1981 K20 Project - The Blue Ox

[Man With A Gun]

That's a really nice truck.

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by Man With A Gun

That's a really nice truck.

Thanks man! It's a good 50 - 50 truck. Looks good 50 feet away, going 50 mph haha.

[Smniekamp]

I've been using the hell out of my truck lately, 2,000 miles with no issues! The latest improvements to The Ox have been related to my camper. First, I improved my mirror set up. I had these dinky sport mirrors on for the longest time, and could never see anything with them. I finally picked up a larger pair from a junkyard...$50 for the pair. I probably spent too much, but they were in good shape so I went for them. I mounted them with sheet metal screws. They seem sturdy to me, time will tell I guess. After that I bolted in sone D-rings one the back corners of my bed. These will be nice for strapping down loads, as well as make solid anchor points for my camper. Once I put my mirrors and D-rings on, I threw the camper in the back....which meant my spare tire had to be moved back out front lol. One thing I like about the flat bed is that I have tons of storage space on each side of my camper. It made a nice home for my firewood for our fishing trip. The salmon are running strong!

[Palf70Step]

Very nice. I like it!!

[lowbrow454]

I love the pop-up. Looks sweet in the back!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Smniekamp

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

chics dig the black bumper!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Smniekamp

Welded in my patch panel this morning, I found out I'm really good at burning holes in my truck lol. After some frustration and a fair amount of grinding, I got it in. Learned a lot from my first attempt at replacing sheet metal. Now I'm waiting for my Bondo to harden up so I can sand it this evening.

remember grinder and paint make me the welder I aint. jk, you did great man!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Smniekamp

Total Investment to Date

This is roughly what I have into my truck so far, keeping track just for fun...

Truck w/Pop up Camper - $1200
Tires & Rims - $200
Fuel Pump ~ $30
Cap, Rotor, Plugs, ICM, Wires, & Coil ~ $120
Doors, Fender, Grill, and Rockers - $150
Dash - $75
Dash Cover - $20
Intake Manifold Gasket ~ $20
Valve Cover Gasket and Spreader ~ $40
Steering Stabilizer ~ $40
JVC Stereo & Speakers ~ $120
Oil and Filters ~ $40
Truck Bed - $150
Bedliner - $30
Paint & Primer so far ~ $60
Mud Flaps - $15
Rear Bumper - $40

Total Investment to date : $2,350

love this...

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Smniekamp

Here is the motor as I was laying the head gaskets down. Was paranoid I put them on upside down after I bolted the heads on lol.

don't we all get that feeling? great job!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by redbed

great thread! My kind of rebuild! Great work

+ 1

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Smniekamp

The truck with the flatbed sitting in place, also me feeling tired, wet, and cold.

chics dig the flatbed!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by D13

I love it. Just like me - I use the truck as a work table for working on.. the truck.

yup, best part about owning a truck, when you working on it, and you remove a part, just put it in the bed of the truck, it's usually a clean workbench

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Smniekamp

Badge lettering touch up with silver sharpie...

say what? that's awesome

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by Gregski

chics dig the flatbed!

Thanks for all the love Gregski, your thread was the one that got me excited about posting all my progress. The Ox is nothing special, but it sure means a lot to me after all the work I've put into it. I really enjoy keeping up with Rusty as well, you do a great job of documenting all your work. Its really fun to watch.

[Smniekamp]

Well....the day finally came. The Blue Ox was ready for a new clutch. The constant shudder was too much for me to stomach any longer. Sadly, our garage is currently occupied which meant the job was to be done outside...on the gravel driveway... Without much preparation I dove into the job with a buddy. We tore it all the way down in about 4 hours. The first major hangup was the SM465 tranny. For those of you who don't know, in order to remove the transmission you have to unbolt the transmission tunnel from the floor to allow adequate room for its removal. After that was figured out, the rest of the removal was pretty straight forward. I found out that my clutch had been soaked with gear oil due to a leaking (gushing more like it) input shaft seal. We quickly ran to Napa to pick up the seal and returned back to start the installation process. Everything was going smoothly until the rain and wind picked up. Two hours of laying in mud puddles later, we had the transmission in place with the new clutch installed. At that point we called it a night.

The next day I was working alone, connecting one or two electrical plugs that go from the motor to the trans. I was having quite the time figuring out where a specific plug was when I realized it had been pinched between the motor and bell housing....yes...the trans had to come back out... A few F-bombs later I was able to get the trans partially removed and the plug out from its trapped position. I awkwardly re-installed the trans, triple checking that no wires or any other objects were in between the mating surfaces. Luckily the second installation was a success. That concluded day 2.

