JackdTruck - the overly ambitious 1969 K10 LWB Project

[ZohmBii]

Time for some wet sanding!












After the wet sanding was done we prepped and sealed the seams of the cab:



Then it got loaded up in the trailer to head to the painter:





Here's a tease of the color:

[ZohmBii]

Here are a few shots of the parts in the paint booth. The color doesn't come out very well in these pictures, but it gets better in natural light.














And here's a few shots of it out in the sun:





And back in the trailer to come home:

[ZohmBii]

Body back on our jigs:







Close up of the paint on the cab:

[ZohmBii]

Now that the body was all painted up and we accumulated some more parts it was time to get going on assembling the drivetrain.

Engine ready to install:




Engine crossmember installed. We also had the steering box, steering box brace, and linkages done at this point:




Moving the engine into place:




Capturing the moment - the kid this truck is for and yours truly:






Our first attempt at installing the pilot bearing didn't go as planned. We got a little impatient with a hammer and ended up cracking it:




It ended up being a good opportunity to teach the broski on how to remove the pilot bearing for the future though:




New pilot bearing installed with minimal 'persuasion' of the hammer:





Flywheel and clutch installation:








Bellhousing and clutch fork installed:

[cornerstone]

She's a beauty! I really like your color combo. We don't get to see many resto's with a black roof around here it seems, very cool!

[Ol Blue K20]

I just read through this thread and subscribing. It's looking great and looking forward to some updates...

[ZohmBii]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

She's a beauty! I really like your color combo. We don't get to see many resto's with a black roof around here it seems, very cool!

Thanks man!

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

I just read through this thread and subscribing. It's looking great and looking forward to some updates...

Thanks! I'll be posting some more pictures tomorrow for sure!

[ZohmBii]

Time to install the trans and transfer case!






Boom, trans and transfer case installed!






Mock-up of the Holley Sniper:








We also ended up changing directions with the accessory drive. Thanks to this awesome forum we ended up getting our hands on a complete '92 Chevy 1500 serpentine belt setup from a junkyard. We ended up getting all the accessories as well so we used them as cores and got all new stuff.

Balancer and reverse rotation water pump painted and installed:




Brackets sandblasted and installed:




Upgraded CS130 style alternator, PS pump, and pulleys installed - still missing the AC compressor since we were deciding if we wanted to use a Sanden style with adapter brackets or if we could use the R4 style that the serpentine setup came with. (After a call to Vintage Air they told us we could use the R4 style so that's what we did).

[ZohmBii]

We ended up using the same undercoating to treat the cab floor and rear wall:




Pile of parts including the Vintage Air system and some freebie headers:




Test fitting the A/C control panel:




Vintage Air under dash unit:





We ended up using the old cab for mockup of the Vintage Air unit. We also had to have some custom hoses made up for where we wanted to put the bulkhead connections.

Bulkhead connections:






Dash starting to come together:










Dome light installed - with an LED bulb:




We also got new door glass and wing windows:






Door Assembly:






We ended up having to trim a bit of the window seal since they were a bit too long, but it turned out pretty good:

[Ol Blue K20]

Loving it........

[1971Stepside]

Man! This build looks fantastic. Love the color combo. And, this shop you have...

[ZohmBii]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

Man! This build looks fantastic. Love the color combo. And, this shop you have...

Thanks! It's been a lot of work on both the truck and the shop. This build was at my dad's shop, I have one I'm working on finishing up at my place too - it's just not quite as huge HAHA.

[ZohmBii]

Test fit the 'freebie' headers on the passenger side:








The original plan was to get these headers ceramic coated, but they were not going to work out. They were hitting the shackle and running straight into the trans crossmember.

We ended up ordering a set of mid-length headers. They fit the passenger side great, but didn't fit the driver side since we were going to be using the Z-bar setup. So we sent those back and ended up ordering a pair from Summit (SUM-G9006-9). Wouldn't you believe it, they actually fit beautifully!






The flange on these headers was a good 6 to 7 inches closer to the engine which gave us more room to run our exhaust pipe. The driver side fit really well too, but we did end up having to modify the Z-bar slightly to get full clearance. That said, I highly recommend these if you're running a similar setup as we are!

[ZohmBii]

We finished installing the headers, A/C compressor, serpentine belt, fuel tank, and mounted the Holley Sniper.

Time to slap the cab onto the frame for the final time!







The fuel tank was from Brother's Trucks, since the truck was going to be lifted we didn't want to have the filler neck in the bed so we put it inside the wheel well. We also installed the Holley Sniper Fuel Pump module in the tank.




Some more shots of the cab:














Here's some shots underneath, you can really see how the headers fit:

[Ol Blue K20]

Looking great! What is the fuel tank capacity? How's the rear diff clearance?

[ZohmBii]

Now we're getting into the real fun stuff - WIRING!

We got a harness from M&H Electric that included updated ATO style fuses and several extra circuits for goodies like electric fans, fuel pump, water pump, etc. This made incorporating a lot of the upgrades a lot easier, but it was still a lot of work.

Here's what all we added that had to be incorporated into the harness:

• Holley Sniper
• Holley Hyperspark Ignition Box
• Holley Hyperspark Coil
• Holley Hyperspark Distributor
• Dakota Digital Gauges
• Dakota Digital GPS Speedo
• Dakota Digital Holley Module
• Vintage Air
• Electric Fans
• Electric Fuel Pump
• LED Halo Headlight Module

Getting some of these items to control one another was a bit of a challenge, but I loved every second of it!

