My '73ish K20 Project

[Adams74Chevy]

I bought this '73 K20 back in September to replace my '74 with spun bearings and major body rot. The more I mess with it the more I realize it's a '73ish. First thing is the grille is out of a later round eye the doors came out of a newer truck since they are power windows and that wasn't offered in '73. The fender emblems don't look like the right style for the year assuming they should be similar to my '74. The dizzy is an HEI which wasn't in '73s. The glove box door has the RPO codes for a 1ton dually...obviously not what I have. When I bought it the p.o. gave me a run down of what he had done in the 2 years he had owned it. He rebuilt the rear end (new gears bearings wtc.) and rear brakes, new radiator hoses, belts, tune up, valve covers, air cleaner and new hitch. The p.o. to him put in a NP203 conversion kit, so it has 2wd as an option. The fenders and hood are in good shape, the inner fenders are fixable and the doors are rusty along the bottoms but shut like a new truck. The cab floor has 2 spots that need fixed as well as the rockers, cab corners and the front cab mounts as well. The p.o. had bought a 4" Rough Country lift kit for it but only put new springs on the rear and removed the old shocks, I put rear shocks on the back last weekend I'm debating if I really want it lifted or not. It still needs power steering hoses replaced, transmission is leaking from the dipstick (I think), the carb needs rebuilt it runs nice except when the 4 barrels kick in it sputters and backfires. I have a spare cd player that will fit in the hole the p.o. cut for his stereo. The seat will eventually get reupholstered. At some point I'm going to get the exhaust redone it's currently just duals w/o a h pipe and mufflers that look like flowmasters dumping under the bed before the rear axle...it has a horrible resonance to it.
My goal is to have it reliable for the winter in case of snow and in the spring and summer start tearing into the body work. Once reliable I will try to run it to work once a week just to keep it from sitting too much and the issues that go with that. Long term goal is to get the body good and to have a solid reliable truck I can use to haul if needed one day and to use as a secondary vehicle if the wife or I would need it as well as well as a truck to take hunting or fishing. It won't ever be a show queen or off road trail buster.

[Adams74Chevy]

[Adams74Chevy]

And engine compartment:

[Adams74Chevy]

small update:

The small old crappy battery to finally gave up on me the week before Thanksgiving and wouldn't take a charge, so my father grabbed a fairly new much larger 750 CCA vs. 550 CCA of the old one from the local junk yard for $10. I had to fight the battery cables (top posts a p.o. put on it) to get them off the old battery and I went to tighten cable on the positive post and the terminal broke back where it connects to the cable...I had planned on fixing that over the past weekend and I screwed up my foot on the 4wheeler (lucky I didn't roll it) so it's on hold until I can get my foot healed up enough to put a shoe on again.

[TheWhiteElephant]

Looking forward to what you'll do here. I'm working on a '73 K20 myself.

[Adams74Chevy]

Originally Posted by TheWhiteElephant

Looking forward to what you'll do here. I'm working on a '73 K20 myself.

I saw your thread looks like you have a good truck to sart with and you've done a nice job on the engine clean up and painting. Looks like inspiration for some cheaper work to do when I am waiting on cash and body panels in the spring/summer.

[Adams74Chevy]

Update:

I put the original rear springs back in and sold off the lift kit to a local guy back in the spring and then took my carb to probably one of the few and best places in the area that still rebuilds carbs (alternators and starters as well)...fast forward to 2 weekends ago I finally got the carb back on the truck and went to start it and it wasn't getting any gas, last weekend I didn't get a chance to look at it at all and last night I figured it out! It turns out at sometime the fuse going to the tank selector blew, and therefore not allowing it to pump any fuel. I replaced the fuse and Vroooom! it started like a dream. Now I just need to hook up the hand choke cable, kickdown cable and replace the leaking power steering hoses and it should be good to run a couple of local errands to make sure there aren't any other issues I haven't found.

[Adams74Chevy]

I got a chance to work on it over the weekend and got the power steering hoses replaced and the kickdown cable installed...I had to scavenge the bracket on the intake of the '74 since the '73s was missing. The transmission pan gasket looks like it needs replaced since it looks like it's leaking the whole way around it...There's aways next weekend I suppose...