I thought that I would share with you guys what I am about to attempt.
Below are a couple of pictures of my old '77 Chevy K-30. Yup, she has definately seen better days. The rust has just about taken over everything that is not plastic. (LOL!)
I have owned this truck since January 1988. It was my high school/post high school transportation. It has been a reliable old crate, and served me well above, and beyond. Now it is my turn to repay it for all the loyalty this rig has given me.
The photo is a recent photo of the truck before a truck pull. 20 years ago it had 18.5/44-16.5 Gumbo Monster Mudders on it. About 15 years ago I took the lift off to take the truck pullin. Yes, lifts will kill a truck if you try to pull with it. Now it is back on the stock K-30 springs.
Since this is now my dedicated 4x4 truck puller, and not used to work around the farm, street legality is no longer an issue. Some of the things I plan are a full body off restoration. Truck pulling is not destructive to the truck's body like other 4x4 sports, so a show quality paint job is in order. However to convert it to a competitive truck it will lose it's ability to be street driven.
I am in the process of completely stripping the cab of
ALL of it's anythings. I figure the only right way to restore it is too soda-blast all the paint/rust/bondo, and start over with a bare sheet metal cab. This also means stripping the rest of the truck to it's bare nothings.
I am considering having the frame, and axles powder coated, but I will cross that bridge later. May just go with a good industrial equipment quality paint instead of the powdercoat. Cost, and trouble to do it will be big factors. You can kind of hide a bad paint job on the frame, but the cab will get the A+ treatment.
As a kid, my uncle (dad's brother) worked in the StLouis assembly plant at Union, and Natural Bridge streets where the 73~87 square bodys were built. Even worked on the truck line.
Everyone in our family had a '76, '78 or likewise......Had to keep Uncle Bill employed.
Anyway, I remember going to that plant somewhere around 1977 during an open house. Got to tour the assembly lines, and all.
I guess it was just destiny, because I never knew anything different. To me there was no other kind of truck.
So when in high school I became old enough to buy my first truck, well there was no other option. I bought the '77 Chevy in my sig. At that time it was a K10, with an automatic tranny, chain drive t-case, and a 400 small block. Now it is a K30 with a manual, NP205, and 454. After my rebuild, the only thing left that was part of the truck the day I bought it will be the frame rails, and the cab shell. LOL! Everything else will have been replaced.
When I was 16 you could still buy a square body brand new. Too bad I didn't bite. Oh well, I guess it wasn't meant to be.
One other cool morsel.....
My '77 was built in the StLouis assembly plant. It would be sort of improbable, maybe not impossible, to determine what day exactly my '77 was built. But I do know it was built during a narrow span of time of that day that I was at the StLouis assembly plant's open house. It would be easy to believe that I was there within a couple of months of that day.
Like a gun.....Pry it from my cold dead fingers.....I feel pretty confident that if I live to be 100 years old, I will still own my first truck.......My 1977 Chevy 4x4.
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