72 k20

[Ol Blue K20]

Congratulations, it must have felt great.

[DeadheadNM]

Congrats! Big accomplishment.

[57taskforce]

Thanks guys! I don’t have much in the way of pictures but today was an excellent day of work. My brother came and helped me all afternoon, we cleaned out and yanked bed one last time for a while and finished grinding down the plug welds on the back of the cab corners, the plug welds on the bottom of the outer rockers, touched up the paint under neath from welding the rockers in, and primed the cab corners and the welds on the outer rockers. I also installed the dust cover on the transmission, replaced the water pump, adjusted the valves, installed the bedside tool box liner and door, cleaned the windshield inside and out, Pressure washed the oil off the firewall and inner fenders from running the valves, put it on my geico policy, AND DROVE IT HOME. Plan is to get it registered on Monday morning. I drove it about 20 miles just taking my time in the dark with my brother following behind me. I need to work on the carb some as it falls on its face past about 3/4 throttle. I’m sure it’s something simple there. Other than that everything else went very smooth... well with the exception of not putting enough gas in it to get to the gas station when I left the shop. It ran out at the intersection where the gas station I was headed too was. My brother was in my company truck(We work for the same company) so I jumped out and grabbed the gas can in the back of that truck. No harm no foul I guess. It was a great day. Of course my brother took the only pic of the day and didn’t know how to hold his phone to get it to come out right on here.

[Richard]

Here you go

[DeadheadNM]

Right on Tyler that’s a huge accomplishment! Congrats my friend.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by deadheadnm

right on tyler that’s a huge accomplishment! Congrats my friend.

x2

[57taskforce]

Richard your a saint, it was late and I was worn out when I got home and posted this, thanks for the flip. I wasn’t about to mess with it last night. Pete, thanks man I couldn’t have done it without a bunch of your parts! Hopefully some time we can meet up again and you can see it in person. Old blue, thanks for the encouragement along the way! It still has a long way to go to be what I envision but it’s the baby steps along the way that make it fun building these trucks. I’m gonna try and get a picture with all my trucks and my Camaro together in the next few weeks, I gotta bring the Camaro home first.

[57taskforce]

Well, I’m about 250 miles in this week and so far so good. It hasn’t left me stranded yet! I’ve got some rattles and such inside the cab to quiet down mostly in the doors. I also need to fix a small rear axle leak on the passenger side axle flange to hub. Haven’t noticed any other leaks anywhere. I’ve also stumbled upon what I believe will be a free front Dana 60, spare round 205 and whichever trans is bolted to it from an 80s K30
The Dana 60 is quite likely to end up under my K20. The rest may end up with one of my spare factory 14 bolt disk brake rears under my 3100 with the 44 from the K20. I’ve been wanting to 1 ton swap the 3100 for a bit so this will hopefully let me accomplish that.
I took this photo on the way home tonight after a cruise with the kids. It’s a 72 ochre and white custom 2 tone C10 long bed. I see it around town quite a bit.

[DeadheadNM]

Thumbs up!

[57taskforce]

Here’s a few shots I took back behind my house near San Juan Generating station. I’ve also got some plans for the coming week, as I will be off for several days before the fourth. I plan to get my heater functional, door panels, handles, and arm rests installed, I got the metal inlet line for the edelbrock 1406 to be able to run a solid line from the pump to the carb, Im thinking I’ll run this in stainless. I just need to decide how I want to get from inverted flare at the pump to 3/8 stainless. It’s possible to flare stainless but not easy. I’ll also probably run a metal inline filter up near the carb. I’ve also got an issue with my fuel gauge I need to inspect. I’m thinking it may need either the resistor on the gauge or the sending unit replaced. It only goes as high as bout half way between 1/4 and 1/2 tank. Once the fuel level comes down below half it seems to
Move with the level but won’t go any higher than just below 1/2 tank. I’m sure I’ll find some more things to occupy my time but these are the projects I’m shooting to get done. I fixed the leaking passenger axle flange last night and also swapped a new set of tires on it that I had stashed away. They are mounted on 90’s steel wheels for now eventually I’ll get around to swapping them onto the original nub wheels. 265/75/16 fills the wells up nicely. So far I’m about 600 miles on it and no reliability issues at all. It starts right up and runs pretty good going down the road. I’ve got no complaints so far. Still lots to do but no complaints.

