Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

I'm about to attempt the same thing on mine while I have front sheetmetal off. I'll be very happy if it turns out that nice.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Take your time and do lots of scrubbing. Here is the product I sprayed it with. Bought at the Napa Auto store along with Rustoleum Rust Reformer.
Two coats of Rust reformer and three coats of TEC Chassis Black.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Will do. I've been spraying everything with SPI epoxy so far, I'll probably stick with that. I haven't quite figured out what to do with the firewall though. It's horrible looking now and needs to be fixed while the engine is out, but I don't want to go get paint mixed just to shoot it with.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Nice work! Does brake fluid and brake clean eat that TEC? I've got a couple of trucks to spray the front of the frames on and with it getting colder out poof can would be easier/faster. I was wanting to gun spray them but may not be able to.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Looks great

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Jim what have you been doing that truck is never going to get done at this pace hope your not sick kenny

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Actually have been working on the truck everyday for the last two weeks. Just have not posted any pictures or updates. They will be coming soon.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

So I guess it would be a good time to get caught up on what I have been working on over the last few weeks. I have been working on a few other projects including the Idaho Edition truck. A few months back I bought two trucks from the same seller here locally. One truck was a 70 K10 and the other was a 72 CST C20 parts truck with really good sheet metal.

The 70 K10 truck is actually a pretty solid truck with no rust but had a motor that was toast. So I decided to get a motor ready for the truck so I could drive it while repairing a few small items on the truck before I put it up for sale.

The additional repairs on this truck will be fixing a dent on the passenger door and respraying it, fix the clear coat where it is peeling and do some general maintenance.

Here are a few projects from that truck.
Pict 1 Truck at the P.O. house the day I went over to look at it
Pict 2 Truck at my friends place after we hauled to his property
Pict 3 Truck for parts that is rust free
Pict 4 Truck at my friends place after he pulled the motor and stripped the good parts needed for motor redo
Pict 5 Motor ready to go into the 70 K10 after lots of tedious work

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Here is the one issue that I ran into while putting together the motor for the K10. A broken off thread chaser in one of the exhaust manifold bolt holes.
Looked it up on YouTube and found a video where a guy had the same situation and welded a washer to the chaser and built it up then welded at larger bolt 3/4 bolt size to the washer. Then slowly with a breaker bar unscrew it out.
Worked the first try. Last picture is it all loaded up and heading to my friends to get it installed into the K10.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

With that out of the way back to the Idaho Edition. I needed to get that out of the way otherwise it might be a few more months until I get around to getting that truck drivable so I can work on it.
So next on the list was to get the motor from the K20 cleaned up stripped down, painted and back in the truck. While I was working on getting the oil and dirt off of the motor I needed to also do some repairs on the motor crossmember sand motor mounts.

When I pulled the motor at the end of October I noticed that the one of the mounts and two locations on the crossmember needed some welding done. So I finally got around to getting them cleaned up and a quick round in the Sand blast cabinet before the welding. That turned out to be about a half days worth of work since the blasting cabinet needed some maintenance and care before use.

Did the welding and a little bit of beating with a hammer to get the bolt hole area that was cracked back into place. Then used a carbide bit to grind down the welds a bit and then switched to a 3"disc on a little die grinder.
About half way through using the die grinder to knock down the welds I was getting a boat load of tiny metal shavings and shard from the grinding so I laid two really strong magnets on top of the crossmember where I was grinding and let them do the work of containing the mess. Still need to chase the holes with a step bit to open them up and a little paint and I can cross that off the list and install.

Pict 1, 2, 3 are of the mounts and frame before repair
Picts 4,5 are out of blast cabinet and the welding done and smoothed out a little

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

No picture is complete without the "Merc" in the background! HAHAHAHA

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Also had a little side project for my friend Travis that is building an 68 service bed truck that he is getting ready to sell and he also the one installing my 350 V8 I built into the Teal colored K10. When I was out at is property dropping off the motor and box of parts to go on the truck we got to talking about the progress on his 68 serve bed truck project. The truck has a really cool medium blue color that has oxidized and some patina that he is going to keep original. He had a original dash pad that he pulled off to do some repair work in the interior and asked me if I knew of a way to fix the four small defects/holes in the dash. I said yes and I happened to have the color in SEM you need so I took on the small project to help him out moving the ball forward on his project.

