Howdy! New here

[ThisGuy]

Hello there- New 1976 K10 owner (x2- but we'll get into that soon enough) from Colorado. Been wanting one of these trucks since before I ever got my first car... 15 years later I finally bought one 

This is what I ended up with:
1976 K10 Silverado short bed with a rebuilt sbc 350/th350 about 3,500 miles ago and an np203. 12 bolt rear and 8 bolt front. Has an undefined amount of lift that I'd like to freshen up/eliminate blocks to continue running the 35" tires that it came on.

The good: the engine and transmission are very freshly rebuilt and I am into the truck for peanuts. There are quite a few updates and upgrades under the hood, but nothing incredible. Previous owner says:
-built 4 bolt main 350, 9:1 compression, comp hot cam, 993 heads, and 500 springs. The engine rebuild is not documented so hard to verify what's what. My neighbor and mechanic did verify that everything inside seems appropriate for a fresh rebuild via bore scope etc. New water pump, starter, belts/hoses. 3:73 gears.

The bad: I realized that I am way more of a perfectionist than I expected. It's straight but with plenty of rust. Rusted out bed (like totally), rusted cab corners, rocker panels, front fenders, and a serious case of Chevy hood. So the body isn't in real good shape. The interior isn't great either, I spent a fair amount of time cleaning the inside up and removing the bench and carpet underneath that which helped but I need new door trim panels, dash, dash trim, carpet, seat recovered etc. So that stuff added up.



Now we get to what happened next. My neighbor and mechanic is a craigslist master (enabler for my impulse buying) and found me a 1976 K10 incomplete project for the same amount of peanuts that I'm into the first K10. This truck is a long bed but has a near perfect cab and front clip. New fenders and cowl hood, repaired corners, rocker panels and doors, all ppg painted flat black (love this). The downer here is that it's all in pieces, no windows, engine/trans/interior/anything under the hood. The kicker here is that it also came with a bbc454 out of a '94(?) van with <100k miles and th400/np208 with 14 bolt rear/10 bolt front. The engine came out of a lightly driven carpet delivery van, was a strong runner when removed 2 years ago. I bought the whole thing pretty much for the body, but the more I think of it... it's a pretty sweet setup if I want to piece it back together. I got loads and loads of parts, both original and new from this guy. Edelbrock performer intake, all new weatherstripping, door panels and so on.

The problem is that i'm trying to decide which direction to take these trucks. Cannibalize the long bed and build the short bed is the direction I was thinking originally because I much prefer the short bed to the long. But there's a lot of good parts left if I only build one!

To give an idea of what I want to end up with, a mostly stock appearing truck with the exception of the tires and lift. I'd like as little rust as possible, that stuff terrifies me. I don't need show quality, but I don't want it to be a total beater. I'd like to run 35" tires, maybe 37 tops. I plan to do a bit of rocky mountain off road driving, nothing crazy and not super extensively- but I'd like to have the ability. Mud and sand will probably be more frequent than rocks... but on road driving will probably be the primary.

My extremely long winded question to y'all is: what would you do with these trucks??? I'm struggling to figure out a direction here. Thanks in advance! I'll get on the other computer and add pictures asap too

[zieg85]

Welcome from NW Indiana

[ThisGuy]

So here's a few of the first truck, the short bed:

[ThisGuy]

[ThisGuy]

And here is the impulse purchase:

[ThisGuy]

[Irish_Alley]

Welcome from Maryland. It looks like 78 is a better truck for a build. Unless you just want a truck. The 454 can make some good power but you have a built 350 and I would use that

[ThisGuy]

Welcome from Maryland. It looks like 78 is a better truck for a build. Unless you just want a truck. The 454 can make some good power but you have a built 350 and I would use that

Thanks Irish- I'm not sure what level of truck I want just yet. I thought my standards were fairly low initially but immediately I wanted to improve things. All the things. Interior, body etc.
I'm leaning toward sticking with the rebuilt 350 on the short bed frame. Maybe snatch and swap the beefier axles from the long bed frame as well as the cab/front clip. I'm just a sucker for wanting more than I need, which is why the 454 is somewhat interesting to me... but I'd be risking it by putting in an engine that's never seen a rebuild. I'm not even sure what I'd be looking at ($$) if I wanted to get the 454/th400/np208 rebuilt to put into one of the trucks. Or if I didn't use them at all, what I could expect to move them on for. too many options and I'm realizing that I'm turning into a hoarder... I want all the things for these trucks ah

[illinoisk30]

Welcome from Northern Illinois.