[Ol Blue K20]

Nice pics, sounds like you're going to be busy!

[DeadheadNM]

Tyler great work. Love the pics. So awesome you’ve got the k20 back on the road! With work and kids I know that takes a lot. Strong work.

[davischevy]

Great job Tyler. In my opinion, that is the perfect truck.

I have ruined many vehicles by doing frame off restorations. My wife and I drove the wheels off cars until I restored them and they were relegated to life under a cover.

I have somebody ask me at least once a week when I am going to restore or paint my Longhorn. I am determined to let it age gracefully.

[57taskforce]

Thanks Larry, one of these days I’ll get it shot in the original medium over dark olive and all the trim back on it. I really like the 557 scheme a lot. But your right for now I don’t have any problems driving it around where ever I need it to go. It’s just ugly enough that I don’t care if it gets scratched up, but at the same time it’s handsom enough that it gets compliments at the gas station... truly the best of both worlds haha. I think the truck gets more attention than the Camaro does honestly, and the Camaro is a huge garage queen.

Pete, thanks man we’ve sure been enjoying it. The kids ask me at least once a day if we can go for a ride... I haven’t figured out if it’s because they like riding in it as much as me or because they think there might be a trip to the gas station for a treat either way it’s been fun riding around with them. I drove it around Farmington for 3-4 hours with them on Wednesday alone. I’m finding it hard to work on it as much as I’d like simply because I want to drive it so much, I can deal with the minor bugs and squeaks/rattles for now.

[davischevy]

Too bad I didn't realize you were in Farmington when I stayed there last spring. Maybe that casino would have less money.

The first time I was in Farmington, you were about 10 years old.

I had my Harley Davidson serviced and a new oxygen sensor installed at the dealer in Springfield, MO. We took off and by the time we go to Farmington, that sensor had vibrated loose.

We called the dealer and the shop foreman was really dry. He said bring it down, and he would put it on the lift first thing next morning.

We rode in, and he was standing in the shop door. I revved it a couple of times, and shut it off and asked him what he thought.

My wife had never been overweight like me, but he said (It sounds like a condition caused by hauling fat women around.) Whoa.

They became great friends before it was over.

[57taskforce]

Haha that’s pretty funny. There’s what seems like a lot of people around here that have that old school kind of sense of humor, it still works here. Farmington is still a pretty gritty oil field town even though a lot of the bigger companies have moved out. I’ve only lived here for about 9 years or so. Originally I’m born and raised in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia/West Virginia. I’ve been thru your slice of Arkansas once or twice actually. It reminds me a lot of home in some ways. The gentle rolling mountains, and nice people. I really like the Ozarks a lot.
Hit me up If you ever find your self in Farmington again. We can find something to do to keep Sunray from stealing all your money again, they do have decent food though.

[57taskforce]

Well nearly 4 months later and I’ve got some updates... the build on my truck has taken an unforeseen turn. I sold it!...
Just kidding!!! I actually parted out a ‘89 1 ton cab and chassis truck. I kept the 3:73 Dana 60F and 14 bolt...*edit, don’t always believe the spid codes, they are 4:11 axles... they are going to get a new life in my K20. The rear is going to get converted to the standard srw width with late model 01+ factory rear disks. Not much info on this swap on the net so I do a how-to write up with pictures when the time comes. I’ve got two late model AAM 10.5” 14 bolts stashed away to rob parts from. It’s gonna take some machine work but I will get it to work. The front 60 will get the srw treatment and a little freshening up, hub bearings and brakes gone thru.
The truck is running pretty good still. Not really a whole lot to add other than I put the door panels on and have done some minor tinkering here and there, nothing major.
I tore the 6.0 down back in July, it needed some bottom end work. It had a couple of spun rod bearings but the cylinders are perfect. I’ve got it back from the machine shop, but it’s awaiting me to divert some money to putting it together. My plan is to cam it with a GPI vvt SS1, goal is 500+ at the flywheel which should be very doable. I’ll add a few pictures in a bit.

[davischevy]

Well, you got my attention anyway.

[Ol Blue K20]

The "I sold it" scared me!