When I got home I scrubbed it down a few times with a couple of different products and addressed the areas that were punctured or open with some sand paper to create so bite for filling. I used some JB weld epoxy that is made for plastics, vinyl, and a few other substrates. It is a 5 minute cure epoxy so I knew in my garage at about 65 to 68 degrees it will give me a little more pot time before it gets sticky. Knowing that I did a test sample on an old dash pad piece that was trashed I had in the shop. The idea I had was to hit the epoxy with a crunched up piece of Saran wrap just when the epoxy is getting tacky but not 100% hardened. The test sample worked out great and I decided to move on to the dash pad for Travis.

I taped off the areas that needed epoxy and left just enough revealed to do the repairs. Mixed up the epoxy and added a little West Systems colloidal silica for filler to the epoxy to get to a harder peanut butter consistency. Smoothed it on and when it got tacky pressed in the Saran wrap for texture. After that I took it in the house to cure for a couple of days. When it was all good I knocked down those areas with a little wet and dry paper, wiped it down with wax and grease remover and shot a coat of adhesion promotor to get it ready to except the SEM blue color. After a couple of coats had flashed off I could see the areas that I repaired were not taking the SEM as the rest of the pad was so I did a couple of spritz with SEM texture spray then two more coats and that did the trick.

I had also recommended a shop truck logo to go with the patina so I did a mock up in Photoshop of his door while he had off to do rocker repairs. If we go with this I will cut a stencil with my vinyl plotter and hand paint on with thinned down one shot paint and treat for patina look.

Pict 1,2 shows where a few of the holes were on the pad in white filler
Pict 3 shows after the last coats were applied
Pict 4,5 shows the door from the truck and the mockup

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

So back to the Idaho edition build with the motor I pulled from the truck is in great shape, has good compression and is a strong running motor.
So I will keep this motor in the truck and just freshen it up a bit. Here is the plan going forward on the motor.

These are the items on the motor that I am replacing from the top down:
-Edelbrock 1406 carb with electric choke
-Edelbrock 2701 Performer intake manifold
-Edelbrock valve covers
-Pertronics Flame Thrower HEI small cap distributor
-Pertronics 45K Flamethrower coil
-Jegs Ram Horn exhaust manifolds
-ACDelco water pump
-New fuel pump
-Spectra thermostat housing
-Gates thermostat
-Taylor spark plug wires
-ACDelco spark plugs
-Wire loom holder
-Woven heat shield boots to go over spark plug wires to protect from exhaust manifold
-New heater hoses 5/8" and 3/4"
-New Grommets for valve covers
-New belts
-Duplicolor primer and ceramic paint

Spent a boat load of time degreasing and cleaning up the motor for paint. Had to do it in the garage so I laid down a large piece of thick Visqueen plastic to catch any of the mess falling down on the floor. I also have an hard plastic tray that mounts on bottom of engine stand to catches fluids. So I started with the needle scaler to knock off any hard oil deposits then moved into the oven cleaner from the dollar store. Couple of rounds of that then moved on to a few degreaser products with a bunch of scrubbing. Finished off with a round of Brilo soap pads and rinsed with water from spray bottle. Wiped it down with wax and grease remover and shot the first round of primer to see if any thing pops up that I missed or primer not sticking. That went well so I shot two coats of black Duplicolor ceramic paint.

I a few days of the motor paint curing I started the weekend assembling the motor parts. Everything went well bolting on and also for the first time did the spark plug wires cut to fit using the new terminal crimper cutter I bought. That process took for ever on the first side and once I got the hang of it about 20-30 minutes to do the other side. Over all the motor freshen up went the way I wanted it to go and really like the look of how it turned as well as the added performance.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

I have also been getting ready for a twin stick install coming up here in the near future. Installing a twin stick onto the existing NP205 transfer case will give you the following 4 wheel high, 4 wheel low, 2 wheel high and 2 wheel low. I became interested in this after seeing it on the jimbosprint thread with his 72 k10. After talking to the owner of JB Custom fabrication he wanted top down pictures of the gear linkage to see if the sticks needed to be modified.

