C20 to K20 Conversion "Simply Toxic"

[JustToxic]

Alright, so I had a different build thread and decided to delete it cause I changed the build from how it started.

I'll start with a little story and go into some detail. I was filling in for my parts driver at work, stopped at a wholesale body shop that we deal with. Saw this 1967 C20 sitting in the back parking lot surrounded by piles of wood. Started talking to the guy. Said he bought it from the original owner after he passed away. So the truck was owned by a local farmer, farmer put it in the barn after the radiator went to crap in 1985.... Truck sat in the same spot from 1985 until 2012 when the farmer passed away. My wholesale customer was helping the family clean up the property to sell and ended up buying the truck from them for $800. He put it behind his body shop in the fall of 2012. This is where I come in, I see the truck in the spring of 2015. I buy it from my wholesale customer for $800, we put different wheels and tires on it and load it up. Rolls like its never sat a day in its life.

I get it home and power wash it and clean the 3 bags of trash out of the cab (mainly raccoon crap). The first plan was to drop the old girl down and build a pretty mean pro touring pickup. But I couldn't bring myself to cut the bed down to a short bed, nor could I see myself converting another c20 to c10. So the second plan came about after we had it sitting up on the jack stands and was sitting in the garage..... Convert it to 4wd and build a pretty bad @ss truck.

So... This is the build of my K20 Simply Toxic. Hope you enjoy.

[JustToxic]

This is how she looks after I got her home and cleaned up. I made a crap deal on what was supposed to be a '68 hood, just to find out it was a '69.

[JustToxic]

The raccoon did some pretty bad damage to the floor with his crap. Other animals had their way with the old girl too.

[JustToxic]

In the process of tear down on my truck. I had my dad's '65 over to give it some engine and brake love. So naturally, I had to snap a few pictures.

[JustToxic]

So, at this point, we got the dog house off the front. I forgot to snap a few pictures. The front lower part of both fenders is rusted and needs fix. the grille and head light bezels are in really good shape. The core support has minor rust on the passenger side lower area. (under the battery) So i'll have to fix that stuff. And here is the rest of the rust I found.

[JustToxic]

And some more.

[JustToxic]

Thanks, I was surprised how little rust the truck had.

[JustToxic]

Well, after a extended vacation and a few other projects later, I was finally able to get back out to the shop last night. I patched the holes in the frame by the frame seams, and added a few plates to the inside of the frame for additional support. Now I have a few hours of grinding to do to get all the old body mounts off the frame and to just clean the frame up. After that I'm going to start cutting all the old front suspension components off so I can mock up the straight axle components. I forgot to take pictures last night so I'll get out there and get some taken.

[JustToxic]

Here are a few pictures for the above post. I also got the leaf spring perch bolted back into place. Had to drill new holes for the front of the mount, ended up burning up my 18v drill. The Z cut is in the center of the perch, the way everything ended up it looks almost factory.

[JustToxic]

Got out this weekend and cut all the old body mounts off, that was for the 2005 cab and bed. also filled all the holes in the side of the frame. I sprayed some roll bar & chassis paint on the bare metal surfaces until I get all the frame welding complete. Then the plan is to sand blast the frame.

[72 tigger]

Nice work! Making progress

[JustToxic]

Well, I'm down to only being able to work on the truck one day a week. Been snowing like crazy up here with the lake effect, too busy plowing to get out in the garage. Just cutting brackets and old mounts off and grinding everything smooth. Once I get past all the grinding I'll get some more pictures and post them up.

[LockDoc]

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TTT, moved from '67-'72 pickup truck projects & builds.....

LockDoc

[BlueBullet]

Nice work I in!!

[JustToxic]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

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TTT, moved from '67-'72 pickup truck projects & builds.....

LockDoc

Thanks LockDoc

Originally Posted by BlueBullet

Nice work I in!!

Thank you!

[JustToxic]

Well, got back out to the garage this weekend. Worked a few hours Friday night and most the day Saturday. I got the rest of the IFS brackets off of the frame and filled the rest of the holes in the front section of the frame. Smoothed everything over and put a coating on the frame to prevent rust.

Next step is to transfer the bed and cab over to the new frame and add the body mounts to the new frame. I also need to measure how much longer behind the rear axle I will need to extend the frame, seeing how the frame was a short bed truck.

[72 tigger]

Making progress- looks good

[JustToxic]

Thanks. So you are correct, the frame is wide enough that the mounts on the cab will be on the inside of the frame. I'm planning on using the mount brackets off of the '67 frame, but I'm going to modify them to fit the new frame. If we measured correctly, cross your figures, the front cab mounts should fit just barely inside the frame and the rear cab mounts will be fully inside the frame. The core support lower section has to be rebuilt due to rust, so I'm just going to move those to fit as needed.

[JustToxic]

Well we got the cab moved over to the new frame last night. And I for sure measured incorrectly, the front cab mount is dead center of the frame and the rear cab mount is about an inch from center of frame. So I need to come up with a new solution to mounting the cab so I can still use the "Factory style" mounts from Energy Suspension. I stood by the cab truck for size comparison, I'm just under 6' tall. She's sitting at about the height that I planned on.

[JustToxic]

If anyone is interested in how we moved the cab to the new frame. Check out this video I posted on facebook. I'm not sure how to post a video to the site. https://www.facebook.com/nick.sanfor...eric&ref=notif

[JustToxic]

Finished fabrication on the seats last night. Just have to send them off to get reupholstered. The center seat started off as a one piece tube frame that was fixed. I wanted a arm rest in the truck, but the wife wants to be able to sit in the center. So, I decided to modify the center seat so it folds down. I got wrapped up in working on it so I forgot to take pictures throughout the process. I built the fold hinge system three times before I got it right. I built in a stop so it can't recline too far when in the up position.

[JustToxic]

Here's the completed trio of custom seat brackets.

[rgunlock]

Looks like that middle seat fab works real well. My wife demanded that I stick to a bench seat so she could sit in the middle. I got one of those combo console/cup holders that sit on the seat but she makes me remove it when she rides with me.

[JustToxic]

Thanks! Yeah, if it was up to the wife, I would have a bench seat. My step dad has one in his '71 and it drives me nuts when I drive it. I had this seat laying around, so really that's the only reason I did this, otherwise it would have been a center console.

[JustToxic]

Well, it's been awhile since I last updated this. Haven't been able to get out and work on the truck much, between taking vacation and yard work and such.

While waiting for more parts to show up for mine, mainly four link parts, I decided to do a LS swap on my step dads truck. 1971 C20 Camper Special California truck, only rust on the truck is from where a battery leaked and took out the battery box and fender liner. Truck has a GM crate 350 w/ TH350, roughly 230 hp. Upgrading it to a 6.0 LQ9 LS and a 4L80, after a few modifications to the engine we're looking at about 500 hp. For now, step dad is keeping the HO52 rear end, down the road we're going to put a 14 bolt in it. I'll post more pics on this as we go in the next few weeks.