C20 to K20 Conversion "Simply Toxic"

[JustToxic]

So, at this point, we got the dog house off the front. I forgot to snap a few pictures. The front lower part of both fenders is rusted and needs fix. the grille and head light bezels are in really good shape. The core support has minor rust on the passenger side lower area. (under the battery) So i'll have to fix that stuff. And here is the rest of the rust I found.

[JustToxic]

And some more.

[JustToxic]

I picked up some seats out of a 2009 2500HD, and a center console out of a 2002 2500HD. The seats sit too high in the '67 so I had to cut it down a bit. The total height from the floor to the bottom of the seat is roughly 6 1/2" and at that height I was looking through the top of the windshield, not to mention almost hitting my head on the roof. I took the seats apart and modified the frame and took 3 1/4" out of the height, now they sit perfect.

[JustToxic]

For this step, I had my brother in law come over to help (he's 17). I showed him a few things and let him weld one of the seat frames up. Didn't do too bad at all.

[JustToxic]

Got my engine out of the last demolition derby truck I had it in. It's a balanced, blueprinted, 383 Stroker. High compression engine able to turn up to 8500 rpms. To put it in this project I'm going to convert it over to E85 so I don't have to buy racing gas. Since I haven't had it out of anything long enough to take a look at it, I decided to take some of the tin off to do a quick inspection. Found a slight problem that I already knew was there. Found oil and water mixing in one of the cylinders. Good thing is though, its only in the one cylinder.

[JustToxic]

Well anyone that has messed with a 4x4 in this year range knows that the frames twist pretty easy and just aren't as strong as they need to be. Since I plan on using this truck for just about anything I decided to convert it over to a newer chassis. I picked up a 2005 2500HD frame and corporate 14 bolt for cheap at the local yard. Now, I was going to leave the truck IFS and just lift it. But do to how the frame is set up I decided to go a different route. I also picked up a SM465 mated to a NP205 from a good friend to put in this beast. And while I was at a yard with a buddy I came across a deal on a Dana 44 out of a '77 K20 I couldn't pass up.

[JustToxic]

And now this brings us up to date with where I am at now. Last weekend I decided to cut the frame down to the correct wheel base. I bought a crew cab short bed frame, mainly for the deal I got on it but also because it was pretty clean. And by clean I mean less then 75K miles on the frame. If anyone has done the frame swap before, you have realized that the frame where the cab sits is considerably lower than where the bed mounts. To be exact 11 1/2", now the '67 frame is only a 3 3/4". I've seen the other post on here about having massive frame gaps and moving bed floors up to make up a difference. I decided to skin the cat a different way. My daily is a 2002 2500HD, I hate how much of the frame you can see under the cab. So my father in law and I decided to cut the frame down in the hump. Now I know what your thinking, That's the hardest way to cut down the frame. Your right, but I want this truck to look from the outside like its sitting on a stock frame.

After hours of measuring and double checking and triple checking our measurements and cut locations we decided to cut into the frame. We needed to cut it down 25" on the dote to have the wheel base be correct. With cutting the frame like we did it brought the front frame section up an extra 7". Now when the frame is sitting level the front of the frame is way higher then it used to be. So it left me with a few options for the front suspension. A. Get a 7" IFS lift kit. B. Do a Straight axle swap. I bet you already guessed it. I'm going to be doing a Straight axle swap. A parallel 4 link, with coil-over shock set up. I'll be using the Dana 44 for now that I mentioned in the last post.