C20 to K20 Conversion "Simply Toxic"

[JustToxic]

Alright, so I had a different build thread and decided to delete it cause I changed the build from how it started.

I'll start with a little story and go into some detail. I was filling in for my parts driver at work, stopped at a wholesale body shop that we deal with. Saw this 1967 C20 sitting in the back parking lot surrounded by piles of wood. Started talking to the guy. Said he bought it from the original owner after he passed away. So the truck was owned by a local farmer, farmer put it in the barn after the radiator went to crap in 1985.... Truck sat in the same spot from 1985 until 2012 when the farmer passed away. My wholesale customer was helping the family clean up the property to sell and ended up buying the truck from them for $800. He put it behind his body shop in the fall of 2012. This is where I come in, I see the truck in the spring of 2015. I buy it from my wholesale customer for $800, we put different wheels and tires on it and load it up. Rolls like its never sat a day in its life.

I get it home and power wash it and clean the 3 bags of trash out of the cab (mainly raccoon crap). The first plan was to drop the old girl down and build a pretty mean pro touring pickup. But I couldn't bring myself to cut the bed down to a short bed, nor could I see myself converting another c20 to c10. So the second plan came about after we had it sitting up on the jack stands and was sitting in the garage..... Convert it to 4wd and build a pretty bad @ss truck.

So... This is the build of my K20 Simply Toxic. Hope you enjoy.

[JustToxic]

This is how she looks after I got her home and cleaned up. I made a crap deal on what was supposed to be a '68 hood, just to find out it was a '69.

[JustToxic]

The raccoon did some pretty bad damage to the floor with his crap. Other animals had their way with the old girl too.

[JustToxic]

In the process of tear down on my truck. I had my dad's '65 over to give it some engine and brake love. So naturally, I had to snap a few pictures.

[JustToxic]

So, at this point, we got the dog house off the front. I forgot to snap a few pictures. The front lower part of both fenders is rusted and needs fix. the grille and head light bezels are in really good shape. The core support has minor rust on the passenger side lower area. (under the battery) So i'll have to fix that stuff. And here is the rest of the rust I found.

[JustToxic]

And some more.

[JustToxic]

I picked up some seats out of a 2009 2500HD, and a center console out of a 2002 2500HD. The seats sit too high in the '67 so I had to cut it down a bit. The total height from the floor to the bottom of the seat is roughly 6 1/2" and at that height I was looking through the top of the windshield, not to mention almost hitting my head on the roof. I took the seats apart and modified the frame and took 3 1/4" out of the height, now they sit perfect.

[JustToxic]

For this step, I had my brother in law come over to help (he's 17). I showed him a few things and let him weld one of the seat frames up. Didn't do too bad at all.

[JustToxic]

Got my engine out of the last demolition derby truck I had it in. It's a balanced, blueprinted, 383 Stroker. High compression engine able to turn up to 8500 rpms. To put it in this project I'm going to convert it over to E85 so I don't have to buy racing gas. Since I haven't had it out of anything long enough to take a look at it, I decided to take some of the tin off to do a quick inspection. Found a slight problem that I already knew was there. Found oil and water mixing in one of the cylinders. Good thing is though, its only in the one cylinder.

[JustToxic]

Well anyone that has messed with a 4x4 in this year range knows that the frames twist pretty easy and just aren't as strong as they need to be. Since I plan on using this truck for just about anything I decided to convert it over to a newer chassis. I picked up a 2005 2500HD frame and corporate 14 bolt for cheap at the local yard. Now, I was going to leave the truck IFS and just lift it. But do to how the frame is set up I decided to go a different route. I also picked up a SM465 mated to a NP205 from a good friend to put in this beast. And while I was at a yard with a buddy I came across a deal on a Dana 44 out of a '77 K20 I couldn't pass up.

