father daughter project.. 85 k10

[heavy_chevy]

Well, my daughter is 11 and she has always been saying she was wanting a big huge lifted truck when she starts driving. She gets great grades and is generally a really good kid outside of the occasional pre-teen hormonal attitude she sometimes gets. So I agreed to buy her a truck and foot the bill of the restoration as long as her grades stay good and she stays a good kid. She also has to be there during every step of the way, anytime I'm working on it. My reasoning for this is that with my job I go away a lot. Often for a long time. This has somewhat made it difficult to be as close with her as I would like. I am also aware that at her age she will soon start caring less about hanging out with her dad and more about hanging out with her friends. That's just the way our brains work at that age. Wasn't long ago I was there. So this is my attempt to spend quality time with her whenever I can . Anyways, on with the truck.. I told her I had some stipulations. Mainly that it was a regular cab truck so she couldn't haul around a button load of ppl and be super distracted. But just enough room to take her little brother to school each day. So I found a very good running 85 k10. Supposed to have a crate 350 (no receipt) and a small lift. I don't think I over payed by any means since the body seems straight and it starts right up every time (haven't explored any possible bondo) underside looks rust free too. Frame looks better than my 06 frame. It also drove 1.5 hours down i95 back to the house problem free so I can't really complain for 2500 bucks. Anyways plan is to pull the cab clean the frame and repaint, new body mounts plus body lift. Also gonna repair the pass side tank. Doesn't work, idk why, neither did previous owner. Also gonna put on a 6" suspension lift. Plan is to run 38x15.5s. Should be plenty big enough for her. During all of that I'd like to pull the motor and freshen it up too. I CA. Alrdy see a holly carb and long tubes. Pretty peppy truck. Not gonna lie, I'm a lil jealous.. I'll try and post a picture.

 

[1987 GMC Jimmy]

You're a cool dad for doing that, and she's a lucky kid. Good luck with the project.

 

[Camar068]

Keep em close while you can! Awesome that she wants a truck. Hopefully after all the hard work she'll enjoy it even more.

 

[Fastereddie]

That's awesome. I would hate to see you ruin that thing with a 3" body lift though... 1" is doable.

 

[74 Shortbed]

That is way cool, you guys will have a lot of fun together.

 

[heavy_chevy]

That's awesome. I would hate to see you ruin that thing with a 3" body lift though... 1" is doable.

Lol, I figured I would catch some type of flack for mentioning a body lift. The fact is I need a 3" body lift to run those wide 38s and I only want to run a 6" suspension lift. I've been in a few different square bodies with 8+" suspension lifts and they ride like crap. Plus I've had 3" body lifts on top of suspension lifts and never had any issues. These trucks don't look terrible by my standards with a 3" body lift because the frame is tucked away nicely from the factory. Hell a new HD Chevy has more frame hanging down from the factory than these trucks do with a body lift.
Also, thanks for the support everyone. Gonna be a fun time. This is gonna be started mostly this winter. With rifle season starting this weekend and the weather cooling off this is about the time of year we really go at it playing with guns and bullets so once hunting season is over my hope is to not be away for work somewhere and start tearing into this truck.

 

[Old77]

cool project!

 

[Fastereddie]

Yeah just busting your chops. Lol. My daughters are only 4 and 6 but they already like helping daddy work on the trucks.

 

[heavy_chevy]

Nice.. that's awesome. That's parenting done right.

 

[theblindchicken]

Welcome to the board! Gonna be a great project ya got going on there!

 

[Qwk]

WOHOO!! I LOVE when my girls come out to my garage and help me. Just the other day, I dropped what I was doing because my youngest one wanted to build something. It was awesome to see her learn to use different tools and watch her imagination come to life.

Congrats to you for being a Good Dad! Im looking forward to more pics!

 

[heavy_chevy]

thanks

Hope to start a sweet rebuild thread on this truck soon. Been very busy around here tho and right now our priorities are to fill the freezer. Luckily she makes a great hunting partner too so we hope to get her, her first deer this year along with her first truck. Should start tearing into here around xmas.. maybe before the 25th but sometime during xmas break

 

[Camar068]

Awesome

 

[1973c10]

Welcome

 

[donnieray]

Im glad that truck went to a good home, Im sure its one I almost bought. Wasn't it out in the sticks in the Raleigh NC area? I drove it around the big block of land the guy lived on, he said " just keep taking rights, you'll eventually get back here." I ended up buying a four speed 84 K10 in Durham NC. Its a small world.