Budget Build 1985 K20

[JJH Jimmy]

She' alive!

85 K20 First Start - YouTube

[OutlawDrifter]

Sounds good from my seat!

[JJH Jimmy]

Originally Posted by OutlawDrifter

Sounds good from my seat!

Thanks! I am surprised how easily it started up and ran good without any tweaking of the tune. It seems to have really good throttle response. I just had the wires connected with wire nuts to get it started and make sure there were no major problems before I get put back together.

[JJH Jimmy]

I never find good deals on NOS parts like you see some guys posting on Facebook. Well today that changed! I have been keeping an eye out for a sliding rear window since the price had jumped up on them recently and no one has them in stock.

I found this NOS one with gasket included about an hour away for $150. It is missing one of the corner lock strip covers and the chrome lock strip is discolored. I was planning on using black lock strip anyways.

[Rich84]

Nice score! I luv my slider.

[LT7A]

Congrats on the startup! And nice grab on that slider.

[TKCR]

Nice find!

[youngrodder]

The start up looks/sounds like it went great...Good job.
I might head over to DeNooyer on Stadium this Sat 5/14 for a cars and coffee event. You should drive your Blazer over.

Marc

[JJH Jimmy]

Originally Posted by youngrodder

The start up looks/sounds like it went great...Good job.
I might head over to DeNooyer on Stadium this Sat 5/14 for a cars and coffee event. You should drive your Blazer over.

Marc

Thanks Marc! I'll be there if the weather looks good!

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by JJH Jimmy

Thanks Marc! I'll be there if the weather looks good!

Same here. I will keep an eye out.

We might run over to Sturgis Friday evening. They have the downtown shut down and they have food trucks. That's a decent drive going thru Mendon to M-86. Pretty soon you will have a real dilemma on your hands.....which fine truck to drive.

Marc

[JJH Jimmy]

Originally Posted by youngrodder

Same here. I will keep an eye out.

We might run over to Sturgis Friday evening. They have the downtown shut down and they have food trucks. That's a decent drive going thru Mendon to M-86. Pretty soon you will have a real dilemma on your hands.....which fine truck to drive.

Marc

Good to see you on Saturday and the work you did on your headliner and kick panels is top notch! By the rate of my progress lately I have a feeling there is only going to be one option on what to drive this summer!

[JJH Jimmy]

I was able to get the back sliding glass in on Saturday. Somehow I managed not to scratch the paint. What a pain in the butt. Can’t wait to do the windshield!

[JJH Jimmy]

Since my cab was a non ac cab that is the vintage air system I bought. What I didn’t realize is that they supply some real cheesey air vents that you are supposed to cut into your dash panel. I wanted the stock looking vents in the dash. No problem right? I’ll just order the stock vents. Not so fast. I bought all the stock vents but they need adapters to fit the vent hose supplied by vintage air. No problem right? I’ll call vintage air and get their adapter. Once again not so fast. Called vintage air for the adapters but they told me it would be 16 - 20 weeks! No problem! I will build my own.

[Willowrun]

Nice work and much more rewarding I'm sure. Too bad this is the only time they'll be seen!

[TKCR]

Probably a heck of a lot better quality too! Good job!

[rodstored-72]

Originally Posted by TKCR

Probably a heck of a lot better quality too! Good job!

agree VERY NICE job!!

wondering if those add "additional weight" or "stress" to the vent mounting?
I was not having fun trying to get their hoses to fit & seal on the vents as well. i ended up using "alum. ducting tape.... again your solution looks ALOT better!

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by JJH Jimmy

Good to see you on Saturday and the work you did on your headliner and kick panels is top notch! By the rate of my progress lately I have a feeling there is only going to be one option on what to drive this summer!

Great catching up on Saturday Josh.. It was a nice day. I bombed around all day running errands in the 53. Nice work on the vents. I knew you would get it handled.

I had my son's help me with my 2 piece front windshield. We didn't do bad considering combined they had 0 yrs of experience. That is where a rusty/patina finish comes in handy.

Marc

[JJH Jimmy]

Originally Posted by Willowrun

Nice work and much more rewarding I'm sure. Too bad this is the only time they'll be seen!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by TKCR

Probably a heck of a lot better quality too! Good job!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by rodstored-72

agree VERY NICE job!!

wondering if those add "additional weight" or "stress" to the vent mounting?
I was not having fun trying to get their hoses to fit & seal on the vents as well. i ended up using "alum. ducting tape.... again your solution looks ALOT better!

Thank you. Not much more added weight. They are only about 1 1/2” worth of .065 wall stainless tube. I thought that I would weld some nubs on the tube to help grip the hose but I test fitted the hose and secured it with a zip tie and you had to pull pretty hard to get it off so I decided the nubs weren’t necessary.

Originally Posted by youngrodder

Great catching up on Saturday Josh.. It was a nice day. I bombed around all day running errands in the 53. Nice work on the vents. I knew you would get it handled.

I had my son's help me with my 2 piece front windshield. We didn't do bad considering combined they had 0 yrs of experience. That is where a rusty/patina finish comes in handy.

Marc

Yea I drove my Jimmy around running errands as well and took my wife to dinner. It was nice to get a cruise in after a long winter.

[LT7A]

Originally Posted by Willowrun

Nice work and much more rewarding I'm sure. Too bad this is the only time they'll be seen!

X2. I think I would want to mount those on the outside of the dash, haha. Nice work.

[JJH Jimmy]

Originally Posted by LT7A

X2. I think I would want to mount those on the outside of the dash, haha. Nice work.

Thanks, but I think I’ll hide them!

[JJH Jimmy]

Got all the under dash wiring complete and installed a retro sound radio. I also cleaned up the gauge cluster, painted the needles, installed led bulbs and reset the odometer to zero. I left the plastic on the new lens so I don’t scratch it when I install it.

[JJH Jimmy]

I can’t afford those high dollar Holley led head lamps and this is a budget build after all! So, I picked up some glass h4 housings and some led bulbs off Amazon. $130 invested. I got them hooked up to try them out but apparently my dimmer switch is bad. Power goes into it and nothing comes out. Worked fine before I tore this thing apart? So I have to wait for the switch to see how they work.

[TKCR]

It’s because the new ones are not pinned correctly. The couplers need to be pinned to match the new lights. I even had to do that with my Holley lights, but at least they came with instructions on how.
When I bought mine, it was a 1 day pre Black Friday sale last year. It was a buy 1, get 1. So in the end, I paid for 2 lights and got 2 lights fee, plus the instructions. Trying to located them, I post it when I find it.

[JJH Jimmy]

Originally Posted by TKCR

It’s because the new ones are not pinned correctly. The couplers need to be pinned to match the new lights. I even had to do that with my Holley lights, but at least they came with instructions on how.
When I bought mine, it was a 1 day pre Black Friday sale last year. It was a buy 1, get 1. So in the end, I paid for 2 lights and got 2 lights fee, plus the instructions. Trying to located them, I post it when I find it.

Yea, I repinned the headlight plugs for the LED's but i dont have power on the low beam brown wire or high beam green wire with the headlights on. Checked for power at the headlight plugs, then the bulk head plug then back to the dimmer switch. I have power at the yellow wire on the dimmer witch but nothing to the green or brown wire.

[youngrodder]

Looking great Josh. I did something similar for headlights on the Suburban but mine were obviously round glass housings.

Marc