My 82 K10: No one gets left behind

[Grim 82]

This is a long story about a pickup that I couldn't leave to rot on an old farm. I'll try to be concise, or at least divide it up into segments short enough that people might actually read it.

In 87 or so my much older brother bought the truck. It had a 305, SM465, NP208, and 10 bolt front and rear, 3.08 gears. It served hard time on the farm, and I learned to drive with it. I took my first drivers test with it, and had countless adventures in this truck. My brother drove OTR truck and wasn't around much, but would let me take his pickup hunting, to town, or just generally doing what kids that live in the middle of nowhere do, as long as I kept it washed, oil changed, etc. It was 80's pimp in it's day. Neon running board lights and all that (garbage that I threw away as soon as I got it). It may take me a month of Sundays to get all the pics found and posted, but I have to start somewhere. Here is the oldest pic that I have of the truck:

[zieg85]

I love family heirlooms as my 1985 C20 is.  I will be reading every word...

[Grim 82]

Thanks zieg.
So the 305 is getting pretty tired and starting to knock. We pulled the 350 out of my dad's 73 C10, put it in the back of the 82, and sent to Omaha NE where my cousin builds engines. It came back a completely different truck. All I know is that is was bored over, cammed, and the q-jet was rebuilt and optimized for the motor. It had an aggressive lope to it at idle, and it screamed. We were told to always run at least 89 or 90 octane in it or it would ping.

So I drove the truck here and there until I shipped off for basic and AIT for the Army National Guard. When I got back the pickup was parked in the old hog barn sitting on four flat tires. One trip to the sale barn with the horse trailer behind it exploded the rear pinion gear. It sat in the yard til a tornado came through and smashed a wooden calf hutch against the hood, windshield, and roof of it. Then it was drug into the barn to rot for all of eternity.

About 5 years later I decided that after owning several other vehicles, none of them were nearly as awesome as the 82, and that I had to get it going. I gave my brother $500 for it, and searched for a rear axle. I found a 73 Cheyenne, which was affectionately named the orange crush, and nearly every part from it has been put to good use.

[Grim 82]

So I put a battery in it and dumped a little gas in the carb and it popped right off. But, everything was filled with mice and the debris that they bring. When I let out the clutch to try to move it out of the barn nothing happened. The bellhousing was full of crap and when it spun with the clutch pushed in it filled behind all of those little fingers and wouldn't let it engage. So I pulled it to the shop and put a clutch in it, swapped the axles out of the 73 into it, and took it for a drive. The mouse smell was almost unbearable, and everything was a mess.

[Grim 82]

Another couple years pass since I didn't have the time or the funds to do much with it to actually make it road ready. I was driving 600 miles in a weekend from where I lived to work on it, so I wasn't making much progress and all of my part money went for gas. Then, last year I decide that this project 10 years in the making needs to happen, so I got a trailer and hauled it home.

[Grim 82]

Notice in the above pictures that I had scored a set of doors, since both of mine were caved in. The cardboard box in the back of the Duramax holds the new windshield, and the big red plastic fuel cell sitting on the toolbox was because both of my tanks were filled with varnish. It actually made it onto the trailer by it's own power, but then the carb completely gave up the ghost. So, now the work began on getting it running better, cleaning the mouse crap out of it, and putting in the new glass.

I put an Edelbrock 1406 on it with a full tune up, cleaned one gas tank, replaced the other, and put in the new selector valve and dash switch for the dual tanks. The old windshield came out in 1764539872342 pieces.

[bravo1616]

Looking forward to reading & seeing more!

[zieg85]

Looking forward to reading & seeing more!

Me 2 I love the story so far...

[fitz]

I love to hear stories of people who hold on to vehicles for the long haul. Look forward to watching the progress.

[monkeyspunk79]

Fantastic. I really like the fact that you're putting her back on the road. Similar story with my '76. Good luck with the resto and keep us posted. 

[screamin86]

Latching on!

[84nickle350]

cant wait to hear the rest buddy keep it comming

[Grim 82]

Thanks everybody 
After I got the new glass in, I moved onto cleaning and painting the interior. About $30 at Mac's Hardware bought me some headliner material, a can of 3M spray adhesive, and a grab handle to help the little lady to climb in.

[Grim 82]

A good friend hooked me up with seats from a dodge quadcab. These seats are much taller than the factory bench, so I cut them down and welded brackets onto them to use the existing mounting holes in the cab, plus the middle seatbelt mounting holes. These seats are awesome, but they don't fold all the way ahead, so it's tough to reach for anything that you put behind them. I built a little sub box that holds a 10" sub facing up beneath the center seat.

[Grim 82]

Used Massey Ferguson gray rattlecans just to make it all one color and get me through the winter.