A true tale of a country girl and her true love

[4x4s4allie]

True love, you may ask!?! A boy!?! NOOOOOO ... you are surely mistaken ...

My true love is a 1978 Chevy K10 Shortbed.

Let me tell y'all a little story.

Back in 2008, I was living in Manhattan, KS in a trailer park. For any of you news buffs, you may remember a tornado that came thru our little slice of heaven. I escaped unscathed, however, my trailer did not. I was in a conundrum of what to do. My pride at the time would not allow me, a 19 year old rebellious teenager to come crawling home to Montana to my folks, begging for help. I called a dear friend of mine, at the time living in Corpus Christi, TX, a guy some of y'all may know on here as "MrBeast" and told my sad tale of how I was now homeless except to live in a Toyota 4Runner.

We conconted a scheme: I transfer my job to a store in Corpus Christi and hang out for awhile, play with some trucks and have us a good 'ol time. I was going to ride the Greyhound bus down, but got to the station, found out i'd be waiting THREE days to get on a bus. So, I decided to drive myself down to Corpus. Mind you, I'd just worked a 6 hour shift already. Hopped in my 4Runner and away I went. Got to Corpus Christi about dead off my feet. Had us a grand 'ol time down south, until the clutch went out on that dreadful machine.

MrBeast, true friend that he is, concocted a scheme. He says to me: "Allie, I've got a deal. See that white Chevy 2wd sitting over there? Feel like a road trip? See, the truck needs cleaned up, needs a little bit of small work. But I've got an idea. You remember that black shortbed I tried to sell to awhile back? Well, Grandpa bought it from me, but he can't drive a stick shift anymore. I'm thinking this 2wd would be great for him. But I'm too busy to take the time to drive it up thataways. And I don't really need another vehicle (as he gestures across the scattered array of vehicles in the pasture). I know you really liked that truck. If you fix up this little 2wd, clean it up, drive it back to Kansas, and when you've got your money saved back up, you take it up to Grandpa, and he'll hand you the title to the K10. It'll be yours"

Of course I agreed. Later that fall, picked up the K10 in Montana, and due to some tense family situations, left in a bit of an angry hurry, pushed that truck to about 80 mph down the interstates back to kansas. Never once did she falter. I was fishing with some friends a week later, and I decided I really needed to find a name for her. I'd concluded she liked it hot and fast, thus making her a bit of a whore/hooker. And so she needed a name that suited that persona. We got on the topic of gemstones - they always make good stripper names (these boys I was fishing with would know, they're experts at strippers it seems). We had the oldies radio station on, and the song "Ruby" came on. Well, the K10 has a red dash, so we gave her the moniker Ruby.

She's been my true love since the moment I've laid eyes on her, lol. She's been back and forth to Montana a handful of times. All over nebraska and kansas. Truck rolled over 100k miles last summer. I don't drive it a whole lot, I've got plenty of other toys, too, but she is most definitely, hands down my favorite.

MrBeast rebuilt that truck years ago. She boasts a 355 motor (MrBeast will have to tell you the exact specs, I can never remember), a 4spd transmission, and a 205 transfer case. I had some work done to the front suspension last winter and put some new tires on her for the meantime.

Plans for the future involve a 6-inch suspension lift, 36x12.5x15 tires (already in the garage and waiting, thanks to MrBeast), serpentine drive conversion (that way I can get a/c on the truck again), cruise control, and i'm contemplating a stepside bed.

[burb1085]

Awesome rig. I like how you came up with the name. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[wyattglock]

Nice looking truck!! Good to hear you were able to work it out and come out better in the end. Have fun with it!!

[MrBeast]

A bit more history on this truck.

I purchased this truck in the Summer of 2003, I am the 2nd owner, Grandpa would be the 3rd, Allison would be the 4th.

I bought it from my home town Chevy dealer, (Whiting motors) I bought the truck because it had a brand new crate Goodwrench 350 in it. What I did not realize was that the truck was an original 400 truck, and they had put the balancer off of the 400 on the 350, needless to say it did not last very long before it started spewing oil out of the front cover, and it started burning a lot of oil through the valve guides. I wound up pulling the motor, replacing the front cover seal, pan gasket, valve guide seals, and this is when I discovered the improper balancer. (and subsequently why the timing marks would not line up)

I replaced the balancer with the proper one, then I stuffed the motor back in the truck.

