Hello all!

[JustinV]

Introducing myself here, my name is Justin (hence the username), and I am working on a 1979 Silverado K10, shortbox, 350/TH350/NP203 with 12 bolt rear and 10 bolt front axles. I acquired the truck in a trade deal with a friend's father, who had it back-burnered about 8 years ago and never came back to it. Luckily for me the truck was as complete as I could ever expect, and fired up the first try (although it immediately started leaking fuel from a line near the tank selector valve). There is/was plenty that needed attention, however. Immediately after I had the wrecker shove the truck into my garage, the jack and stands came out. The LF hub bearing was seized, several u-joints were bad, everything underneath was a spider haven, and I hadn't even started pulling things apart.

I decided that I would start with the obvious, and go from there. Every fluid was drained, and most of the old stuff looked pretty good. The front axle had at least a quart of water in with the fluid, but once I had the cover completely removed I found the the gear oil had coated the diff gears and bearings so well that there was no rust internally. I proceeded to tear down both hubs to see how bad they were, and the LF was rusted solid. after a few good blows with a BFRM I was able to separate the bearings from the spindle, and then remove the hub and rotor. The spindle was rusted enough to require replacement, so I sourced a good used one from the nearby yard. Upon removal of the old spindle, it was clear that the axle u-joint was also seized. The hub was deemed usable, and the lockouts just needed a good cleaning and regreasing. The RF hub was nearly dry, but spun freely, and dis-assembly revealed that everything was still serviceable, so no new parts on that side. I mic'd the rotors and although rusty, they must have been replaced shortly before the truck was parked, as there was no measurable wear on them.   

I then pulled both axles out of the rear, and found quite a bit of junk in the tubes. I decided that I would get my shop vac and suck all of it out with a section of 3/4" heater hose, and that worked pretty well. It turns out that most, if not all, of the junk was large flakes of surface rust that were probably shook loose from the inside of the tubes when we pulled the truck out of the backyard it was in. Everything vacuumed out really easily, and the rust basically disintegrated going through the vacuum, ending up as a fine powder.

I made my list of items to replace, and headed to the parts store. When I came back, I had new front bearings and races for the LF hub, pads, wheel seals, rear drums, shoes, all hardware, wheel seals, u-joints for the rear drive shaft and LF axle, 5 quarts of gear oil, tranny fluid and filter, engine oil and filter, 10w-30 for the NP203, spool of 3/8' fuel line, a couple spools of vacuum line, fuel filter, air filter, new battery, belts, hoses, t-stat, coolant, rad cap, gas caps, and probably something else that I can't remember.

To keep this novel shorter, I got most of that done, and had dropped both tanks the clean out the old gas and fix the leaky line near the selector valve. I did decide to add some inline filters before the valve because the "socks" on the end of the pick up tubes were wasted, and I don't need something gumming up the selector valve.

While the tanks were out, I ordered and installed some poly body mount bushings and a 1" body lift from ORD. The old body mount bushings were so far gone that I was able to pull chunks of them out by hand near the back of the cab. I also picked up the ORD frame brace for the steering box, as larger tires and off road driving are in this truck's future.

Once the tanks were back in, and I was confident that the truck would run and stop like it should, I pulled it out to see how everything did. The T-case is a sloppy mess between drive and reverse, but otherwise it ran like a boss. Further investigation into the T-case has me a bit perplexed. It seems like all I have is hi-lock or low-lock. No matter what I do with the range selector, the front drive shaft always turns, and the truck moves with the hubs unlocked and even does 80' one-wheel-wonder burnouts if I let it. The reason that I am perplexed is because if the t-case has a part-time kit, the front driveshaft shouldn't turn unless it gets locked in, and if it doesn't have a part-time kit, then the truck shouldn't move with the hubs unlocked...

But that is a project for another day. I am currently working on getting the interior the way I like it, and upgrading all of the exterior lighting to modern day performance. I decided that I would pull all of the carpet, and herculiner the floor of the truck. I also am going to shape and bent some aluminum diamond plate for the foot wells and lower portion of the interior door, which will be riveted into place. I found a pretty decent dash pad in the junk yard and covered it with some RealTree Advantage camouflage fabric from the crafts store. I intend, once money allows, to order a full set of Autometer gauges to replace the entire factory set, which will be mounted in a handmade bezel. As for the exterior lighting, I got some H4 conversion housings to replace the sealed beams, and decided that I would build mounting plates to utilize grommet mount LED lights most commonly used in tractor trailer applications.

