Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

I finally have the passenger side rocker job finished up. I gave it the Bondo treatment to smooth out all of my poor welds. The can of Bondo I used was an old one my Dad had laying around. The copyright on the back of the can said 2002, so it was probably time to either get rid of it, or slap it on The Ox haha. It laid down well, after a little sanding I gave it a skim coat of paint. Lastly, I rolled on my bedliner. I like to use Herculiner on my vehicles, it seems to hold up well. I put it on my Nissan Frontier 3 years ago and it still looks great. Anyway...here are some progress pictures. Now all I have to fix is the driver's side and my truck will be rust free! Well.....for Alaskan standards that is...

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Good work, coming along nicely!

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Thank you! Hope you guys like the budget build.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

With a little more confidence in my sheet metal skills I attacked the driver side rocker panel and cab corner. It turned out to be in worse shape than the passenger side, however, it came together easier. I knew what to look for and how to make my cuts this time so I saved a lot of time. For The Ox I think it turned out pretty good.

I noticed that I keep getting water in my cab that leaks now the sides of my kick panels and onto the floor, does anybody have an idea where this would be coming from? Possibly a clogged weep hole somewhere? It happens on either side of the truck.... This is the next thing I want to get taken care of to prevent future rust issues.

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Looks great!

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Love this project! Inspires me for mine since I've never welded anything like body panels before and only ever welded small square stock projects.

With regards to your ICM, I had a Honda that was killing them like yours is. Arctic Silver 5 solved that issue after trying all sorts of other products - Dia Grease, the cheap heat transfer sticky pads, etc. Did 50,000 miles on the ICM with Arctic Silver after losing 3 of the exact same brand/part number in a 1500 mile span.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Its been quite a while since I have posted... I sold the Blue Ox back in 2018 (regretfully). Since then a lot has happened, married, new house, etc. I have been working on several other projects. Fixed up some other trucks, tractors, stuff like that, but no Chevys... until now!

Last weekend I picked myself up another Chevy Squarebody, and I couldn't be happier!

Its a 1982 Chevy K30, 350, automatic transmission, np 205, flatbed work truck. I normally don't keep my eye out for dually trucks, but this 4x4 caught my attention.

3 years ago, my Dad, brother, and I started hay farming in the summers. I thought this would be a fun truck to use for hauling hay, as well as misc. equipment around the farm.

Sorry for the poor photos, I will take more soon, but I am very excited to be back on the forum. My plan is to make another Blue Ox, on a budget of course, just like my last truck. I can call it the Blue Ox 2.0.... or the Blue.0... I guess I have time to think about that one...

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Congratulations, looks like a cool rig. And congratulations on all of the good life changes since you were last here. I remember the Blue Ox and it'll be cool to see what you do with this one.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Thanks man! I'm looking forward to the progress as well. I'll be sure to update the page whenever I am able to get something done on the truck.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

One of the first projects I had to take care of on the truck was a flat tire. I noticed that the rear passenger tire looked low, and was bulging out a bit at the bottom. Upon further investigation I found that the inner rear tire on that side was completely blown out. It had a 4 inch hole in the sidewall. My suspicion is that it had a slow leak of some sort, then was run flat until the sidewall gave way. Luckily the truck came with two brand new tires.

I thought the new tires would best be used on the front of the truck, so after playing musical chairs with the tires and wheels, I had a new set on the front, and four decent tires in the rear. I picked up an old manual tire machine a while back for $100, it has more than paid for itself doing changeovers. It takes a little effort, but I love thinking about how much money I'm saving every time I use it!

After that job was done, I went through and organized the snow plow pieces that came with the truck. It appears to be an old 7.5' Fisher plow with some sort of universal mount. I'm not sure if I want to plow with this truck though. I am a bit more inclined to try and sell the plow, then use the money to buy a winch for the truck. We'll see which way I end up going.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

I have done a couple little things to the truck in the last few weeks. The brake master cylinder was low in the rear brake revisor. I topped that off to see if it holds the fluid, or leaks back down. I'm guessing its the wheel cylinders, the rear brakes grab really hard when I'm braking.

Beyond that, I cleaned up a little wiring under the hood, and rebuilt the carburetor. The truck was running pretty well, however wasn't that easy to start (or restart for that matter). It took lots of pumps of the accelerator to cold start it. So I bought a carb kit at my local Napa, pulled the old Quadrajet from its resting spot, and dove in. I was not totally surprised with what I found inside. The bottom of the carb was coated in a healthy 1/8th inch of dirty crud. With some diligent cleaning and scrubbing I got all cleaned and put back together.

Once I had it back on the truck I tried to fire it up for the first time with the refreshed Q-Jet. I cranked, stomped on the gas, cranked, stomped on the gas, cranked, stomped on the gas, and cranked some more for the better part of ten minutes... Maybe I'd lost my touch rebuilding Chevy carbs?.... Thankfully, no.... I was just out of gas... rookie mistake! Five fresh gallons in the tank and the old Chevy barked right to life! Its running much smoother now, the idle circuit must have been slightly clogged because now it sounds really nice at idle.

One job done, many more to go!