During this time period the original TH350 bit the dust, so I swapped it and the NP203 out for a SM465/NP205 combo.

Unfortunately by October 03 once again the motor failed, this time it ran out of oil coming back from Billings Montana instead of calling a wrecker for a truck with an engine that I new was junk and not getting rebuilt, I threw as much oil in it as I had on me, and I drove it till it blew parts out the oil pan. Made it 5 miles from the house and my friend came and towed me the rest of the way with a strap.

The problem now was I was 21, I had just got out of the Navy, I was working at Pizza Hut while trying to get my CDL and I was really short on cash, so I wound up buying a motor from a friends father for 300.00 out of an 89 Chevy van.

I messed around and got the old engine pulled, but finally I got a trucking job, and wound up paying a friend of mine to stick the engine in the truck for me because I was not home enough to do it.

I drove the truck some, but it never ran too great. I started running down the road all the time in my KW so it really didn't matter. (I had saved my money and bought my own truck and trailer)





In December 2004 I had an idiot coming out of the casino at the truck stop drive his pickup into the side of my Kw damaging the fuel tank and sleeper.

So a couple of days before Christmas I loaded up the 78 on my trailer and headed out to Spokane I unloaded the truck there and left the KW with the body shop that was fixing it. I hopped in the 78 and headed home, I made it to Coeur D' Alene before the motor started screaming at me.

I turned around drove back to Spokane, another motor toast, pulled my KW out of the body shop, went home for Christmas, brought it back a few days later, then I rode the bus home for the week and a half they spent fixing it.

While I was home one of the mechanics took a shining to the 78 (which I had left in their parking lot because my trailer was also having some work done to it) He tried to buy the truck from me, and then I got a call from the manager stating they wanted my truck out of there and that I needed to do something with it, I figured they were trying to force my hand into selling the mechanic the truck, he was trying to give me 750.00 for it, I had told him not a chance in hell considering I had paid 3500 for it, and had now put an engine in it twice, and a transmission and transfer case!

I told the shop manager that it was fine, id come remove my truck, I told him to stop all work on my Kw because id be needing it to bring the truck home, and id just have a local shop finish the repair, it is funny how fast their tune changed at that point.

Anyways, I got the truck home, there it sat, and sat and sat, until 2006, (2005 I spent 14 days at the house, I was trucking hard) Finally I had WES at ICM in Bozeman Montana (406)586-8966 (Who does nothing but top notch second to none work by the way and is one of the most honest people I have ever met) build up a 350 for the truck.

The specs on the motor are it is a 350 4 bolt main, .030 over, 9.5:1 flat top pistons, chromoly rings, it has an RV cam, and an Edelbrock Performer intake and chevy cast aluminum valve covers with hooker headers.



I also used a felpro one piece pan gasket and went nuts with attention to detail trying to keep this motor from leaking any oil. Speaking of which Allie, how is she doing in that department?

With the help of my best friend from high school's father, I got the engine stuffed in the truck, got it tuned up and running right, even put a brand new distributor on it and had Torbin from Vic's Machine shop in Livingston MT (406) 222-7410 install oil impregnated bronze bushings on the butterfly shafts in the Quadrajet. (This eliminates vacuum leaks around the shaft, and because the bushings are oil impregnated they last forever!)

Finally spring of 2006 I wound up buying my 72 Blazer



And I sold the truck to my grandpa because he really needed a truck, and at the time finding anything that was not junk was proving very difficult.

I had a lot of fun with the blazer, including meeting this Chevy obsessed cowgirl from great falls.



We became good friends and the rest as they say is history.

[MrBeast]

Also, I know she is going to razz me for this, but here are some pics from the trip to Corpus in 2008 of Allie fondling my truck, blazer and other assorted tires.



Working on the Blazer it scraped her arm a bit.



So she made it kiss her and make it better.



She also saw this thing and then...



Random acts of tire fondling insued.





And of course, if you all know us, you know our distaste for hummer H2's and H3's...



I will let Allie tell you all that story though.

Also Allie had to mark her territory on an old truck I was parting out.





Also as many of you all know I have a Jeep project I have been working on for quite a while, it is an 80 CJ7. I parted out a 79 Waggy for its 304 V8 and dana 44 axles.