[blwn71]

if it were me....i would strip the long bed for all its worth........put 3/4 ton running gear in short bed.......put as much good on short bed as you can then sell the rest and you'll be in it for nothing so to speak......

[ThisGuy]

if it were me....i would strip the long bed for all its worth........put 3/4 ton running gear in short bed.......put as much good on short bed as you can then sell the rest and you'll be in it for nothing so to speak......

That's the direction that I'm going to start heading with this blwn. It took a minute for me to wrap my head around what i had and what I wanted out of the piles of partial trucks I'm working with.

Exactly what you suggested, taking the axles out of the long bed and swapping into the shorty. I'll keep the recently rebuilt 350/th350 just for reliability's sake. Any benefit of putting the spare np208 behind the th350 instead of the current 203?

Most visually important, I'll do a cab and front clip swap on the short bus. I'll start piecing the interior together with the best of both I suppose. I'm kind of starting to like the idea of line-x'ing or rhino lining the floor/back of the cab/bottom of doors instead of carpeting. Not sure yet... still a fan of keeping it more original than not though.

Started sifting through the parts that came with the long bed and am astounded with what I got  Obviously the 454/th400 are fun, but it's a shame not to be able to have a little fun with them. Makes sense to get those sold though and start making some money back. Aside from that I've got new bolt kits for tons of stuff as well as new weatherstripping and whatnot. More stuff than I need honestly lol.

I want to take the opportunity to get the frame power washed and coated with an anti corrosion paint while the cab is off for sure to keep it in decent shape... plus it looks a lot cleaner imho. Will have to do a site search for product recommendations on that.

[Don5]

Welcome from WV. Tough decisions. I say keep the shortbed. The PO of that truck spent some $$ on it. Those are aluminum covers are not cheap as well as the rear axle truss, double shocks etc. I would pull the covers off of both front and rear and check gear ratio and whether they have a LS or locker in them. My guess is that they are not open diffs. There is some serious money right there if they are 373 or 410's as well as a locker or LS in them. I would look for a 6 foot bed whether it is a stepside or fleetside doesn't matter to me. I would also keep the cowl hood and put it on the shortbed as well. Good luck and don't hesitate to ask for advise before you sell anything.

[ThisGuy]

Welcome from WV. Tough decisions. I say keep the shortbed. The PO of that truck spent some $$ on it. Those are aluminum covers are not cheap as well as the rear axle truss, double shocks etc. I would pull the covers off of both front and rear and check gear ratio and whether they have a LS or locker in them. My guess is that they are not open diffs. There is some serious money right there if they are 373 or 410's as well as a locker or LS in them. I would look for a 6 foot bed whether it is a stepside or fleetside doesn't matter to me. I would also keep the cowl hood and put it on the shortbed as well. Good luck and don't hesitate to ask for advise before you sell anything.

Thanks Don! I'm definitely planning on keeping the shortbed frame, much bigger fan of those than the longbeds. I'm honestly starting to wonder if the double shocks are a bit too much, the ride is miserable, the only 'give' I get is what the tires allow in bounce. No doubt that the POs of the short bed added some good stuff. I'd like to get the did covers off of all axles on both trucks to see what's what and get a feel for how they're all geared and start deciding what gears are ideal for my 'weekend wheeling'.

I actually found a guy that was prying out a '79 K10 and grabbed his complete bed as well as a bunch of interior goodies for a great price. I'd like to start taking off the front clip from the shortbed and degrease the engine compartment and tidy up in there. Then I'd like to dig in and see what it'll take to get the cabs loosened up and swapped from the longbed to the shortbed. Then get the front clip from the longbed onto the short as well.

My neighbor and I dug into a leak coming from the transfer case/a couple of weeks ago and couldn't find a replacement gasket so we remedied the union with some alternative liquid gasket after replacing some stripped threads from one of the holes. Unfortunately something failed because the leak hasn't stopped. Need to get it back on the lift and get the leak sealed up before I really get into anything cosmetic. 

[77c15]

Keep us posted on your progress. For what you stated as your intended use of it, you are heading in the right direction by swapping all the goodies to the short bed. Here's a thought and personal opinion: why not tear the 454 down and rebuild it for your sanity? Keep the 350 in until the valve covers, valve seals, rings, or oil pan start leaking and then do the swap? Unless room/storage is an issue I would put it on a stand and forget about it until you had the truck where you want it. Also, the dual shocks are not likely the cause of your rough ride. Have you checked the body mounts and leaf springs? If it's lifted with blocks it was likely a low budget lift kit. You can get the proper lifted leaf springs from Rough Country for about $150 per side, depending on if you have the 52" or 56" springs.