Bought this cherry 1981 Chevy K30 (1ton) 4x4 crew about 2 weeks ago. It was ugly as could be with such bland features, but fell in love with it as the rare K30 crew cabs are hard to find and look great. It has 93K original miles. I am the third owner, number two is a truck salesmen and owned it for 20 years! He used it as a camping truck/weekend warrior which is why it doesn't have the miles on it. -original 454, runs good -new TH400 15K ago, shift kit was used -Dana 60/14BFF I bought it to replace my bulky F600 service truck, as I have taken on new rice ground (I'm a farmer) and need a service truck with 4wd now. Been doing a few odds and ends to it... Hours after the purchase... After a couple of odds and ends done...
Damn, that is one sweet looking truck! Gotta love the storage capacity of those utility bodieswaytogowaytogo
Love it................great looking rig. All it needs is.............well, nothing. Maybe a 12V but a 454 is just fine...............
Came out great Bobby! Those the 16.5's we were talking about? Now we just gotta find you a rolled common rail or 12v for a little transplant!:stir:
Oh believe me, I've got this nice idea of a P-pump 12v with a built 518 auto behind it, somewhere around 350HP at the crank. That would be nice. Either that or a new 454 with fuel injection around 325-350HP and a 4L80E 4spd auto behind it. BUT... this current original 454 seems to run pretty darned good, doesn't seem to use much oil either (darn it). It may come down to not liking the paint color on the valve covers to justify a motor swap.opcorn: I am starting to miss the lost space of my F600 service truck, as it has boxes and cabinets twice as big with rolling drawers. On the other hand, it seems half the stuff I pull out of the F600 I say "thats garbage" or " I never knew I even had this in here..." which means I don't need it. My plan is to build a trailer to match the truck. The truck will be part "A" and the trailer will be built to complement it with a part "B". The trailer will have a Miller diesel welder, big honkin' air compressor, and different supplies for big jobs. The truck is getting the hand tools, power tools, air tools, some supplies, bolt bin, etc. I found a Miller Bobcat 225 on Craig's List that I'm going to check out and hopefully get. That will give me 10,000watts of 110/220 on the truck and stick/tig/mig welding. I'll run my electric compressor off the bobcat gen side.
Sweet Truck man.. I love those older chevy's with the 454.. My Father in law has an 86 with a long bed 3+3 cab, and its a fun old truck to drive. Scott
The 16.5x9.75's got put on my Ram. Those are also used Welds, 16x8 that a I came up with for a nice price also. I'd love to do a p-pumped 12v with a 518 and Dodge passenger side drop 205. On the other hand, I also like the idea of a 4L80E and built 454 around 350HP with EFI on it. i likely won't do anything for a while, this stock motor is just in such decent shape, infact I've never seen a stocker this old (26 year old motor!) in this kind of shape. I believe that how the PO ran this truck is about the best you can treat a motor. Get in, fire it up, run it for hours at a time with a good load behind it, and shut it down until the next long run. Keeps the rings good an seated, keeps the oil from sludging up, and less heat cycles on all the moving components and seals. He kept the motor "in shape" for lack of a better term, and never let it get a big nasty sludgy beer belly....rotfl opcorn:
Ya that is a great lookin truck. Did you also redo the interior? Lookin very nice! waytogo waytogo waytogo
Nope, stock interior. The interior is in great shape, the truck was always stored inside and there isn't even a crack in the 26 year old dash. But, of course I'd like to go all black with the interior too, but we shall see. There is only so much money to be allocated to a work truck for visual appeal when it isn't completely set up for work yet. Hobart???? Or Lincoln????? Thats what I'm trying to decide right now...:doah:
