JackdTruck - the overly ambitious 1969 K10 LWB Project

[ZohmBii]

Just starting this as a placeholder for the build thread.

Will be adding pictures and updates very soon!

Here's a brief summary:

A couple years ago we picked up a used and abused Idaho farm truck for my younger brother, who was 15 at the time, with the intentions of stabbing in a motor we had lying around to make a simple running project he could work on while driving.

The truck was an Orange 1969 K10 Longbed with lots of rust, a bad front axle, no motor, and a sweet SM465 trans and T221 transfer case combo that had more oil on the outside of the case than inside.

Once we started tearing it down to do some simple rust repairs the project kind of went off the rails - I blame all those over glamorized TV shows for making everything look so easy, and all the cool new products for these trucks.

Here is what we ended up with:

The JackdTruck

Body:
1969 K10 Longbed (made from a few donors) with LeMans Blue and Black 2-tone paint

Engine:
383ci Chevy long block from Blueprint Engines (430HP/450TQ)
Edelbrock Performer RPM AirGap Intake Manifold
Holley Sniper EFI Throttle Body
HyperSpark Distributor & Ignition System
Early 1990's GM Serpentine Belt Setup
Summit G9006-9 Long Tube Headers

Drivetrain:
1969 GM Muncie SM465 Transmission
1969 Rockwell T221 Transfer Case
1975 GM Dana 44 Front Axle w/ 4.56s
1969 GM Dana 60 Rear Axle w/ 4.56s



(((More to come)))

[rowdy11]

Can't wait to see it!

[ZohmBii]

Well I meant to get a whole bunch of pictures together, but life got a bit crazy there for awhile - so yeah, here we go again!

Here's a few shots of the truck as we disassembled it.

Where it all started:


Engine and front clip removed (previous owner wanted the engine):


Cab, bed, and front axle removed:


Frame stripped down:


Frame sandblasted and the 8" Skyjacker lift springs:

[ZohmBii]

Frame Painted:


Original Cab Driver Side - notice the rot on the rocker panels:


Original Cab Bottom - there was a lot of rust and "farm modifications" on the original cab, we ended up getting a donor cab from a 1967 (more on that later):


Muncie SM465 and Rockwell T221 after a light cleaning - we ended up resealing most of the T221 since it was leaking from just about every seal:


Donor 1975 K10 D44 front axle with Disc Brakes:

[ZohmBii]

Trans and transfer case all cleaned up and painted:


Had the axles rebuilt with Yukon Duragrip Lockers and 4.56 gears, painted them and started to assemble the frame:


Installed rear disc brake brackets, rotors, and calipers:

[ZohmBii]

Before we got the axles back from the rebuild shop we ended up picking up a donor cab and bed from a 1967 K10. They still had a bit of rust and needed new rockers and a couple spots on the floor but it wasn't nearly as bad.

So we sandblasted the new cab, primed it, then started the metal work.

Passenger side rocker:


Rot cut out:


Replacing the driver side rocker - freshly rebuilt axles:


Tilted the cab on our jig to make sure we got all the way underneath:


Frame back on all 4 wheels:

[ZohmBii]

Once we were done repairing the rockers we test fit the doors using the drivers side from the original Orange truck and the passenger side from the donor '67.

Driver side door mockup:


Passenger side door mockup:


We then set the cab onto the frame so we could start mocking up the fenders so we could see what work we had to do on those.

[Richard]

Looking good, subscribed. Like to see the this build. Had a set of 8" Skyjackers on my first 72. Not a bad off the shelf spring.

[ZohmBii]

Originally Posted by Richard

Looking good, subscribed. Like to see the this build. Had a set of 8" Skyjackers on my first 72. Not a bad off the shelf spring.

Thanks! The only the we didn't like is how the rear spring kicked the rear axle forward a bit too far so the tires were closer to hitting the wheel opening on the bed side. We ended up buying some offset spring pin plates to kick it back an inch which worked out well - until the spring perches collapsed after some spirited driving by my brother. So we upgraded the perches and have changed a few things in the back which I'll show later since most of these pictures are from back through 2017 to now.

[ZohmBii]

At this point in the project we had already made some changes to our original plan, but it still was going to be a fairly simple build.

Engine:
- Clean up a 350 TPI motor that we had that only had about 2000 miles on it.

Drivetrain:
- Reuse original SM465 and T221 transfer case
- Rebuild front Dana 44 from 1975 truck with disc brakes
- Rebuild rear 12 bolt from original truck

Chassis:
- Simple 6" lift so we could run a 35" tall tire and have plenty of clearance
- 4 wheel disc brakes

We changed the suspension from a 6" lift to an 8" because my dad bought it for a Christmas gift for my brother and the cost was only about $150 difference (not counting the additional steering components, but he didn't think about that).

Since we already had to change the gear ratios in the axles to match, we upgraded to 4.56s with Yukon Duragrip lockers in both. Now, 4.56 might seem a little steep, but that 8" lift said we could run a 38" tire so that's what we were gonna do, of course.


Body:
- Simple rust repair on cab, bed, and fenders
- Basic, low dollar paint job
- Reuse windows & trim as we were able to

Interior:
- Upgrade radio for bluetooth
- Replace dash pad, seat and carpet
- Remove fuel tank from cab, install under bed


And that's what our scope of the project was at this point in time. We knew we'd have to get some new wiring harnesses and a few other odds and ends, but we were making good progress so we were all very hopeful.

