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I'm going over to the dark side!

Detroit Dan

Detroit Dan

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Epping NH
OK, not really the dark side, I wouldn't buy a Ford for cryin' out loud. I just meant I'm going to the gas side. It's still a big 6 wheeled Chevrolet, only this ones got a 454 under the hood. And I'm keeping the 6.5, I just have been itching to get another old body style truck to restore, and this one is a starting point for what has long been my dream truck.

It's a 1982 K30 3+3. Full crewcab was hard to find, (I need more room for the kids), it has a very low mileage factory 454 in it, it absolutely purrs! Of course it is 4 wheel drive, and because it's a one ton it has the Dana 60 in it the front. At least, it looks like a 60, I gotta admit I've never seen one with automatic hubs before. It is definitely not a full time 4wd. Here's the coolest part, it has the narrow rear axle so the duals are tucked under a regular fleetside bed! I've always wanted to build one this way, well this was already done for me. Needs a new bed, a little interior work then a paint job. I've already got all kinds of plans for it, 87 grille, two tone paint (can't make up my mind on the colors yet), lift kit and so forth.

I'll try to figure out how to get some pictures here from my stupid camera phone.
 
That sounds awesome, sure would love to jump in on that project. Been looking for a project car myself but ended up finding something else(can't say what yet or ya'll would hang me for it)

Definatly want to see pics of it. Have you tried sending the pictures as a message to your email and then uploading them onto here like normal? Thats what i do with mine only cause I'm too cheap to buy the cable and the home comp. doesn't work.

Gotta love back when the Chevy trucks actually had solid front axles. only way to get that now is putting it in there yourself. How much lift are you going for and with what size tires?
 
PICTURES! Must have PICTURES! I love the square bodies, particularly the CCLBs.

Congrats on the excellent find.
 
im getting on as well although mine has a 6.2 and is a srw the guy im buyin it from is getting the body work done and its got a flat bed

i love them old 3+3s
 
Sounds like an awesome truck. Now after you make sure that the internals of the motors are good to go... a Weiand 8:71 supercharger would look pretty awesome on top of that 454. Is it a manual or an automatic? I too will be waiting for pics.
 
some trucks, such as dump trucks, wreckers and cab & chassis' came with a narrow dually rearend. So, if you either put one under a fleetside, or put a fleetside bed on a dump-style truck, then you have dual rear wheels "tucked" under a regular fleetside bed, and there's no big fiberglass fenders. Makes for one cool looking pickup, IMO. You need to either put a bodylift in, or in my case they cut and added four inches to the inner fenderwell so that it won't come down on the inside tire under compression.
Damn camera phone, I sent myself two pictures, but they came out the size of a postage stamp and I can't resize them. I'll try my regular digital camera.
 
here goes another attempt at pics. wish me luck
 

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hey, it worked! pics are blurry cause my camera is dirty I think. The two tone is obviously wrong for the year. Might do either red with black roof and rockers, or red with white side strip. Limited color choices unless I change the interior.
 
I'm liking the idea of the dual wheels tucked underneath the frame... You could almost do it one of our trucks. Take the rear axle, shorten the tubes down, re-weld the mounts on, and get custom axle shafts made, then just bolt everything else right back up! Oh the possibillities! Anybody around Jersey wanna try a project like that with me for gits and shiggles? There aren't enough modded trucks around here in Jackson, just them stupid kids in the fart can 4 bangers
 
Brooklyn Tow said:
So that was a option when ordering the truck new?....Never seen that before, awesome!
Click to expand...

No, but there were two rearends, either the big fat dually like ours, or the narrow rearend used with dump trucks etc. So you can either pull of a dump bed or wrecker body and put a fleetside on it, or if you have a fleetside truck you can stuff a narrow rear axle under it.

Shortening the axletubes would be a huge job, when you could just find a narrow dump truck rear axle to put in. I don't see why you couldn't do the same to the 90s trucks. Might have to move spring perches around for 3/4 and 1 tons being different.
 
*cough* Ahem...:eek: From that era there are actually 4 different 14 bolt configurations.

~SRW Truck~
Overall Width, wheel surface-wheel surface: 67.5"
Axle tube diameter x thickness: 3.375" x 0.50"
Drums over hubs, behind hubs: Behind

~DRW Truck~
Overall Width, wheel surface-wheel surface: 72"
Axle tube diameter x thickness: 3.50" x 0.50"
Drums over hubs, behind hubs: Over

~Cab & Chassis Truck~
Overall Width, wheel surface-wheel surface: 63.5"
Axle tube diameter x thickness: 3.50" x 0.50"
Drums over hubs, behind hubs: Over

~Van~
Overall Width, wheel surface-wheel surface: 70"
Axle tube diameter x thickness: ???
Drums over hubs, behind hubs: Behind

SRW & DRW 3500s have 40.5" spring perch width, all 2500s have 42.5" spring perch width. Not sure on cab & chassis or vans. :thumbsup: That should cover the 14 bolt up to 87/88, they changed after that.
 
Nice find, love the old big block trucks.

Is the dually under the fleetside bed stock?! I've seen a few here and there but i've never found out if they were.
 
further investigation reveals that the cab and chassis frame is so different you really couldn't put a fleetside bed on it. Apparently my truck came with a wide Dana 70, was swapped to a narrow Corporate 14 bolt so that with a wrecker /dump body the wheels would not stick out. Then they took the body off and put a fleetside bed on it. My local expert says this is what was done back then, because there were no crewcab cab and chassis' made.
He also informs me that the 90s style trucks have a much wider frame, so you could not put a narrow rear under one of our trucks. He actually showed me a 99 cab and chassis crewcab, and it turned out it has the wide Dana 70 in it. Learned a lot yesterday, this guy has been restoring GM 1 tons for many many years, he knows every nut and bolt. He has about 5 or 6 crewcabs, a bunch of homebuilt wreckers, ramps, you name it. All 454s too.
And he sold me a mint 8 foot bed. Yay me!
 
Interesting. I figured the narrow dually wasn't factory, still cool though.

Glad you learned more about your rig!
 
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