My '77 K-30/V3500 Monster Truck Build

[hardin.chris123]

Nice! I have a 78 K20...aswell as a 87 1500 Sierra.. Folks tell me they like the 87 better..but I prefer the 78..! Loojs tougher!!

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I also have 78 k20 my first truck and love it.                     



Sorry for the edit that's the best pic I have but i put the original grill back in it recent


My current set up got turbo 400 trans and 350 wanna wanna put what truck came original with witch was 400 sb

[Engineer]

Nice! I have a 78 K20...aswell as a 87 1500 Sierra.. Folks tell me they like the 87 better..but I prefer the 78..! Loojs tougher!!

Sent from my SCH-S968C using Tapatalk

I don't think you can go wrong with either. I had the square front '77 for years. With this project I just want to build my dream truck. No corners are being cut. After this is done I may try to search out a '79, or '80 model 4x4. After switching this project over to 5-tons I still have a newly rebuilt, and upgraded set of D60/14-bolt axles, and a 465/205 combo that is sitting around drawing dust.

[Engineer]

Not much to report. I have the front axle housing completely finished as far as the fabrication goes.



Took the time to polish out most of the metal finish so as to make it look smoothed. After I sandblast it before I prime it I will smooth it more with a little filler and 320 paper. Should give it a look like it is made from molded plastic.



Decided to try out the sandblaster in between monsoon downpours. Big mistake. After the rains subsided the heat came in but the moisture stayed behind. Ugh. After cleaning, a couple of my parts started to rust. Oh well, no biggie, I'll just go over those spots again before I paint. Shouldn't need much since the hard part is scratching off all of the armorplate, er, um, I mean the original army green paint.

Here are the shackles, spring plates/lower shock mounts, transmission cross member, and the left hand steering knuckle. The right hand knuckle is in the lower right of the picture to give a good before/after perspective of what the sandblaster is able to accomplish.



And the tie rod.....



Wasn't going to do the tie rod orginally because I was afraid of contaminating the tie rod end joint with blasting sand, but I took my time and was careful not to get any sand in it.

For now I may look at other tasks to perform, like fixing the roll bar to suit me. I'm going to hold up on anymore sandblasting until I have my primer, and paint. It looks as though I'll have to sandblast, and prime immediately, then paint in a 24hr period to eliminate the rust factor. The temperature, humidity, heat index, and dewpoint, are all conspiring to throw a wrench into my well oiled machine.

I think the sales dude talked me into going with epoxy primer under urethane paint for the frame and axles. It will be more expensive, and time consuming, but buy once cry once. No use in doing it sub-standardly then having something that looks like crap 10 years down the road.

Yours Truly,
Engineer

[Kren420]

As always, insightful with some awesome pictures.  Keep up the good work!

[Engineer]

Not much to report, but a little progress just the same.

As I posted in the past, it is critical to me, with this build, to use as many GM OEM parts as humanly possible. I was able to aquire one of the last pieces that I need to finish the body of my truck and keep it all GM.



This is the front air dam that goes under the front bumper of 1981~1987(91) K/V series 4x4 trucks without tow hooks. This is the taller 5.25" air deflector as opposed to the 3.5" unit that was available on the C/R series 4x2 trucks.

This photo shows the parts bin tag with an OE date of February 1999. That put this part at 16 years old. I think we can call it a "NOOOS" part. Hehe.



After I reserached this part number, and knew what I wanted, I set out to find said part from the OE supply chain so I didn't have to use aftermarket. (again, as previously mentioned, not intended to slight the guys that use aftermarket, just trying to avoid it on this build) Anyhow, my local Chevy dealer found out for me that this part was long ago discontinued. A search of dealer inventory revealed two dealerships that showed to have one each in stock. A call to the first dealer proved their inventory to be inaccurate, and they didn't have the part. A call to the second was paydirt, and we were able to locate the VERY LAST K-series 4x4 front air dam available from GM. Just like the '91 Blazer V22 grille in this project I GOTS ME THE LAST BRAND NEW ONE FROM GM!!!!!!!. And even better, the dealer I bought it from priced it to me including shipping, for less, or about the same, than the aftermarket has it before shipping. How cool is that?


Now focus on the following photo of the Stomper Bully truck for a second. Why do I want this front air dam, and why no tow hooks? The front of my monster frame will sit really close to what you see here in relation to the original front bumper. The front air dam won't hide the front of the frame from view, but it will serve to overlap in front of the frame so that it will blend the frame into the body of the truck. By leaving the gap between the OE bumper, and the monster frame I fear the result would look like a shark with an underbite. Definately detract from the flow of the body.



The Bully gets away with it because he has the pushbar, but I want a clean OE front bumper void of even bumper guards or trim so as to compliment the beautiful 1991 Blazer V22 grille.


And while I'm on here, enjoy some views of recently sandblasted parts that had color dumped on them.....



Painted the spring shackles black too.

And here is a picture of one of my steering cylinders painted white to match my shocks. The rod clevis is just temporary. It is what the cylinders shipped with. I'll be replacing these with the spherical heim ends when I do the final assembly.



I'm going to put black shock boots on these to match the ones on my shocks. It should give the impression of steering stabilizers. Or at the very least they will match the theme of the shock theirselves.


Youngest son's summer baseball season is coming to a close. Next weekend he will be playing in the NBC World Series in Wichita, KS. I'm not going, I'll stay home, $$$. Now that baseball is taking a break for about 8 weeks (his college will play fall ball) I can hopefully get some production on this monster J-O-B.

[LTZ C20]

Good job. I had a very similar story of finding rare parts when I found what seems to be the last GM OEM cargo lamp switch. Definitely really really old.

