1981 K10 Restoration

[DanMcG]

That sounds like a great deal on the parts. nice score!

[jjdruffel]

Well, it took until 2 in the morning, but I got the cab off! Had a friend over helping who knew his way around a square body, that really helped.  We had a service rig with a 2 ton hydraulic lift outside but not enough straps to get under the cab so we decided to see if the two of us could pick it up... definitely heavy, but we got it done. 

I am going to go pick up all the stuff I bought on craigslist on sunday and then I'll swap the springs.  After that I think I'll start on pulling the engine off this one and powerwashing the frame.  While I'm doing that I think I'll start tearing down the engine I'm going to put in to check it out, I put it through a pretty good head on wreck about 2 years ago so I want to get in there and make sure nothings terribly wrong. i don't want to waste it, it's built pretty well and should push out some good horses if I can get it running well.

[jjdruffel]

Hey guys,

It's been a little while since I posted last.  We got busy with hay here and hauling it took up my last 2 weeks.  Anyway,  I got the front two springs off of the donor pickup and onto mine, then put mine on the donor.  And tonight I pulled the back axle off of the donor to get at the springs (brake lines were already cut).  Looking forward to getting all the springs swapped so that I can get that piece of junk out of here.

I also just ordered new body mounts and a 1" body lift from ORD.  I have been playing around with an idea for a lift bed, if I do end up doing it I'll need the body in the front to be lifted an inch so that it will match up with the bed after a bed frame has been put under it.  And if I don't do a lift bed I'll have an extra inch of lift.  Seemed a reasonable thing to do as it won't be hard to remove if I end up not liking it.  I did some research and have heard that I won't have any linkage problems with a 1" body lift.

[jjdruffel]

Hey guys.  Been a while but I've been busy with work.  I got the frame painted.  I used a power washer with a water heater to wash it first and then used POR15 I think its called.  Anyway, turned out great. The paint is amazing.  I moved the frame out after it dried and got the cab in there. I've cut off one corner and have cut the new patch to fit. I just have to cut off the other side and then sand blast the rust out of there.  there is one spot on the inner corner thats rusted through so I'll patch that up too. I don't have to be pretty about it though because I don't think anyone will ever see it.  After I get the patches done and one patch on the bed I'll be set to start putting things back together.

[jjdruffel]

Alright, it's been a while again but I've made some progress.  I've replaced the cab corners (it's my first time working with body putty so take it easy on me) and put the primer on the cab.  I also coated the bottom of the cab with POR-15.  The next step is to tape off what I'll be painting and cover the floor, firewall, behind the seats, and underside with Lizard skin and then I'll put the cab away until I'm ready to paint.  In the meantime I'll be moving the bed in and taking care of a few spots on that and prepping it for paint.