Greetings

[PDXk5]

Greetings,

I’m new to here. I am a recent owner of a 1972 K5 Blazer and see that this forum is a good resource.

This is a project rig. It was my father-in-law’s truck, which he bought brand new. He has generally kept everything original and kept everything that came with the truck. I have the original owners manual (with protect-o-plate), rear spare tire holder, rear seat, original purchase agreement and service manual that he gave me with the truck.

It’s a manual 4x4, (originally Medium Red now faded to) orange, black interior, 350 ci V8. The truck is awesome. I have always shared with him that if he ever decided to sell it, to talk to me first. I took delivery of the rig on June 29th and have been cleaning and polishing the surfaces to make it a bit more presentable since then.

The truck was only washed (more sprayed down) once a year and never waxed. It served as a daily driver for a good portion of its life until it migrated to only being used for camping and hunting trips. A few years back it was covered with a tarp and put on the side of the house. It appears to be very mechanically sound, it starts first try every time and while the interior and exterior have had hard years, most everything seems to be in working order.

I drove it a bit over 250 miles from his place to ours and the drive was fine. Two things I noticed during the drive: It has a lot of play in the steering and the driver side hub is stuck in the locked position. I’m going to dig into the hub to see if I can diagnose and correct the issue. This fall, I would like to convert it to Power Steering and at that time hopefully also fix the play in the steering. I checked out the steering this last weekend. I noticed that the steering wheel and steering shaft move (in sync with one another) about 2.5 inches from top/center of steering wheel to left and 2.5 inches from top/center of steering wheel to right (5 inches total) without anything else moving. My dad used to have a 1970 Ford 4x4 with manual steering, it did not have this much play. This bothers me and I want to eliminate or greatly reduce it.

Because I was planning on converting it to power steering I figured that, when I replace the steering box that would address that component. The Tie rod ends look tight although I’m not sure how to determine if the gaskets are worn out (after 40 years, seems like a good idea to replace them). At the same time I am messing with the steering, I thought I would replace the steering column to a tilt type and change the steering wheel to a smaller diameter one. I’m guessing the smaller steering wheel will also make the play seem less noticeable. I have basic mechanic skills and consider myself handy and while I have long term plans to do more extensive work on the truck these are the two tasks at hand. I have done a bit of searching online and this forum but do you have suggestions or comments to help? I believe I'm going to purchase parts from LMC or Classic Industries. Will be making purchase of parts/materials during this month and will try to tackle power steering conversion in October.

Thanks - PDXBlazer


These photos are from when I took delivery of the rig - after a quick wash. I have since spent time on polishing and cleaning/degreasing and it looks much better - will post updates as I go.



IMG_7577 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


IMG_7578 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


IMG_7576 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


IMG_7579 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


IMG_7585 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


IMG_7582 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


IMG_7580 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


IMG_7586 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


IMG_7588 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


IMG_7589 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

[briank]

Can't help you on the steering but that's an awesome rig....Welcome!!
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[oldschool18]

Thats a nice starter rig

[Thelast 72k5]

Very nice... Wish my 2wd project was close to as solid as yours.

[hilljob26]

sweet,, thats a heck of alot better dshape then what im starting with..i will be posting a 4x4 power steering box and pump assembly in a couple weeks that i am taking off mine

[bouncytruck]

Welcome to the board from Seattle. I'm from Coos Bay and went to school at OSU.

Very nice looking rig. Try buffing the paint, I think you'll be surprised how much shine you'll get out of it.

For the steering, how does the rag joint look. They tend to wear and cause play. It might be worth fixing now if you're going to drive it - we do have at least a couple more weeks of nice weather left in the pacific NW and they make awesome snow rigs!

[Tomahawk30]

Welcome from Eastern Oregon! Looks like a nice solid start compared to most!!!

[briank]

Are you gonna restore it or just go through it mechanically? It would almost be a shame to restore it since its so original.
Posted via Mobile Device

[jaros44sr]

Very nice starting point, pull up the rubber mat, carefully, and see what is under there. Since it has lost the passenger side door seal, you might have rust in the floor area.

Since you are in the portland are, i would contact wes at classic heartbeats, he uses the resto parts he sells and will give you good info. on the quality of the parts he sells. Plus, it will save you money on shipping. Plus, plus, use our clssified board to buy oem parts, fit is always perfect, and you might save some bucks

Cheapest place to start on the steering slop is the rag joint, as said above, but i think there is an adjustment nut in the steering box. Check the frame, where the box is mounted, they have been known to crack there, should have a frame doubler in that area also

Good luck on your build, and keep us posted on your progress with lots of pics, we luv pics

PS, check all the safety items first, before driving too much, wouldnt want you to get hurt

[Senorx]

I'd love to see what it's looking like two years later. Hope you kept the steelies.