Since I had a brand spankin new set of BF Goodrich Mud Terrains for the jeep already, I wound up giving Allie the super swampers and turbines off of the waggy for Christmas.



And more tire fondling insued, I think she liked them...

I think that is all I got for now.

[4x4s4allie]

She doesn't leak much oil really at all. Heck she hardly burns any either. Checked coolant the other week and she was about a half gallon low and it looked a little crusty. So I'll be flushing that here before too long.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[hopped up]

great story. great name for the truck!keep it up allie
Posted via Mobile Device

[4x4s4allie]

Oh boy, do I love tires! haha, and yellow ... the inside joke is, back in the day, i always wanted to paint everything yellow ... i'm not sure how the whole tire fondling thing started, i think it was when my old friend in high school had a lifted shortbed, and i'd nap on a tire in the fender well while he'd tinker ...

but i've had some good times with nick and our projects ... we've had a lot of ideas for this truck over the past few years, but nothing's really stuck ... pretty sure we've settled on a height of 6 inches ... and now that i've got the tires and wheels, i need at least that much ...

i kind of like her black, but i've looked at a really neat color from PPG called "Ruby Slipper" ... it'd be an expensive paint job, but in the dark it looks black, but you put light on it and get it in the sun, all the flecks of glitter in it sparkle like you couldn't believe ... i've joked about painting it hot pink with sparkles, but i think Ruby Slipper would catch enough attention as it is ...

we're hoping, should my job keep up with commission pay and whatnot, to make a trip down south this fall to get the lift and tires on ... all that will depend on having a 14 bolt and a dana 60 axle ready to go underneath of it too ...

[MrBeast]

Yes, and lest we not forget...

[IMG][/IMG]

[4x4s4allie]

priceless!!!

[chevy427big block]

very nice

[JRANGER]

very nice story
Awesome truck and cute girl...
Im jealous of the truck..One day my truck will be there lol

[Dusty4x4]

Love the story. and your truck looks very nice...

[Kerlijah]

Great story, clean lookin truck too! Looking forward to seeing pictures with the lift and tires on there Good to see a girl that's got good taste in trucks and aint afraid to get her hands dirty! Btw, my truck's yellow, I'd even let you play with the tires...lol

[4x4s4allie]

Originally Posted by Kerlijah

Great story, clean lookin truck too! Looking forward to seeing pictures with the lift and tires on there Good to see a girl that's got good taste in trucks and aint afraid to get her hands dirty! Btw, my truck's yellow, I'd even let you play with the tires...lol

thanks! she's a great truck! couldn't have asks for a better one ... although there were a few times i had an extreme urge to punch her in the emblem lol ...

like my 21st birthday when the fuel pump bolts just casually worked their way loose and left me on the side of I70 with a perverted highway patrolman holding the flashlight while i buttoned her back down (super hot late september, short denim shorts and a tank top laying halfway in my engine bay while he watched on) ...

or the time her clutch started making awful noise and i thought i had a bad engine, come to find out the clutch pressure plate was in backwards ...

or fighting the tailights deal with the trailer plug having a bad connection the whole way back to Kansas and getting pulled over a handful of times ...

[chevy427big block]

Originally Posted by 4x4s4allie

thanks! she's a great truck! couldn't have asks for a better one ... although there were a few times i had an extreme urge to punch her in the emblem lol ...

like my 21st birthday when the fuel pump bolts just casually worked their way loose and left me on the side of I70 with a perverted highway patrolman holding the flashlight while i buttoned her back down (super hot late september, short denim shorts and a tank top laying halfway in my engine bay while he watched on) ...

or the time her clutch started making awful noise and i thought i had a bad engine, come to find out the clutch pressure plate was in backwards ...

or fighting the tailights deal with the trailer plug having a bad connection the whole way back to Kansas and getting pulled over a handful of times ...

lol cant say i blame the patrolman

[chevy_man5]

I just think about my old cars...or the bike, like my kids. Sometimes you would ALMOST pay someone to haul them away. Most of the time though you love them, and can't live without them.

I agree with Chevy427big block's last statement too!

