Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed "Ole' Heavy"

[Rickleo]

Hey tiny truck lovers.

After losing inspiration for my Bruticus build, my girlfriend suggested I put it aside for a while and start something else. I was surprised. This is the woman who told me I could start another project until I finish Bruticus. There was two stipulation. First since I had Blazer body parts left, it has to be a Chevy. Second the paint job had to be her favorite color. Blue. NO PROBLEM!!! What I've had in my mind to build was a Chevy anyway. Just a little more factory than Bruticus. A 78' Chevy K20 long bed.

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Got the rolling chassis together. Parts are:
Boom Racing LWB Trial Finder 2 chassis
Rc4wd Trail Finder 2 leaf springs
Rear leaf spring shackle mount from Shapeways
Rc4wd scale shocks 90mm front, 80mm rear
Gmade u bolt kit
Yota 2 axles
Rc4wd 1.55 Stamped Steel Beadlocks with scale hardware
SSD scale front and rear lock hubs
Rc4wd 1.55 Rock Stompers

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Found a very useful YouTube video by Everyday RC on lengthening a TF2 chassis. His method worked out pretty good for me. I made the cut between the last two holes that are on top of the frame rail. Then attached the frame to the battery tray plate using the holes on either side of the cut. This lengthened the frame perfectly. I cut some pieces of brass I had laying around and used JB Weld to fill in the gap. Then I let it cure and sanded down the JB Weld. A little paint and you won't even know is there. Hopefully lol. The wheelbase is 13.59 inches. Close enough to the scaled down length of a 1:1 Chevy long bed. I'm happy with it.

Started the body. Cut it in half and added a section to the bed. Still need to be lengthened a little more but that's all for today. Mounted the body to the chassis to Chevy the ride height. Looks good to me. What do you think?

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Received some goodies from the mailman yesterday.

Rc4wd V8 and accessories.

Rc4wd R4 transmission

Rc4wd 35t crawler motor

Rc Channel aluminum heim joints

Rc Channel aluminum rod ends with rubber bushings

Yota 2 front axle. Needed a new one because the one I had was defective and didn't have the holes drilled all the way though to add a scale diff cover and hardware.

Put the motor and trans together and added the accessories. Added a little detail with a Sharpie pen and I put the Chevrolet emblems from the 2 kits I have on the valve covers. I'm liking it.

What you think?

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Not a lot of time to work on my K20 lately. Made a little progress this morning. Installed the new front axle and steering components. I really like the heim joints from RcChannel.com. Hope they perform as good as they look.

Had to find a different mounting position for the servo because of the V8 motor and I want to install a scale radiator in the future. The stock steering rod was now too long, I thought I had another steering rod in my spare part but I couldn't find it. But I stumbled across a price of threaded rod that was actually the perfect length and thread count. Whew... Life saver lol.

It's a tight fit but the body just barely fits over the servo in its new position. The only problem now is the motor sits too far back with the pulleys installed on it. I think purchasing a low profile servo and using spacers between the servo and the servo mount to push it forward more will solve that problem.

Was messing around and put one of the rubber bushing rod ends on the shock. I liked how it looked so much I going to run them like that. I want to run dual shocks up front but I'm not going to pay the price they want for the tf2 dual shock hoops. I going to make my own.

Flex is not that great but that ok because this isn't going to be a extreme rock crawler anyway. Did find one issue. Even with the limited flex I still have fender to tire contact. To fix the problem I'm just going to round out the corner of the fenders to help clearance the tire. If you notice closely they had the same problem on the 1:1 K20 in my inspiration pic.

That's all I have time for right now. So watcha think?

 

[cj.colvard]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Like your build, how come the shocks are upside down? I have done that as well for certain reasons wondering what yours were. Keep up the work is looking great

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Like your build, how come the shocks are upside down? I have done that as well for certain reasons wondering what yours were. Keep up the work is looking great

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

Thanks. There's no real reason to have then upside down. Just something different.

 

[LSXGMC]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Thanks. There's no real reason to have then upside down. Just something different.

I always chuckle when guys say they run them upside down to “lower the center of gravity”. At least you reason is just for a different look!

Trucks coming along great, it’s time for some more photos!

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

I always chuckle when guys say they run them upside down to “lower the center of gravity”. At least you reason is just for a different look!

Trucks coming along great, it’s time for some more photos!

Thanks. Yeah been slacking on the progress. Between work and my two son's birthdays being a week apart I've been too busy to do any building. But it's coming......

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Made very small headway on the K20 today. Want to run dual 90mm shocks up front so that called for a little metal work. Fabbed up some dual shock hoops. They're ugly but functional lol. That's all for now on this slow build. Til next time. Thanks for looking.

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Look what just got to my doorstep this morning. Rc4wd K44 rear axle. When I got the email that they were back in stock I had to get it. Then last night I was browsing ebay I stumbled across the K44 front axle. Bought! Should be here the beginning of April.

 

[TheLetterJ]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

NOW we're talkin'! Yota axles under a chevy always irked me, which is why I went with a Sawback instead of a Trail Finder. Even though a d44 was never under the rear of these trucks, it looks much more at home, and the offset k44 front looks perfect.

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

NOW we're talkin'! Yota axles under a chevy always irked me, which is why I went with a Sawback instead of a Trail Finder. Even though a d44 was never under the rear of these trucks, it looks much more at home, and the offset k44 front looks perfect.

I love the look of the K44 axles on Chevys. They're extremely scale. That's why I had to get them. Trying to make the K20 scale as possible. But it doesn't bother me when guys run the yota axles. I'm worried about breaking the K44s. There's no replacement. So I probably won't drive it as hard. But I have 3 sets of Yota axles and spare parts. That's maybe why some guys choose to stick with the Yota axles under Chevy builds. Either way still looks good to me.

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Ever since I received me V8 motor I've been trying to figure out how to install it. All the rc4wd motor, trans, and t-case mounts are out of stock and I don't know when they'll be back. I finally got an idea. Just had to find the material.

Was planning on scratch building the engine mounts, but when I was digging through my scrap metal bin I came across a set of leaf spring shackles I wasn't using. They would work prefect. Pulled out my dremel and started cutting til I had my mounts. Bolted then on the engine block and they fit nicely.

I had two Rc Channel rubber bushing rod ends left and I decided to use those as a mounting point on the chassis. After test fitting everything together I realized it wasn't going to work unless I alters the engine block. So I got out my dremel again and grinded about 2mm of material out of the engine mount area. Now everything fits like it purpose to.

Now not only do I have a nice looking engine mount setup. I also have bushing in my mounts to fight against vibrations. Win.win.

Still got the trans and t-case mounts to figure out But that's for another time. My brain hurts right now lol. Til next time.

 

[Itali83]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Very nice! That’s about as scale correct you can get for motor mounts. Well done!

Ben

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Very nice! That’s about as scale correct you can get for motor mounts. Well done!

Ben

Appreciate that. Scale is exactly what I was going for.

 

[LSXGMC]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Looking great! Keep up the hard work and attention to detail!

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Looking great! Keep up the hard work and attention to detail!

Thanks. I'll do my best

 

[Rickleo]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Did some metal work today. Decided to tackle the transmission mount. It's not great to look at but it does it's job. Now the engine and transmission are firmly secure between the frame rails. Next projects are a transfer case mount and some kind of protection underneath.

After searching and not being able to find a trans/t case coupler as usual I improvised and made my own. As you can see it's just two driveshaft ends welded together.

That's all for the backyard engineering today but there's more to come. Til next time.

 

[hillbillyrc]

Re: Project: 78' Chevy K20 Long Bed

Idk that trans crossmember looks good to me.