Scott's 1972 Chevy K-20. A place to start.

[gerfunken]

Well, yesterday was a bit of a fun. I worked more on the new driver's door, and was able to get the channel piece cut out.

[gerfunken]

This is where the day gets interesting. I hadn't focused any attention to the latch in the b-pillar and lining it up until I got the actual lock mechanism working. First issue I had to chase was that they latch & plate weren't lining up. So, I ended up cutting and drilling some 3/4" x 1/8" flat bar to create some spacers for the strike plate.

Well, and sorry for no pictures on this part, but the door wouldn't work. Put simply, the door was hitting/rubbing the top bolt of the striker plate, but it wasn't latching in the mechanism, and dealing with the alignment was battling the laws of physics. So, without many options left, I ended up putting the old door on.



Looks good from that side.... but there are some bad spots that still need to be revealed.

First off is the massive dent that was revealed by the cracking bondo put over the top of it.


The lower back edge is suffering from surface cancer.


And the front has been slightly eaten up by the red monster over the years...

[gerfunken]

And, I managed to get it back to almost drivable at this point... Thanks to the wonderful State of Arizona, I am required to get the truck emission tested every February. That means that I need to get it all together before I get to take it all apart again <sigh>.

Front back on.


Finished bolting the right front fender on.


Bolted the bed to the frame.


Put the gauge cluster back in the truck, as well as tracked down all the electrical to make sure that all the grounds were back on and that the isolaters were mounted back to the inside of the fenders.

In all, I still need to deal with the guts of the passenger door, and it should be good enough to drive to the emissions place without any hassle from our brothers in blue.

[gdavis]

Originally Posted by gerfunken

And, I managed to get it back to almost drivable at this point... Thanks to the wonderful State of Arizona, I am required to get the truck emission tested every February. That means that I need to get it all together before I get to take it all apart again <sigh>.

Front back on.


Finished bolting the right front fender on.


Bolted the bed to the frame.


Put the gauge cluster back in the truck, as well as tracked down all the electrical to make sure that all the grounds were back on and that the isolaters were mounted back to the inside of the fenders.

In all, I still need to deal with the guts of the passenger door, and it should be good enough to drive to the emissions place without any hassle from our brothers in blue.

It is a shame about the door. What are you going to do? Are you going to try and fix the old one?

[Mustard72]

I know its probably no consolation, but your original door looks better than either of my doors. Mine look almost as bad as my cab floor did. Doors sure can be a pain.

[gerfunken]

I'm still mulling over what to do with the door. I still have to put the guts of the old passenger door into the new one next weekend. Since I'm not planning to put this thing in for paint until August or so, I figure that I have a little bit of time to figure it out.

As I was chasing the "where's the problem going to be next," I just thought that it was easier (and less aggravating) to put the old door back. I am more concerned about the passenger door. The PO had smacked something with the right front that did a number to the back of the fender and front of the door.
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[gerfunken]

Was able to spend a little bit of time on the truck this weekend. Driver's door has all been put back together.

I wish there were some better options for the door mirrors. I've never run the original mirrors, always these.


And some extra steel in the back to help with the vibration a little bit.





Ended up running over to ACE hardware so that I'd never have to deal with the screws again.

[gerfunken]

Was also able to get the passenger side all wrapped up.

[gerfunken]

And, I was able to take it out for a drive on Saturday. I still don't have any windows on the sides or back, so there was a little bit of fresh air blowing through the cab. Thankfully, AZ only does an emissions test, and it's not a safety check... no windows, no seat belts, the bare minimum of bolts holding the seat and gas tank in....

But, I'll just throw a couple of pictures of walking around the truck.

[Mustard72]

Good job with the doors. Must've passed the emissions test? I was wondering if you couldn't cut up the door that didn't fit to make patch panels for the original door. Seems kind of a shame, but might be an option.

[gerfunken]

Originally Posted by Mustard72

Good job with the doors. Must've passed the emissions test? I was wondering if you couldn't cut up the door that didn't fit to make patch panels for the original door. Seems kind of a shame, but might be an option.

Thanks. I didn't get it through emissions yet, but will be doing that this week. It has gotten through emissions the last 3 years on first-time runs, so since I've still not tweaked the engine at all I'm hopeful that it'll get through without any issues.

Sill torn on what to do about the door at this point. But, I'm collecting parts in the side yard that will probably go up on Craigslist or the "for sale" section here. I know that if I do let it go, I'll never recoup the money that I spent on the door.