[4x4s4allie]

Lol I love my trucks. Probably too much to a fault. But they've been better friends than most people I've had pass thru my life
Posted via Mobile Device

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice story, and sweet truck! Back in my dating days, I always said that my cars and trucks will only leave me on the side of the road. But, yeah, I sure wouldn't mind putting a bomb under a few of them at times.

[butch86]

sexy trucks and pritty girls...................... great thread. allie i know one friend thats as good to you as anyone you have ever met. everyone should be as lucky as you and have a great friend like beasty boy. post pics of the lift job when its done.

[4x4s4allie]

Originally Posted by butch86

sexy trucks and pritty girls...................... great thread. allie i know one friend thats as good to you as anyone you have ever met. everyone should be as lucky as you and have a great friend like beasty boy. post pics of the lift job when its done.

i think our finding of each other proved to ourselves that there are still truly good people out there ... neither of us have had good track records with other people in our pasts - family, friends, significant others ... and then we met, and it was like looking in a mirror, without, quite looking in a mirror lol ... our pasts were quite similar, our love for trucks is dang near identical, and our approach to how we deal with, trust, and distrust other people was identical too ... i think we kind of skirted each other for awhile, afraid that what we thought we'd found in someone else was not really what we thought it was ... and over the years, we've become the best of friends ... and i can honestly say if you lined nick and my trucks up and says, you can only keep one friend, I'd pick nick ;-) ... he's proven to me that people can be kind and worthy of trust ... and shown me generosity greater than i've ever known ...

i'm really hoping to make the lift a reality this fall ... nick's got to get his shop set up, and i've got to get the extra cash set aside ... but i'm really hoping ...

[butch86]

Originally Posted by 4x4s4allie

i think our finding of each other proved to ourselves that there are still truly good people out there ... neither of us have had good track records with other people in our pasts - family, friends, significant others ... and then we met, and it was like looking in a mirror, without, quite looking in a mirror lol ... our pasts were quite similar, our love for trucks is dang near identical, and our approach to how we deal with, trust, and distrust other people was identical too ... i think we kind of skirted each other for awhile, afraid that what we thought we'd found in someone else was not really what we thought it was ... and over the years, we've become the best of friends ... and i can honestly say if you lined nick and my trucks up and says, you can only keep one friend, I'd pick nick ;-) ... he's proven to me that people can be kind and worthy of trust ... and shown me generosity greater than i've ever known ...

i'm really hoping to make the lift a reality this fall ... nick's got to get his shop set up, and i've got to get the extra cash set aside ... but i'm really hoping ...

good deal my wife and i have a simular story sorta without the truck anyway. i was a mess when i got home from iraq and i spent my days and nights with my cars and truck. she helped save me so i married her ha ha now she is my caregiver when i am sick ( pancreatic cancer sucks ) so i guess ill hold on to her besides she thinks my truck is sexy lol

[4x4s4allie]

sounds like you've got a keeper :-) the truck and the lady!

[J Knight]

Great story, nice to see a Cowgirl diggin and wrenchin squares.

BTW MrBeast, I noticed your plate, Hiway to hell(AC/DC) makes a good ring tone for when your dispatcher calls you.LOL

[MrBeast]

Allie, I know it is spendy, but it is also a complete kit, I think when we do your front suspension we should get this kit!


It would give Ruby full coil over suspension in the front. Which would be totally awesome.

We would also have to run a cross over high steering kit:



It again is a bit spendy, but it is something that would last practically forever.

To beef up the frame, I am thinking a boxing kit from DIY4X will be perfect, and I will replace your stamped steel cross members with pipe by hole sawing through the frame and sliding the pipe all the way through and giving it a good solid weld.

As for what color to paint the truck, I like the idea of the ruby paint job, we could do the frame black, then do the diff covers, drive shafts, springs and shock boots in red.

Another thought I had to keep the cost of the paint down, is repaint her black, then just do the ruby on the sides and tailgate as a stripe just as how they did the factory 2 tone, or you could just go from the body seam down.

I think with that we could create what would be a really awesome "Girls truck" with out turning it into this:



Also as an added thought, instead of doing the roll bar chrome, what if we did one painted red, I think that would stand out nice, and fit the ruby theme. Could even get lights on it and paint them with the ruby slipper for effect, and get a black coffin style tool box that would fit in the bed between the roll bar.

I think it would make for a pretty bad ass truck!