Big Tex's 83 Chevy 2wd to 4wd Conversion

[Big Tex]

This is my first thread. Thought I'd start a build thread for my '83 SWB 2wd to 4wd Conversion. First a little history....

Back when I was in high school, Dad came home and told me he was going to buy an '83 short bed from a guy at work. I was extremely excited, as at the time it was my dream truck, and was so much cooler than the VW Scirrocco I was driving at the time.....then he announced it was a diesel.....the wind left my sails. However, he wasn't buying it for me. And he said he'd fix it up a little. We pulled the rallye's off of it, and put them on a trailer, and at my prodding it came home one day with 15x8 and 15x10 chrome mod wheels. It did look better. This is the only pic I can find of it in that condition, sitting behind my buddy's 66. This is about 1993.



This is pretty much how it stayed until 2003ish......except we did paint it solid red sometime in the late '90s.

Around 2003, i'd spent pretty much every Saturday helping my Dad frame their house. One day, he asks what he's gonna owe me for all the help. The old red truck had been an extra vehicle for years at this point as Dad was driving a '98 Dodge truck. I looked over at it, and said, i don't know, what are you gonna do with the old diesel? He said, I don't know, I hate to sell it, but I don't use it anymore. You want it? I said yeah! So he dug up the title, and later I drove it home pretty much like this.





Cowboy bumper and all!!