Project USMC K20 4x4

[Dieselwrencher]

This is my youngest brother's truck. We started to restore it about 2.5yrs ago. He ran out of money a long time ago and was too busy with school/sports. He always worked but being his age wages are low. He decided to enlist into the marines back in January of 08. We wanted to get it done before May so he could drive it before he left for boot camp. Well that didn't happen. He went off to boot camp and I had a brain fart. He really wanted a diesel truck. He has always driven all of our families' diesels and I knew he wanted one bad. So I gathered some parts and pieces and made the plunge. I removed his BBC and dropped in a 1998 5.9 12v cummins. I used an adaptor plate and used a ZF 5 speed diesel transmission. It will have a divorced NP205 transfer case and the D44HD in the front will stay under it. I got the truck to the body shop, we had it real close, and my old boss pushed it outside where it still sits today. This summer was too busy and I haven't had the time to get back to it. This truck is going to get finished one way or another for when Scott, my brother, returns home from his first tour in the middle east in April. Here are some pics of the build in the begining to what it is now.

The truck started out as a 1984 K20 350 4 speed with no options. It had a 10 bolt and 14bsf rear end. It was rusted out horrendously. I don't have any pictures of before, so it'll start out with the donor cab.

[Dieselwrencher]

If anyone wants some more rust repair pics, I have a few from this cab. It recieved new inner and outer rockers, front cab supports, rh and lh kick panels, inner and outer cab corners, the high hump floor section, the rh a pillar outside from the original cab, and new doors. Man it was a lot of work.

[Dieselwrencher]

Here is the frame after several cleaning processes. This truck was covered with oil and grease from front to back. I don't know how it rusted so bad with all that oil on it.




You can see the old cab upside down in the backround of this pic. It was really bad.

Next up was to get the fuel tanks prepped and painted.

Next it was time for the powertrain. Since the only reason this truck was torn apart is because Scott blew up the perfectly good 350 goodwrench engine, he bought my 427 tall deck and we put it back in the frame.



Now it has a D44HD up front, a 14BFF in the rear, both axles have 4.10 gears, it has a 6" Rough country lift, 36" tires with new aluminum wheels. The 4speed and NP208 are the only pieces original to the drive train.

[Dieselwrencher]

Next thing we took the cab to my friend's dad's paint booth while they were at a Meekum auction in KC. We primered it and painted the firewall. I never knew why my brother chose this color until later on. It did look good on it though.




At 6am Monday morning Scott and I had to go get the cab and take it back down to my shop. Boy that sure sucked. It was about 10* out and only 2 of us to load/unload this cab.

[Dieselwrencher]

My same friend owed me many fenders so I had him do the body work on the doors and fenders. We got them bolted on and my brother worked on hooking things back up and trying to find all the missing parts due to be taken apart for so long.


I had him sand blast the radiator support and when he left I left him a present on the front of his truck. He didn't think it was funny at all!

He then bought a cowl induction hood and a used visor.


Nothing major was able to get done before he left for boot camp. Here is him beside it before he left.

[Dieselwrencher]

Well now Scott was off to boot camp and bored as all get out. So to keep him motivated I kept working on his truck and sending him pictures. But, I decided to swap it over to a diesel and not tell him. I took the doors and fenders back to the paint booth and had then primered and edged. I also removed the BBC, 4 speed and NP208. I installed the 5.9 and a ford ZF5 speed trans. This was a whole other can of worms. I couldn't the engine to sit the way I wanted it to so I had to use a 3" body lift to get it to fit because of the heighth of the ford bell housing.



Here is the new crossmember I built to accomodate the cummins front sump style oil pan.

[Big-Blue]

Wow! What a great brother!

Keep up the great work and give my thanks to your brother.

I like the color too. What kind of hp and torque will that thing be putting out?

