1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox

[daddyjeep]

Enjoying your truck that you have put so much work in to is what it is all about. A couple girls in bikinis doesn't hurt either,

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by daddyjeep

Enjoying your truck that you have put so much work in to is what it is all about. A couple girls in bikinis doesn't hurt either,

I couldn't agree more, old trucks and girls, what more could a guy ask for?!

[Smniekamp]

It was time I cleaned up my tailgate. I don't know what the deal is with this old blue paint, but it sure loves to flake off. Sanded it down and gave it a fresh coat. One more panel down! Now its time to attack the front end...

[Smniekamp]

This week was a little frustrating, The Ox left me stranded again on the side of the road with no spark....thankfully I was able to figure out that the ICM was the problem. Initially I was thinking the fuel filter may be the problem, but after a little more work I realized that it was an electrical issue. It wasn't a big deal to fix, however, its the 3rd ICM I've burned up in the last 600 miles. Someone told me that aftermarket tachs can short out and burn the ICM. My truck came with one of these aftermarket tachs (which never read accurately), so I removed it along with its wiring. Hopefully that stops me from killing another ICM.

Anyway...after that fix my troubles continued, I was 40 miles away from home in the truck when it stumbled like I was running out of gas. After the stumble it evened itself out and ran fine the rest of the way home....fewww! Once I got home I thought I'd check my fuel filters and make sure everything was in order. Turns out...when I looked at my carb filter on the side of the road (when my ICM died) I put it in backwards.... I flipped it around and what do you know, it runs great now and have had no issues since! My goal is to get a little more painting done this next week.

If you're familiar with these filters, you'll see this is not the way you want to have them installed into the carb lol. It really helps to have the inlet hole of the filter on the gas line side.

[Smniekamp]

Took a day off work and spent my time on the truck, the hood got taken care of today. Love the refreshed color....however, it does show the dent a little more clearly lol.

[RedBed]

GREAT THREAD! My kind of rebuild! Great work!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by redbed

great thread! My kind of rebuild! Great work

+ 1

[coveboy]

Just read through your whole build, you've done a great job so far! Truck looks super sharp, and gave me some inspiration on my new budget k10 for sure. I might have missed it, but what paint and primer are you using? With how little you have spent on paint to look that good it's worth it to throw some color on and make my rig look slightly less crummy. My bed is so dented, rusted, and dinged it may not be worth saving, so I was also considering a flat bed if one pops up on craigslist for a good price. Did you loose tire clearance when switching from a fleetside to flatbed?

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by coveboy

Just read through your whole build, you've done a great job so far! Truck looks super sharp, and gave me some inspiration on my new budget k10 for sure. I might have missed it, but what paint and primer are you using? With how little you have spent on paint to look that good it's worth it to throw some color on and make my rig look slightly less crummy. My bed is so dented, rusted, and dinged it may not be worth saving, so I was also considering a flat bed if one pops up on craigslist for a good price. Did you loose tire clearance when switching from a fleetside to flatbed?

Thanks man! I used Rustoleum primer and paint out of a spray can from Lowes, it turned out better than I expected. I made sure that I cleaned and sanded the surface pretty well before spraying. Lots of thin coats...lol.

I don't think I lost much clearance with the flatbed. The bed I bought was built on top of two pieces of channel tubing, so it sits a little higher than if it was just on the frame of the truck. Do you have a thread going of your truck? I'd love to see it!

[Smniekamp]

So my flatbed was previously welded onto a truck before I bought it. The owner I bought it from cut the spacers off with a plasma cutter, leaving them damaged beyond use. The spacers were just pieces of square tubing that laid sideways across the bottom of the bed. I decided to cut the spacer off and use the center portion for my new spacers, which I welded in lengthwise with the frame. In the end, it does the same job and takes up a little less room. I'm happy with the results, especially since it was my second time welding haha.

Jacking the bed up with camper jacks to work on....little sketchy...the bed is a heavy sucker...


The center section of the old spacer I cut out.


The remainder of the old spacer.


My new spacer welded in where the old one was located.

[Smniekamp]

Today I was able to wire in my trailer lights. I bought a pair of tail lights at Car Quest and a used harness at a salvage yard. I decided to upgrade my old harness plug to the newer style that was on the late 80s Chevys. Plus, the one I bought from the salvage yard had a trailer hook up already wired in. I like how it turned out, still not in love with the flatbed, but the utility of it is going to be nice.

One half of the harness plug I bought from the salvage yard.


My messy work space, trying to sort through which wires go where.


Lights mounted and working! Now to bolt the bed down...

[coveboy]

Originally Posted by Smniekamp

Thanks man! I used Rustoleum primer and paint out of a spray can from Lowes, it turned out better than I expected. I made sure that I cleaned and sanded the surface pretty well before spraying. Lots of thin coats...lol.

