So, I have always been a fan of the dentsides as my dad had one growing up. His was a 79 rclb with the 351m/c6/np205. I had been wanting to find one to turn into an off-roader/mudder and ran across this one. It originally had the 300, that was swapped out for a 302 and had a 351w when I bought it. It was a 4spd with the 205. Paid $350 for it and even got a bunch of parts with it. I then drove it for a while like this.

I was at college when I bought it and kept it there for a while. While tryinng to take it home for the first time, the motor blew around the halfway mark. Hauled it back to school and performed a motor swap to a 302 (all I could find quickly and cheaply). Drove it home and let it sit outside for the winter. Once spring hit I started to get motivated to work on it and started looking for a bed. Came across a shortbed with no rust for close to me. Paid $450 for the bed and 6 doors (only 1 good one, scrapped the rest).
Cleaned up the bottom and threw some bedliner on it.


Instead of shortening the frame I came across a swb frame close to me.


Tore the front clip off donor frame and fit both trucks in the garage. Turned out to be tight working spaces.

Pullet the motor and trans then wire wheeled/degreased the frame, primed and painted it.


Painted the motor, new headgaskets, 4bbl intake, headers and holley dp.



Cab Swap



Bedlined the interior

Installed the bed and heres how it sits now.


Thats how a summer of work is done. Now it sits until I graduate college this semester. I kept a running tally of all the money spent on the truck and how much was made back from scrapping/selling parts. The whole idea was to keep everything as cheap as possible (being a poor college student) while making it how I want it.

So far I have spent $3200 and have made back $500, so I'm only in it for ~$2800. I hope to have right around $3500 in it when all is said and done because it probably isnt worth much more than that, not that I would ever sell it.

 

Nicely done!

Kudos to you dude, I'm in university at the moment, and I've ended up spending $2000 on my truck. It still needs a decent bed and an engine rebuild, but it's come along nicely.

Glad to hear there is another "poor student" out there that has the guts to build a truck even though funds are tight.

Well done!

 

Nice work man, it's always good to see another one of these trucks up and running again!

 

Looks great! Keep up the good work!

 

Looks good man, I have one question for you ha, when I took my cab off the frame for a while, I did it in a pretty dumb manor, anyways, since I have done that, I've gotten an engine hoist and i want to know how exactly you hooked yours up to the inside of your cab like it was in the picture to lift it? or were you just jacking up the tranny a bit or something?

 

Hopefully this picture explains it. I bolted a chain through the rear seat mount holes, and used a ratchet strap on the pinch weld that runs along the bottom of the cab.



Hope that helps.

 

That is excellent man, thank you so much! ha I was hoping that you would have a picture like that, I will try that out next time

 

I so want to do this... I gotta finish my current projects first though.

 

Yeah, I still have a long way to go, but this is going to be a never-ending project. I will be done with the first stage by April (car show for my auto club). Then it will either get swapped back to a 4spd, or I might wait until I build the extra motor I have for it and swap it all at once. Then who knows, but my vision is to have a stroked big block on 40's, that stage will be a while.

Thanks for all the compliments, I actually almost gave up on this and thought about selling it over the summer.

 

if you think your truck aint worth much more than what you have in it then just remember
how much a new one costs , you will have a nice truck when done and no payments !!
your doing a great job !

 

Nice truck your building there. What did you paint the frame and the cab floor with?

 

For the frame, I wire wheeled it the best I could and brushed on Rustoleum's Rusty Metal Primer, then sprayed it with some semi-gloss black. The cab floor and bed floor were painted with Rustoleum's Truck Bed Coating. Also used Rustoleum's Undercoating spray for the inside of the front fenders, went on smooth and hardened pretty nice.

Thanks for the compliments.

 

I know how much a new truck costs, just saying that it's 30 years old and not professionally restored. If I were to buy one in the condition this one will be when I'm done, I wouldn't expect to pay over $5000 for it, but then again that's just my point of view and I would rather build than buy.

I do like not having any payments, but this truck doesn't have any of the creature comforts (besides cd player and power leather seats) but I have my 99 for those.

Thanks for the compliments.

 

i think that truck is better than a new one , i like my older ones better than any thing new
and they dont have any creature comforts but they are easier to fix when they brake with out that $100.00 an hour rate at the dealers

 

Man that is awesome!!!! You have given me hope for my build I am starting!!!!!! I have some parts I have to replace like bed, fenders and repair rust spots on the cab! You have given me SO much hope on doing this because of how easy you made it look!!!!!

Great build man!!!!! Looks awesome!