Don't know why I didn't start a build thread on her other than I thought maybe it was outside the normal GRM interest. So this journey started over a year ago, let me catch you up.
In December of 2015 I decided that I wanted to build a fun serious off road vehicle. I've been using my 99 Z71 but I wanted to go big or go home. I've always had a thing for the GM400 Blazer/Tahoe/Yukon. Found one on CL for $1100. Took Chris to look at it and on the test drive it's a POE36 M3 cutting out and electrical stuff turning off and on. Chris tells me that I better not buy it so when the seller begs me to just make an offer I buy it for $500.
Turns out there isn't a body ground from the battery. Score one for Stampie. So now the search for parts is on. I'm wanting to SAS the front with a Dana 60 and a 14 bolt full floater rear. At this point I'm thinking SM465 manual trans backed by a NP205 transfer case. I did say go big or go home right?
In the back of my mind I remember the customer that had the rusty 1978 K10 sitting out front. Running but beat to hell and holes everywhere. Chris and I head over and a quick check confirms a SM465 and a NP205. $500 later the guys wife is happy as hell as I drive it off. Unfortunately it has 10 bolt axles front and rear.
I've already made a deal at this point with Pat for a couple of 14 bolt full floater rears so I've got that covered. Now the search for the unicorn Dana 60 passenger drop at cheap bastard's price level.
I search and search. I'm hitting CL in a five state radius. Best I can find is a junkyard that'll only sell a matching front Dana 60 and rear 14 bolt FF for $2500.
And then there she was. Driving down a road I know I've been down many times I notice this sitting behind a house.
That's as close as I got. I'm a very private person and I wouldn't want someone walking up in my yard so I take the picture and leave a note on the door. I blew up the picture and think I see 14 bolt FF. I figure crew cab long bed with that and I'm looking at a one ton. Question is it a 4x4 for the Dana 60 front axle?
Guy texts me two days later and says he's willing to sell ... To be continued ...
Here's the seat mount where a PO decided to change it out. Gives you a good idea of the workmanship on the truck. 
Upon getting it home I go to get out and discover the driver's door won't open from the inside and the passenger door won't unlock from the inside. Lucky for me Chris followed me home and was able to open the driver's door from the outside. One day while working on it we somehow lost the keys. After searching and not finding them I twist the ignition to find out it's so worn you don't need the keys. Over all such a E36 M3 pile of a truck that it made you fall in love with it.
Three of them actually run which is a very high percentage for my normal vehicle collection. I know that I bought the K30 for the axles but she's starting to draw me in and I really can't bring myself to parting out a vehicle without giving it a chance to show me how it runs. As you may have guessed she has the 6.2 diesel engine. I've never had a diesel nor have I worked on one. I figure I have nothing to lose as it's not running at all so I dive in. That begins a several week odyssey and steep learning curve on diesel starters, batteries, and starter bolts. First I get the original starter rebuilt locally. In putting it back in I notice that the two bolts aren't the same. One is metric and the other standard. That should have been my first clue of things to come. That starter soon let's out the magic electronics smoke without actually starting the truck. I finally end up with a brand new lifetime warranty starter and having to bleed every injector of air. Also I replaced two glow plugs that were bad. Just for future reference I don't suggest testing glow plugs by touching them. Works great for finding the bad ones but the working ones are a son of a bitch. One of the highlights of all this is I'm noticing Asa starting to get more into things. Instead of "helping" daddy he's actually helping. I still remember him asking if he could get under the truck as I was replacing another starter. The truck was on all its wheels so I told him it was OK. In the 5 seconds it took him to get under there he managed to get oil all over his face but just beamed me a smile as he laid beside me watching me work. It's coming up on his birthday and I'm getting asked a lot of will it be running in time for his birthday party. I'm trying my hardest but not sure until the evening before his party I finally get success. I see a big cloud of smoke from the exhaust and find that mud in it has splattered all over my work van. 
Next morning I head to the party driving over the bridge to downtown Jacksonville at 60 mph smooth as can be. Get downtown and hit a pothole. All of a sudden the truck shakes so violently that I think it's going to come apart. I pull over and walk around expecting to see a wheel hanging half way off. Nothing ... everything looks fine so I get back in and drive off. Next hard bump and same thing happens but as I slow down it goes away. I'm having a serious what the berkeley moment so I nurse it to the park where the party is. Asa is with his mom that day so he's happy as hell when he sees the K30 and I take him for a ride around the block. After the party I gently drive her home and start texting my friends. That's how I learn about death wobble. Tomorrow Stampie falls on his ass and maybe berkeleys it all up.
After 
Damn she's sexy isn't she? I did have to take a sawzall to her in order to turn the wheel but now the death wobble is even worse. Next on the list is kingpin replacement. Let me just say that kingpin replacement is a PITA. We try everything to break them loose. Finally Chris picks up a 3 foot 3/4 inch breaker bar at Northern Tool. Bets me that it'll work. He starts on the driver's side and with a 5 foot pipe over it finally the kingpin breaks free pretty easily. We finish that side including the washer shim mod and he says that I get the passenger side. I don't know WTF my side was harder but I've got all my fat ass pulling against the pipe and I'm starting to feel his breaker bar bend. I tell him that I'm worried about the breaker bar and he says go for it. I put everything in to it and I hear a loud pop. As I'm literally going heals up in the air in full tumble I know the bar broke. I pick myself off the ground with Chris laughing his ass off to find the breaker bar in one piece. The kingpin finally gave way. At least Chris admits that if he'd done that side first he would have given up and assumed the breaker bar wouldn't work. Test drive and now I'm looking for pot holes all kamikaze style cause the death wobble is gone. In hindsight both bushings were cracked so we probably could have just replaced them but then I wouldn't have the story to tell. Sounds like everything is all roses and free whiskey doesn't it? Well one problem. Every time I start her I can tell the flexplate needs replacing. I knew it when I did the starter but well I was just hoping. What do they say? Hope in one hand and E36 M3 in the other. See what you end up with? I go to start her about a week later and no go. We tow her over to Chris's and that weekend go to replace the flexplate. I get under and as I glace around I see both starter bolts hanging down like 1/8th of an inch. I know I tightened them so we pull the starter and really inspect the threads. Both holes in the block are stripping out. berkeley Only one answer and that's a helicoil on them. I drill them both out no problem and start to tap them. Everything is going well until half way on the first one this falls out. 
I look up and see that it came off the corner of the block where I was tapping the starter hole. 
I start to come out and tell Chris that the block was berkeleyed. Tomorrow Stampie puts the K30 to the back of the list of projects and thinks hard about the meaning of an off road life style.
