"Sweet Pea" 1975 Cheyenne 20

[ShortHaul]

As she sits currently

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

[ShortHaul]

Where it all began...
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Hello Squarebody Friends! I’ve officially joined your ranks with the purchase of Sweet Pea, our 1975 Chevrolet Cheyenne 20. She was born in Flint Michigan, sold on Sept 20 1975 by Brooks Biddle Chevrolet in Bothell, WA to a Mr. Posey of Port Orchard WA. She lived in Port Orchard until earlier this year where she made a quick pit stop in Tacoma. After making the purchase I drove her home to sunny northern CA by way of the coastal HWY 101. Took ownership with a scant 77,163 miles on her, and clicked over 78,000 as I hit the driveway at home.

She is mostly stock, minus the late model Chevy wheels (original 16.5”s included) , an unknown chevy steering wheel (original included) a hefty spray-in bedliner and a neat center console job put in by her long time owner. Wearing what is believed to be her original and only coat of 41 Spring Green with 12 White 2 Tone, she shines quite nicely in the sun! 350/400 and a 14 bolt are the running gear, not sure on the rear end ratio but she goes 70 on the highway without complaint. Acres of green interior, and beautiful dash and gauge cluster and a crisp am/fm radio (hooked up to janky house speakers behind the seat!) provide the creature comforts. Heater/defrost work like a charm, tilt wheel, wipers/lights etc all functioning properly. I was pumped to open up the glovebox and not only find the SPID intact, but the original owners manual, warrantee card and dealer maintenance sheets. This truck is definitely one that has been preserved.

My plans for her include:
-16”x8” steelies from wheel vintiques, powder coated white. Original hubcaps. All terrain tires, 265/75/16 or 285/75/16.
-LED lighting upgrades, tails, reverse, cargo, dome, gauge cluster.
-Speakers, want to keep the am/fm but perhaps add a Bluetooth receiver.
-Recover the seat.

Side shot
Sweet Pea 9 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Interior
Sweet Pea 18 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
SPID
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Dealer Info
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Under the hood
Sweat Pea 20 by awesome_adawson, on Flickr


So I found this truck on CL, and made a deal with the seller. I flew up to Seattle the next day and made the purchase. I took lots of fun pictures during my 3 day journey back home, and I’ll leave them here for you to check out.
5 minutes after I bought her, had to pull over to take a pic!
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
The first night I headed south to Portland, then west out to Tillamook where I got some much needed rest for the night. Next morning I was up and on the road early, headed south on 101.
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Didn’t make it far before I had to stop and take a few pics!
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Just outside Beaver, OR, I found this great little roadside antique/ automobilia shop, complete with cabin rentals, should you need a place to stay!
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Up the road a few I stopped, for some Firearms, Groceries… and Beaver?
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Made yet another pit stop in Cloverdale, OR, where I found this amazing lid. Couldn’t pass it up!
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Once properly attired, I hit the road again.
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Pulled off for a walk on the beach just south of Lincoln City
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Found this awesome folding camp chair/lounger combo at an antique shop. Had to have it! Screams 1975 for sure!
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Had lunch at a Pizza joint that had this KILLER bench! They woudn’t sell it to me.
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Spotted this outside a wrecking yard somewhere north of the Oregon Dunes
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Got hassled by some locals so I kept on pushing south
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Stopped to check the surf…
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr
Put up in Brookings for the night. Woke to heavy rain and pushed on through. It dumped like crazy from Brookings all the way home, but Sweet Pea had no trouble, being a PNW gal she’s no stranger to the wet weather.
Just outside of Legget, CA I had to stop at the great drive thru tree.
Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

After 3 days of travel, nearly 900 miles of driving, rainstorms, landslide closed sections of hwy 101, sketchy detours through the backroads of Western Oregon, about 15 different antique shops, and countless smiles, Sweet Pea and I arrived home… Thanks for following along folks, I’ll report back often on the status…

-Cheers

[ShortHaul]

List of upgrades, modifications since owned.

