Custom 1978 Chevrolet K10 Stepside

1978 Chevrolet K10

Complete frame off restoration around seven years ago, I have owned the truck for the last three.

78’ frame, transmission, transfer case, front axle, and bed/ 86’ cab/01’ motor and rear-end

20x14 scorpion wheels about 6 months old in perfect condition with 38x15.5 Nitto Trail Grapplers that were put on last August and still have good tread, I would say two have 80% and other two have 60%

9 inches of lift in the front with 6 inches in the rear, all suspension

Mileage: Estimate 70,000 body, 120,000 motor, the odometer does not work so it is hard to say for sure

MPG: Strictly highway I averaged 14 driving normal, combined average between city and highway I got around 11. For as big as this truck is, that’s pretty good in my opinion.

Paint: Orange with Gold Pearl, Black with Green Pearl

Drive Train: 2001 5.3ls, TH350 transmission rebuilt three years ago after I bought it (new torque convertor too), NP 203 transfer case with part time kit, 10 bolt axles front and rear geared 3.42 with rear being out of a 2001 Tahoe so it has 4-wheel disc brakes

Motor work: 5.3 that is almost completely stock with a HP tuners performance tune for 93 octane fuel, so it has more power and gets better gas mileage. Recently replaced spark plugs and plug wires with NGK plugs and MSD wires.

Also has true dual straight pipes with no cats and glass pack mufflers that dump under the bed.

The window tint was just redone a couple months ago, it has 5% on the back with 18% on the sides and a 5% brow across the top of the windshield.

Interior is completely custom with fiberglass dash painted black with green pearl, black and orange bench seat, center console with custom rocker switches and cup holder, custom door panels with Alpine type R coaxial and component speakers, 2 on each door for a total of four with Alpine PDX-F4 digital amplifier that supports 100w rmsx4 (It can get really freaking loud and stay clear), two Kicker Comp Rs with 2400w max kicker amp. 0 gauge wire ran from alternator with 4ga ran to both amps. Has Pioneer DEH-80PRS head unit, pioneer calls it their audiophile head unit, it is pretty nice and you can tweak just about every little thing with this. I probably have close to 2000 in just the sound system.

All lighting on the exterior is custom with The Retrofit Source Morimoto Mini D2S square lens bi-xenon projectors with 6k bulbs installed in upper 4x6 housing with factory Toyota Ballasts and LED pods installed in lower 4x6 housing wired in to factory high beam harness. Two 20in light bars behind the grill. Has green Oracle wheel lights and RGB halos in the headlights and bumper pods as well (Bumper pods were just mounted and haven’t wired the lights themselves up, you could either wire them to the light bar switch or have a separate switch mounted for them). The front turn signals are custom and are two amber LED strips wired in to factory harness. Brake lights are from Super Bright LEDs and have headlight tint over them to darken the red some.

Things I have replaced:

Both front and rear end have been completely gone through in the last six months

The front end work consisted of:

-Moog ball joints and both tie rod ends

-Skyjacker adjustable drag link

-steering gear box and rag joint

-hub bearings

-Timken carrier bearings

-pinion seal

-regeared to 3.42 with Summit Racing gears

-front driveshaft u-joint on pinion end with Moog

-All leaf spring bushings replaced with energy suspension bushings

-HD front shackles

-Rancho U-bolts

-Warn Premium locking hubs

-Bilstein 5100 series shocks

-Skyjacker dual steering stabilizer kit (I was going to replace skyjacker shocks with Bilstein 5100 but never got around to it so it would match all the other shocks)

-Everything sanded down and repainted with POR-15 base and top coat

-Skyjacker stainless steel braided extended brake lines

-calipers, rotors, and ceramic pads

-brass proportioning valve to accommodate the 4-wheel disc brakes

-master cylinder

Rear end work consisted of:

