1980 GMC K25 - Farm Truck from Hell!

[MrBeast]

It was a cold snowy day in Montana in November of 2015, I was on my way into town with my brother, I saw this old GMC sitting at the used car lot right off the exit.



I had my brother stop and take a look at it, I stepped out to find a 1980 GMC 3/4 ton 4x4 with a 4 speed and a small block.

The salesman emerged from his little office shed and gave me the details, the truck was owned by a man over in Bozeman, he had put a new engine in a few years ago, then all of the sudden it quit running.

He then parked the truck in a field behind his house, and there it sat.

Somewhere along the way some kids in the neighborhood threw rocks through all of the windows and smashed out the headlights, the man covered the truck with a tarp, the wind blew the tarp around and it beat the paint off the top of the cab, and the bed side.

Finally the man decided to sell the truck, so he sold it to the dealer who put all new glass in it, got it started, but it still wouldn't run right.

I asked him what his best price was, he told me he had been asking $2,200.00, that he would just like to move it, and that if I could come up with $1,800.00 it was mine.



I made the deal with him leaving a $100.00 deposit, and a week later when I got paid, I went down and picked up the truck.



My first step was to take the truck to the tire shop, the tires that were on it were weather checked and were basically garbage, I was lucky to get to the tire shop without them exploding!

At the tire shop we got a surprise finding out that the rims were rusted badly, and needed to be replaced, so a grand later I had 4 used wheels, and 4 brand new tires on the truck.

I then took it over to a friends house, we removed the propane system, that made it run better, then started looking and discovered that it was leaking fuel from the fuel pump, with this a bulb went off in my head.

I remembered back in my towing days around 2010 when Ethanol began to become commonplace in gasoline, well ethanol eats old fuel hoses, this truck had ALL of the original fuel hose!

So a trip to the parts house, I picked up a bunch of fuel hose and clamps, as well as a new tank selector valve, and when pulling the old valve I discovered that the hoses going to it were leaking badly as well.

Once the hoses and the pump had been replaced we set the timing and the truck began to run really nice!

Then, I drove it! ALOT!



Really for the next 2 years that is all I did, drive it. The truck served as a daily driver, no matter how much snow it was covered in when I got home, it fired up and we went and did what we needed to do!



Then in June of 2016 I bought a sailboat out in Tacoma Washington.



February of 2017 I yanked the tool box out of the truck, sold off a bunch of my stuff, threw a topper on the truck, loaded it up with the puppy dog, and we headed for Tacoma to stay on the boat full time.



Once we got out to Tacoma I had been in town for a few days and managed to score a new tailgate.



The original tailgate was tweaked at some point, and was later fixed by welding angle iron to the back side, which meant the gate was pretty much toast. So landing the new one for a whole 50 bucks was a happy occasion!

So fast forward to August 2017, headed to work one morning the heater core burst in the truck, so I bypassed it, didn't bother fixing it until November.

Since I bought the truck in November 2015, after the initial tuneup, this is the first actual work I have had to do to the truck.

I have used it quite a bit having driven it back and forth to Montana a few times. Racked up a few thousand miles, that has been pretty much it.

So now I am stuck asking myself what to do with the ole truck.



The truck has been damn good to me, but it has some issues that are going to need to be addressed, specifically the rear leaf on the drivers side is bent, and the passenger side is slowly losing its arch.

There is a bit of rust in the rockers and cab corners, both doors and fenders have rust, and well the roof is not fairing too well sitting in a marina parking lot.

Also there is the big if, that is the frame might be a bit bent.

If it was just a matter of throwing some leaf springs in it, I would throw a lift and some 35's on it and call it good!

But the issue with the frame possibly being bent is either the frame is bent, or the body bushings are garbage, maybe a bit of both.

There are a few tacks I could take, I could find another 3/4 or 1 ton with a good body but bad motor and move all my good stuff over, or I can do the work to get this one fixed.

It is really hard to think about decommissioning the truck, its been damn good to me. I have had the least issues with this truck of any I have ever owned. That is surprising considering what it is!

I have a few thoughts, the big thing is right now I don't have any shop space. So I can't do any welding, which really hinders my ability to do anything.

What I have been considering is rattle caning the truck flat black, throwing a set of cab mount bushings at it, and if it straightens out and looks straight then I might throw a lift and some 35's or maybe even 38's at it.

Not sure what is going to happen yet, what do you guys think?

