Hi guys, I'm new to this forum and thought it was time to start a build thread and hopefully share some knowledge. A few years ago I sold a 1979 K5 that I spent a lot of time building. I built it from the ground up, 3/4 ton axles, 7 inches of lift, CanBak soft top, custom bumpers, cage, 1973 front end, etc.
Marriage came, truck went
, and now that I've sold my '65 Impala, I purchased the truck that I've wanted for a long time. I bought the truck on ebay from South Dakota, was planning on driving it down to South Texas, but found that shipping it would be cost effective.
My plans are to build a reliable, dependable, daily-driver work truck. I want to focus on the drivetrain for now and keep it really simple. One of the things I've learned if you spend too much time on your vehicles, something else has to give (namely, family time), so I'm going to keep this on a budget of time and money. It will be staying in the driveway, so I do not want a fancy paint job or anything that may attract thieves.
This was an old farm truck that spent most of its life on a farm hauling pigs. It is has a 350 GM target motor/350th/NP 205, dana 44/14 bolt drivetrain. I'm going to focus on keeping it original for the time being and just clean things up and freshen up whatever I can. I have never seen an engine this dirty. The farm dirt mixed really well with the leaky gaskets to create a very tough, baked-on clay coating. This junk was EVERYWHERE.
After going through it with a borrowed 2500+ psi pressure washer, I still had a lot of scraping to do. I was originally going to re-wire the entire truck, but found that the harnesses were in decent shape, so I will only clean them up and repair the necessary areas. I am going to replace all parts that require maintenance and take it from there. Here are a few pics to get started beginning with my old Blazer...