1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox

[daddyjeep]

Coming from somewhere that has winter, that looks like a pretty solid bed.

[Smniekamp]

Thanks guys! Fun to get a little feedback, keeps me motivated. The deeper I get into the truck the more I enjoy it. Quick question for you though...Have any of you dealt with bed-liner removal? Someone thought it would be a good idea to roll that stuff along the bottom of the bed without sanding the paint first. Subsequently, I was able to pull a few chunks off by hand. Maybe a heat gun, putty knife, and lots of patience?

[Smniekamp]

I was able to get up early before class today and get a little work done on the bed. Nothing glamorous, but stuff I had to check off my list. There was a big oil spill in the front of the bed so I burned through a roll of paper towels and got that mess taken care of. Then ground some rust off the front of the bed sidewalls and sprayed some primer over it. It'll do for now until I get back to it. I posted a couple of pictures of the bed-liner that was peeling up. The section I peeled up came off without much effort, but the rest looks like it might be a pain in the... well you get the idea...

[Ken B]

The Blue Ox is coming along very nicely. The camper looks to be in pretty good shape. Are you going to put it to good use? 100 bucks for a good grille, nice doors and a fender? You stole em!

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by Ken B

The Blue Ox is coming along very nicely. The camper looks to be in pretty good shape. Are you going to put it to good use? 100 bucks for a good grille, nice doors and a fender? You stole em!

I sure did, had a hard time holding in my excitement when the guy told me I could take all the parts for a $100. And you bet I'm gunna use that camper! Its hard to live up in Alaska and not go camping. The camper was in pretty darn good shape when I got it. The only issue was a rotten board in the front that needed replacing. Last week I removed and replaced it with a new piece I made. I covered the new board in bed liner in hopes of repelling any water it comes in contact with. As of now its all ready for this summer's camping season...now I just need to finish the truck it sits on lol. I really am happy with the camper though, sleeps 4, has a heater, and when its popped up I can stand inside without ducking (I'm about 6'3").

[bilfman]

Let's see some inside camper pics😀 I love the slide ons, I picked one up a few years back , great for the fishing getaways!

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by bilfman

Let's see some inside camper pics😀 I love the slide ons, I picked one up a few years back , great for the fishing getaways!

Awesome combo you have there, that's exactly what I hope to be using my truck for this fall! I really like your dually, up here in Alaska there aren't many of those trucks around. Here's a few pictures of my camper popped up and the inside. Still has that early 80s vibe lol.

[Smniekamp]

Today turned out to be a pretty eventful one. I decided it was time to do the bed swap. The only problem was the lack of willing bodies to lift the bed off the truck... So after a little pondering my dad came up with the idea of using my camper jacks to lift the bed off. It ended up working flawlessly! The job was a lot easier on our backs this way haha. While the bed was off the truck, I switched out the front bed panel. It was much easier to get to all the bolts this way. I also took the rear bumper off, I'll be posting about that later...its more than rusty...hopefully their is a way to salvage it. All in all, I think it turned out pretty well, 6 hours of work and I got myself a new truck bed!

[Nick_R_23]

New bed looks much cleaner!

As for the rear bumper, if it's just a lot of surface rust, you can get a quart of Rustoleum rust preventative enamel at Walmart or probably even Fred Meyer right by you, and all you'll have to do is go over the bumper with a wire brush or wire wheel, and then you can brush that paint right on. It's black so it'll match your front bumper.

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by Nick_R_23

New bed looks much cleaner!

As for the rear bumper, if it's just a lot of surface rust, you can get a quart of Rustoleum rust preventative enamel at Walmart or probably even Fred Meyer right by you, and all you'll have to do is go over the bumper with a wire brush or wire wheel, and then you can brush that paint right on. It's black so it'll match your front bumper.

Thanks Nick! So here's the pictures of the rear bumper. It doesn't look awful (relatively) when you look at the outside of it, but when you look at the underside it gets pretty nasty. I may spend a day with a wire wheel and see what I can make of it. I'm sure most of it will end up as a pile of dust on the ground lol, but if it looks usable after that I'll give your rustoleum idea a shot! Plus, like you said the black will work perfect with my front bumper.

[Smniekamp]

The gnarly underside of the bumper....it needs some love haha

[Nick_R_23]

That is a bit rough, but if nothing else the paint will tide you over until you can find a cleaner one. I used that paint for the frame and all the suspension parts on my stepside, there's a few pics posted in my build thread you can check out to see how well it works. It's awesome stuff.

[LT7A]

I agree with Nick. Wire brush and Rustoleum are the ticket. The instructions say to use a wire brush to remove loose scale -- tailor made for your situation with that bumper. For the cracking bedliner stuff I think I would get as much off as I could when it was cold so it could stay stiff and you can snap off big chunks, maybe use a putty knife carefully. And then I would move to a heat gun and a small putty knife after that. Probably lacquer thinner for any remaining residue -- rubber gloves, eyewear, etc.