I have scored fairly well at my local junk yards, and found some 15X10 steel wheels, a SOLID rear bumper, both front and back glass (mine were cracked), an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold, some factory speaker bezels from a 1986 to mount 4x10's behind the seat, metal window "ventvisors", good condition door panels, another carb for rebuilding, and some other misc. pieces.

Future plans include converting to electric cooling fans, a small suspension lift, upgrading to a 14-bolt full floating rear and hopefully a Dana 60 front, the t-case is going to be swapped for a NP205 (or a doubler if I can afford it), 35's or 37's, and I will either paint or dip the truck in OD green.

[zieg85]

Welcome from NW Indiana, sounds like a good plan and a solid start

[Irish_Alley]

welcome from maryland

[bake74]

     Welcome from California.  Love to see the progress with as many pics as possible, we all like pics.

[1982 Daily Driver]

Welcome from South Carolina


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[JustinV]

     Welcome from California.  Love to see the progress with as many pics as possible, we all like pics.

I am working on this. I realized that I never thought about documenting my work until the truck was mostly ripped apart, so before pics aren't going to happen.

I also forgot to mention that I gave the truck a brand new MSD billet distributor and new plugs and wires. I have a new heater core and blower motor waiting to go in. Also the truck was already equipped with full length headers and dual exhaust when I acquired it.

I hail from the Denver Metro area, Colorado.

[dvdswan]

welcome from the PNW!  quite an intro and plan you have there.

[JustinV]

Well, a few updates...

Was in the process of trying to set timing after installing my Edelbrock intake, and it turns out that factory intake bolts are too long to work with the aluminum intake. The outside intake bolt holes on each head are blind, and the factory bolts bottomed out before torquing down. I, of course, didn't realize that this was happening until I started seeing coolant seep from the crossover passages. I hate doing things "the wrong way", so even though I probably could have just re-installed those bolts with a washer to make up the difference, I ripped it all back out. After acquiring some ARP intake bolts (which just happen to be about 1/8th of an inch shorter than the factory ones), new gaskets, a carb spacer, and rebuilding the other carb that I had, I have started re-assembly. I am far less interested in appearances than I am in functionality, but my friend convinced me to remove and clean  and paint the valve covers, which turned out to be a good thing because the #5 exhaust valve/rocker was way loose.

I also went ahead and bought some 35 x 12.50 BFG All Terrains to shoe horn into my factory suspension truck. Since both front wheel arches are rusted, and fenders are replaceable later, I am going to give them a thorough sawzall treatment.

I also have to pull the entire front axle back apart, due to a passenger side axle seal leaking.

Learning as I go seems to be the name of this game.

I've also decided to name my truck "The Price Is Right" due to it basically being free, and the fact that I have found so many good parts at the junkyard for a fraction of retail.

Electric fans are shortly going in as well, after finding a 2003 Monte Carlo set (dual 14") and ordering a Derale fan controller. The fans are mounted in a shroud that is the same width as the factory radiator, and only a couple inches shorter. Total cost, minus what I will need to spend to build some mounting brackets, is $103 for that. $46.75 for the controller from Summit Racing, and $55 and change for the fans at the junkyard.

[JustinV]

A lot has been done this past weekend. Replaced the heater core, re-assembled the engine and fired it, built brackets for my electric fan setup, installed an external tranny cooler, and actually backed it out of the garage to clean...

I intend on getting some pictures soon, seeing as how it moves again.

I need to check into the amperage requirement of my fans, The controller I purchased states a maximum continuous current of 25 amps, Which may not be high enough to run both fans together. Should that be the case, I will simply use the controller to activate separate individual relays for each fan, instead of actually activating the fans themselves. It would make the setup have a total of three relays and be slightly more difficult to wire, but I already have the other relays and don't feel like buying an additional controller.

I am getting to the parts of the truck that usually help set my vehicles apart from others, which I enjoy. Little things like routing vacuum lines together and trimming them to exact lengths so they can be zip-tied in bundles and not looking like a spaghetti bowl under the hood.

[JustinV]

Need to figure out how to shrink some file sizes for my pics.

Beyond that, I cut and installed the aluminum diamond plate for the interior lower door panel and foot wells. 

[JustinV]

First try:

[dvdswan]

looks like a nice starting platform.

[JustinV]

Here's a few more:

[FlatBlack77]

im lovin it so far dude

is it drivable with the 35s and no lift? lol

[JustinV]

Well technically there is a lift... a whole inch via the ORD aluminum body lift. The tires would definitely rub as it sat in these pictures. I actually chopped the front fenders tonight, although I haven't taken any pics yet. Here is a pic pre-trim of the fenders.