Original 1974 K20 project

[TheChev]

Forum threads usually spur me on to do more work, so here's one for my K20!
I'm 20 now, and since senior year in high school I had wanted a 4x4 truck really bad. I could never afford one, even the cheap $1000 or less beaters. Last year my best friend called me up and asked if I wanted to buy his dads Chevy. I had a part time job and I knew I didn't have the money for a truck, but went and looked at it after they had pulled it out. I hadn't paid much attention to the truck before because he had told me his dad would never sell it since it was his grandfathers truck (he was the 2nd owner in the mid-late 70s I believe). His dad wanted to clean up the property a bit and they knew I wanted a 4x4, agreed on $700, $600 for the truck and $100 for the aluminum wheels my friend had. It fired up without having to do anything to it other than swap out the battery. It had sat since '08 iirc. Did some tinkering on it there at their house until I had paid for most of it, then I got to bring it home.


Still pretty nice and original inside. I'd like to replace the dash pad, redye the door panels, find a matching brown cloth bench seat that's hinged instead of fixed, and probably put carpet and full kick panels in it.


Original paint looked toast. You can see where work had been done above the wheel wells and paint was blended in.


First wash


Took alot of the chalky look away


Got hooked on CUCV's and decided I'd paint the truck camo and make it look like one, drove 300mi to buy bumpers and a tailgate off one a guy parted out.


Original tailgate wouldn't stay latched


Mocked up the bumper


Adapting the newer bumper brackets to the frame


Finished product. I ended up taking it off and putting the stock one back on. Changed my mind and decided to keep the truck like it was, but I will use the heavier duty rear bumper to replace the bent stock one. Just have to remove the bed and cut the welds someone put around the factory frame mounts.

[TheChev]

Don't have many of the pictures I took in between mounting the bumper and getting it registered. Don't think I did much anyway other than a fuel pump, filter, and lines up front.

Changed out the short whip for my 101" metal one lol


First day I got to drive it legally since the test drive


First time up in the mountains since who knows how long. Took it up a 4x4 road that had some shallow tank traps and mud, never slipped. Full time 4wd is pretty neat. Going to try and find the part time shaft kit for the 203 and someday put lockers in the diffs.


Another trip, drove it through a quad trail and it never slipped, just crawled through everything!



Then I decided to buy the all terrains from my friend. $800, payments whenever, only about 500 miles on the tires. Wet sanded and polished the ford wheels and bought center caps and appropriate lug nuts. Don't have the pictures separately on my photobucket. Now I had about $1800 into the truck.


Also had buffed out the paint at work





One night going up to a bonfire the valve train started rattling really bad and I had no oil pressure or oil on the stick. Next morning I found that I only had about a quart and a half in it... I knew the rings were bad but didn't know how fast it burned oil. Valve train still rattles at certain rpms.
Was going to mount 2 light bars behind the grille, but I couldn't make drop down brackets so I put them on the grille using big washers on the back.


Big improvement

[TheChev]

Looks pretty cool. Still want to mount them behind the grille to keep the stock look outside though.


Had lots of bonfire adventures and backroad cruises with it. Last camping trip I took with it I went down across the oregon/california border to an old cabin. Coming back the next day took some back roads. Had to use Low going down a long hill because my brake pedal would go right to the floor but I could still stop (turns out the master was leaking into booster). Next day after that I was going to take some stuff to work, but reverse was really weak, made a couple noises, then a pop and no more reverse. Let the truck sit for a month or two, replaced the fluid and filter, pan had alot of clutch material and metal shavings in it. Didn't change anything, but I got the truck out, turned around in the driveway, and drove it for one last day. Trans starting making a rattling clanking noise and I couldn't go over 45. Parked it at home and let it sit again.


When I pulled it out for it's last drive


Found A/C in my dads stash lol


Not being washed for months, still looks clean lol

[TheChev]

Another friend of mine had a th350 with a shift kit in it, told me $200, couldn't turn it down!
New filter, gasket, fluid, and new tcase oil. Easy to get everything out, easy to put the trans back in, real paint to get the tcase back up. Had to use 2 jacks, 3 ratchet straps, a bunch of wood blocks, and I had to kick it into place lol



Had to leave the cross member in due to the exhaust and upper brackets


Greasy pig!



First attempt


2nd attempt with 2 jacks and 3 straps


Got it all in and all the small details buttoned up, fluid filled, ran, topped off. Moved under it's own power in reverse! Pretty happy moment


Oh yeah, doing it in gravel wasn't the best either lol


Back at work making all the other trucks look bland!



Little driveway flexing


Old picture of when I painted the wheels white. Looked pretty good with the 31s

[LTZ C20]

Looks good so far. Cleaning the paint did alot for it. I have another tailgate for my truck too, only reason I haven't switched is because it's green and my truck is white. Different colors drive me nuts. The wheels look good too. Don't block the grill too much, you don't won't to drop your cooling ability by blocking air flow.

