Re-Bertha: 71 C20 to 72 K20

[PeterHall]

This has been a build thats been a while in the making. I'm sure thats what everyone says. Dad bought Bertha in the 1980s as a work truck, a 1971 C20 custom camper. Since then its been one of the more reliable vehicles we've owned. We've always had plans to restore it, but never the time.

Well one day our lovely neighbor ran into the back of the truck while it was parked on the street. Apparantly the sun was in her eyes and she thought she had room. The truck jumped the curb and hit the telephone phone. The insurance ended up giving us an ok settlement after fighting tooth and nail with all the upgrades we had put into the truck. In their eyes it was a rusty hunk of junk. The neigbor promised to make things right, as she "loved" our truck, but we havent heard a peep from her since.







So this was the perfect opportunity to build the truck my dad always wanted. The old truck occassionlly got stuck so all wheel drive would be nice. Bertha had an after market AC that worked but dripped onto the floor rusting it out, so a factory cab was a must. Dad enjoyed the old big block and wanted to keep things simple so a modern motor was out of the question (for now).

Looking through Craiglist Dad found what he was looking for. A 72 K20 that was blown apart for a magazine build. Factory AC cab and the frame already had a 4 inch lift. Everything looked pretty clean so we picked it up and brought it home. The frame had been blasted and painted.