Purchase: 2/24/19

3/2/19-LED tail lights, reverse lights
3/7/19-LED Dome, Cargo, Courtesy and Dash lights
3/9/19 Radiator flush, new radiator cap, oil change (78K), replaced battery tray.
3/14/19- Sound deadener on floor, back wall, fresh carpet underlay
3/14/19- Stereo Install. Kicker 6x9's, 3.5's, Infinity Bluetooth Amp
3/29/19 New Carpet from ACC
4/17/19 Year Of Manufacture license plates installed
5/9/19 Wheels n Tires. 16x8 Wheel Vintiques, 265/75/R16 General Grabber ATX.
6/23/19 Bilstein Shock Absorbers
7/11/19 New fuel tank hoses, filler tubes and breathers
8/8/19 Custom shift knob
11/12/19 Oil Change, Re-Store engine restorer added. 81K miles
12/30/19 Original steering wheel installed
03/15/20 Seat recovered with oem fabric
06/14/20 Oil Change, Re-Store added. 84K miles
07/25/20 Spare tire mounted in bed
08/14/20 New spark plugs
11/02/20 New Starter, Ignition switch, neutral safety switch
1/1/2022 6.0L/4l80e swap begins
8/1/2022 6.0L/4l80e swap complete
3/10/23 LED headlight swap VintagecarLED VC3500
3/10/23 Underhood liner USA-1 Industries

Plans in the works:
Attempt to fix leak in rear window: Ongoing

[Getter-Done]

I have had a lot of square body trucks.
But none that nice
That's a Keeper.

[cornerstone]

Sweet Pea has clearly been loved on her whole life, and I'm sure you will continue the affection! Shes a real beauty!
Brian

[jocko]

Congrats on the new ride - that's a real nice one!

[jonmc56]

Wow, very nice find. Looks like fun. I will say that I like the late model Chevy wheels on her, but then again, I'm a heretic. I'm impressed with how well all the panels line up, amazing for a truck of that age. Looking forward to the ongoing story!

Jon

[MTCK]

Sweet truck. Good plan. Retro sound will fix you up on the tunes.

[Palf70Step]

Beautiful truck. Love the color scheme.

[rickit]

man that's nice! that takes me back my dad bought a blazer that color and a pickup truck the same color for my brother that year both new! I have to show them that picture for sure

[Eyegore]

Awesome truck love the original colors, very nice!!!!! Can't wait to see the new rims and caps.
Now you need to purchase a travel trailer to match, one of the older sixties ones they called canned hams, then you would have Sweet Peas & Canned Ham, what a combo that would make.

[fordguy40]

Nice find...what a clean truck!

[ShortHaul]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

I have had a lot of square body trucks.
But none that nice
That's a Keeper.

Thanks! Yeah I plan on hanging on to her for a while.

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Sweet Pea has clearly been loved on her whole life, and I'm sure you will continue the affection! Shes a real beauty!
Brian

Originally Posted by jocko

Congrats on the new ride - that's a real nice one!

Originally Posted by jonmc56

Wow, very nice find. Looks like fun. I will say that I like the late model Chevy wheels on her, but then again, I'm a heretic. I'm impressed with how well all the panels line up, amazing for a truck of that age. Looking forward to the ongoing story!

Jon

Thank you! yeah it looks fairly straight! I'm 50/50 on the late model wheels. When they're shined up they look super sharp, and they're in great condition, but there's something about the white steelies that I can't let go...

Originally Posted by MTCK

Sweet truck. Good plan. Retro sound will fix you up on the tunes.

Thank you! So I looked into retrosound, but I'm headed down a different path. Found a Bluetooth Amp I can hide under the seat, which will run the factory radio, and power 2 6x9's in the corner, and a pair of 3.5's in the dash spot, and also be able to play music and hands-free calling from the iphone.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Beautiful truck. Love the color scheme.

Thanks! yeah it is a great look.

Originally Posted by rickit

man that's nice! that takes me back my dad bought a blazer that color and a pickup truck the same color for my brother that year both new! I have to show them that picture for sure

Oh thats awesome! got any pics of the combo together?

Originally Posted by Eyegore

Awesome truck love the original colors, very nice!!!!! Can't wait to see the new rims and caps.
Now you need to purchase a travel trailer to match, one of the older sixties ones they called canned hams, then you would have Sweet Peas & Canned Ham, what a combo that would make.

HAHA! love that plan. Its definitely set up to tow, and a retro canned ham would be wayyyy cool! I've got the rims in the cart, just need to replenish the funds to buy em. Still on the fence about which style caps to run. I see a lot of squarebody trucks running the earlier style dog-dish caps and i really like them better, but i have a full set of the later pie plate style ready to go... decisions...

Originally Posted by fordguy40

Nice find...what a clean truck!

Thanks! Yeah she's a real beauty.

[Dads79GMC]

Very very very nice! Sweeeeeeeeet P!

[ShortHaul]

Things are getting serious! In the process of updating all my lights to LEDs. Got tails, backups, dome, cargo and courtesy lights. Easy bulb replacements.
Used Sylvania 1157 Red LED for tails,
Sylvania 1156 6000K for reverse
GVR 1142 warm white for cargo and dome
Yitamoto 1003 for courtesy
Yorkim T10 for dash and wiper switch. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and buy the non-polarity bulbs. That will eliminate the 50/50 chance you get with the regular bulbs upon installation.


