Great White: A Chevy K10 Build

Ouiwee

Observer
This is an ongoing tale of determination. I like the old 'square body' Chevy trucks.

I'll keep this short on the blather and long on the pictures. I have lurked here for some time.

Background:

Raised in the holler, had to get out. I liked the holler. Went to school forever, didn't have much (excepting tuition bills). Landed a job in the middle of the recession before last, thank goodness. Worked for 15 years, saving, traveling, consulting, making $$ for the overlord.

I hope to get back to the holler, by the way.

The first wife located the truck. It had only 36k original miles; was garage kept; undercoated on the frame; and had repro panels slapped on prior to sale...to me.

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This guy was entirely stock, save a 2" lift kit--really, it WAS.

PS: What is up with the deletion of carriage return characters on this site?
 

Ouiwee

Observer
Where to start? Well, I guess it makes sense to get to the good stuff.

But, what is the point of this build? I like these trucks (and had one in my day) and thought it made sense to keep the best of the last 30 years and that means old fashion heavy duty as well as some modern technology.

So, like everyone else I looked around for some solid driveline parts. I didn't want to score a great deal on an axle to later find that it had been in a wreck and was not true. So, I looked until I found new ones in a warehouse in Utah...


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Yes, CUCV and never used. I nonetheless rebuilt them and put quite a few parts in the front axle, including these:

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I put pretty much everything in there, chromoly 35 spline drive shafts, bronze kingpin bushings, Yukon universal joints / lock out hubs, and so forth. The 14 bolt I kept mostly stock...I guess it didn't seem to me likely that I would break it.

More to come and this will be a quick one. I have 2.5 years of work behind me and will document the build here in the next few weeks.

A teaser:

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chilliwak

Expedition Leader
Welcome to the site Quiwee and thanks for posting pics of your fine :Wow1:rig. There are many helpfull people here to help you with any questions like our resedent GM guru Larry who is a GM tech. Like yourself I drive an old Chevy square body and I like the way you are going with your build. I look forward to following your progress. Cheers, Chilli..:)
 

Ouiwee

Observer
Welcome to the site Quiwee and thanks for posting pics of your fine :Wow1:rig. There are many helpfull people here to help you with any questions like our resedent GM guru Larry who is a GM tech. Like yourself I drive an old Chevy square body and I like the way you are going with your build. I look forward to following your progress. Cheers, Chilli..:)

Thanks Chilli. I have had a look at your build thread. I had a 79 Scottsdale back in the day.
 

Ouiwee

Observer
As a type of timestamp, I got one of these part way through the start of the build.

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A new Mountain Cur and she is a terror, it turned out.

Where to start. The plan was to do a Dana 60 with a coilover front suspension. I really like the ORD kit, so ordered the parts from them and the quality is just great.

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I have a small TIG welding machine but it worked great on all the welding that needed done.

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The overall plan was ram assisted crossover steering. I used the PSC kit and everything was easy to pull together.
 

Ouiwee

Observer
I did my best to clean everything up for a durable paint job. I used epoxy primer and a single stage urethane.

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I really like the ARB diff cover--it has a dipstick in the front and is easy to check for foam when crossing water (in case the seals have leaked).

I put a truss on the 14 bolt for good measure and an attachment point for top links, eventually. I also did a disk brake conversion with dually studs. The yoke was changed to a 1410 u-joint.

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Rather than a shackle flip or blocks, I ordered springs with a 4" lift.

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I plumbed the brakes with all new stainless lines front and rear.
 

Ouiwee

Observer
I'll start with the front coilover suspension. A tricky part of the design was keeping the AC. I had to snake around the filter/dryer plumbing. All the tube work was done with 83 wall chromoly.
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I adapted the aluminum line by cutting and welding it back together (it is nice to have a TIG machine).

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Ouiwee

Observer
More pictures of the front suspension...no idea why they get rotated.
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Hydraulic bump stops and limit straps.

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Lots of welding.

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Ouiwee

Observer
I moved the rear attachment points for the links back as far as I could, which made for an issue with the bends ORD sends with the kit. The link hit the frame due to the bend being too far rearward. This picture shows the location of the mount for the panhard bar as well.

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The cab mount also was in the way.

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I had ORD bend me a couple new ones with the kink all the way out to the end of the link. You can see the new cab mount I fabricated laying on the ground.

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High clearance cab mount.

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Ouiwee

Observer
The new link clears the frame just fine.

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From the side:

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This thing flexes like mad, 14 inches in total travel.

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Ouiwee

Observer
It is odd to look at the side of one of these trucks and see a coil spring hiding in there.

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I liked the idea of the Atlas II transfer cast because it is light, strong, twin stick, and I can get 4:1 gear reduction. I built a custom cross member.

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I installed the brake kit as well, which required some fabrication.

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I have a metal lathe and vertical milling machine, so in many cases I can just make the parts I need.
 

Ouiwee

Observer
The truck was originally equipped with a 305 with a 700R4 transmission. When I got it, it had a 383 stroker complete with the engine dyno sheet and put down almost 400 lb/ft or torque and about the same horsepower. With the stock driveline, the truck was nice to drive. However, the plan was to swap in an NV4500. So, I first had to source one of these dudes.

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They are getting hard to find. There are virtually no square body trucks left in the bone yards here in PA. I found this one online and paid too much for it. However, it was in great shape and was precisely what I needed. I did take some time to turn bronze bushings on the lathe to replace the plastic ones, which were causing some side-to-side slop in the pedals.

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All the while, it grows.

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Ouiwee

Observer
I bought a new NV4500 with some upgrades, including a Dodge cast iron tail housing.

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I took the easy way and bought the Advanced Adapters bell housing kit.

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I painted it with epoxy primer and single stage urethane.
 

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