was to get home safely, then pull the column one more time for a thorough rebuild in the very near future.



My old non-existent bottom bearing on bottom, new donor bearing at top.



Not sure if the donor truck was a 67 or 68, but it had a big back glass and side markers on the front fenders so I assumed 68. Hoever, I'm not familiar with this style of column plug. The only ones I've ever seen were the rounded style like the one on my 68.

Donor column flat plug


My 68 column rounded plug