Another Squarebody joined the herd! A friend of mine spotted this one for sale, parked in front of a neighbors house just a few streets over while he was out giving the dog a truck ride. I called the number on the sign and set up a time to take a look the next day. It turned out to be a 1980 Chevy K20, sporting a 400ci SBC, TH400 transmission, and an NP205 t-case. The local history on the truck was that it spent quite a bit of time in the far north of Alaska, used mainly as a “OVERSIZED” pilot truck for semi’s, by a family member of the owner. At one point, it carried a 100 gallon fuel tank in addition to the factory dual tanks! Once the truck was retired, the man I bought it from purchased the truck, and drove it since. He stated that both the engine and transmission have been rebuilt recently, and I can see that the radiator and front driveshaft are new as well.
The truck ran pretty well, but shook on the Highway during a test drive. The passenger side exhaust manifold was cracked, and it needed some general maintenance. Because of this, I was able to pick it up for $1700! I brought it over to the house, then did a look over and oil change before driving it out to the shop. I also changed out the 16.5” wheels with the 16” set that I took off the ‘86 GMC in another thread, I’m glad I did, as the 16.5” tires had one that had a bulge on the tread! I found a few small things, like bare wires by the starter, a few non-functional features, but after changing the oil, I drove her home!
Made it in at about 11 at night
I didn’t even get a chance to do any work on it, as the very next day I had an appointment to do a VIN inspection and title on my ‘57 Chevy. I borrowed a trailer wiring adapter off another Squarebody, hitches it up in the morning, and towed her in!
When I was driving home initially, I noticed that I had no low beam lights. I figured the floor switch was bad, so I picked up a new one.
Turns out that wasn’t actually the issue, both headlights were just bad, but I had planned on upgrading anyway, so I had this extra set of LED headlights handy that were leftover from another project!
Started by removing the old, water filled headlights and guards.
New lights installed!
Low beams
High beams
Next step, vacuumed and cleaned the interior
Found this impressive wiring connection on an auxiliary switch!
I took the gauges out and cleaned the gauge faces, lens, and replaced the burnt out bulbs, which most of them were. I removed the CB radio and all of the aftermarket wiring in the truck. The fuel gauge was on a separate switch from the tank switch, which turned out that it was simply a cut wire from the auxiliary tank that was never repaired when it was removed.
The PRNDL indicator was broken, so I did a quick fix with an electrical crimp, just to have it functional.
I also fixed the horns, and replaced a missing sub harness for the 4WD indicator light.