[gerfunken]

Well, the good news for the day is that I got my truck through emissions with flying colors. I think that the carb and timing have been dialed in for a while as this makes the third or fourth year that I've had a first-time go. I'm also thankful that nothing's slipping or backing-off under the hood.

[Mustard72]

That is good news. Even better news is that I don't have to deal with emissions testing in NW Wisconsin......yet

[gerfunken]

Well, not much new to report on the truck. While I have been contemplating a new engine/transmission combination for a while, I've finally decided to go ahead with it. Here's a couple of pictures from the donor vehicle that I'll be picking up today:

[gerfunken]

So, got it home last night. +/- 150 miles. Ran at about 80mph the entire way with no issues, and everything was working normally.

• Engine temp stayed around 190
• Exhaust temp was right around 600
• Oil pressure stayed around 40psi
• Volts stayed right at 14
• Boost stayed right around 12psi

The Bad....

• There is feedback in the brake pedal. I think that there's a case for a warped front rotor, and when I got under it, I can see that the driver's side is really bad.
• There is a power steering leak that has coated everything on the underside of the vehicle at this point, and it's all dripping down. Need to identify where the leak is in the system.
• Nothing in the dash was put back in place properly. Pulled the cup holder out only to have it fall on the floor of the cab. Pulled the ash tray out to find the same situation. Hit the "O/D" button only to have it fall back into the dash. (thankfully, the cup holder was already on the ground, so I could reach my hand back in there to get it.)
• And, the largest annoyance was the fact that the driver's door speaker constantly cut in and out with all of the associated static, and that damn near drove me crazy on the 2.5 hour drive.

[Mustard72]

Did I miss something? Are you pulling the Dodge motor and trans to put in the Chevy? Or is the Dodge a driver until you get the Chevy on the road? Sorry if I'm a bit behind on this.

[gerfunken]

Originally Posted by Mustard72

Did I miss something? Are you pulling the Dodge motor and trans to put in the Chevy? Or is the Dodge a driver until you get the Chevy on the road? Sorry if I'm a bit behind on this.

Nick,
You're not behind at all. I've been wanting to go to a diesel for quite some time. I've followed Mosesburb and the build up of his 72 Suburban, Ryanroo and his 72 K20, as well as Dieselwrencher and his 72 Longhorn. They've provided quite a lot of inspiration, as well as some valuable information along the way.

HOWEVER, unlike those guys, I'm going to end up outsourcing the transformation. In my new job, I'm traveling about 20% of the time, and like others on the board, I'm still trying to finish up my bachelor's degree (hopefully at the end of May.)

At one point in time, my wife was the office manager for Randy Ellis of Randy Ellis Designs , so I reached out to him at the beginning of the year to start pulling all of the pieces together. He doesn't have time until June, which gives me a little bit of time to get the remaining pieces together before "two trucks enter, only one truck leaves."

Considering that I've now owned my Chevy for 13 years, this is the first time that I finally see the end in sight. I've been saving for the last year to pull this all together, which was why I busted arse to get the rust repaired through last summer.

So, get parts now, truck goes to Randy in June, painters in July/August (already lined up), leaving only the upholstery to do before I start using it for hunting season in September/October.

[1985-GMC]

Very cool truck man, I'll be looking forward to the cummins swap!
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[gerfunken]

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

Very cool truck man, I'll be looking forward to the cummins swap!
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks Tony, appreciate the compliment.

[gerfunken]

So, a picture-less update. I haven't done a lot on the Chevy, but I have been working on the Dodge a bit to get it ready to move the driveline over to the '72.

I replaced the rotors and pads. The front rotors were shot and they did end up being warped, which was causing the problem.

I also did some engine work, swapping out the fuel plate to a #5 plate as well as moving the AFC so it the fuel comes on quicker. The Cummins is no longer a 190hp, 400ft.lbs. tame engine. Specs state that I should be at about 600+ ft.lbs. of torque now, and it really does drive differently. Oh, and let's not forget the cloud of black that I generate when I now put my foot into it. Those changes (and a couple of others) also helped increase the turbo boost pressure to about 20psi., up about 5-6 from where it was when I drove it home.

Now, I'm stuck waiting for June to roll around.

[gerfunken]

Well, I got to spend a little bit of time in the garage this weekend. I was able to start crossing some of the to-do's off the list before it goes into the shop for the new drive line.

First, to recoup a little bit of the cost of the truck, I sold my wheels and tires off the Dodge to my brother.