Yeah, we splurged a little here and there for a bigger lift and better gears, but we were still well within our budget for the project and figured we would be able to whip it together in the following months - boy were we wrong.

[Richard]

Careful moving the axle back to far. Surprising how far the axle moves back in the suspension travel with high arch leaf packs. Recommend to remove all leaf's except main and fabricate temporary block to replicate removed leaf's and cycle suspension with tires installed. Temp block can even be made of wood.

[Richard]

4.56 is fine with 38's. Will be running 5.29's with 40's or 41.5's. Big heavy tires add a lot of rolling resistance.

[ZohmBii]

Originally Posted by Richard

Careful moving the axle back to far. Surprising how far the axle moves back in the suspension travel with high arch leaf packs. Recommend to remove all leaf's except main and fabricate temporary block to replicate removed leaf's and cycle suspension with tires installed. Temp block can even be made of wood.

Excellent advice! We did test the movement of the suspension when we had the leaf pack disassembled to make sure we wouldn't have that issue. Since we only moved it an inch it still cleared.

We aren't too worried about it squatting too much either since the truck was just going to be for city driving and never really loaded with anything in the bed.

[ZohmBii]

Originally Posted by Richard

4.56 is fine with 38's. Will be running 5.29's with 40's or 41.5's. Big heavy tires add a lot of rolling resistance.

HAHA yeah, we did end up going with 40's after everything was said and done. Wasn't my advice, but it was what my dad and brother wanted to run.

Oh well!

[ZohmBii]

We pulled the cab back off the frame so that we could keep going on the body work. During that time we made the decision that we were going to install a Vintage Air A/C system so we could smooth out the firewall a bit.

Cab back on jig:


Hole plates welded:


Rough body work on firewall:


Rough body work on rear of cab, also filled in filler neck:


Final body work done on bottom of cab - no more holes!:

[ZohmBii]

Disassembled the donor truck bed and the decision was made to buy all new bedsides, fenders, and tailgate. Sounded good at the time, but we had to put a lot of work into getting things to fit right in the end.

Front side of bed disassembly:


Rear side of bed:


Bed after sandblasting:


"Farmer Custom" trailer wiring holes:


Repair patch:

[ZohmBii]

Metal work completed on bed floor:


Bed floor primed:


Some of the new sheetmetal for the front:


Bedside and tailgate mockup RH:


Bedside and tailgate mockup LH:

[ZohmBii]

Santa ended up giving my brother a set of leather seats from a 2009 Tahoe for Christmas:


Test fitting the seats in the cab:




We knew we were going to have to make some custom brackets, but they did end up fitting quite well. The only downfall is that we weren't able to wire up the Seat Heaters or coolers since they need to talk back to the body computer on the '09 Tahoe. Maybe we will fix that up later, maybe not. Either way, they are comfy and fit great!

Test fitting front fenders LH:


Test fitting front fenders RH:

[ZohmBii]

Test fitting Hood and Cowl RH:


Test fitting Hood and Cowl LH:


Metal work on RH Door to fender gap:


Metal work on LH Door to fender gap:


Primed hood ready for bodywork - one of the few pieces from the original truck:

[ZohmBii]

Well another area we had some scope creep was the engine. Originally we were going to use a 350 TPI motor that we had on a stand, but the decision was made to go a little bigger.

So we got another delivery:


We ended up going with a 383ci from BluePrint Engines. Here are some basic specs:

• 430 HP / 450 TQ
• 10:1 Compression
• Aluminum Heads
• Hyd Roller Cam 221/226 duration @.050, .528/.536 Lift, 110 LSA

Here's a couple more shots of the engine out of the crate:




We also planned to use the Holley Sniper system on this motor, since it seemed like a pretty cool system. So we picked up a dual plane intake and some other parts (again, we ended up not using several of these other than the block off and intake).


And here's a couple shots of the engine painted with the intake sitting on top:

[ZohmBii]

Well we had some talks about tires - ended up going up a size or two so we got ourselves some Pro Comp MT2 40x13.50x17s.







And here's the brother, contemplating just how tall this truck was going to be:


We also got the wheels ordered - Moto Metal MO962 17x10:


And here are the wheels and tires mounted on the truck:

[ZohmBii]

We also got ourselves a new front grill :



After test fitting the wheels and tires we ended up modifying the front fenders a bit for some extra clearance.

You can see the notch out of the front edge of the wheel well in these pictures below:





And then back in the garage for fitting the bed:

[ZohmBii]

Lots of body work going on after this point.

We ended up having to split the LH bedside and adding some metal since it was sucked in due to a bad stamping. We all know how well those aftermarket panels fit sometimes.








RF Fender, you can see the modification we made to the front of it:



We laid down some more primer on the bed then pulled the truck apart and primed the other pieces:

[ZohmBii]

After everything was primed up we flipped up the bed so we could coat the bottom of it:


Pops in action:





Then we did the same for the bottom of the cab:





And inside the doors:

[ZohmBii]

For those wondering what we used for the undercoating.

It is Urethane Bed Liner called Custom Coat from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Custom-Gallon.../dp/B00FFIIHHU