83 GMC K3500 Crew restoration

[ZacharyDouglas1992]

Well, I don't even know where to begin on this one. Picked up an 83 K3500 a year and a half ago, give or take. picked it up for 1400 needing a Tranny. But I had a hard enough time finding a crew cab 4x4 so I went for it. Well turned into a tranny + rear end job cause it had been driven around forever with only 2 speeds and 4.56 gears. Man the rebuild on a 70HD is expensive. Ran great, motor leaked from everywhere and I drove it like that for a while. Discovered a small bit of rust up near the drip rails (due to poor prep work on last crappy paint job, rails were mounted finger tight and water came in through the mounting holes). One thing led to another, and now the truck is at my buddy's shop with the doors off, the interior gutted, the front clip off with the engine out in my garage for rebuild.

BODY:
Converting over to power doors, going to put the 73-80 trim on it. will be two tone. Originally wanted to go with an orange metallic and white. Now i've been toying with the idea of Nantucket or Marina blue & whilte, to match the 67 chevelle it will occasionally haul around. I'm going to go as chromeless as possible. Probably just the grille emblem and hood ornament will remain shiny. Going to paint all the trim gray and black. mirrors, bed hooks, step rail, bumpers all probably black. winch bumper for the front. and the rest I will just figure out as I go and post updates. My buddy is the body guy so I'm sure he will have advice that will change some of these ideas but relatively thats what I want to do.

Engine: Currently rebuilding the 454. Somewhat challenging because I'm in CA and have to adhere to smog laws, though they aren't very strict at all on an 83 1 ton. No cats or EGR, just a useless AIR pump.

Stock type 454 rotating assembly
Aluminum Heads (115cc) should make decent smoggable CR
gen 6 HYD roller cam (for torque more than HP) & roller lifters
Roller rocker arms.
ARP head bolts
Aluminum intake
Hedman Headers (It was mission impossible finding a smog legal set of headers for a big block, 4x4 with AIR, these are the only ones I know to exist. Let me know if you need a part number. Most parts places will not ship to CA even though they have a CARB number and sticker. Race Mart was the only one I could get to send them)
Serpentine belt drive
MSD Atomic EFI (the only smog legal EFI I know to exist, hoping it allows me to remove a couple miles of Vacuum lines haha)

Tranny: 4l80E, still figuring out the best way to mate it to my NP205, have another thread already about that mess.

Rear end: Already rebuild dana 70HD 4.56. Would love to make it disc brakes someday but havent seen a good kit for DRW as of yet.

I will post pictures as I go along, feel free to suggest, ask questions, comment, hate, love, anything in between. It is always nice to hear the opinions of like minded people who love these trucks like I do.

One question I will blanket answer here, as I have been asked a few times already around here. Why all the effort into this and not just go get a Dmax/newer one ton?

Well, I love these square bodies. I wanted a crew cab that I could use to go to the mountains, dunes, take toys and pull my chevelle to shows in the near future. I looked into duramax's & newer one tons. They just don't have the character our square bodies do. That and I am 22, so the difference in insurance between this truck and a Dmax is 270+ a month, even with a clean driving record. Didn't take me long to figure out I'd rather go this route haha.


I'll attach the last picture I have of it before I began dismantling the thing. and then some of the progress pictures I already have.