1980 Chevy Custom Deluxe...The road to the road?

[MadManAndrew]

First off, I'd like to say that this will not be much of a build thread. My truck has already been "built" enough and this will be about the road to recovery and being street legal. So anyway...

My dad and I picked the truck up about 5 months ago for $1000. Seemed a decent price, the engine started up and ran good, and he said he drove it for a couple months before getting his new truck, so we bit...It's a 1980 custom deluxe cab and bed on a 1981 K10 frame, and it has a '74 350 in it out of their old Camaro from the best I can figure. You talk about seeing builds so bad even the hillbillies cry? Well, this guys thought process worked so that if something originally used four bolts to hold it in place, one should do it just fine, and that is how the entire truck was put together...

• He had supposedly added a 2" body-lift to it to clear the transfer case, but this consisted of placing home-made metal spacers on the stock bushings. A proper kit is on the list, but yet to come.
• '74 350>TH350>NP203>Can't quite remember the axles, but I'll get 'em up next time I'm under it. And he wanted it to be a mud bogger?
• The tranny was dry when I got it home, and the oil looked like it hadn't been changed in years. Well maintained my crack. It recieved a flush and fresh fluids.
• Changed out my spark plugs and immediately it ran great. Gave whole new life to what I ws beginning to think was a POS.
• Next came a new distributor, rotor, and plug wires. I find out after doing this that it may idle great, but under load it sputters and dies.
• A brand new Holley 4-barrel carb replaces the GM 2-Jet our "friends" had put on. Sputtering and dieing gone.
• A shiny new tach is found under the dash.
• All lights, bulbs, and lenses replaced. No wiring problems, just burnt out. Hooray!
• Replaced the wiper motor, but it still won't work. Not getting any power to it (That's funny, pretty sure it was getting power before we replaced it?).
• Radiator leaks like CRAZY! Have to pull the garden hose out everytime I wanna run the darn thing.
• Steering box leaks quite a bit and has A TON (quarter turn of the wheel) of slop, but I just learned today it should have a set screw to take that out. Still leaks though, so it'll probably get replaced.
• Front seals on both diff's leak. Need to be replaced.
• The front output on my transfer case does not put ANYTHING out, and the speedo output doen't do anything either. Hopefully it's an easy fix, but it may get scrapped for an NP205 (It's a 203).
• Brakes are horrible, and one rotor has has a nasty deep groove in it. Rotor 'll be replaced and brakes will be "fixed".
• Parking brake components on the frame were completely missing, and the locked up cable from the cab was just dragging on the ground. After spending an hour feeing it up and attaching it to the pedal, we realised it was too short to even reach the mount on the frame. Hopefully we can find a model year with a longer cable and we'll be good to go.
• It seems I've also purchased a lot of misc. screws lately. Remember that 4 bolts:1 bolt policy? My Transfer case has 2 bolts half-tightened holding it in, I've got two out of six bolts on my front bumper, 2/3 on one side and one on the other on my rear, and am missing all but one bottom spacer on my cab mounts.
• Oh, and the A/C housing has a huge hole busted in it, but accoring to the guy I bought it from the A/C works great.
• On a good note, I put a Pioneer CD/MP3 Player and new door speakers in it as soon as I got it.

That's everything I can think of that we've done/needs to be done for now, more to come later. If you have any thoughts, please let me hear 'em. And I expect full opinions once I get pics up! Lol, thanks for reading.

PICS WILL COME LATER TOO.

[MadManAndrew]

A couple pics of the truck...Pulled the radiator out today so my dad can swap it for a shiny new one on his way home tomorrow. Makin' progress. I do have the dash, just took it off to hook up the speedo and decided to leave it off until I got a new one.

[MadManAndrew]

Got the new radiator yesterday and got it flushed and installed today. Actually turned out to be a '78 model, what's up with that? Also got the speedo fixed. The output had an adapter for a different style of cable than what I used. Got the adapter off and it's good to go.

I've got a question for all you guys that are experienced in building these trucks. Have you ever had a problem after lifting a truck or from mismatching frames and cabs to where your parking brake from the cab cannot reach its bracket on the frame? How'd you fix it?

[MadManAndrew]

Where the filler neck on my radiator meets the body is leaking. I guess it's just pressed in, and they didn't press it in very good. It's got a lifetime warranty though, so we'll see..may just RTV it, lol.

None of y'all have anything to say? I really need some advice on that break cable, so...Thanks, Andrew.

[mooseknuckles]

actually it looks like 79....well the grill anyway.

[MadManAndrew]

Nope, 1980. Have the original bill of sale from the dealer. Who knows on the grill though, may be off a 79. What's the difference?

[bmchevy1979]

It's an 80 grille because this is what the 79 grille looks like

[MadManAndrew]

Today we...

• Rebuilt the rear brakes
• Replaced the brake drums
• Replaced the master cylinder
• And bent new rear brake lines

But the cheap flare tool we picked up from Pepboys doesn't work for crap, so now I can't even move the darn thing off the driveway until I find a good flare tool. Anybody got an idea?

[my4by2]

Keep the build going man! Love to see these old trucks getting new life! Get us all some more pics when you can!

[MadManAndrew]

Will do! I've got some pics of the brakes before and after and that I took of the motor on the camera. I'll try and pull 'em off tomorrow for ya, thanks for the interest.
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[Maxxd07]

Nice little project to tinker with, and learn to boot.

The grille on a 79-80 are the same. I also have an all original 80 Custom Deluxe and a parted 79 Scottsdale and the grills and front trim are identical.

[MadManAndrew]

So...I know it's been awhile, I've been out on the lake or out of state visiting family every weekend for the past month so I havn't really got much done. Picked up a new flare tool from an actual tool shop, and got the passenger side brake line done, should get the driver side done this weekend and I found a company that will make me a new parking brake cable (Madisonpowersystems.com, really good pricing and says he'll have it out to me in a day), so I just need to measure up how much longer it actually needs to be and get that done. Also, after replacing the tranny pan gasket for the second time the other day I noticed that all the fluid had leaked out once again. Can't really drive it 'til we get that fixed so the next step will be dropping the tranny and transfer case, rebuilding the t-case and replacing the front and rear seals on the tranny.

I've also got the bug to do a full rebuild after lurking around here for awhile. Really wanna put a Duramax in it. We'll see.

[MadManAndrew]

Brake lines done and bled. Neither rear brake cylinder is working though, even though we were getting fluid back there just fine when we were bleeding them. Anybody got any ideas? Bad cylinders? We just replaced them... My dad says he read somewhere about a proportioning valve between the front and rear brake lines, I don't think that would be it though if we were getting fluid back there. Are the rear brakes supposed to be connected to the back of the master cylinder, on the small resorvior, or on the front?

Andrew.

[MadManAndrew]

Been awhile again, but...tranny and t-case are pulled. The front seal on my tranny was leaking, so it's out as well as both the seals on the t-case and awaiting replacement. Both the yolks on the t-case are worn, so there getting replaced too. Do have good news though, my problem with not getting power to the front turned out to just be the shifter being worn out and not shifting out of 2wd, so a dual shifter is on the way. Also got a pair of 100W offroad lights onto my roll bar. Whoo.

Also in the market for a decent crew cab to do my duramax build on, so if anyone's interested, message me. Really want an actual project truck since I'm just fixing this thing up to get me through a couple years of high school.