1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Hey Everyone,
Well, I figure its time to put my project up, I'll do my best to post lots of pictures of the progress. I got it from an older lady in my home town (Palmer, Alaska). It was her husband's truck that he bought back in 1982 with the camper pictured. Sadly her husband had passed away in an avalanche a few years prior to me inquiring about it. At that time she was not ready to sell, but kindly took my number down in case she changed her mind... Fast forward 3 years and she gave me a call saying she was ready to let it go. $1200 later and the Blue Ox was all mine, along with a meticulous record off all maintenance dating back to 1982! Anyway, I'm really excited about the project and have already started into it. Here is the picture of the first day I had it (last fall).

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Great find. Anxious to see what you do with it.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Here I'll turn you right side up lol

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Thanks Jeff! Hahaha I need a little lesson on posting pictures on here!

Updated Pic of truck and paperwork
 

Here's a picture of the truck this month with the camper off of it, picked up some new sheet metal for the rockers last weekend. Also, I got all the paperwork together that came with the truck. Even has the manual for the old cassette player they put in it back in the 80s!
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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Looks great! Let me know if you need anything for it, I can keep an eye out for you.

Valve Cover Studs
 

It's a little chilly out today, so I decided on an easy project. My valve covers are made of stamped steel and warp easily when I use the original hardware.... So I got myself some new spreaders and studs to help the problem. I went with rubber valve cover gaskets instead of the old cork style, any opinions on which are better? Its my first time with the rubber style on a 350.

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Thanks man! Always cool to see a fellow Alaskan on here.

New Parts
 

Went and pulled a grill, doors, and fender off a parts truck this weekend. $100 well spent I think. There was a little surface rust on the doors and fender. Decided to tackle the fender first, going to spray a little primer on it tonight. I also posted a picture of a hole in my bedside. I could see some cracked Bondo peeling up behind the rear tire so I chipped away at it to evaluate the damage level.... THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T COVER RUST WITH BONDO! :lol:
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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

More fender work today. Used some fishing line to cut through the adhesive behind the badges. A little work with a razor got it cleaned up the rest of the way. Sanded it down then shot a few coats of primer on her.

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Looks good!

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

I was kinda on a roll today, so while I was waiting for my fender to dry I decided to move onto another project. The old front speakers were toast, so I pulled the dash and wired in a new pair. I figured it was a good time to clean up under the dash as well (35 years worth of dust adds up haha). The new speakers went in really easy, now I can really enjoy my tunes when I drive the Ox around (70s Rock'n'Roll!). The bad news is that the new speakers are a bit taller than the stock ones....so now my dash doesn't fit back in. Working on a solution for that next!

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Thanks man, this "warm" 40 degree weather has me feeling motivated haha. Love your stepside by the way!

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Thanks! And yes, it's been a big help. I even saw it peak at 50* up at work today! As far as those speakers go, seems like they'd fit well if you mounted them direct, without the brackets.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Can you trim the mounting tabs and mount them under the stock speaker mount instead of on top?

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

I appreciate the input on the speakers guys! Since my dash was already cracked in the areas where the speakers go, I decided to cut out those areas. I know.... it looks a little tacky at the moment, my next job it to cover them with some sort of screen.

I went ahead and pulled my bumper, those bolts didn't come easy... While I was removing the bumper I noticed a little container bolted to the back of it. Guess what was inside.....Spare Keys! Score! Hahah not a bad place to hide them if you ask me.

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Had a little time this morning so I went ahead and installed my new stereo, took my time and feel like it turned out pretty well. The wiring had been spliced a couple times previously for other radios. At some point I'll go back in and cut all that crap out and wire it in cleanly...but for today, I just twisted the wires together so I could take it apart later on easily.
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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Nice match to the blue!

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Finished up my first fender, caught a nasty cold so its been slow going this week. Took 8 coats but I like the way it turned out. Still would like to lay a clear coat over the top, which is something I've never done before...
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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Came back and finished up the front bumper today, it went on a lot easier that it came off. I was planning on a chrome bumper but, craigslist being craigslist, the chrome bumper suddenly became "unavailable". Not to worry, I think the black turned out just as good! ...The only down side is that the fresh bumper makes the rest of my truck look even worse than it already was :lol:
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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

It's coming along nicely!

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Thanks Nick! Glad to have at least one person following the progress ;) slow and steady...

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Found myself a replacement bed this week! It looks a little beat up, and that's because it is haha.... but there aren't and rust holes in it. So its a great improvement over my old blue bed with its softball sized holes. I'm replacing the front panel with the my other one, the red one is all beat to hell. I know it doesn't look like much, but I think it'll clean up pretty well.

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

I like the truck. It's cool to see it being saved from the rust. Keep us up on the improvements. At the rate you're going it'll be a clean, solid rig soon.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

The Ox is getting groomed nicely, well done.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Coming from somewhere that has winter, that looks like a pretty solid bed.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Thanks guys! Fun to get a little feedback, keeps me motivated. The deeper I get into the truck the more I enjoy it. Quick question for you though...Have any of you dealt with bed-liner removal? Someone thought it would be a good idea to roll that stuff along the bottom of the bed without sanding the paint first. Subsequently, I was able to pull a few chunks off by hand. Maybe a heat gun, putty knife, and lots of patience?