[bl705k]

wow thats a nice clean k5 enjoy!

[PDXk5]

So, I have had some inquiries for some updates. First, one of the forum members wanted to have some photos of the exhaust, since it's believed to be original.


image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr



image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr


image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

[Senorx]

Nice! I'm doing exhaust very soon and wanted to go back to the original. The PO had a total mess done to the exhaust system.

[PDXk5]

The first thing I had to do was replace the mirrors. They were all fogged and you couldn't see out of them.

Next, I replaced the torn original floor mats. Here is what I found underneath. Very clean (after I actually cleaned out the dirt). There was some surface rust in the floor of the front seats and a small portion of rust through at both kick panels, where the kick panels meet the floor. I will need to repair this but have not yet. I think this is pretty solid and in good condition from what I understand many of these rigs have.

IMG_7755 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr
IMG_7758 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_7759 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_7757 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_7756 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

I should have taken pictures of the bed after I cleaned it. NO RUST and the original color is amazing with no fading since it has been covered its whole life.

IMG_7733 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_7734 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

[PDXk5]

I tackled the driver side hub. It was stuck in the locked position. I took it apart, saw that the gaskets had failed and the gears, spring and retainer were very rusted. I removed everything, dropped them in an acid etch rust remover and they cleaned up nicely. Greased everything, put in new O-rings and put it back together - everything works great now.

IMG_8132 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_8011 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_8136 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_8143 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_8146 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_8149 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_8150 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_8153 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_8154 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

IMG_8158 by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

Scrubbed the exterior of the hubs, painted them and got the rims painted and new rubber too...

image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

[notsolo]

Great photo's, Nice to see an original survivor. Thanks for sharing the hub break down.

[IronCanine]

Thanks for the photos. I really appreciate it. Awesome Blazer.

[Senorx]

Are those 31x10.50 tires? Nice pics and update. Keep em coming.

[PDXk5]

Originally Posted by Senorx

Are those 31x10.50 tires? Nice pics and update. Keep em coming.

They are 31x10.5 on the original stock wheels. It had smaller tires on it when I got it. They didn't look right so I up sized them a bit. Looks a little better now.

[Yukon Jack]

That is a really nice Blazer. Glad you're enjoying it! Don't see them that rust free very often.

[PDXk5]

So, hopefully I will not offend anyone moving forward with the next things. I want the rig to look original but be comfortable and a bit more fun to drive with advances that have occurred since 1972. I'm thinking of it as a resto rod.

I converted the rig to power steering (separate post). This makes the rig easy to drive and eliminated the excessive play! While doing this, I replaced the steering column to put in a tilt column and a SS Chevelle style steering wheel. I had troubles with getting the canceling cam to work correct and turn off the signals as well as getting the horn to work correctly but after much frustration, it's done and everything works.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...power+steering


Steering wheel by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

[cleszkie]

Very nice Blazer. I'm glad to see it stay in your family and end up in the hands of an apparently mechanically inclined person who will take proper care of it. Keep posting pics of the progress!

[DeadheadNM]

Very nice K5! Thanks for posting. I'll bet that OEM paint would really shine after a buff and wax. Check out this before/after pic of an OEM paint truck I recently had detailed: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...56&postcount=4

[PDXk5]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

Very nice K5! Thanks for posting. I'll bet that OEM paint would really shine after a buff and wax. Check out this before/after pic of an OEM paint truck I recently had detailed: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...56&postcount=4

I have polished/buffed the paint. These are pics without wax. When it has wax, it really shines. The paint is a little thin on the sides where the body lines slope in but for a vehicle more than 40 years old, I think it adds a nice patina. The paint on the hood is largely gone. Significant areas of the black primer is showing through. I would like to have the hood repainted to match the rest of the truck. I know it may be hard to match but think this is the approach I want to go.

image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

image by Luftwaffepdx, on Flickr

Not the best lighting conditions/photos but one can see the difference in the paint between when I first got the rig and what it is like now.

[DEISS]

Your Blazer is in amazing condition, lots of guys here are in envy, including me, of such a rust free survivor. When you get the chance would you post a pic of the options SPID on the inside of your glove box? Thanks, I'll be following along with your subtle and tasteful modifications, Jack.