TripleL40's '88 K1500 Build

[Triplel40]

(Edit: I apologize for the length of this first post, just getting up to speed with most of the stuff that has happened with the truck thus far.)

I've been posting small stuff in different threads on here for a while now, and finally decided to create a build thread for my '88 to organize everything in one place. My uncle bought this truck in 2001, used it as a work truck for a while, then bought a brand new Silverado in 2004, and rarely drove the '88 after that. It was around that time that little 9 year old me fell in love with this truck, and regularly drove it around his and my grandparents place hauling stuff. A few years later, he agreed that he would give me the '88 when I got my license if I kept my grades up in school. Freshman/Sophomore years rolled around, and after driving his S10 for a while because of trouble getting the 88's title transferred to me, he signed the '88 over to me and it has been my daily driver since.

Truck when I got it:
1988 K1500 Scottsdale
305 with Comp Dual Range RV cam, Edelbrock Performer Intake, and Jet 6Pak Chip.
NV3500 5spd
8.25 Front/10Bolt Open Rear
285K miles

This the oldest picture I can find of it, and is around the time it actually got signed over to my name. Only modification I had made to it was painting the bowtie red, and that only happened because said bowtie fell off of my grille in the driveway and I happened to have a Candy Apple rattle can laying around. Poor truck had around 285K miles on it back then.

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Chrome was peeling off of the grille pretty bad, so I spent an afternoon with a razor blade removing it all, then shot it flat black. And the next day I scored this brush guard at my local Pick-A-Part.

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And this, 2011/2012, is around the time I started wheelin regularly. Did a lot of trail riding and sand running on those poor bald old Mastercrafts that came on the truck.

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Helped a friend build a headache rack for her Dodge, and immediately decided I needed one too, so June 2012 I built my rack.

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In late 2012 I finally gave in to the fact that my bald, weather checked Mastercrafts were on their last legs, so I spent my savings on a new set of Cooper Discoverer S/T Maxx's (235/85R16). Remember that the odometer had just rolled over 300K miles when I installed them.

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Same time as the tires, I purchased an on-board air setup for it, including:
a Viair 480C Air Compressor http://www.viaircorp.com/480C.html
A 2 gallon air tank with 125-165PSI pressure switch
Quick Coupling mounted to inner passenger fender (works well for filling tires)
Air horns off of one of our old Peterbilts, mounted inside front bumper
Pressure gauge mounted inside cab beside ashtray

Some wheelin/stuck pictures from around the same time. Wish I would've seen that hole before I dropped my front tire in it.

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Shortly after that I built my Front Receiver Hitch, and a Gun Rack behind the seat. (Thread Here)
And added Tail/Brake/Turn and BU/Cargo lights to my headache rack (Thread Here)

The offset on my wheels was causing my tires to eat up my front fenders a lot out wheelin, and causing a lot of broken CV Joints because of the tire jamming into the fender, so I decided to buy a set of Factory Alloys for it, but ended up running them for a day and then switching back to my Ultra's, both because I liked how the Ultra's looked better, and I couldn't afford to get my tires swapped over onto the factory wheels.

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Tried to crank my T-bars a little, only to find that the front drivers was already fully cranked and still sitting lower than the passenger side, which wasn't cranked at all. Swapped them out for some 3/4 ton bars my uncle had laying around. The good, heavier T-Bars pretty much ended my tire/fender problems I was having.

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Then one day we were working on my buddy's brakes on his Ranger in the shop, and he decided to lean his wheel/tire up against mine while he was working...and at that point I decided I needed black wheels haha.

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My Ultra 062's were pitted badly and had the clear coat peeling off of them, so I sanded them down and painted them Satin Black

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Back when my uncle owned the truck, it wasn't uncommon to see a few tons of hay on the poor little half ton, so when I got it I knew the rear springs were sprung, but couldn't afford to do anything about it. In July 2013, right after taking this picture, I pulled out of an alley in town, snagged the trailer jack on the edge of the sidewalk, and ended up ripping the whole jack off of the trailer. Heavier suspension was gonna have to be put near the top of my to-do list.

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I decided not to worry about the suspension until later though, as I was leaving for college in a month and leaving my truck at home. About 2 weeks before I was to move down to college (Logan, UT), I went wheelin and found some sagebrush just right, taking all of the paint off of the middle of my passenger door. For lack of money/any better way to protect the metal. I just gave the truck a quick rattle-can black stripe down the sides with some leftover paint I had sitting around from way back when I built my headache rack. Surprisingly this paint has held up pretty well, but it isn't pretty to look at, especially when it's cleaned up, which is one reason why I haven't washed my truck in quite a while.