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

I was able to get up early before class today and get a little work done on the bed. Nothing glamorous, but stuff I had to check off my list. There was a big oil spill in the front of the bed so I burned through a roll of paper towels and got that mess taken care of. Then ground some rust off the front of the bed sidewalls and sprayed some primer over it. It'll do for now until I get back to it. I posted a couple of pictures of the bed-liner that was peeling up. The section I peeled up came off without much effort, but the rest looks like it might be a pain in the... well you get the idea...

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

The Blue Ox is coming along very nicely. The camper looks to be in pretty good shape. Are you going to put it to good use? 100 bucks for a good grille, nice doors and a fender? You stole em!

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

I sure did, had a hard time holding in my excitement when the guy told me I could take all the parts for a $100. And you bet I'm gunna use that camper! Its hard to live up in Alaska and not go camping. The camper was in pretty darn good shape when I got it. The only issue was a rotten board in the front that needed replacing. Last week I removed and replaced it with a new piece I made. I covered the new board in bed liner in hopes of repelling any water it comes in contact with. As of now its all ready for this summer's camping season...now I just need to finish the truck it sits on lol. I really am happy with the camper though, sleeps 4, has a heater, and when its popped up I can stand inside without ducking (I'm about 6'3").

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Let's see some inside camper pics😀 I love the slide ons, I picked one up a few years back , great for the fishing getaways!

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Awesome combo you have there, that's exactly what I hope to be using my truck for this fall! I really like your dually, up here in Alaska there aren't many of those trucks around. Here's a few pictures of my camper popped up and the inside. Still has that early 80s vibe lol.

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Today turned out to be a pretty eventful one. I decided it was time to do the bed swap. The only problem was the lack of willing bodies to lift the bed off the truck... So after a little pondering my dad came up with the idea of using my camper jacks to lift the bed off. It ended up working flawlessly! The job was a lot easier on our backs this way haha. While the bed was off the truck, I switched out the front bed panel. It was much easier to get to all the bolts this way. I also took the rear bumper off, I'll be posting about that later...its more than rusty...hopefully their is a way to salvage it. All in all, I think it turned out pretty well, 6 hours of work and I got myself a new truck bed!

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

New bed looks much cleaner!

As for the rear bumper, if it's just a lot of surface rust, you can get a quart of Rustoleum rust preventative enamel at Walmart or probably even Fred Meyer right by you, and all you'll have to do is go over the bumper with a wire brush or wire wheel, and then you can brush that paint right on. It's black so it'll match your front bumper.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

Thanks Nick! So here's the pictures of the rear bumper. It doesn't look awful (relatively) when you look at the outside of it, but when you look at the underside it gets pretty nasty. I may spend a day with a wire wheel and see what I can make of it. I'm sure most of it will end up as a pile of dust on the ground lol, but if it looks usable after that I'll give your rustoleum idea a shot! Plus, like you said the black will work perfect with my front bumper.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

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The gnarly underside of the bumper....it needs some love haha
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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

That is a bit rough, but if nothing else the paint will tide you over until you can find a cleaner one. I used that paint for the frame and all the suspension parts on my stepside, there's a few pics posted in my build thread you can check out to see how well it works. It's awesome stuff.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

I agree with Nick. Wire brush and Rustoleum are the ticket. The instructions say to use a wire brush to remove loose scale -- tailor made for your situation with that bumper. For the cracking bedliner stuff I think I would get as much off as I could when it was cold so it could stay stiff and you can snap off big chunks, maybe use a putty knife carefully. And then I would move to a heat gun and a small putty knife after that. Probably lacquer thinner for any remaining residue -- rubber gloves, eyewear, etc.

And that camper is cool.

Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

I attacked the bumper with a wire wheel and hammer today. After chipping away for 30 minutes, my bumper had taken the form of dust in the driveway... So the search begins for a cheap step bumper to replace the old one. However, I still wanted to give that black Rustoleum enamel a try, so I took advantage of the bumper being off to clean up my receiver hitch. Turned out pretty good! Makes me want to paint other parts of my frame the same way.

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Re: 1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox
 

If you've been following my thread you probably saw that I picked up a new bed to replace my old rusted one. Yesterday I thought would be a good day for a light project on the truck. I was simply going to sand a few surface rust spots and then fill them in with a touch of Bondo. When I got out to my truck I began to inspect the bed a little closer....I believe this is where the saying "don't go looking for trouble unless you're ready to find it" comes from... Bellow the back tail lights the previously rolled on bed liner was starting to peel up, being the curious guy I am I pulled back the bed liner to reveal quite the predicament. What I thought was a decently rust free bed quickly turned into a hacked and packed bed full of Bondo and rust... It appears that someone went ahead and covered some surface rust with Bondo then rolled bed liner over the top to hide everything. My quick sanding projected has evolved into another animal. I've never done any real sheet metal work on a vehicle before so I figure this will be a good place to start. I cut a piece off my old bed and am going to use that as my patch panel. Any tips or tricks you guys can offer would be great! Like I said its my first go at replacing metal on a vehicle. I'm not expecting anything close to perfect...this is going to be my driver/fishing truck after all haha. Here's a few pictures of what I was able to get done so far...

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