The install is done by removing the shift tubes and modifying or purchasing different shift tubes modified by them and install the linkage and new gear shifters. I am going to go with the new shift tubes so I can include the stock shift tubes and shifter if I sell the truck and someone wants to turn it back to complete stock NP205. I will do this when I pull the transfer case to change out the seals and freshen up. Right now I am on the hunt for extra NP205 so I can do the work on it then just change out over a weekend to keep the truck drivable.

Pict 1,2 are from my shifters in the truck
Pict 3 is from the jimbosprint thread to show what it will loo like. They also sell other shift knobs if you dont want the stock ones

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Looks like you might need the same modified handles as mine. It's a little difficult to tell from the photos, but it seems like the connection to the transfer case is at the rear of the opening in the floor, not in the middle. I think his regular handles are for 1973 and up trucks.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Yes you are correct. I reached out to Jon and he requested the photos of the location of shifter boss in relation to the opening in the trans tunnel. He is going to go with making modified ones and I will cross my fingers they work out. If they do not I will just modify them myself I have ability and the tools if needed. Again thanks for the inspiration and always find myself going back to your build thread to review and enjoy the work you have done.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Very nice work as always! That K10 looks like a very nice truck as well!

That Napa TEC paint, how well does it hold up?

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

I have used it before a few years back on my 2WD Cheyenne. It still looks good but has not had much abuse either. Hard to tell at this point how good it will look 10 years down the road.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Worked on getting the last few pieces to the cross member, mounts, and motor items primed and painted. I used the NAPA TEC satin for the cross member, mounts and bracket for the Brake booster and steering bracket, and the Duplicolor ceramic gloss black for the engine items. hoping that letting everything cure u[ for at least another 24 hours then I can begin to start putting the cross member back in then onto the motor install. The goal is to drive it out of the garage this weekend.

I also purchased a new tool that is a hydraulic crimper to do 2 gauge wire and other sizes. I am building my own battery cables and heavy-duty cables for the winch and jumper accessories with quick disconnects and a 3/8 terminal block.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Nice work. I might give that napa paint a try.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Was able to get the cross member and motor mounts in place for the motor install for this weekend. Also finished remounting the brake booster and brackets to the firewall, then installed the new flywheel and clutch. Got underneath the beast and removed the exhaust to see if it is possible to get a new one made at the shop by using the old one as a template.

Another side note I used a product called Calyx on my new ram horn exhaust manifolds and really like the look of it. I did a test section on one of the old cracked ones and it really dressed it up nicely. Thought before it is all said and done I would try using it on the master brake reservoir since it is cast iron.

Today I will look at possibly installing the new front lift kit springs while the motor is out to make things simple to get at. If I have a struggle with getting the old U-bolts off then I might skip to another weekend on that and just drop in the motor. Whatever gets done will still move the ball forward, little by little.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

got the truck off of the skates and pushed out into the driveway so I could take an hour and clean up the garage and mop the floor with some soap and hot water. Got picked up a bit and the floor swabbed down. After getting the truck back in the garage decided to get the front springs removed and set up for installation of the new springs.

Last night before I went in for the night I was able to crack the nuts loose a little bit and soak everything down with a little Kroll oil. Today I only had one or two that were still a little tight so I just worked them back and forth with the breaker bar then removed them with the battery-operated torque drill. It went really smoothly and was a little surprised. After getting the front springs off I tried to clean up the area around the spring u-bolt areas with the air needler and sprayed it down with some brake cleaner. Hope to get some paint on that area after a little more cleaning so I do not have to take it apart again to paint the axle.

Once the leaf springs were out I noticed the plastic material that goes between the leaf and axle was in bad shape so I will head over to the local 4x4 shop and grab some before I install Monday afternoon. Next will be to install the rear lift kit blocks and shocks, then drop the motor back in.

You will notice in picture three there are two sets of shock boots. When I ordered the kit I picked black shock boots and they sent gray so I called customer service and they said they substituted gray for black since they did not have any in stock. I told them I preferred the black so they sent out another set and told me to keep the gray also.

Pict 1,2 after the springs were removed
Pict 3 new and old springs, shocks, and shock boots
Pict 4 old an new hardware

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Nice progress!

