The story of my Knightrider

[knightrider84]

It all begins long ago with a cooky wild wrench pullin trucker who ordered a truck from Chevrolet in Late 83..  a swb K10, Black, 350, 700R4, NP208, AC, dual tanks, dual batteries, etc..   This trucker happened to be a close childhood friend's dad.. and he would eventually be known to us affectionatly as "Knightrider"  a sort of word play of his last name and the fact he rarely saw daylight..  at the time he ordered the truck I was a mere two years old..   flash foward 23 years...  The truck had been sitting in a field on their ranch and hadn't seen current tags or asphalt in 10 years.  saddly, "Knightrider" himself had passed away some years prior. My friend, torn on what to do about the truck, didn't have time or money to get it back on the road, but didn't want to see it go to the wrecker. He offered it to me, with a condition that it stays in the family, I believe his exact words were; "If you can start it, you can have it."
   Life was breathed back into her with fresh gas and a new battery.  I learned on the Limp home that the 700R4 was all but garbage. So one EXPENSIVE transmission later I was on the road. Everytime I went out to tinker with the truck, I would discover "custom" upgrades and modifications.. some useful, some a little cooky, but all made me laugh. This is how the nickname we had for the orginal owner eventually transcended to the truck itself.

shown here exactly how I first got it, minus the sweet black plastic camper shell.
as you can tell, the truck NEVER saw wax and rarely saw soap.

more to come....

[Grover 1]

Cool story, the fun begins now

[knightrider84]

after much frustration, I figured out how to zoom and crop. lol

[fitz]

 Cool story and truck. I've never seen dual batteries on a gas truck before.

[1983stepside]

cool story, whats the plan for your truck?

[overthepond]

Great story and nice patina on that truck...

[79k30guy]

I'm continuing this thread because my bro is a slacker and this story should be told.
next up for Knightrider was 3/4ton running gear..  I had recently purchased a parts truck, (73 K20) with some sweet goodies on it.  guess who called dibs on the axels?  so one hard weekend of work later...  bam..  knightrider was now a 3/4ton with bald 33 bfg muds on white painted wheels... check it out.

[84chevysilverado]

thats gonna be one sweet truck. body looks mint

[79k30guy]

He was soon able to upgrade to newer alum. wheels and almost full tread 35" BFG mudds..  which had a tough time turning under the fenders with only a 2.5 spring lift in the front..  which brings us to the next phase..  Front clip change!!  yes a lot of people go the other way, from older style to new style, but both my brother and I both prefer the rounded line. so after he picked up some fenders and hood at a junkyard, and among other parts we had lying around, we ripped into it one night and didn't look back..
before..

[79k30guy]

parts a flyin'  we got it done in one late night and half of a saturday, 

[79k30guy]

now as you can tell, surface rust had attacked this truck pretty good, so a full on sandblast of the entire truck (minus new front clip) was in order. 
here it is loaded up to take to the blaster..


and after, sitting in front of the paint shop... 

[79k30guy]

AND DONE!!  steel bar grille, check!

[beastie_3]

Nice work, what color is that?

[79k30guy]

Nice work, what color is that?

the actual paint is: "Medium Titanium" its a maaco job.  but we're not show truck kinda guys. we use are trucks as TRUCKS so he just wanted something to look good and all one color. lol.

[beastie_3]

I hear that!