The Rolling Bruise K10.. Part Rat Rod..Part Big Rig.... Part Mad Max...Pure 4X4!

[original condor]

Howdy all, I'm finally back from my cancer treatment & recovery to let you know what I've accomplished during my recovery to date, ask for advise on future work, & post photos of my process so far! I'm doing a minimum budget, zero cosmetic only upgrades, on my 70 K 10, that I picked up for only $2500 a few years ago just before beginning my chemo, which culminated with a bone marrow transplant once I was in remission from my stage 4 non-hodgkins mantle cell lymphoma in August 2015. I started to discuss this restoration back then, but treatments & other events made continuing too difficult to share at that time, so I backed off till now when I finally started feeling better, was able to complete enough process' to be interesting to others, & was able to take some before & after photos along the way, which I will begin to post once I get that figured out, but having trouble, since I'm a techno- neanderthal to the bone. I'm sure some of you can relate to that kind of problem...LOL...... I'm approaching my 2 year remission anniversary & all has gone well with no infections etc. except for a mild cold recently, so my compromised immune system has performed as well as anyone could hope for along the way!.... This restoration has been a blessing in that it was difficult physically many times along the way, but mentally it prodded me to get out there and accomplish things that made me stronger & provided satisfaction that helped me battle depression/anxiety that unavoidably come with my circumstances encountered!.... That's enough for this introduction, & I'll return soon with more info about my rig, & describe more about this very odd path of restoration that I'm undertaking due to both budget concerns, & planned use for Old Black & Blue..... Looking for fellow 4X4's to go on adventures in the boonies of So Cal with too!

[original condor]

Howdy folks, I'm slowly smoothing out my 70 K10 longbed. I bought it with a 350 with only 12,000 mi on it, forged crank, 650cfm Edelbrock carb, & Performer intake, headers, granny 4 spd, 4" blocks in back on a truck 12 bolt, & dana 44 in front, fairly straight body with rusted out rockers & some floor boards/ cab supports & base of drivers "A" pillar, but zero rust at driprail/gutter, inner cowel or lower back corners. Also came with a Leer cab height shell, & nice 15X 8 aluminum rims with the round holes like Big Rig wheels.
Has bad paint, mediocre interior, but runs like a bat out of hell due to a big lumpy cam, it's way too much for the comp. ratio you can get fuel to run on these days, but sure is sweet to listen to it idle. I would have never used this cam but that's how it came. I'll put an RV cam in it when I pull the engine to replace the clutch, pressure plate, & throwout bearing. I only paid $2500 so I'm happy so far!
I'm concentrating on finding all rust, accessing & exposing it fully with scraping followed by wire wheel, and then phosphotizing all, then priming with rust reformer, then recoating all with paint, then also several coats of rubberized, paintable under coating. Also lots of scraping grease, & other stuff that requires very little money, just lots of time & elbow grease.
Today I discovered marks on my rear diff that showed the housing had rotated slightly from the wrap up under acceleration, so I bought a shackle flip kit from ORD & installed it, which changed the leaf spring angle,while allowing removal of the old funky 4" blocks from the PO. Along with this I bought 7" long heavy duty, anti-wrap spring pads, then had the old pads removed & the new ones welded on with the pinion at an angle matching the rear output shaft of the transfer case, (including new new square type 5/8" u-bolts/nuts), while allowing for minor wrap up under hard acceleration as suggested in all the info I've read. This seemed to radically improve the flexibility of the rear suspension while maintaining height & eliminating those troublesome blocks! I'm feeling more secure against problems now!