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

X2, looking good.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

I know where to go when or if I need some battery cables!! Looks great

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Nice work! I've torn apart several of these trucks and never found the plastic in between the axle and the leaf spring. I have some front springs to remove in the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping those bolts come out and don't need to be cut out. :lol:

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Thanks Jim, I have been following along with your progress as well.

Thanks!

Any time just reach out.

These were really easy and I guess it was the luck of the draw or the Kroil Oil really did the job. I have had some that had to be broken or cut off and that is not any fun. I plan to save everything so if the next guy ever wanted to put back the stock stuff he can.

Here is a picture of the Kroil Oil if anyone is interested

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Kroil is good stuff, I prefer it over PB. There’s another good one I like called Kimball Midwest.
I use both of them daily at work. Pb works good to obviously and I do use it often as well.

Truck is looking great by the way!

Ryan, where’s the fun in it all coming apart easily?:lol: all of my u bolts came apart with out penetrating oil believe it or not. Surprised the hell out of me, I’ve never had any other truck where I didn’t have to cut at least one of them off.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Quick update with getting the prep done on front axle for some paint. Went over the axle with a needle scaler in a few hidden areas that hold dirt and grease, scuffed the axle with 120 grit paper and then finally with a wire brush on a drill. Wiped it down with wax and grease remover and shot two coats of rusty metal primer. Will let that simmer until after lunch and lay down a couple of coats of Tec chassis black.

Just trying to get paint in the areas where the leaf springs go for now, otherwise it would be a couple more days of cleaning and scrubbing. Plan is to get he truck running and driving again first, then come back around and finish painting other parts of axle and steering. Shooting for this evening to get the leaf springs installed so I can drop the motor into the cross member.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Here is the axle after two coats of Napa TEC chassis black on the portion of the axle so I can get the leaf springs and shocks installed. When I do the maintenance on the axle and the outer spindles I will finish the cleanup there and spray.

Got the new wiring harness for the engine compartment area and gaskets and sealer for the heater box. Also received confirmation on the twin-stick setup from JB Custom Fabrication, he was able to modify the shift levers so they would fit properly. Also ordered a few toggle switches for the spotlights, USB ports, and other items for the under dash console I have planned.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Looks nice, I need to try that paint.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Thanks, here is a link to the product from Napa Auto.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/MS_7243

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Took my lunch break today in the garage bolting in the two leaf springs and getting it back to a roller. Have a few more items to clean up and paint next go around.
Had to do a little creative adjustment to U-Bolts to get them into the U-Joint cradles. Put them in the radiator support hole and stuck a long 3/4 pipe on one end and
adjusted the spread so it would go in nicely. Then used the dead blow to get them lined up in the spring perches.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

I need to use "creative adjustment" from time to time on my projects too :chevy:

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

It's looking really nice. I feel ya on the u bolt massaging. Been there a few times as well.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Battle with the rear u-bolts a bit, then decided to not let them win the fight so I took the angle grinder and cut them off. Installed the new 2.5 inch blocks and U-bolts without any custom adjustments to the u-bolts. Need to figure out how to adjust the emergency brake cable or get extensions on the end that hooks into the back of the drum plate.

After another cleanup session of the garage floor this morning I will move forward with getting the motor installed back into the truck. This should go smooth since all of the sheet metal is off the front of the truck. The first item that will get attention after installation is the radiator support, it has been prepped for paint so a few minutes of wiping down and a couple of coats of paint should be good to go.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Got the cleanup done and finally was able to get the motor installed back into the "power barn" as Derek from Vice grip garage would say. It went pretty smooth for a one-man installation. But by the end of the day, I was spent from installing a lift kit and the motor. Only had one hiccup that I will need to remedy for the wire loom on the driver's side pinched the wires into the firewall and clutch rod. Looks like I will need to shave off the existing tabs and make my own mount so it can come forward about an inch or so. All in all, it was a great weekend getting things done on build and moving the ball forward so it can be a driver again in the next couple of days.

Last picture shows the distributor location with the small cap HEI Flamthrower distributor I bought from Pertronix. Has the external 45K coil right next to it to power everything up. Just about two full fingers between the cap and firewall.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Very nice!!

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

It's really coming together now

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Keep up the pace, you'll be driving it in no time.