[TheChev]

Thanks! Thought I'd rattle can the tailgate for now but I can't find anything that matches the mustard color very well. Hasn't overheated yet, can't tell if theres been a temp change at all either since my gauge is broken lol

[74k20]

Looks good, tho I'm a tad biased towards '74 K20's   Greetings from a NW Oregonian. Would you want to get rid of your old wheels, as I'm thinking about going back to original?  But I won't install my original split rims, so looking for stock Chevy wheels (prefer not the Ford/Dodge flavor).

[TheChev]

Cool! Where in Oregon? I'm hanging on to the original wheels, need to find one more and I'll buy a nice set of period looking  tires for them.

[74k20]

I'm west of Portland in Columbia County.  I don't blame you for keeping the stockers. Stockers come on CL all the time, but I'm in NO hurry as it's only any idea.

[TheChev]

Here's some more pictures


Got a new master cylinder


Going to clean up the engine bay, wax the firewall, repaint the radiator support and fender wells, repaint the booster and new master cylinder (not in this pic), clean clean clean lol


Chevy and the Beast




Bezels look much better black than faded grey



Since my engine has ring and valve train issues, I've been looking for another good 350. Another good friend of mines dad had one in his shop that came out of his '79. About 150k miles, ran good, 4 bolt main, taken out for a Cadillac 500. Got it for $150 with long tubes, fairly new starter and alternator, a second alternator, ps pump, fan shroud, new header bolts, and air cleaner.
Going to clean all the grease off, regasket it except for head gaskets, new freeze plugs, new oil pump, new intake, repaint it, new cap/rotor/plugs/wires, already rebuilt the carb, and drop it in after I get the engine bay cleaned up. Should last until I can do a full rebuild on the trucks original engine.



And the last of the recent pictures, got some snow which the truck did well driving though



I like the new rams, but I like the basic-ness of the chevy lol

[TheChev]

I'm west of Portland in Columbia County.  I don't blame you for keeping the stockers. Stockers come on CL all the time, but I'm in NO hurry as it's only any idea.

Nice! I've seen some on my local cl too, shoulda snatched them up but my last position wasn't giving me too good of paychecks.

[74k20]

Something to think about.  I did the part time kit in my 203tc, and now kind of wish I would have left it alone and original.  It was a bit of a PAIN to install, especially if you have the original 203 with the CAST IRON nose cone on 73's and early '74 models.  They require a special ring that is NOT easy to find.  My 74 is not really a total daily driver, so the AWD benefit kind of out ways the little fuel savings.  YES the steering did get a bit easier, but now wish I stayed retro and un-modified.  Re-installing allllll those little components that the part time kit replaced, would NOT be fun either.  I've got a spare stock (aluminum nose cone) k10 203 that I might put in someday if I get REAL motivated.  YES that TC is 1 HEAVY MAJOR awkward project.  I fab'd up crude cradle and tack welded it to my floor jack to help stabilize.  Still a PIA project.

[blazer74]

Something about a 74 IDK.

Nice project.

I left the 203 alone and just put locking hubs in place of the drive flanges.

[TheChev]

I still would like to make the transfer case part time, even if I buy another one and make it part time. I'd just like to have 2wd and not have to go out and unlock hubs when I need 4wd.

Have a few more older pictures I uploaded


Did front pads. Have all new rear brake stuff for the rear, need bearings then I'll tackle that project




Then yesterday I had enough of the edlebrock junk. Had to have the choke at this spot all the time for it to even run decent.


Pulled the carb off, swapped everything for the quadrajet to be put on. Greasy engine..


Got it all buttoned up, fired right up and idled smoother than it ever had before! 500rpm and didn't shake at all! Adjusted the idle to about 8-900, drops down to around 600 in gear. Manual choke works perfect and still stays on high idle when I close it.


Put $20 in the tank that brought it up to half. That half a tank lasted for over 120 miles, a major increase over the edlebrock that caused 5 mpg. Much happier and not sweating the gas gauge drop anymore! Truck has better throttle response and feels alot lighter and easier to drive. Still feels sluggish when I give it some gas, need to relay the hei and check the timing. Don't know what else would keep it from accelerating easily unless somethings wrong in the tcase or gears, or my back brakes are dragging.
Took it to the bottom of a lake for a little photoshoot





I'd like to start switching lighting over to LED. Headlight's I'll probably just upgrade to a better halogen with the relay mod


Can't wait to take it up into the snow when it snows more again!

[cvbear]

Thanks for sharing the pictures and your story. It always motivates me to work on our truck when I see what other folks are doing.  Your truck looks great and I am glad to see that you are getting to use it.