1980 Chevy K20 Farm Truck

[willem445]

Little backstory before I get into this too much. So this truck is the old farm truck on our family farm. It was parked in 2005 I believe and sat with all of the other old equipment for around 8 years. One day I got interested in it and drug it up to the yard and began working on it. Ive been working on it for 2-3 years now in my spare time. Its a slow project since Ive been working this summer 3 hours from home and then go to school 3hrs from home for most of the year.

I have a ton of pictures saved and Ill try my best to get them in order as I go.

Here is what my truck looked like when I drug it out and began tearing it apart.







Redneck tire changing

[willem445]

Removed the bed and painted the frame. Buddy had a spare door that I installed, doesnt match at all lol. To get this truck running I had to remove and clean the gas tank, rebuild the quadrajet, install a new starter, install a new fuel pump, replace the fuel line, replace a bunch of wiring, and change the oil.

[willem445]

Got some donor trucks! Bought a 1978 and a 1975 Chevy C10s for $475. One was originally a diesel but was later swapped to a 350. So now I have 2 350s that I can eventually sell or rebuild into something cool. Goal for this truck is a 383 stroker.

[willem445]

Started replacing things on my truck.

Installed a Summit Racing tach and a dashpad from the 75. Was in amazing condition, no cracking or anything and even has the same scottsdale emblem that was originally in my truck.



Stole the billet grill and headlight bezels from the 78 and the doors from the 75.



Installed the fan shroud from the 75 as well, mine didnt have one and would get pretty hot after a while.

[willem445]

Repaired some rust on the 78s fenders and got them installed.




Had a buddy over one rainy day and finally got the other bed on my truck, little bit of rust but otherwise was in wonderful condition. Got some new tires on it as well.




The 78 had an old tool box in it. Score!

[willem445]

At some point the heater core was bypassed and looked awful/leaked.


Replaced it with my own bypass with some help from you guys.


Also painted one of the valve covers orange. Ran out of time that weekend and didnt get to the other one yet.



Currently working on rewiring the lighting harnesses as they were a mess and the old wires are awful. Plus whoever did the wiring job on this before I got my hands on it did the most rats nest horrible job ive ever seen. Want to get this truck street legal so I can drive it to where Im living now so I can devote more time than just random weekends to it.

[rusty76]

Cool truck I'll be watching.

[dvdswan]

looks like its going to be a lot of fun. I'm watching this one.

[77K10Silverado]

Yes! Love the stance, any lift or factory? Following!

[willem445]

Originally Posted by 77K10Silverado

Yes! Love the stance, any lift or factory? Following!

Thanks! As far as I know, it is stock height. I doubt my grandpa or father would have installed a lift on this truck. I plan to lift it roughly 4 inches when I gather the funds but I dont mind the height it is at now.

[willem445]

Hey guys, finally made some progress on my truck...well not really on my truck but the donor truck.

I wanted to remove and clean up the cab on the 75 scottsdale donor truck to see if it would be worth swapping onto my 80. Also figured that since I would be pulling the cab I may as well pull the engine and transmission too.





Got the cab off.



And pulling the engine out. Notice my super fancy engine hoist


The aftermath of tearing apart the donor truck..


The two trucks together.



So far I am leaning towards swapping the cabs even though it would be some work. Most of the sheet metal on the donor cab is really good, little rust on the floor boards and cab corners but thats about it. The wiring harness on this cab is also way better than mine. My wiring harness in the 80 cab is literally a rats nest, wires going everywhere. I have no idea why someone felt the need to screw up the wiring so bad.

Few questions.

• Will the 75 front wiring harness (lights, starter, alternator) plug into the 80 fuse panel on the firewall?
• Should I try to sell the 1/2 ton longbox frame or should I just sell it for scrap metal?
• I have the 75 5.7L V8 on an engine stand now, it will be my first venture into engine rebuilding. What are somethings to look for to see if its worth rebuilding this engine?

[El Dorado Jim]

any new progress on the truck?

[WE B CRUZN]

I was wondering how you were coming along on the truck as well. Looks like you were on your way to having a nice ride.

[willem445]

Its hard to find time for me to work on my truck nowdays. I go to school 3 hours away from where my truck is and I dont have much time to make it home being an electrical engineering major. That being said I did make some progress a couple weeks ago over Easter break. I managed to pull the steering wheel and replace the turn signal switch which was shot. Also found some ground wires inside the cab that were pretty bad. At the moment most all of my lights work correctly which is great. I also replaced the seat with one in a little better condition and cleaned up the dash pad some. I recently got my truck registered and insured plus having working lights I should be able to drive it to town instead of just around the farm. Im hoping to be able to bring it down to where I go to school so I can get some work in over the summer. Im also thinking about getting the frame from the 75 C10 cleaned up and maybe do some work on one of the other 5.7 350s I have. I really love the idea of a lowered C10 in addition to my K20. I have a few pictures that I can post when I get home from work!

[willem445]

Apparently I haven't taken many pictures of working on it.

[WE B CRUZN]

Good to see that you are still at it.

[collin70k/20]

sweet truck man keep us posted

[rusty76]

Looking good dude.

[willem445]

Made it back home for memorial day so got some progress in on the truck. Not much but it was nice to work on it once again. Still plagued with electrical issues that I am very slowly sorting out.