Day three was probably the sketchiest of all the days I worked on the clutch. I ended up installing the transfer case by myself. I was able to get it under the truck with a regular car jack and partially raised, but it still needed to come up another foot. So I positioned myself on my back, underneath the transmission, and slid the t-case off the jack onto my chest. With every ounce of strength I had, I was able to press it up and into position. By the grace of god it somehow found its way onto the output shaft rather quickly. This was a huge relief, during the lifting process I think I burst a couple blood vessels in my forehead. It was a heavy SOB. After that was in place I felt like I was home free. Another couple hours of installing the starter, drive shafts, and double checking bolts, The Ox was ready for a test drive.

What a difference the new clutch made, its as smooth as glass now. I love how it drives. While it was a bit of an ordeal, I couldn't be happier with the results!

[Smniekamp]

Total Investment to Date



Truck w/Pop up Camper - $1200
Tires & Rims - $200
Fuel Pump ~ $30
Cap, Rotor, Plugs, ICM, Wires, & Coil ~ $120
Doors, Fender, Grill, and Rockers - $150
Dash - $75
Dash Cover - $20
Intake Manifold Gasket ~ $20
Valve Cover Gasket and Spreader ~ $40
Steering Stabilizer ~ $40
JVC Stereo & Speakers ~ $120
Oil and Filters ~ $40
Truck Bed - $150
Bedliner - $30
Paint & Primer so far ~ $60
Mud Flaps - $15
Rear Bumper - $40
Flatbed - $150
Grinding Discs/Wheels - $40
Tail Lights - $35
Wire - $10
Hardware - $125
Paint for Flatbed - $25
Clutch Job - $330
Steel for Flatbed - $100
Top End Gasket Kit - $65
Tie Downs - $40
Gas - I don't want to think about it...
Beer - You can't put a price on love...

Rough Total = $3230

That's a pretty rough estimate but should be in the ballpark. Not too bad. I don't think the truck is work that much alone, but maybe the combined value of the truck and camper is around $4000? Not that it matters too much, they aren't going up for sale anytime soon!

[BigJackDaddy]

Originally Posted by lowbrow454

I love the pop-up. Looks sweet in the back!

Especially with the side boards! Great storage (as mentioned) that wouldn't be there with the stock bed.

Nicely done. Great to watch.

[Smniekamp]

This weekend I put The Ox through a true test, I took it on a 380 mile road trip with my Dad. We drove to down to the Kenai Peninsula to do a little silver salmon fishing. The truck did really well. I think its safe to say the clutch job was a success. We had to drive through the Kenai Mountains to get to our campground. It was an awesome drive, the truck's high gear ratio kept us at about 55 mph the whole way, so we were forced to pull over and let backed up traffic pass us several times. It was well worth it though, The Blue Ox was by far the oldest vehicle I saw on the road during the trip.

Once we got home I finally finished painting the cab, there was one strip I never got to when I initially painted the truck. It was the section behind the passenger door on the cab. Now the truck is all the same color blue for the first time!

....next up...rocker panel replacement...

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by BigJackDaddy

Especially with the side boards! Great storage (as mentioned) that wouldn't be there with the stock bed.

Nicely done. Great to watch.

Thank you! I have grown to like the utility of the flatbed a lot.

[Smniekamp]

Like I mentioned in my last post....time to do some rockers... I decided the passenger side was the best side to start on. It needed slightly less work than the drivers side. I figured I could get a little practice on the passenger side, then go for the more difficult driver side. Here is my progress so far...

I've seen a few people do this job without removing the fender, but my rust was bad enough I had to take all the body panels off the passenger side.


Here is what I was working with, in this photo I had made a couple cuts into the top of the rocker, but nothing was removed yet.


Once the outer rocker was off, I was able to grind all the rust off the inner rocker and save it. Thankfully the outer rocker replacement covers all the rotten areas.


Here is the painted inner rocker panel, and outer rocker cut to size. Sizing up the outer rocker was pretty time consuming, but it was well worth it when it came time to weld. My joints were pretty tight so it tacked together nicely (for my work truck standards) lol.


The semi-final product. All tacked in place! Since I took this picture, I did a little more grinding and put a skim coat of Bondo on. Its drying in the driveway as I write this. Tomorrow I'll do some sanding, then hopefully move on to the cab corner portion of the repair. For my first rocker panel replacement, I'm feeling pretty happy!

[Man With A Gun]

Nice! I love that truck.

[Greenlee]

Nice work!

[daddyjeep]

looks good

[D13]

I love this thread. Shows what someone can do with a little money and some time. That you document the cost is great. I think I have more than that in parts I've accumulated... now just have to pick the truck to fix.

[Smniekamp]

Originally Posted by Man With A Gun

Nice! I love that truck.

Originally Posted by Greenlee

Nice work!

Originally Posted by daddyjeep

looks good

Originally Posted by D13

I love this thread. Shows what someone can do with a little money and some time. That you document the cost is great. I think I have more than that in parts I've accumulated... now just have to pick the truck to fix.

That means a lot guys, thank you!