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#1 |
Registered User
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Willow, Alaska
Posts: 860
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1980 Chevy K20 Longbed - “Alaskan Gold”
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. |
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