1968 K10 Shortbed Stepside

[eodcoduto]

Its been a long time since I have been on this site, but I have a new temporary project that I'd like some insight on. This is my mom's pickup and she lives in a town of 90 people in Western Nebraska, and the next big town, 1200 people is 30 miles away, so she couldn't find a mechanic to work in this for her. I Just brought it back to Alabama with me and it looks like the reverse detent in the transmission has lost its C clip, which only allows 1st and 2nd gear. She has asked me to fix it, and the more I dig into this thing it seems like a rare bird. Factory 292 and 4 speed, but it has a 250 now, short bed stepside and its the plain model as far as options go, from what I can google there were between 1200-1700 of these made and those numbers came from various sources.

I plan on pulling the transmission and fixing it, removing the cab lights, all the grab handles (she is 4'10") the LMC chrome doo dads, grille, , and maybe pulling the 2" body lift off. What do you all think about it?

[best view]

If you’re mother bought it new then i would never sell it and if your mother didn’t buy it new i would never sell it, that’s my best advice

[eodcoduto]

Originally Posted by best view

If you’re mother bought it new then i would never sell it and if your mother didn’t buy it new i would never sell it, that’s my best advice

I think she has had it for 3 years, but she needs regular sized long bed for the farm and this one just doesn't cut it. I will take a few months to get it closer to stock, and if a 292 pops up I'll swap it back in. I don't know how popular these are, but it definitely worth putting some work into.

[cornerstone]

If she asked you to fix it I would only do as she asked and fix the transmission. Is it your idea that this truck "isn't cutting it for her"? I hope you will honor her request and not find a way to keep it in Alabama.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by eodcoduto

I think she has had it for 3 years, but she needs regular sized long bed for the farm and this one just doesn't cut it. I will take a few months to get it closer to stock, and if a 292 pops up I'll swap it back in. I don't know how popular these are, but it definitely worth putting some work into.

I am very partial to Stepsides with factory 292s. I encourage you to mount one back in it. My '68 C/10 came with RPO L25 [292 L6] and the 4-speed Muncie SM 465. In 1977 I was stationed at MCAS Yuma, and rebuilt a '67 junkyard 292 up, and swapped engines. That block I ran 250,000 miles in 25 years. I rebuilt the original '68 block [I had put up in old AV8A avionics crates] in 2005, and I'm now running it. Odometer is at 407,000 on the chassis.
I notice you're at 29 Palms, and your handle begins with EOD.
Are you a Marine? And do things go BOOM at work?

[eodcoduto]

I will keep my eyes peeled for a 292, they don’t come up around me very often. I was out in the stumps for a while blwoing things up, and I retired about 4 years ago. 29 Palms stinks for young single guys but I had a great time out there.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by eodcoduto

I will keep my eyes peeled for a 292, they don’t come up around me very often. I was out in the stumps for a while blwoing things up, and I retired about 4 years ago. 29 Palms stinks for young single guys but I had a great time out there.

I never got to the Stumps. I was short. My Squadron did a short small element Det there in the late '70s. I stayed with the main body at Yuma. My Folks had moved to Tucson. I was commuting from Yuma to Tucson on non-duty weekends. When it seemed my stock 292 wasn't performing on that run. My stockcar boy buddies sparked me into a full metal rebuild at the base Special Services hobby shop. A thousand bucks and some weeks later, I was breaking in a 292 w/.030-over HD rebuild.
I secured a '63 292 core from an auto parts guy for $100 maybe 20 years ago. I'm thinking of putting it in a '67 K/10 Suburban.
Semper Fi.

[eodcoduto]

Its not staying here, I do enjoy digging into the history and working on small fixes. It rides rough and I see someone put a rear sway bar on it and the mount is only 1/2” from the bumpstop. Thats the first easy win.

[LockDoc]

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I have 2 complete, running 292's but not really interested in shipping something like that.

LockDoc

[72 tigger]

Cool 4x4!

[eodcoduto]

Shipping engines gets expensive, once the heat dies down tonight I'll go mess with it some.

[eodcoduto]

Its been a year but the K10 is back on the road. As usual things snowballed and once the transmission was out, I couldn't leave the leaking rear main.... so now it has a rebuilt engine. Stock rebuild with a .040" over bore, the head was cracked so it has an earlier head the machinist had, I'm not sure on the head year but it doesn't have the water temp port in it.

Quite a few small things were fixed, cleaned, and rebuilt and it runs great. I went to put it up for sale but I wanted my 9 year old daughter to drive it once, and as soon as that video was seen, she was gifted the pickup as an "early inheritance".

So now that it is hers, its time to tackle some of the things we (I) don't like. The cab lights, grab bars, aftermarket column, body lift and so on. The 250 will stay for a long time unless a cheap 292 pops up. Right now I'm researching some things like the correct dash bezel, what color the grille should be, stock tire and wheel sizes, and so on.