Went to do the dash lights and it turns out its a little more tricky than I'd hoped. Had to pull the dash completely. Managed to get them all swapped out without disconnecting the speedo or oil pressure lines. Would have been easier just to do so from the beginning though. Kind of a PITA to get to all the sockets in and out.

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

[ShortHaul]

Results!

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Definitely a ton brighter! really impressed with the outcome. You do lose the dimmer function, but honestly I never really ran mine on the dimmed setting anyway. I think with the gauge bezel back on it tone down the light a tad bit. very pleased with the results. I still need 1 last bulb for the heater switch, which happened to be different than the rest of the dash bulbs. (1445 vs 168's in the dash)

[fordguy40]

Just painted the cluster housing with chrome paint and installed all new 168's and it's not that bright. LED's are definitely the way to go here....looks great.

[ShortHaul]

stripped the interior today, and got busy cleaning up the floorboards. Some light surface rust on the pans. I sanded that off and stripped the rust with Evap-o-rust. Then shot in factory 41 Spring green from Paintscratch.

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Got to work replacing the state of the art sound system that was installed in my truck...

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Bought a set of the cab corner speaker enclosures from BigBlock. Shot them in spring green and backed them with sound deadener. Kicker 6x9's.

by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Mounted

by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Got the carpet underlay placed. Unfortunately I didn't order enough...

by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Next up. Fabbing a mount for the Kicker 3.5" speakers in the dash.

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

And need to mount this... Infinity Kappa K4 Bluetooth Amp. This will allow me to keep the stock am/fm radio, but have access to all my tunes from my phone.

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Time to go wire stuff up!

[pitterpat]

Which Kicker 6 x9's and the 3 x 5's? I just got a surprise refund from mortgage co. so I'm buying new speakers. Already have the mounts from Big Block, painted them yesterday.

Originally Posted by ShortHaul

Got to work replacing the state of the art sound system that was installed in my truck...

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Bought a set of the cab corner speaker enclosures from BigBlock. Shot them in spring green and backed them with sound deadener. Kicker 6x9's.

by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Mounted

by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

Untitled by awesome_adawson, on Flickr

[BrowningGuy88]

This build is so awesome.

I have started again looking for a fairly unmolested square 3/4 or 1 ton just because of builds like this!
Posted via Mobile Device

[ShortHaul]

Originally Posted by BrowningGuy88

This build is so awesome.

I have started again looking for a fairly unmolested square 3/4 or 1 ton just because of builds like this!
Posted via Mobile Device

Thank you! Good luck, plenty of them out there...

[ShortHaul]

Originally Posted by pitterpat

Which Kicker 6 x9's and the 3 x 5's? I just got a surprise refund from mortgage co. so I'm buying new speakers. Already have the mounts from Big Block, painted them yesterday.

6x9's
Kicker 43CSC6934

3.5's
Kicker 44KSC3504

Kicker offers 4 different levels

QS, KS, CS, and DS which range from high to low in quality and price. I went with the CS for the 6x9s and a little higher quality KS for the 3.5's. They are little speakers and I didn't want to risk blowing them with amp.

Overall I'm happy with the sound. I think a sub would really complete the system, as it lacks much low end bass at all. But its crisp, clean and LOUD!

Those corner speaker brackets are cool! easy to mount too, just mark your holes and drill pilot holes first...

[pitterpat]

The CS speakers, do you find them loud or clear enough? Reason I ask, my C20 somebody installed dual exhaust, which is a little louder I think.

Bought the amp through eBay, should be here some time next week.

Originally Posted by ShortHaul

6x9's
Kicker 43CSC6934

3.5's
Kicker 44KSC3504

Kicker offers 4 different levels

QS, KS, CS, and DS which range from high to low in quality and price. I went with the CS for the 6x9s and a little higher quality KS for the 3.5's. They are little speakers and I didn't want to risk blowing them with amp.

Overall I'm happy with the sound. I think a sub would really complete the system, as it lacks much low end bass at all. But its crisp, clean and LOUD!

Those corner speaker brackets are cool! easy to mount too, just mark your holes and drill pilot holes first...

[MTCK]

Nice work so far. Those 6x9 brackets are sweet.

[ShortHaul]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Nice work so far. Those 6x9 brackets are sweet.

Thank you! Yeah they are awesome. Click here if interested. Not a bad price either...

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...345494&page=24