My not so new to me Square

[57taskforce]

I bought this complete ‘84 Silverado C20 last year from my wife’s uncle who had owned is since ~ ’99. It had been sitting for a pretty long time due to a worn out semi float 14 bolt rear. My original plan was to get it running, swap the rear and get it moved along for some Benjamins. I haven’t had much time to get to it in the last year and have had a couple guys randomly stop but the house asking if it’s for sale but no one serious enough to pay up. I have not touched it since I brought it home.

Long story short, I’ve got a stash of GM 4x4 parts built up from several years of parting and hoarding. I’m going to keep the stock C20 frame just because I can, and am going to convert it to 4x4 because I that’s what I like. I didn’t find out until the last guy came to look at it that my wife had a bit of a personal attachment to it as she used ride around with her uncle and now deceased cousin in it when they were younger. Part of the reason I decided to keep it was because I wanted to build it up a bit and give it to her.

I drug it down by the house today and started tearing it down. I’m going to keep the 350 thats in it (was a 6.2 when new) and run a K30 round 205/400 combo with either a set of 1/2 ton axles for now or maybe the axles under my ‘72 K20(44/14boltFF) as it is going to get a dana 60/disk brake 14 bolt FF pretty soon. I’m debating putting a big block in this truck later on. Here’s a few pictures to get started. Seems like it was a pretty nice truck when new.

Im gonna do this one outside unfortunately as my Camaro and ‘72 K20 are tying up the shop for the time being. Hoping to have it on the road later this year but we’ll see how it goes.

Did I mention it’s 100% rust free and 100% original paint?

[Mathew21]

Great body to start with. Keep us updated on your progress.

[GOPAPA]

I too will follow along as my 83 k10 has some things that are comparible.. wish I had your energy .

[Getter-Done]

I am following

[LT7A]

Cool truck! Even better that it has a family connection. I will be interested to watch.

[57taskforce]

Thanks guys I’ve got a thread similar to this going on in the 4x4 section so if you don’t see updates over here check their as well. I may turn that thread into a build thread solely because there’s not a ton of documentation on this site for this type of swap. If like to help change that so maybe it can help someone in the future. I got this hacked off and drug to the house this week. Started cutting and knocking rivets off last night. Front frame clip from an ‘86 blazer. Still in factory paint. Hope to get more rivets knocked off too sure love my air hammer lol.

[Willowrun]

Interested in this conversion. Is the plan to use the entire front frame section? Great upgrade to a C20.

[Warrens69GMC]

BTW, I have a 1976 C20 rolling chassis I could let go for cheap, it has a good 14B/ 3.73 open axle.

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by Willowrun

Interested in this conversion. Is the plan to use the entire front frame section? Great upgrade to a C20.

It could definitely be done that way, and I considered that pretty extensively. However I’m going to strip all the 4wd hardware including crossmembers from the 4wd frame clip and transfer them over to the 2wd frame. I’ve measured and I’m more than confident the crossmembers and such will fit the C20 frame. I’m going to use the 4wd frame sections around the rear shackle mount to locate the holes that will need drilled on the c frame. I plan to use the front holes of the front body mount which is in the same place C or K frame as the common point to mount the template if that makes sense.

K30 stuff will not interchange into a C10 or 20 frame but K10 and K20 appear to use the same frame section height as C20 at least and I’m confident they will work. The K30 frame I’ve got is no where close to being able to work (I wasn’t gonna sacrifice that mint original paint K30 frame anyway)