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It's bad, I know.

The truck sat in my barn from August 2013 until March 2014, only being driven when I was home on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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Came home Thanksgiving Break, had to clean up the fuel system, but got the old girl fired up and took her up in the mountains to play in the snow with my chains.

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And did the same thing during Christmas.

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Bought some cheap Dodge Tow Mirrors from a friend during Spring Break in March, then mobbed my truck down to college after break was over.

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A picture after wheelin' down at college.

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While I was down in Logan, I destroyed my front axle (Thread Here)

And when I got home, I ended up getting a non-registrable (No Title, no chance of getting one) '92 K2500 HD 6.5 Turbo truck that hadn't ran since 1998, and I swapped my body, engine, and tranny onto its frame and running gear. (Thread Here)

Since I'm 8 Lug now, I threw my old rattle-canned Ultra's on CL, ended up trading them for getting my Headache Rack powdercoated.

Now this is how my truck sits.
305 with Comp Dual Range RV cam, Edelbrock Performer Intake, and Jet 6Pak Chip.
NV3500 5spd
14 Bolt Corporate FF rear
9.25 Front
2500HD Suspension/Frame
311K miles on Body/Engine/Tranny
150K miles on Frame/Suspension/Axles

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[1997k1500Calvin]

Well this its a cool story and actually a pretty cool truck..look forward to seeing more posts from you

Live action!!

 

[SCOTTYINWV]

I like it man.

 

[Triplel40]

Future plans include:

~H2 Wheels painted black with 33's
~Swapping out my doors for the ones off of my donor truck, as my passenger one is full of rust and bondo from a previous owner.
~HD door handles.
~Re-painting the whole truck, probably in a similar paint scheme.
~Re-geared to 3.73's. Had 3.73 gears in my old 1/2 ton axles, but the new ones have 4.10's.
~Eventually: 12 Valve Cummins swap, and NV4500 5spd.

Moving more towards Daily Driver/Tow Rig with my 88. Planning to build a smaller rig for wheelin' with.

Sent from my 3Cylinder Geo Powered Smartphone

 

[Triplel40]

Well, my door latch pin decided it was done putting up with my bad hinges, so it ripped itself out of my cab.

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There were cracks spreading out away from it about 2 inches in each direction, so I ended up just cutting part of the panel out of my junk parts cab and welding it into place.

Tacked into place to test door latch:

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Fully welded and temporarily shot with a rattle can.

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Sooo, looks like I get to order door hinges once I get paid, and I'll probably put my new doors on at that time too.

 

[twomanymontes]

Nothing beats a work truck! Nice to see your improving it!

 

[Triplel40]

Been busy with school, and spending the rest of my time hunting and four wheeling! Got a few things done on the truck though. Currently in the middle of wiring up an Isolated Dual Battery setup. Also finally installed my new tie rod ends, pitman arm, and idler arm that have been sitting in my room forever, and fixed my front shock mount that was broken, so the truck handles a lot better now.
Here are a few recent pictures,
Out running around in the desert:

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And back to work the next day:

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Out deer hunting/wheelin' yesterday and the trail I was on ended up going through a creek crossing, which turned out to be some of the nastiest smelling black swamp mud I've ever been around, so the old girl got washed afterwards to get rid of the smell haha.

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Just out having fun! I'll post some pictures/schematics for my isolated second battery once I get it all figured out, that way if anybody wants to do something similar they can. Also, almost got my H2 wheels I want dirt cheap on CL, but when I called he had sold them about an hour earlier. Better luck next time.

 

[-sin-]

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Diesel bumper and Dodge mirrors.....nice!

 

[Triplel40]

Yessir! Gonna sell the diesel bumper though cause its in too nice of shape to end up destroying offroad. Gonna throw my old stock bumper and my brush guard back on it for now, and I'm in the middle of building a custom front bumper for it.

 

[Triplel40]

Picked up an overhead console at my local pick&pull for $5, so I decided to go ahead and do my custom headliner while I was at it. Used a southwest print fabric I got at a local Hobby Store:

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I'm happy with the results. Going to put my rocker switch and air pressure gauge for my onboard air compressor up in the console where the heater controls were.