[DeadheadNM]

Great to see an update. Sounds like a solid plan. Use the original axles for the next build

[57taskforce]

I guess I’m about 7 months late for April fools huh? I will certainly stash the axles from the 72 in the corner for the time being. Unfortunately neither of them are original to the truck, the front 44 has a build date from ‘73 and the rear is a 10.5” 14 bolt. I think I may put them under my K10 just because I know they are in good shape with new brakes and such. Then I’ll just stash the 1/2 ton stuff in the corner... and on and on...
here’s a couple pictures from the recent past.
The axle picture is disassembly of the AAM 10.5 brake/hub setup, and the truck is just a random picture at my house with some fall color.

I felt bad about parting the 100% rust free, straight as an arrow, square out for about 10 seconds... then I remembered the axles, round 205 and SM465, Im sure I’ll keep a little more off of it than that.

[57taskforce]

Yesterday we had what appears to be our last nice day for a while, 75* and sunny. Weather came in over night and it’s not looking warm like that again for at least 1.5 weeks out. So I took the time to address an intermittent but gradually intensifying misfire I’ve had since I put the truck back on the road. I replaced the plugs when I put the engine back together but I left the wires and ignition parts alone with the intent to replace them before I started driving it. Well that didn’t happen until yesterday. I scrounged up a set of cut to length ceramic accel wires, and a cap and rotor from my stash. Here’s a pic of the wires, although they definitely don’t appear stock they are high quality wires I’ve had good luck with in the past. Once I swapped the cap and rotor I cut them to length and terminated the distributor ends. If you ever build your own wires this summit crimping tool or similar is a must! It makes quick work of the job and produces a quality connection. I made one side at a time so here’s a pic I took of the drivers side before I put them on. It runs much better now. Another box checked off.

This engine isn’t long for this world though, which kind of makes me sad. It runs good and fires right up every time. It’s got some pretty weak ring seal and is starting to push oil out of the breather so I’ve started to hasten up on the aluminum headed vortec 350 I was building for my K10. I’m gonna get that one ready to swap in over the winter as I’m not ready to begin the LS swap yet.
Speaking of LS swap, that is going to be the next major phase of this build, entailing quite a bit more than the 6.0.

The Plans for that phase at this point are:
6.0 swap using OE ‘72 SM465/205
Front and rear axle swap using the aforementioned freshened up front 60 and disk brake swapped 14 bolt from the square body.
4” lift and 35x12.5 tires
Get factory ac working with 6.0 compressor.

Basically I plan to have the truck complete except for paint after this phase is done. Phase 3 Paint and body will follow. I’m going to build the exterior in its original 557 medium over dark olive scheme and trim when the time comes.
I’m still gathering parts for phase 2, and have a ways to go in gathering hence the reason for the short term use of the vortec 350.

I did also get the cab and chassis 14 bolt steam cleaned and stripped this week and turns out someone swapped both of the 3:73 axles for 4:11. According to the spid on the cab and chassis it was built with 3:73’s.
No worries though as 4:11 will work better with the 35’s. In order to finish the disk brake swap on the 14 bolt I need to round up a set of old style single rear wheel hubs, and get the backing plate mounts cut on the CNC mill. The gears and bearing look good so I will likely run them. I’m debating swapping a Detroit locker in it while I’ve got it apart.

That’s about where I’m at for today! Heres a picture of the plug wires and axles. The closest axle in the picture is the cab and chassis axle the front is the late model Gm AAM 10.5 brake parts donor.

[davischevy]

Good info, especially on the crimpers.

My Longhorn developed a miss a while back and I just parked it, for lack or time to work on it. It, too, has a weak engine, using a lot of oil and the rear main drips.

I have a 454 sitting in the crate. I'm thinking that might be a good fix.

[57taskforce]

Larry those crimpers are great and pretty inexpensive. I’ll post a link up in case anyone is interested. I think that 454 is a great solution to your problem. I really want to get a decent longhorn one day. I will have a lot of fun building it up if I do. I think a 12 valve Cummins would be cool in one. Ryan’s truck is a perfect example. One of these days. Im going to do some go fast stuff to my Camaro before I bring home any more keepers.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/s...RoCPLwQAvD_BwE

[davischevy]

57 taskforce, our schedule is still developing, but it looks like we will be passing through Farmington in early April.