I don't think I lost much clearance with the flatbed. The bed I bought was built on top of two pieces of channel tubing, so it sits a little higher than if it was just on the frame of the truck. Do you have a thread going of your truck? I'd love to see it!

Not bad for rattle can, that's for sure.

And dope, the bed on my truck is pretty rough. Bedsides are badly dented, and there are quite a few rust holes in the floor, so after I get through all my mechanical work I'm going to address the body and likely tear it off. I like how that flatbed looks on yours and is so functional.

I haven't done anything to my chevy since I picked her up besides clean it, but here's my thread. I have a radiator, new brakes, lift components, and a few other misc parts all on order so hopefully will have some updates in the next month!
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...28#post8207828

[Smniekamp]

An old car guy once told me that the key to working on a project vehicle is to do something with it every day. Even if the only thing you do is remove a single screw, it helps keep the project moving along. So, as much as I didn't want to today after work, I went out and gave The Ox some love.

My plan for mounting the bed is to weld some flat bar to the frame of the bed, and bolt it to the frame of the truck. That way it can be removed from the truck later on if I change beds. Today I wire wheeled the rust off the mounting points on the bed frame, measured my truck frame holes, and drilled my flat bar mounts.

The bed frame sections cleaned.


Drilling holes in the flat bar with my drill press.


Cleaning the bed surface up, one square foot down, 55 to go....

[Smniekamp]

Sunny Sunday meant time spent on The Ox. I started off by welding a spacer on my mounting plate. The truck frame is a 1/4" wider than the bed frame. The rear end is all installed and welded on, however I still need to finish the front two mounts. I cleaned up and painted the spare tire bracket and spare tire rim black...which means the its back on the front of the truck. Some people aren't into that look, but I like it with the flatbed. I also replaced my old grill with one that has a clean Chevy badge, its in much better shape, almost a shame to put the tire on the front haha.

Tacking the spacer onto my mounting plate.


Welded up, feel like I'm getting a little better at it!


Mounted on, I welded all around on the bed frame after this picture.


Fresh grill!


The Ox as of today.

[D13]

I love it. Just like me - I use the truck as a work table for working on.. the truck.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by D13

I love it. Just like me - I use the truck as a work table for working on.. the truck.

yup, best part about owning a truck, when you working on it, and you remove a part, just put it in the bed of the truck, it's usually a clean workbench

[jkk]

Nice work

[TKCR]

Truck is looking good!!!

[tucsonjwt]

I just picked up on your thread.

Are you going for just a flatbed or are you planning on a dump bed? With a nice flat surface a dump hoist would be great. I had a Pierce Wrecker 2 ton hoist installed by a local equipment place about 14 years ago and it is great to have for the times when I need it. My preference would be for a dump insert, but they run about $3-$5K for a nice one and the conversion I got was about $2k back then.

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by jkk

Nice work

Originally Posted by TKCR

Truck is looking good!!!

Thanks guys! It's been a lot more work to put this flat bed on than I originally thought...

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by tucsonjwt

I just picked up on your thread.

Are you going for just a flatbed or are you planning on a dump bed? With a nice flat surface a dump hoist would be great. I had a Pierce Wrecker 2 ton hoist installed by a local equipment place about 14 years ago and it is great to have for the times when I need it. My preference would be for a dump insert, but they run about $3-$5K for a nice one and the conversion I got was about $2k back then.

I actually never thought of doing a dump bed... but it sounds like a good project if I ever picked up a dually! For now I'm just going to keep it as a regular flat bed.

[Smniekamp]

More progress over the past few days. I can't get my camper on with the bed being so wide. I'm pretty sure it was originally for a dually truck. The camper jacks aren't wide enough to fit over the bed... so... I decided to cut 5" off each side to narrow the bed up a little. I don't have a plasma cutter or anything fancy like that, so I gave the old grinder a workout. It took about three hours, but the bed is now 10" narrower!

I also used one of my low budget resto techniques on my dashboard badge. The silver sharpy never lets me down when touching up faded lettering haha.

[Smniekamp]

Badge lettering touch up with silver sharpie...

[Nick_R_23]

Dielectric grease works just fine and is what is used from the factory. Arctic Silver is a pretty high end thermal paste used for CPUs in computers and is overkill but will work excellent. If you continue to burn up modules, I’d be looking into making sure you have a clean +12v line that is not dropping or spiking voltage and ruining the modules.

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by Nick_R_23

Dielectric grease works just fine and is what is used from the factory. Arctic Silver is a pretty high end thermal paste used for CPUs in computers and is overkill but will work excellent. If you continue to burn up modules, I’d be looking into making sure you have a clean +12v line that is not dropping or spiking voltage and ruining the modules.

Thanks man, that's good to know! All my motorhead friends around here have no idea how to troubleshoot a vehicle if they can't plug it into a code reader haha. I really appreciate the input. I'll have to trace my distributor wiring and check for any damage.