Having been in a similar position as you i feel i should pass on a few things. Im only 17 and just out of highschool so i know what its like to be on a tight budget. I got a 79 (really a 84, someone changed the vin at somepoint) chevy k20. I inspected it throughly before i even started it up, everything looked perfect. Very very little rust (and im in CT) only a little over the pass. rear tire and a litte on the drivers side floor. both were easy fixes. Motor ran good, tranny (th400) shifted firm, 4 wheel worked perfect a few differant color panels but all in all a very solid truck. 1500 and i was driving it home. now the list of problems began. first a broken valve cover bolt, had to have a machine shop drill and retap it, and easy 20 bucks + time, front brakes, the small rust repair. Then there was an oil leak. one was from the rear main seal so that was replaced. The other looked to be coming from the front seal so i stripped the motor to reapir it, 3 times i replaced the seal and no luck, turns out the dampener was to worn. so for the fourth time i stripped the front end acc. and put a balancer on and fixed the problems. While i was there i replaced the timing chain. about a week later the truck just died. no spark. It turns out that one of the bolts broke and the others loosened up, All the loose parts got in the motor and it couldnt be rebuilt. so now motor number 2. I just swapped in a lt1 out of a 95 impala ss with all the fuel injection. I have about 4500-5000 into my truck and with evrything thats happened its sat longer than its ran. ive had the truck for a year and its run for about 5 months. The moral is that these are not good vechiles for teens (if you make min. wage and mommy and daddys wallets arent your personal atms) Now that i have a good reliable truck that gets decent mileage (about 13mpg) i love it. but i had to go through alot to get there. If i were you i get the k5's and a small beater truck (like an s10) and drive that while you slowly work on the k5 and get it running perfect and make sure theres nothing left that can pop up. This is prolly the best solution for a person on a tight budget. You have your free k5 that you dont have to worry breaking down and a small truck that gets you around, good mileage and can hual all the parts for your project around. Yes the t case is a 205, you can see the hubs in one of the pics.
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