1979 Chevy K10 Silverado
Fleetside Short Box, Standard Cab,
350-ci/4bbl V8 (NOW 400+-hp 383ci-Stoker: See Pix At Bottom Of Page!!), TH-350 Automatic,
Full-Time Four Wheel Drive, A/C
Below: How the truck sat when purchased
Below are the comps from the "Sound Classics Virtual Paint Booth" based on the as-bought photos above. The vision below of what it would look like turned out to be nearly identical to the reality!!!
Below: Before and after interior -- all DYI!
The Buy
I need another vehicle like I need another mother to make me feel guilty when I forget some relative's birthday, but I've wanted a truck for a long time. More importantly, my wife has been talking about how we should have a truck around.
This 1979 K10 was acquired by a friend two years ago and then traded in a package deal to another friend last year. With too many vehicles himself, my friend offered me this truck for $600...so I took it. Knowing that a '79 is eligible for Washington State's collector vehicle once-per-lifetime registration also made this a no-brainer acquisition.
The Truck
The K in model designation indicates full-time four-wheel-drive with a selector for high range, high range locked, low range, and low range locked. 10 denotes half-ton. Other model alphanumerics included C for rear-wheel-drive, 20 for 3/4 ton and 30 for full-ton.
The build sheet with all the RPOs found under the seat.
This specific K10 the has a standard cab, Fleetside short box and the Silverado package. The truck has its factory-delivered 350-ci V8 with four-barrel carb, which (according to factory specifications) produces 175 horsepower and 275 ft-lb of torque. The original Quadrajet was finally replaced in 2008 with a new Edelbrock unit.
Connected to the small block Chevy engine is the tried-and-true automatic TH-350 tranny with factory-spec 2.52, 1.52 and 1:1.00 gearing. The K10 utilized a NP-203 transfer case (cast iron unit) with 2.01:1 low and 1:1 high range.
The truck rides on aftermarket Eagle alloy wheels with 30X10.5 R15 BFG tires.
Getting Parts
The great thing about this series of C/K pickups is that it went from 1973 until 1987 with minimal changes. Parts are everywhere, from Long Motor Corp (the same catalog parts company as Victoria British -- a vendor that has taken plenty of my money for Triumph, MG andSunbeam projects over the years) to the local wrecking yard Pick-A-Part.
Ownership Notes
Day of Purchase -- The truck is in amazingly good shape -- even the air conditioning blows ice-cold. Despite needing paint, the panels are very striaight and entirely rust-free. There is one small dent at the rear corner of the cab where something loaded in the bed fell forward. (This should be easy to fix.) The truck needs paint, as well as two things in the interior: new seat upholstery and a replacement dashpad.
Update 8/3: Brought the truck to the Sound Classics garage and went to work.
First step: Wash and remove trim pieces. Wow, the truck was originally maroon!
Beware of a man wielding a DA sander! Behind our hero is an area of Bondo where it appears the door was very lightly hit and fixed.
8/7/09: Sanded, primed, filled, sanded, filled, sanded, filled, sanded, primed, and ready for Maaco. Notice the nice coat of dust on the Ferrari!
Here's what the plugs in the engine looked like!
8/28/09: Turning the ugly Saddle interior into a paint-matching black with a upholstery kit (which came with hog rings/hog ring pliers) and some black interior paint. A new black dashboard pad was also installed. For under $300 the change is amazing!
Home from the paint shop! (Drip rails, mirrors, cab trim, and tailgate trim panel not installed yet)
Update 3/21/10: Added a Pendaliner drop-in bed liner and tailgate cover. These pieces were sourced from Craigslist at a cost of a whopping $40. Normally I would have haggled over an asking price just on principle, but the bed liner was well worth the full asking price.
Update Winter 2012: The Truck has a new engine!!! The original 190-hp 350ci V8 was smoking and struggling, so I sourced a Stage-One 383 Stroker from Britco in Centralia, WA. With 400-hp and mid-400 ft-lbs, it's a great increase in pulling power (now it won't struggle to pull other cars)-- not to mention it starts quickly and runs smoothly.
Look at those white valves from running lean at startup!
It's amazing the reaction you get at a speed shop when you tell them you want stock Chevy '79 blue instead of orange or black. At first I was going to stick with the stock blue valve covers ("Honest it's a stock motor!!") Decided to go chrome, because my friend had some nice new ones laying around. Coated the manifolds with some Eastwood high-temp brush-on cast-iron-colored coating I had in the garage from my '69 Corvette project six years ago.
I went with a new Edelbrock intake to match the existing Edelbrock carb. The original Chevy intake was a nasty boat anchor.
