86 k 20 project "cletus"

[palposity]

I bought this truck 2 years ago to use as a rat plow truck. Of course, as with everything I do, the more I get into it the more I love it. I was originally planning to replace this with a newer truck after 2 years, but why take on a payment? Plus these trucks are so easy to work on (at least after you get rid of the rusty bolts and other parts). I already replaced the engine in this after the truck sat all summer last year and the rear main dry rotted. I was dumb enough to drive it in the fall without checking the oil. BOOM went the engine! I was able to pick up an exact duplicate 350 off of craigs list for $200 so I decided that was too good to pass up. The truck got me through the winter with the replacement engine! Of course during the very last 18inch snow storm we got the driver side U-Joint on the front axle decided to retire while I was plowing and the yokes on both the axle and the outer stub shaft ground themselves off. I just got those replaced and decided -- Hey--let's just tear this apart more and make it as capable as possible for the future! I decided to get rid of the dump bed (doesn't have the hydraulics for it anyway), and it's a real pain to plow when you cant see out your back window. I'm doing a parts swap with another member on here to get a clean bed and replacement cab! I am also planning on setting this up with dual tanks! Plowing burns gas fast!
I am also working this build at the same time as another which I have named Project "Pops".

These first pics show us in process of getting the dump bed lifted off.