[Dieselwrencher]

Thanks and I will tell him too. For now I think it will be around 300-400hp. He isn't really too worried about this truck now because when he got his sign on bonus, he bought my white 92 F-350. So he just thinks about it now. I'll have to finish this truck on my dime and I'm not sure how much money I'll be dumping in the engine. The poor truck still needs glass and weatherstripping and I'm sure a lot more as I get to that point.

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Wow damn that's truly awesome man what a brother! Hope it all works out and goes together easy for you man. Can't wait to see more pics and when your bro comes back home. God Bless and thanks for his service to our country!

[Dieselwrencher]

I have more pics of it up until it went to the body shop. I'll try to add them sometime this weekend.

[Yukon Jack]

That is just too cool of you to do this for him - I bet he will freak out when he sees the diesel!

[1985-GMC]

Wow nice truck, I like how you put the whole build on here in one day I need to do that to pretty soon too. I wish someone would put a cummins in my truck for free. Is the torque going to be an issue, most people box the front half of the frame when they do this swap?

[Dieselwrencher]

No the torque won't be an issue. You'd have to be in the 400hp level or higher and plan on pulling a sled before it would be an issue on these 3/4 ton frames. As for free, it isn't exactly free. I kept his 432BBC and trans and tcase. Besides, he'll pay me back some day.

[Dieselwrencher]

Engine before Mathew painted it.

ZF 5 speed

Dropping engine back in.

Radiator support painted and put on.

Figuring out hoses to connect to the 4 core aluminum radiator.

[Dieselwrencher]

Hood on hinges again.

Mathew, my Dad, and I bleeding the brakes.

Dodge Intercooler installed in Chevy Rad support

It's first day seeing day light in a long, long time!


On it's way to the body shop.

[Dieselwrencher]

Dad sanding the roof


Getting ready to install wheel well patchs

Rusty area cut out.

Cleaned, prepped, ready to put new patch panel in.

Patch welded in.

[Dieselwrencher]

Starting to do LH side.

[Dieselwrencher]

I'll have to find more pictures of it. The box needs blocked a few more times, the cab and front clip needs blocked another time and it should be ready for paint. I have a phantom billet grill for it, blue carpet, a blue heartbeat of america seat for it, and a bunch other parts to get this thing road worthy. It just really needs paint so I can go forward with it.

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Wow looking good bud keep up the good work. Still following this thread can't wait to see more pics as it progresses

[71blksuper4x4]

Looking real good bud, digging the motor conversion. That blue ought to pop!

[Dieselwrencher]

Thanks guys! I have been working on my old boss's truck lately and trying to push him into getting this truck back inside before the poor truck is a pile of rust. I think I am going to remove the ford ZF 5 speed trans now as well. I have a NV4500 2wd I'm planning on switching to a 4wd trans. I will then use a NP205 from a dodge that I was going to use in my Longhorn truck. Then I can remove the body lift from the truck. I think that will look much better in the end.

Trevor, I agree about the blue too! It will also have a red stripe on the side. I'm not sure if it will be pin striped or a painted on bigger stripe. I know now that he chose these colors before he went into the Marines because he was proud of his descion. Shortly after getting out of boot camp I noticed his attitude was different. So I asked him what the deal was. He told me that everywhere you go off base, most everyone give them dirty looks, say some bs, or just general crappy gestures towards them. He told me he tries not to look like a Marine as much as he can when he is off base because he gets treated normal. I told him that was BS and he should hold his head high and ignore them. If they can't appreciate his service then they needed to get out of our country! So I would like to do something with the Corps emblem somewhere on the truck that way he can keep up the proud mentality like he should be able to anyway.

[oats84]

Hell yeah brother nice lookin build and you keep reminding your bro that there are more people that back him then he is seeing .

[Dieselwrencher]

Thanks! I will as well.

[tim23mn]

Any updates?

[zythen]

This is pretty awesome. He's totally right about the way people look at you though and believe me, its not easy to not look like a Marine. What's his MOS? The Marine Corps has so many slogans/phrases that you could put on there, your options are very open.