Decided to paint up the hood hinges after determining they needed cleaning and oiling. Forgot to get a picture with them installed.




Also painted part of the gauge cluster after cleaning it up as well.


Some random progress shots.




The interior is looking much better but I really need to address the floor. Hopefully can save up enough to buy some replacement panels replace the floors and the rest of the rust on the truck.

Glamor shot.


And last but not least...finally was able to drive it into town!


Had to pick up some mattress that my friend brought back. Made the trip to town and back three times just for fun.


Now onto the issues that I need answers for.

Firstly.. My interior lights (dash illumination and cargo lamp) and my license plate light are somehow tied into the brake switch. They only turn on when I hit the brake. Also I don't have any courtesy lights at all. I redid my taillight harness and im pretty darn sure I wired up everything correctly so I have no idea what is happening there. I didn't have any time to look into this issue this weekend.

Secondly.. My charging system is somehow f'ed up. Truck starts up perfectly fine with a charged battery but my battery voltage is only at 11.3-11.6 volts when driving the truck. I looked into this a little bit but did not make it very far. Here are the measurements I took.

Charged battery to 12.15V and then connected to truck.

Started it up.

@800 rpm (idle)

Battery Voltage: 11.8V

Alternator:
small wire of 2 spade connection (ignition?) - 9.22V
big wire of 2 spade connection (constant power) - 0V?
back of alternator connection - 11.74V

Junction block on firewall: 11.72V

Negative of Bat -> Alt Case: 6.3mV

Ideas? I tried a couple times to get a measurement on the big wire 2 spade connection but every-time I got 0V. I assuming this is supposed to be 12V, not 0V but I'm not sure why. I rewired the engine harness as well using the harness from my 78 donor truck. The wires all looked good when I rewired the harness but everything is in wire loom now so I wasn't able to trace the wires when debugging this issue (didnt have enough time).

Thoughts?

EDIT: Also I went though every ground I could find and used a grinder to polish up a bare metal ground. Went though with an ohm meter and grounds all show about 0.2 ohms.

[LT7A]

This is a cool truck. Love the picture out in the middle of the green field. Hang in there with this thing. It's a question you asked awhile ago but I would try to sell the frame as a frame, not scrap if you aren't going to use it. However, I fully support the idea of a lowered C10 along with your 4x4 K20. I also started with K20 and through the terrible influence of this forum, I have gathered parts and information to build a lowered C10 that was supposed to be a parts truck.

[willem445]

Its been forever since I've posted an update. Ive gotten a few things accomplished since my last post.

I managed to fix my battery not charging problem, it ended up being a wiring error but I got a new alternator anyways. Solid 13.9V now.



I also wired in a light bar which I mounted on my bumper. Drove home at night after visiting my grandparents in town, the light bars makes a huge difference!







I also added a toggle switch for the light bar and a digital voltage meter, had my little brother cut out the area for the meter with his dremel. Looks great!



Interior is looking better. I would love to replace the floor metal and add new vinyl flooring but my funds dont allow it right now.



I also thought I was having issues with my 4x4 as it was clicking the last time I used it but I did some wheeling over the dirt mounds created when long ago they removed land for the railroad (long gone now). In 4x4 Low I had no issues.

[Car'n'Guitars]

Any updates with this truck?

[willem445]

1980 Farm Truck is back!

It's been 7 years since the last update. I've got another thread for a '77 K20 full restoration project I'm working on but I'm putting that project on hold until next spring when it's warm enough to paint.

Plans for this truck as of now:

- Get brakes maintained
- Fix some wiring (I didn't put a grommet in a firewall hole I ran some wires though [tach, light bar, etc.] and these wires must have caught on my clutch pedal and torn right through)
- Upgrades for towing. I'd like this truck to be my towing rig.

Once those two are done, it's in driving condition at least. I've yet to decide if I want to swap in a 454 from a '78 C20 I recently purchased. Also considering doing a dually swap by either buying dually hubs for my 14 bolt or swapping in an existing Dana 70 dually axle. We shall see.

Anyways, here are some pics. Working on brakes now.



I rebuilt the rear drums years ago. The driver side must have self adjusted to be way to tight, leading to the drum and hub getting very hot after driving. Tore it apart and I don't see anything obvious wrong with my brake rebuilt. Just adjusted it back.



Was in the process of bleeding everything when I broke the bleeder off of the front caliper (super rusted). So new calipers in the front. And when replacing the calipers, I noticed the brake hose was getting quite crusty. So new brake hoses as well.



And in the process of replacing the brake hoses, I noticed that 2 of my wheel studs were stripping out... So tomorrow is a trip to town to get wheel studs. In the meantime, got the hub ripped apart and old studs out..

[Shifty One]

Cool rescue!

[willem445]

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Maintenance on these old trucks can sometimes be a never ending game haha. Almost everything but the hard brake lines has been replaced at this point. Had 2 master cylinders that were leaking out the rear where the ram is.

My graveyard of master cylinders... so far..



Was waiting for a new master cylinder to come from Summit so in the meantime started taking out the rear driveshaft to replace a rear output seal on my 205. But now that I've got it out, might as well have it balanced and U-Joints replaced.. So will be contacting a shop on Monday.



Here is the current state of my garage, pretty cramped with all the parts laying around.