-2001 Tahoe rear end with thicker axle tubes installed

-welded new Moroso leaf spring mounts and HD shock mounts on

-sanded down and repainted with POR-15 base and top coat

-Bilstein 5100 series shocks

-Energy suspension leaf spring bushings

-spider gears

-u bolts

-calipers, rotors, and ceramic pads

-parking brake shoes (still need to be adjusted a little more)

-Spicer u-joint on axle end of driveshaft

Note: I never pulled the carrier group out just inspected it because I wanted something set to factory standards so the rear end would be perfect

Other things replaced since I have owned it:

-Water pump

-Heater core (like 2 weeks ago)

-All radiator hoses

-Alternator with higher output factory alternator

-Optima Yellow Top (better for sound system and other accessories)

-all electrical switches in steering column (turn signal and wiper switch and wiper stalk)

-anything to do with the windshield wipers (Literally anything, linkage, motor, wiper module and switch, they work now besides the park feature)

-all weather stripping in door except vent window weather stripping

-new window crank mechanisms on both sides

-probably some other things I just can’t think of along with little things here and there

I have also pulled both front inner fender wells and patched the usual rust spot in them by cutting out the rust and riveting sheet metal over the hole then fiber glassing both sides. Painted the engine bay side black and used 3M underbody coating on the outside.

Some Cons:

-leaks a little oil, nothing bad, maybe a half quart between oil changes if that, been told this is pretty normal for 5.3s

-driver side of front axle leaks a little gear oil again nothing major, the inner seals were the one thing I did not change because they looked fine, lesson learned there. (You could just drain the diff some if you wanted and that would stop it, since it has manual transfer case and hubs nothing really moves in there while driving)

-when starting in cold weather it will tick for about 15 seconds then goes away, I read a lot about this and seems to just be a normal thing with 5.3 motors

-Only gauges hooked up are voltmeter, tachometer, and fuel gauge. It has a GPS with it which is how I know my speed, you can have it. If I want to know other things or I am curious I just plug in an OBD II scanner and ride around with it.

-has to have a trailer harness plugged in for turn signals to work right when headlights are off, so you can have my connector (does not make sense to me, if you really wanted to fix you could run new wires back to the taillights or just always run with headlights on)

-the vent windows are not usable right now, there is no set glue in them, but with the door panels they rub the vinyl pretty hard so I do not use them anyways because I do not want to mess up the door panels.

-paint is chipped a little in some places because the tires are huge and I have a gravel drive way. One spot on the back side of the cab has chipped bad probably 3inches around, a body shop should be able to fix it for relatively cheap, I just never got around to it.

-interstate driving. Not really a con but just be wary for long trips on the interstate running 75-80mph+. The way the transmission is, there is no fourth gear so it can start to overheat from running at too high of RPMs for too long, granted I have drove from Clarksville to Nashville and back several times with no issues but just something to keep an eye on. The truck can go fast but not made for extended periods of high speed.

-the kicker subs are probably going to have to be replaced because I never put a grill over the subs so they have worn out where they hit the seat. I was going to replace them with one Alpine type-R sub and make a box for it to avoid that problem. Also if you’re tall you’re probably going to have to pull the subs to allow the seat to slide back more.

-No Air Conditioning, has all the stuff besides the compressor itself, it has never really bothered me a whole lot and you get used to it.

Reason for selling is I will be moving next year and need something that can make long trips and get a little better gas mileage, I love this truck and hate to see it go but one of those things you got to do I suppose. I have literally babied this truck from the day I got it and has been my daily driver, the most off-roading it has seen is driving along the edge of a field. Say what you want but by all means she’s been a pavement princess. You would be hard pressed to find a cleaner truck that is almost 40 years old. It runs great, it’s not 100% perfect but pretty close. I am really just trying to sell, do not want to trade unless you have like a 2005 or newer four door Tacoma with 4x4. Asking 15000 obo, no lowballs but shoot me an offer and I will see. Serious buyers only please, do not waste my time asking stupid questions or making stupid comments. I would prefer you to text me, email would be fine as well, I do not always answer calls.