[Engineer]

Well, I don't know what to do. As can be seen this thread has been scrubbed of all of my uploaded pics. Apparently our home internet service provider and google had a childish squabble. A few years ago our ISP started using a form of gmail for e-mails. I didn't like the idea then because it caused us to have to realign all of our correspondence and web files. However, there was support back then to do that. Now, that support is not there and there seems to be no interest from either party to help us with these problems. As is evidenced this thread is without its pictures. What good is any of this text without pictures?

I can't access our web photo hosting account because the old photo account used the current ISP e-mail address. Google has locked us out and will not grant us access to our old photographs.

I'll look into fixing this massive google/ISP caused train derailment at a future date. To put all of the photos back into this thread could take days. Just one folder that I use for this build has over 500 pictures in it. Then there is a separate folder for the monster truck photos. Anyone who is late to this thread it will seem like a waste to read through it without the pics, I apologise for that, but I'll see if I can fix the mess at a later date. Each post in this thread is the result of 45mins~1 hour of work. By the time I load the pictures into my computer, upload them to the interweb, then write a detailed description in this thread explaining each picture it takes a while. If this site that hosts these forums had photo hosting I wouldn't be in this predicament. Oh well.......



I did some work and that is what this update is all about.


I haven't been able to do much, it has been really hot. I need to sandblast but the humidity is at a point where I can't leave metal bare for more than a couple of hours. And the heat.......it is days like these you don't mind if the toilet seat is cold.......you might even welcome it.

Here is the latest:

No that is not a new appliance for my bathroom. I made a box to drop my front differential down into that I could seal up with a trash bag and not have to worry about getting blasting sand and paint on the gears and bearings.



Sandblasted my front differential:



Then put the primer on it.

I am using DuPont epoxy primer. It is tough stuff. I love using it but hate putting it on. During the front end sheet metal phase I had trouble getting it to lay out. I did some experimenting to see if I could improve the application. The TDS calls for 8~10psi at the cap if you apply it with a HVLP gun. This just causes the epoxy to spatter. I tried thinning down the epoxy with some reducer when applying it to the front end sheet metal. This worked slightly, but not satisfactorily. The formula calls for a 4:1 mix of epoxy resin, and activator. I did a 4:1:2 formula of epoxy/activator/reducer. Then I dialed my HVLP gun up to 40psi. This trick worked. I got good coverage with no runs, and no spatter. My 1.4mm tip HVLP gun is not ideal for epoxy primer, but I made it work.





Then I put the color on it. DuPont chassis gloss black.





The differentials, springs, shackles, and lower shock brackets will be gloss black. The axle housings, steering knuckles, tie rod, and frame will be gold. I think it will look good under the blue body.

Til later,
Engineer.

[Irish_Alley]

Wow that stinks hope you get your picture problem fixed

[LTZ C20]

Nice! Fresh painted parts are always a welcome site. Sorry to hear about your Internet major malfunction.

[Engineer]

Well I believe I have all of the pictures back in this page somewhat, had to rustle some of the pictures and words in the post with the Bigfoot4x4 visit, but everything else is GTG. Pages 1~4 will have to wait. This one caused a big enough headache for today. I focused on it firstly because the information is most relevant. The older these posts are the more difficult it will be to relate text to pictures. Some of the early posts may have to be cleaned entirely. Probably will not focus too hard on the puller part. Will try to be as accurate as it pertains to the monster truck build.

Anyway, here is this weekend's report.

I threw 4 $100.00 bills on the counter at the local auto paint supply house. Going to try PPG this time for the frame and axles. ESSS commercial truck single stage. Staying with the gold metallic that I chose for the puller frame.



Sandblasted a few more parts.

All of the front axle parts are sandblasted except the housing itself. I may do that this weekend, and go over the knuckles, and tie rod again. Then put on the paint. If so, I should be able to start reassembly of the front axle after this weekend.  (YAY!!!!)



Steering arms:



Front leaf springs. These were a chore. The paint that StLouis Spring used was some kind of rubbery gunk. You could literally see the sand bouncing off the paint. It had to be peeled, not blasted. Ugh. That is why only the fronts, and not the backs got the treatment this time.



Some primer:





Then paint:





Why did I strip black paint off of the springs then repaint them black? Well simple, the springs had spots of rust where the coverage was bad, and I also put down a good base of the DuPont epoxy primer I had left before adding the glossy black finish.

So, hopefully I can get the time to fix the pics in the previous pages soon. For anyone who is late to this thread the pics will make the text more presentable. Hard to envision what all of this is without the pics. If anyone is reading this that is interested in pages 1~4 check back often, I'll try to do what I can when I can.

[LTZ C20]

As always, very good.

[English]

Where's all the photos gone from the earlier posts? Could see them a couple of weeks ago but now they've disappeared

[Irish_Alley]

Well, I don't know what to do. As can be seen this thread has been scrubbed of all of my uploaded pics. Apparently our home internet service provider and google had a childish squabble. A few years ago our ISP started using a form of gmail for e-mails. I didn't like the idea then because it caused us to have to realign all of our correspondence and web files. However, there was support back then to do that. Now, that support is not there and there seems to be no interest from either party to help us with these problems. As is evidenced this thread is without its pictures. What good is any of this text without pictures?

[Don5]

I always look forward to any new postings by Engineer in this thread. He never disappoints either. Sorry to hear about the internet trouble. I am glad you got it fixed because all of us like your pics! Keep plugging away at the truck and it will be done before you know it.

[Engineer]

Page 1 is back, and about 1/2 of page 4.

Again, my apologies. I'll try to get more done when I can.