And that camper is cool.

[Smniekamp]

I attacked the bumper with a wire wheel and hammer today. After chipping away for 30 minutes, my bumper had taken the form of dust in the driveway... So the search begins for a cheap step bumper to replace the old one. However, I still wanted to give that black Rustoleum enamel a try, so I took advantage of the bumper being off to clean up my receiver hitch. Turned out pretty good! Makes me want to paint other parts of my frame the same way.

[Smniekamp]

If you've been following my thread you probably saw that I picked up a new bed to replace my old rusted one. Yesterday I thought would be a good day for a light project on the truck. I was simply going to sand a few surface rust spots and then fill them in with a touch of Bondo. When I got out to my truck I began to inspect the bed a little closer....I believe this is where the saying "don't go looking for trouble unless you're ready to find it" comes from... Bellow the back tail lights the previously rolled on bed liner was starting to peel up, being the curious guy I am I pulled back the bed liner to reveal quite the predicament. What I thought was a decently rust free bed quickly turned into a hacked and packed bed full of Bondo and rust... It appears that someone went ahead and covered some surface rust with Bondo then rolled bed liner over the top to hide everything. My quick sanding projected has evolved into another animal. I've never done any real sheet metal work on a vehicle before so I figure this will be a good place to start. I cut a piece off my old bed and am going to use that as my patch panel. Any tips or tricks you guys can offer would be great! Like I said its my first go at replacing metal on a vehicle. I'm not expecting anything close to perfect...this is going to be my driver/fishing truck after all haha. Here's a few pictures of what I was able to get done so far...

[racerface]

Cool ride, (no pun intended being in Alaska.) It's great that your taking the time to save the Ox, and letting us watch as you do it.

[cottonme173]

Looking good!

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by racerface

Cool ride, (no pun intended being in Alaska.) It's great that your taking the time to save the Ox, and letting us watch as you do it.

Thanks for following the progress! Love getting a little feedback from you guys.

[Smniekamp]

This last week hasn't been as productive as I would have liked...it was finals week at school, so most of my time has reluctantly been spent at the library studying... However, I did find an hour to throw my new doors on...they are still in need of some prep work and paint, I'll add it to the "to do" list. For the moment the Blue Ox is going to be a little less blue haha.

The craigslist gods were good to me this week as well, found myself a replacement rear bumper!

[D13]

Love the thread. I'm looking at building the truck I can't find and this is exactly what I'm looking at. Tons o parts with tons o rust. Those doors are nicer that what I can usually find (or afford).

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by D13

Love the thread. I'm looking at building the truck I can't find and this is exactly what I'm looking at. Tons o parts with tons o rust. Those doors are nicer that what I can usually find (or afford).

I know what you're saying, I got pretty lucky on my doors. As for the rest of the truck, it seems like all I've been doing lately is finding more rust lol.

[Smniekamp]

WARNING...FIRST TIME WELDER

I thought about not posting pictures of my work today due to the poor quality of work...but it wouldn't be any fun if I didn't show you my struggles right ? The pivot point on my truck bed was completely rusted out, but I was given a spare patch piece along with the bed. For my first time ever prepping, cutting, and welding a patch piece on a truck... I feel like I did kinda sorta okay... I have to learn to weld at some point, so I figured this is the place to start lol. It still needs some more work, but the mosquitoes were eating me alive so I called it a day. The last picture shows the plate I'm going to weld in next time. Its just sitting in place for now.


As you can see, there isn't a lot of metal left to weld to....darn rust

[Jstock85]

your work looks just fine! I will be in your shoes one day. a welder is the next pricey item to be added to my garage and Im sure mine will look a lot worse than yours!!

[daddyjeep]

The key to welding on an old rusty truck is to cut enough back so you get to good steel to weld to. Sometimes you have to cut out way more steel than you originally thought. It looks pretty good though. A little grinding and paint and you will be good to go.

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by daddyjeep

The key to welding on an old rusty truck is to cut enough back so you get to good steel to weld to. Sometimes you have to cut out way more steel than you originally thought. It looks pretty good though. A little grinding and paint and you will be good to go.

Originally Posted by Jstock85

your work looks just fine! I will be in your shoes one day. a welder is the next pricey item to be added to my garage and Im sure mine will look a lot worse than yours!!

Thanks guys! There definitely is a learning curve, but its well worth the struggle. I heeded your advice and spent a little more time grinding back rust so I had more good metal to work with. I think it helped my welds out a lot. I appreciate the input! Here's how it ended up...good enough for what I'm using the truck for.