'79 C20 Heavy-Duty Truck

[JLeather]

Long time lurker while I slowly pick away at my '46 pickup project, lately I've been browsing craigslist looking for an older truck to do some cleaning up at my Dad's place. He's accumulated too much scrap, a couple old cars, etc and I needed something capable of a fairly good payload and a fairly large trailer. Also I've got a John Deere D tractor (pushing 5,500 pounds) that I wanted to be able to trailer around. Ran across an ad for a '79 C20, which is now at my place (sorry for the crappy pic, it was dark when I got home).



It was cheap enough and the body is pretty good. Small spot of rust on the front driver's fender and the passenger bed lip is getting bad but for MD that's practically "cherry" . What really surprised me about this truck was the 7,500 pound GVWR. I'm thinking maybe this was a camper truck? The more interesting RPO codes are:

G51 - Extra Capacity Rear Spring
LS9 - 350/4V
YUD - 9.50/16.5 Front Tires
XUD - 950/16.5 Rear Tires
F59 - Front Stabilizer Bar
MX1 - Auto Trans (I think it's a TH400 but the code isn't clear)
J55 - H.D. Power Brakes
N41 - Power Steering

Obviously built for some hauling/towing. I think it's a GM 14-bolt axle, but there's no code for that or what the ratio would be. Out of curiosity, am I gonna be up the creek when it comes to finding some of these parts like the big brake shoes?

So, what does the truck need? Well for starters it wanders around the road too much. Probably needs all the usual front end stuff, and definitely needs a set of tires. To that end, it's running the stock 950x16.5" 8-lug rims. With the big brakes, am I gonna be able to run 16" rims? I'd prefer to swap rims to a more standard size for a better tire selection, although it seems that you can still get Firestone Transforce in 950x16.5" that are a decent deal. Would I need to run 17's to clear the brakes, or do I need to stick to older rims?

That's all for the moment. There's a lot of snow here right now, so I can't really tear into it. Just trying to round up some parts like tires (or wheels and tires), windshield wiper motor, etc.