On to the pictures of the madness!

We installed the CPP tilt steering column, A/C ducts, and most of the under dash harness:








We ended up fabricating a small bracket to hold the Dakota Digital modules in the glove box area since we lost most of the space to the Vintage Air unit already.




Installed core support, Ebay Special Aluminum Radiator and Electric fans:




Mounted the Hydroboost and Master Cylinder, also more wiring madness:










Made a harness for the fuel level sender and pump. Also made the supply and return lines for the fuel tank and mounted the Filter/Regulator:








Wiring the Fan Relays - the switched ground side of the relay is controlled by the Holley Sniper:



After wrapping in split loom:




More Wiring cleaned up:




We also made a bracket to mount the Hyperspark Ignition Box and Coil to the passenger side fender:





With hoses:






Vintage Air Condenser installed:




Here's a good comparison of the wiring.

During chaos:


After loom:

[ZohmBii]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looking great! What is the fuel tank capacity? How's the rear diff clearance?

The tank has a 21 gallon capacity. On the install video they recommend trimming one of the bed rails, but we just moved the tank forward slightly since we have the 8" lift it still has plenty of clearance to the rear diff.

Now I'm sure if the truck completely bottomed out or if we were building a trail rig we would have moved the tank back slightly. But if the diff ever does come up far enough to hit the tank we've got bigger problems.

[ZohmBii]

On the interior we finished up installing the sound deadening - first the undercoating, then a layer of 80 mil butyl, and finished with a layer of 315 mil closed cell foam.








Mounted the Dakota Digital HDX module in the space behind the gauges:




Dakota Digital GPS Module and Holley interface module - the Holley module plugged into the Sniper handheld connection so that the gauges could pick up the Tach and Coolant temp signals from the Sniper sensors instead of having to run extra wires.




Dakota Digital HDX gauges and RetroSound Hermosa radio installed and powered up!:





Around this time we were getting the itch to get this thing started, but we couldn't do that without some of an exhaust system for the O2 sensor. So we ordered a pipe kit and welded one up!

Passenger side mockup going over the transfer case:






Here's the layout of the pipe, minus the turndowns - and yes, those are Purple Hornies:




We ended up matching the shape on the driver side and stuck the O2 sensor in that side as well since it had more clearance. Since the pipes were just aluminized we did plan to paint them once everything was finalized.

[Ol Blue K20]

Nice!.......

[ZohmBii]

After buttoning up a few items and filling fluids we were finally ready to start the truck up for the first time!

Engine ready to rock:




Exhaust supported - we didn't have hangers figured out yet








The startup process for the Holley Sniper and Hyperspark is pretty simple, but we had a few issues with it not wanting to start. Long story short, don't get so excited to put things together that you forget to adjust your idle screw when you put the unit on your engine or it can't breathe.

Once I cracked the throttle while cranking the engine it fired right up! We still had to do some fine tuning, but for now it was running and we were stoked!

I've uploaded a couple videos to YouTube if you'd like to check it out.

Little bro, Jack, starting the his truck for the first time and revving it a little: https://youtu.be/ozlmQvvKn-s

Walk around of the truck running, showing the gauges and Sniper handheld: https://youtu.be/Vmji5LFQHdQ

[ZohmBii]

Lets keep going, shall we?

Now that we had the truck running, our next step was to install the windshield. We originally were going to install the style with the chrome trim, but it kept fighting us so we decided to go with the simple black gasket. I think it blends in with the black top of the cab quite well.




View from the inside - visors also installed:




Test fitting the seats with the brackets we made:





We used a simple 3 point seat belt kit that allowed us to use the existing holes in the cab for the upper pivot mount and used the factory mounting location on the 2009 seats for the lower part as well as the factory location on the floor:




We also decided to test fit our carpet. Unfortunately the carpet ended up being for a 2wd with the low hump so it was a bit too short for our application. You can also see the rear 6x9s we installed using the speaker plates from Brothers:




The completed dash - minus the courtesy lamps and speakers being wired:








Here's a close up of the steering wheel Jack ended up going with. I like it a lot, but we've still got some work to do with getting the horn button to work correctly:

[ZohmBii]

Since we couldn't keep going on the interior until the correct carpet showed up, we focused on a few other things to keep the ball rolling.

We installed 7" LED Halo headlights from Octane Lighting, here's a few shots of us testing them out:



Cyan:




Here's a close up of the light off. We liked how they kinda look like normal lights instead of the projector style. They do have an LED bulb so they put out an awesome amount of light at night.




Another day, another bit of progress:






Well now, what's going on here?




Ooh that looks much better!




Somebody get those dang blankets outta here so we can see!










Dang, that looks GOOD!




Time to just take a step back and enjoy staring at it.

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks great!

[1971Stepside]

Those tires look massive! That will keep you motivated no doubt. Lookin great.

[ZohmBii]

Thanks for all the kind words so far!

Jack decided he wanted to to paint the calipers blue. They ended up matching the truck quite well:




Before:




During:




After:




Our next step was to get this thing looking like a truck again:


















That gantry lift sure made this all a lot easier on our backs for sure!

Rear driveshaft installed - front shaft had too much of an angle, going to have to get a high angle driveline for it:




Lots more tape and towels - prepping to install the doors:



Boom!



That Lemans Blue just GLOWS in the sun!





That long bed just brings it all together. I think if it were a short bed the 40" tires would stand out way too much.