'81 K20 Scottsdale Project

[Dieselholic92]

I suppose I'll start a project thread for my 1981 Chevy. Picked it up for 500 bucks! The guy I got it from owned it since high school, and it had been sitting in his quonset hut for 2 years. It has 157,000 miles on it, he said that it needed brakes all the way around, and it hadn't run since he parked it. So I got it back to the shop, took the air cleaner off since it was full of junk and put a different one on, checked all of the fluids, put my jumper pack on it, and it fired right up on the second try. It idles nice and everything. Now I can just reach in the cab, turn the key, and she fires up without pumping.

This is what it looked like when she first got to the shop.

[Dieselholic92]

So then I got to work and took the diamond plate stuff off of the bed.



And then I put new calipers, pads, and brake lines on the front of the truck and bled the new calipers so I just have some front brakes to move it around with until I bend up some new lines for the rear and put new pads in the drums. Then I washed, sanded, put a coat of primer and 2 coats of black on the wheels.





I vacuumed out the interior, washed the dash and all of the hard panels in the interior.



I took these last 2 just because.

[Dieselholic92]

Well since I'm at college during the week, I'll finally get to work on the Chevy this Friday night. I'm planning on getting a couple lengths of brake line and a bender so I can replace the rear brake lines, some new brake pads for the rear, and maybe some new tie rod ends, and a new adjustable link for the pitman arm. The power steering works fine but the fluid is brown and smells bad. I can't really tell what happened to it. I'm going to replace the power steering lines, but would it be worth it to pick up a new power steering pump? I think they're about 45 bucks at the local parts store, including a $10 core charge.

[Dieselholic92]

Finally remembered to take a picture while I'm working!



New wheel cylinder, adjuster, and spring kit

[Dieselholic92]

Other side

Before:



After:



I bent up some brake lines really quick.





And I painted the back half of the frame. I have new shocks to go on later.

[Dieselholic92]

New Monroe shocks in the rear.

[Dieselholic92]

I got sick of finding brake lines to replace so I decided to do something else.

I had an old Motorola Motrac out of a fire truck laying on the shelf so I decided to mount it in the Chevy since I have a thing for fire pickups.

Took a few minutes to clean up and mount the head unit.



Pretty cool looking I think.



Then I cut some flat stock to make a bracket for the speaker since I didn't have the original.



Ready for paint.



All finished, unless I decide to mount the antenna . . .

[Dieselholic92]

Made a video overview of my Chevy this weekend. I haven't been able to do much since I'm waiting for some parts to show up. I'm on Easter break from college starting Thursday so hopefully my parts show up and I can get some more done. I've been taking it on short drives (not licensed yet) and it's driving better and better each time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4q6ajtWoZc&context...

[Dieselholic92]

Didn't get a whole lot done lately. Pulled this mess of wiring off of the back of the truck, along with the rusted out front to rear brake line.

This wiring was literally held together with wire nuts.


Trying to get the new brake lines to fit was kicking my butt.

[Dieselholic92]

Well I finally got around to putting my new rotors on the front and I got rid of the old Dualmatic hubs because they were trashed and wouldn't lock anymore. I found these Warn hubs still in the box from the 80s sitting at my dads construction company.

[Dieselholic92]

Took her out for a short drive right before I put the new Warn hubs and rotors on

[Pop's C-10]

nice...love tha flames

[Dieselholic92]

Originally Posted by Pop's C-10

nice...love tha flames

Thank you! They're alright, but the bottoms of the fenders are starting to bubble up so they might have to end up going sometime

[Gordonr1973]

Another great find!

Like that you are doing a ' fire rescue' truck theme and have the flames in the paint!

[Dieselholic92]

Originally Posted by Gordonr1973

Another great find!

Like that you are doing a ' fire rescue' truck theme and have the flames in the paint!

Thank you! I wanted to do a little bit of a fire truck vibe but not ful on.

On a side note, I live in a town of 400 and our fire department has a mid 80s Chevy k30 crew cab and another mid 80s Chevy k30 regular cab. They're both white with red flames. I'll have to see if I can get some pictures of them.
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[Maxxd07]

Great looking project! The rust doesn't even look that bad for a MN truck.
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[Dieselholic92]

Originally Posted by Maxxd07

Great looking project! The rust doesn't even look that bad for a MN truck.
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks! The bed is pretty bad actually. Underneath, all of the floor braces are rusted out, and the bed floor is rusted out in the corners. It needs rockers but those are easy enough to get.

[Dieselholic92]

Finally got my carburetor back together. It needed new gaskets bad, other than that the truck ran fine.

Before





After





Finally got my new driver side gas tank and straps too. Just waiting on a sending unit

[Dieselholic92]

It's been a while since I've updated this thread. I put the new drivers side gas tank, sending unit, and straps in but I forgot to take any pictures of that. I finally broke down and bought a carburetor since my first attempt at a QuadraJet rebuild didn't go so hot. I finally put the new front shocks in too.





And this is how much oil it leaks. Every gasket on the engine leaks but it runs great, so why ruin a good thing?

[kikkegek]

what did you use to paint the frame? did you just paint over the rust? flames are very cool!

[Dieselholic92]

Originally Posted by kikkegek

what did you use to paint the frame? did you just paint over the rust? flames are very cool!

The flames where on the truck when I bought it. It seems like the front fenders were rust free before the previous owner painted them because I haven't found any traces of bondo on them. The rest of the truck needs some body work though! The front fenders and hood are the only body parts that have been repainted. Near as I can tell everything else is the original paint.

[kikkegek]

well...you said earlier you had painted the back half of the frame. was just curious what you used for it?

[Dieselholic92]

ohhh okay. I thought your post said what did you use to paint the flame. My bad. I just took a wire wheel to everything and got it clean. Then I used 2 coats of duplicolor primer and 2 coats of duplicolor black spray paint. I just wanted to keep the frame from rusting anymore until I pull the body off and sandblast and paint the frame

[kikkegek]

okay, thanks man..

[Dieselholic92]

no problem!