[JustToxic]

And now this brings us up to date with where I am at now. Last weekend I decided to cut the frame down to the correct wheel base. I bought a crew cab short bed frame, mainly for the deal I got on it but also because it was pretty clean. And by clean I mean less then 75K miles on the frame. If anyone has done the frame swap before, you have realized that the frame where the cab sits is considerably lower than where the bed mounts. To be exact 11 1/2", now the '67 frame is only a 3 3/4". I've seen the other post on here about having massive frame gaps and moving bed floors up to make up a difference. I decided to skin the cat a different way. My daily is a 2002 2500HD, I hate how much of the frame you can see under the cab. So my father in law and I decided to cut the frame down in the hump. Now I know what your thinking, That's the hardest way to cut down the frame. Your right, but I want this truck to look from the outside like its sitting on a stock frame.

After hours of measuring and double checking and triple checking our measurements and cut locations we decided to cut into the frame. We needed to cut it down 25" on the dote to have the wheel base be correct. With cutting the frame like we did it brought the front frame section up an extra 7". Now when the frame is sitting level the front of the frame is way higher then it used to be. So it left me with a few options for the front suspension. A. Get a 7" IFS lift kit. B. Do a Straight axle swap. I bet you already guessed it. I'm going to be doing a Straight axle swap. A parallel 4 link, with coil-over shock set up. I'll be using the Dana 44 for now that I mentioned in the last post.

[JustToxic]

As you can tell I'm at a different shop. Took the truck to my father in laws place and put it up on the frame rack. We came up with a pretty good Z cut. Tested it out before we used it. Should work pretty good. I'm going to do some extra plating to the frame in that section. We measured it so the leaf spring mount would be over top of it and I'm adding another cross-member in the same location.

[JustToxic]

Used some clamps and a come-along to get it lined back up. The frame was almost a 1/4" out of square when we got started. (which is within manufacture specs) Afterward we are a 1/16" within square, the frame sits 1/8" lower on the passenger side, and we hit the nail on the head at shorting it by exactly 25".

Hope you stay tuned for the rest of the project.

[72 tigger]

Looks like a great project & plan! The frame cut & weld came out nice. Your 67 body looks pretty solid for an Indiana truck. Will be keeping an eye on this thread

[JustToxic]

Thanks, I was surprised how little rust the truck had.

[JustToxic]

Well, after a extended vacation and a few other projects later, I was finally able to get back out to the shop last night. I patched the holes in the frame by the frame seams, and added a few plates to the inside of the frame for additional support. Now I have a few hours of grinding to do to get all the old body mounts off the frame and to just clean the frame up. After that I'm going to start cutting all the old front suspension components off so I can mock up the straight axle components. I forgot to take pictures last night so I'll get out there and get some taken.

[JustToxic]

Here are a few pictures for the above post. I also got the leaf spring perch bolted back into place. Had to drill new holes for the front of the mount, ended up burning up my 18v drill. The Z cut is in the center of the perch, the way everything ended up it looks almost factory.

[JustToxic]

Got out this weekend and cut all the old body mounts off, that was for the 2005 cab and bed. also filled all the holes in the side of the frame. I sprayed some roll bar & chassis paint on the bare metal surfaces until I get all the frame welding complete. Then the plan is to sand blast the frame.

[72 tigger]

Nice work! Making progress

[JustToxic]

Well, I'm down to only being able to work on the truck one day a week. Been snowing like crazy up here with the lake effect, too busy plowing to get out in the garage. Just cutting brackets and old mounts off and grinding everything smooth. Once I get past all the grinding I'll get some more pictures and post them up.

[LockDoc]

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TTT, moved from '67-'72 pickup truck projects & builds.....

LockDoc

[BlueBullet]

Nice work I in!!

[JustToxic]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

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TTT, moved from '67-'72 pickup truck projects & builds.....

LockDoc

Thanks LockDoc

Originally Posted by BlueBullet

Nice work I in!!

Thank you!

[JustToxic]

Well, got back out to the garage this weekend. Worked a few hours Friday night and most the day Saturday. I got the rest of the IFS brackets off of the frame and filled the rest of the holes in the front section of the frame. Smoothed everything over and put a coating on the frame to prevent rust.

Next step is to transfer the bed and cab over to the new frame and add the body mounts to the new frame. I also need to measure how much longer behind the rear axle I will need to extend the frame, seeing how the frame was a short bed truck.

[72 tigger]

Making progress- looks good