71 K-20 tow/haul truck

[webfoot]

I have had this pickup for a few years now and only fixed an occasional bug. Original plan was to keep this until the wife's car was paid off, but for no more than I need to drive I have decided just to keep this and make it a little nicer to drive and look at. It hauls my snowmobile trailer in the winter and sometimes some yard crap. I am going to keep it at the stock ride height, which I can only guess is unusual.



This is how it sat when I bought it, and for quite some time after that. The grille was beat up and held together in the middle with wire, and painted black. There were also holes cut where a long ago PO decided to mount fog lights. The fog lights must have weighed about 125 lbs each based on the 3" x 1/8" angle iron bolted to the core support where they were mounted.

Also note the sweet side view mirrors. This thing hauled a camper at some point, as evidenced by the J hooks on the bed that rip my clothes when i walk too close. The dash even has a very old altimeter on it. I can only assume this truck used to fly but I have no evidence of that.

The turn signals never canceled and the horn never worked prior to today. It had on one of those cheap grant steering wheels with the way too thick grip on it. I had another decent steering wheel from a mid 70s pickup and that is in there now. The upper column bearing was junk too and I found a new one in a bag the PO gave me with the truck. MUCH better.

So far I have only replaced the grill but it looks a bunch better. I have ordered a new "show quality chrome" front bumper and going to replace the original shocks with some GR-2s. The bumper is squished in where I had to pull a broken down dodge out. Maybe I should get some tow hooks.



I am eventually going to repaint this but I am currently knees deep in a frame off resto of a 68 GTO ragtop. Here is my other driver: