Super Cheyenne aka the "Devil Cowboy"

[landarts]

This is going to be a build thread of a 1972 Super Cheyenne K20 that will be a driver truck for a close friend "Best View" here on the forum. This truck is a 558 paint code which is 510 medium blue body and 523 dark blue roof. This truck has cab lights and a few other options that make for a nice truck. It will also get a few options added along the way and a few personal touches to make it a nice going-to-town truck.

This truck came out of Oregon and was purchased a few years ago by Best View. Before shipping to my place, the truck had a large set of tires removed and the lift kit was also uninstalled and replaced with stock front springs. When it showed up at my place it was packed with several boxes of parts to go back onto the truck. The transmission and transfer case was also in the bed of the truck and the motor had a temporary piece of angle iron bolted to the flywheel to support the motor across the frame. The truck was still pretty high off the ground compared to a stock K20, after further poking around I found that the truck had a body lift installed. So I thought the next step in the project would be to make an inventory of all the parts and make a project list of items to repair, fix or replace.

Pict 1 - Being delivered to the house
Pict 2 - In the driveway for a look-over
Pict 3 - In the garage stall getting ready to attack the project
Pict 4 - The interior that will need to be stripped
Pict 5 - The color the truck was from factory

[landarts]

So what I like to do on a new project is make a list of what has to be done to make this truck drive. I have lower back problems and can not push non-driving vehicles in and out of the garage. So here are the items that I need to get done to make that happen.

1-Drop off the automatic transmission to get rebuilt and install
2-Drop off the transfer case to get rebuilt, sealed up and installed
3-Order new u-joints for front and back driveshafts
4-Get the motor running properly
5-Install a new exhaust system

So far the transmission and the transfer case have been dropped off and will be ready for installation in about a week or so. After removing the angle iron from the motor I hooked up a battery and squirted a little fuel down the carburetor and tried to start, but no go. Sounded like a healthy motor but was not getting spark. After further investigation, I notice the HEI distributor cap was cracked. I removed it and also found the internal rotor was broken. After a quick trip to auto parts store the motor fired up no problem.

[landarts]

So while I am waiting on the transmission and transfer case I will order the u-joints and a few other items I need to get it moving. Then I need to start making a list and a game plan for the project. When the list is finished then I will start ordering parts that I know need to go on the truck. I will get the list posted here in the next day or so and also talk about how I got the paint colors matched on a truck in this shape. Stay tuned!

[402Bowtie]

Excited for this one!

[jerry moss]

look like a solid starting point, gotta love a super K20

[57taskforce]

Awesome project. The special two tones are my favorite paint schemes in these trucks.

[CUSTOM/10]

Ken's slowly building up a fleet. Looks like a solid start to a new addition!

[landarts]

Originally Posted by 402Bowtie

Excited for this one!

I am not sure who is more excited me or Best View!

Originally Posted by jerry moss

look like a solid starting point, gotta love a super K20

Yes, Kenny always does things right.

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

Awesome project. The special two tones are my favorite paint schemes in these trucks.

I agree. I had a light olive/dark olive K20 that I sold and loved the look. Recently picked up light olive body/yellow roof K20 that will be a sharp truck.

Originally Posted by CUSTOM/10

Ken's slowly building up a fleet. Looks like a solid start to a new addition!

Yes, it should come together pretty fast and hopefully smooth. You know sometimes these trucks seem to kick and scream as you are trying to bring them back to life.

[landarts]

So This truck has some good bones but there is not much of the paint left anywhere, especially on the roof. The only area where there were traces of the 523 dark blue was on the inner rain gutter and not sufficient to get a good sample. So I reached out to Best View and asked him if he had a radio delete, glove box, ashtray, or something with 523 dark blue. He said "no" but give me a minute to check with Chevyland. About three days later a radio delete plate shows up from Chevyland. So I head down to the local Napa Auto paint store and get a color match and a quart mixed up for the roof. Sent it back to Chevyland with a gift included in the box. Sure do love how this forum can be so helpful.

A few days prior I took the cowl off the truck and and cleaned and buffed out an area on the rim of the backside that still had some 510 medium blue. The guy at the counter spent about fifteen minutes trying to get a read and that did not work. So I drove back to my place and cut out a side section on a perfectly good firewall just to get a good match. Bingo it worked!


Pict 1 - Section of underside rain gutter showing the original 523 dark blue
Pict 2 - radio delete sent from Chevyland with 523 dark blue
Pict 3 - Underside of the cowl with 510 medium blue
Pict 4 - cut out of firewall side section to get a good sample 510 medium blue


One last thing about the paint. Over the years I have been able to walk into the same paint store and tell them I need 510 medium blue or 523 dark blue and they could cross reference it in their database and get a perfect mix. Now the database does not cover those years since they updated. So I will get these two colors and any other colors I have the formula for on the paint shelf posted here and a record in my personal paint book for future use.

Here is a list of paint that I have the formulas in single stage paint only:

510 Medium Blue
523 Dark Blue
511 Ochre
521 White
522 Medium Bronze
507 Light Blue

[landarts]

You probably saw in the first post a picture of the Devil Cowboy parked in the garage with a makeshift gantry over the front of the truck. I saw a build thread on a different site for a build where the guy built a homemade gantry out of scrap items around his shop. It looked like it would be a great tool for removing cabs, beds, front clips, and other items on the truck. It could also be used with a few bolt-on pieces as a paint tree.

Started to think about it and I had a stash of thick wall 2" square tubing and some 1 3/4" thick wall tubing so it could be made to be taken apart very easily. I had two extra sets of heavy-duty casters and some hand-crank winches that I picked up on clearance a while back. Bingo, now all we need to do is design something up that will fit my needs. After a day or so I spent a morning cutting and welding it together and now I have a breakdown gantry/paint tree.

I have used this a few times already and I like how it saves my back. I have since added removable bracing in the upper corners and both sides of the base. This project will need the cab lifted since it is sitting on a body lift that needs to go away and have the proper body rubber installed. Also need to remove the bed and repair or replace it with a perfect bed I have in storage. Either way, you slice it, this homemade tool will get used and my back will not be taking any of the load.

Pict 1 - is the gantry I built before adding all my corner braces
Pict 2 - is from the other build site that gave me the idea
Pict 3 - same from other build site

[landarts]

The interior is getting stripped out and sanded down for new paint. P.O. had rattle canned it black and did not do a very good job of it. Besides, Best View has to have a Parchment interior to make it right. Kenny has decided to go with a blue Highlander seat cover, Parchment door panels with wood grain, Parchment visors, seat belts, and headliner. A few upgrades while we are in there with a completely rebuilt tilt column and a billet transfer case shifting plate. Black dash pad and black carpet with a layer of dynamat or equivalent for insulation. I will go through the tach dash and gauges and restore them, repaint needles, polish the plastic lens, clean up all tin, and install with new woodgrain bezel.

Here are a few items that are going into the interior.
Pict 1 - tilt column
Pict 2 - Highlander seat cover
Pict 3 - Transfer case shift plate
Pict 4 - SPID from the Devil Cowboy

[landarts]

So here is what we are working with under the hood. Previously rebuilt 350 V8 motor with aftermarket headers and HEI distributor. Inner fenders are banged up and the passenger side has been modified with a torch to make access holes or the heater core. Front fenders are going to need some attention or replace with factory-used ones. The battery tray is toast, other than that in really good shape as far as metal goes.

Got into stripping the front end down so I could get to fixing. Removed the hood, cowl, cowl support, front fenders, and the motor. It kind of amazes me that the first couple of times I did this it took forever. Now it seems to take about two hours and before you know it you have a big pile of parts on the garage floor.

Next up will be getting the cowl and firewall area cleaned up.

[landarts]

After getting after the front end removal items it was time to set up for some firewall cleaning and degreasing. Started with a layer of painter's plastic under the truck taped up and elevated at both ends to form a catch basin for all the gunk, chemicals, and liquids.

Went about three rounds of Oil Eater with a scrubbing on each round. Then I mixed up some Simple Green and a little Dove soap with hot water in a pressurized sprayer. That seemed to do the job so I can move on to getting it prepped for primer and paint.

[DeadheadNM]

Tagging along for the ride. Good luck with the build.

[landarts]

After getting the front fenders off and expecting them I decided to use a set of used fenders I picked up a couple of days ago. Both fenders that came on the truck had filler, filler cracking off, more dents, and the fender cup on the passenger side was more than half gone.

The fenders I picked up used on Marketplace for $250 will get stripped down to bare metal and gone over for metal finishing and any needed filler. This will save me a couple of days of work bringing these fenders on the truck back around. However, they will live to see use on another truck someday after I repair them.


Pict 1 - passenger fender side
Pict 2 - half missing fender cup from battery acid
Pict 3 - drivers fender
Pict 4 - you can see some of the body filler failure going on here
Pict 5 - used fenders I picked up as replacements and we also have the needed mounting holes for all trim

[Chevyland]

Good work Jim
Thanks for the present
Can't wait to see what you are able to do with this beast
Kenny, you'd better get to staples
And
Stock up on envelopes and stamps

[Louisvillekytruck]

Great project

[DeadheadNM]

This is a Fremont assembled truck, correct?

[landarts]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

This is a Fremont assembled truck, correct?

Yes, truck was assembled in Freemont.

[DeadheadNM]

Originally Posted by landarts

Yes, truck was assembled in Freemont.

That Fremont painter was a prolific signer of his work

[landarts]

Been spending a few hours a day here and there getting the firewall ready for primer and paint. Found one small area about 6" x 6" in the driver's side floorboard that will need rust repair attention before shooting the paint. Spent about 20 minutes with a needle scaler in the upper firewall wire channel to get any old cracking seam sealer out. Also got the piece of metal I cut out of the side of the firewall where the fender goes, welded in, filler and some primer.

Also have been ordering and picking up parts needed. New ram horn exhaust manifolds showed up yesterday for the motor in place of the old headers that were installed. I picked up the rebuilt Th350 transmission and the rebuilt NP205 transfercase. So glad I got them done after I saw what was wrong inside both of them. Good as new now!


Pic 1 - Cut out to get paint sample
Pic 2 - All patched up
Pic 3 - Filler and primer done

[landarts]

Spent most of the day tackling the firewall cleanup with a DA sander and a small air angle grinder with a 120 grit disc. Still have a few more minutes to get it ready for primer. Moved on to the driver's side floorboard rust. Wanted to get this taken care of since some of it comes up on the firewall where I will be painting soon.

Started on the floorboard with an air needle scaler tool, it gets rid of the seam sealer and also pokes holes where the metal is thin. After that, I decided to cut it out into sections and do three separate pieces since the floor support was fine. By doing the separate pieces it made it easier to get the bend just right where the floor turns up to the seam of the firewall. No big surprise here just time-consuming to get everything to fit well for spot welding. On all three parts, I made templates out of card stock I saved from some boxes. Move the templates over to the sheet metal stock and mark it out with a pencil. Then cut it with my Rigid Multi-tool with a sheet metal cutter attachment. This fifty-dollar tool is a game changer for cutting out parts. Finished with spot welding, and grinding, then going over everything with a DA sander with 80 grit.

Pic 1 - Firewall progress
Pic 2 - Holes in the floorboard I am starting with
Pic 3 - After cutting out and squaring up everything
Pic 4 - All the new sheet metal ready for primer
Pic 5 - Testing out some cab light metal pods I purchased for the Idaho Edition build

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice work on the devil's Cowboy. What's the story behind the name? I would like to buy a set of those cab light pieces you have too. That one doesn't seem to match the roof contour well? How do you like them?

[landarts]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Very nice work on the devil's Cowboy. What's the story behind the name? I would like to buy a set of those cab light pieces you have too. That one doesn't seem to match the roof contour well? How do you like them?

Very nice work on the Devil's Cowboy. What's the story behind the name?
When I got Best View's truck shipped to me from the guy in Oregon that he bought the truck from, he had named it Cowboy because the truck had a super high lift, also 2-inch body lift, and big tires. So all of the boxes of parts had cowboy written on them. When the truck arrived in Idaho from the transporter I had to put the truck in storage for a few weeks before I could get to going over the truck and doing a final assessment of what it was going to take to make it a driver.

So the P.O. said that the motor ran fine and sounded healthy. I decided to go over to the storage lot and see if I could get the truck to fire up. When I got over to the lot I first got under the truck to make sure everything looked good, checking wiring and fuel lines for any possible hazards. The first thing I noticed was that the motor had a heavy-duty piece of angle iron bolted to the flywheel and spanning across the frame of the truck to hold the motor up. So I went back to the house a got a few 4x4 beam cut-offs and a hydraulic bottle jack. Jacked up the motor a little bit and removed the angle iron. The motor is now being supported by the 4x4 beam cut-offs at the rear of the motor. Disconnected the fuel line from the carb, hooked up a battery and squirted some 40:1 gas mix down the carb, and tried to start it. Sounded good but I could tell there was no fire getting to the motor. I poked around and could not see anything right off the bat so I decided to throw the towel in for the day. A few days later I cleaned up some areas in the garage and decided to trailer the truck over to the house and dive in deeper on the motor. After further investigation, the HEI cap and rotor were broken. Replaced them with new ones from the auto parts store. Tried to start it again and bingo it fired right up. So the "Devil's" part of the name was added.

I would like to buy a set of those cab light pieces you have too. That one doesn't seem to match the roof contour well?
I will P.M. you the information on the cab light pucks. They actually do fit very well, I just placed it up on the cab quickly to get a picture of the lens kit I bought on Amazon. Wanted to see how the lens fit. The preferred method to install them is not to spot weld them on but to use a panel adhesive like 3M panel bond 08115.

How do you like them?
They are made very well and will be a breeze adding cab lights to any truck I desire now.

Pic 1 - shows the handmade light puck next to one on a truck
Pic 2 - shows the layout after being glued
Pic 3 - shows one of the finished truck he has done

[landarts]

Finished up with the rust repair on the floor and firewall. After finishing the floor from the inside you have some areas on the firewall side that don't look good after repairs from the inside. So I decided to clean up that area on the firewall and get some primer on it so I could move forward now with priming and painting the entire firewall.

While the primer was drying I decided to start striping the paint off of the used fenders I bought a week or so ago. Need to get them stripped down so I can do any small body repairs and get them into black primer. I used the Eastwood SCT tool I bought a little over a year ago second-hand from a gentleman in the neighborhood. The wheel on the tool was an 80 grit flap disk and fiber. It took about twenty minutes or so to get it down to bare metal. Leaves the metal ready for filler, does not heat up the metal that cause warping. Win Win.

Pic 1 - some metal work on the outside of the firewall where the floor was repaired
Pic 2 - filler and glaze work on the firewall
Pic 3 - a little black primer to seal off the filler work, the runs are from the factory paint which I will sand down before painting
Pic 4 - fender and SCT tool before stripping
Pic 5 - fender main surface stripped, will finish the rest in the morning and start on the other fender