But we found that his old wheels wouldn't clear the hubs, so we had to go with a three way switch. My black wheels and 35" tires ended up on the Dodge.



And that left the stock GMC wheels on my '72.





Item 1: checked off.

[gerfunken]

Moving on to the inside of the vehicle, I needed to fix the hazard switch that I broke about 10 years ago. This is where my frustrations slowly began. I had ordered a new hazard knob and screw from LMC for a 1973-87 Chevy (part 30-2612). I have seen other people just tap the broken hazard switch base with a 1/8" bit, then thread the new part in. But that didn't account for 40-year old brittle plastic. The moment that I got the screw to catch, the plastic just shattered, leaving me to replace the entire switch assembly. Not willing to wait another three days, I hit the O'Rielly website, and found the replacement part just down the street.

Part number from O'Rielly's if you need it.



Got the steering wheel off, before the parts started breaking apart in my hands.



While I was there, I also decided to install cruse control. The Dodge has cruse, but the buttons are all on the steering wheel, under the air bag, which wouldn't work. Dakota Digital makes a GM specific part which I added purchased through Summit.



And I installed it on the truck.



Item 2: completed

[gerfunken]

Moving along, I also needed to replace the cab lights. These have been cracked, and the dry brittleness of the mounting pads meant that I couldn't just replace the lenses. I had attempted this earlier with one, only to find out that I just couldn't get it to seat properly. Using the combination of pressure from the screws, and a pick to try and massage the base plate up over the edge of the lens only caused me to break the lip on the base.



Now, things were going well until I hit the fourth light. When trying to put the screw back in, I found that it was binding up pretty bad. I pulled out one of the old screws, figuring that it should work, but snapped it. At that point, I figured that I would just get a tap, and clean out the threads. Sure, easy enough, but it started binding as well. And, wouldn't you know it, the nut that was welded into the bottom side of the cab snapped off.

Well, I was able to recover it. I also put the nut in a vise, and ran the tap through it so that it wouldn't cause a problem. And through the magic of leverage, magnets and patience, I was able to get it mounted back in place. (no after pictures....)

Item 3: finally done.


Item 4: Figured out. I have been having an issue with my fog lights after putting everything back together. Deciding to investigate, I bypassed the switch, and tried to get the lights to work directly from the battery. I could hear the relay "click" but the lights wouldn't come on. Back to O'Reilly auto to see if they had a replacement relay. Came back, installed the new relay, and same thing happened. Ok, what now.... after chasing electrical gremlins for quite some time on this one, I decided that I would just bypass everything, and (since I've installed the new halogen's and an upgraded wiring harness), I just decided to bypass the entire relay, and tapped the high-beam line so that the fog lights come on when I hit the high-beams. Problem Solved!

Item 5: Perplexed. After dealing with the fog lights, I though it would be a good idea for me to validate the new turn signal switch. On a good note, the horn works again (check). Left turn (check). Right turn (no-bueno). Hazards (no-bueno). ?????
I've played with this a little bit, and think that I have it isolated to a missing ground, but wasn't able to chase after it.

Item 6: Not started. Ok, I've been in the garage for 8 hours straight, and the heat was finally getting to me. (It's probably also why I gave up on Item 5.) It was a balmy 102 in the garage by this point, and there was only so much that ice water would do for me at this point. But, since we all love pictures, here's the project that I didn't get started.

This is in the Dodge, and I need to bring it over to the '72.



And I was smart enough to find a wiring diagram for it.



All and all, I got a bunch of stuff done, but I still have a couple of outstanding items that I need to deal with this week.

[gerfunken]

So I got a call from Randy, and the trucks go into the shop on Monday. I'll be leveraging the entire driveline on the 94 Dodge, engine, transmission, transfer case, front and rear axles. There's a couple of things that I'll queue up for later work on that Dodge D60, but that can wait for a while. There's still a list of things that I'd like to complete on the 72 before it goes in, and I haven't found time to do it this week. Hopefully, I'll be able to carve out some time on the weekend.

On a good note, I have officially finished up my bachelor's degree. My last class ended last Thursday, and this is the first weekend that I've had in a while where I don't have any homework to get done.

[Mustard72]

Good job on getting done with school. That's gotta be a weight off your shoulders. Of course, now we expect some heavy duty progress on the truck, though

I just put a wiring harness in my 87 a few weeks back. It was still snowing/raining here at that point. Not sure which I'd rather deal with, 102° in the garage or snow and rain working int he driveway (garage is full of the 72 project).

Nice to see your progress. Nice writeup, too.