[Devilman]

I'd take it to a body shop and have them check out the frame and straighten it if it's not to bad then do a small lift and 35s. Wouldn't hurt replacing the body mounts since it needs them anyways if they're the factory originals.
And leave the paint alone! Anybody can have a flat black rattle can job but no one has the paint job you have now, the truck earned it's bumps and bruises and deserves to keep em. At the most I'd replace the rusted areas with patch panels and prime them. Although that's just my opinion and I love the way your truck looks now.

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by Devilman

I'd take it to a body shop and have them check out the frame and straighten it if it's not to bad then do a small lift and 35s. Wouldn't hurt replacing the body mounts since it needs them anyways if they're the factory originals.
And leave the paint alone! Anybody can have a flat black rattle can job but no one has the paint job you have now, the truck earned it's bumps and bruises and deserves to keep em. At the most I'd replace the rusted areas with patch panels and prime them. Although that's just my opinion and I love the way your truck looks now.

That is kind of where I am at, I am going to throw some cab mounts at it when this spring rolls around and a 6" lift and some 35's.

I saw this pic earlier that is about the stance I want to throw at it.



I am going to paint it, I just don't know what color I want to, there are too many options, blue, black, brown...

Hard to pick!

[MrBeast]

Well the good news is, I priced out what it is going to cost to get some shop shop space, a friend of mine just bought a house here, and she has no use for the garage out back, so I am looking at possibly renting it and getting my tools setup.

I priced out the sheet metal to fix the cab, it will be less then 300.00 for the metal work, including a new set of body bushings. That is pretty hard to beat!

Going to need a new set of front fenders and inner's, I think I can fix the hood up.

I will also need to do some metal work to the bed, which I have not priced out yet.

Still cannot decide what color I want to paint it...

[MrBeast]

The first truck I had, had one of these units in it, I really liked it.

Got down the highway nice, really kept the RPM's down.

Thinking about putting one in my truck since it has 4.56 gears.

[MrBeast]

Stumbling around online I found this, pretty interesting piece of kit that Pioneer made back in the day, I think it would be neat to put something like that in the truck.

[MTCK]

Cool truck. I’ll be following along. If you are going for a look fire away but 35’s with a 4” lift usually work fine. Less driveline steering etc issues too.

[Devilman]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Cool truck. I’ll be following along. If you are going for a look fire away but 35’s with a 4” lift usually work fine. Less driveline steering etc issues too.

^^^He's right you know! Low lift and big tires looks the best. I just finished up an 84 K30 for a buddy with deaver leafs 2.5" front & 1" rear, wheel vintiques 16x8, factory dog dishes and 315/75/16 Toyos. It looks perfect and rides awesome! I'll get some pics the next time he drives it to the station.

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Cool truck. I’ll be following along. If you are going for a look fire away but 35’s with a 4” lift usually work fine. Less driveline steering etc issues too.

Originally Posted by Devilman

^^^He's right you know! Low lift and big tires looks the best. I just finished up an 84 K30 for a buddy with deaver leafs 2.5" front & 1" rear, wheel vintiques 16x8, factory dog dishes and 315/75/16 Toyos. It looks perfect and rides awesome! I'll get some pics the next time he drives it to the station.

I know from experience you guys are right, growing up in Montana the guys who put the crazy stupid lifts on their trucks could never handle the side hills!

Ideally what I want to do is a 6" lift with the 35's and a D60 in front with crossover steering, if I go with the Ranger gear box this means I will likely not have to shorten my back shaft, just get a longer front shaft, which will help with the drive-line angles anyways.

If you are lifting much more than that, you really need to cut the C's and rotate them so the drive shaft is more inline with the yoke, otherwise you are deciding if you want to have a really bad caster angle, or a really bad angle on the U-Joints!

Another thing that makes a huge difference is sway-bars with disconnects. I have found that really makes a difference when you do a lot of driving your truck on the street.

[MrBeast]

My gauge cluster in the truck has seen better days, I am amazed to see how many better options there are today than just about 7 years ago when I was doing a lot of projects.

I stumbled upon these:



Made by New Vintage, kind of spendy, it will be a grand for the gauge setup by the time you get the gauges, wire, connectors and everything else, but I think worth it, they look pretty sweet!



I really dig how they look at night.

I am feeling a bit of a retro back to the 80's feel coming on with this truck...

... Might have to think about changing the name of it.

[LT7A]

How is the truck doing? Were you able to get it straightened up and squared away? Still livin local on a boat?

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by LT7A

How is the truck doing? Were you able to get it straightened up and squared away? Still livin local on a boat?

I haven't touched the truck, probably going to wind up selling it.

Wound up going back to work during Covid to get out of Washington to stay sane from all the lockdown madness.

Then came back, got the boat put back together and sailed her to Alaska and back.

Fiugring out what the next chapter of life is going to look like now.