2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating

[Advanced Design]

My wife and I decided we wanted a new project to update a bit before we jumped back into the 1948 Suburban build. My auto passion had taken a hiatus the last few years and has returned with a vengeance.

We started our search looking at several possibilities, only to be disappointed by untruthful descriptions from sellers.

Then we saw this blue and white 2wd K5 on a Friday. The Blazer had spent its life in the San Antonio TX area, had one owner since 1977 and was very clean. The seller provided great pictures, video and honest information. By that Sunday night we had driven 10 hours one way to bring “Garth” home.

[Advanced Design]

Garth was as rust free and in probably a bit better condition than described. Guessing the first owner had been involved in the aircraft industry or hobby in some way based on the patch on the hat, aviators and unopened pack of Camel cigs left in the center console. I’ve noticed some of the fasteners have been safety tied like aircraft.

[Advanced Design]

Garth, named for the original owner, was loaded up and hauled back to our place in Illinois.

[mongocanfly]

Great looking blazer Doug..!!!

[Advanced Design]

And 10 hours later on that Monday night we pulled into our shop. These trips were much easier to do 30 years ago!

And we will have more updates on the project soon. Our simple plan escalated just a bit.

Thanks for checking in!

[Willowrun]

'77's are cool and yours is very nice based on the pics. Following along as a fellow 2wd square K5 owner. Interested in seeing an under hood and interior shot before you start.

[rodstored-72]

ditto! will follow along as well!... nice looking blazer!

[Corts60]

What a great start! Nice rig.

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Great looking blazer Doug..!!!

Thanks Greg! We are flying pretty fast on this one…..we hope.

Originally Posted by Willowrun

'77's are cool and yours is very nice based on the pics. Following along as a fellow 2wd square K5 owner. Interested in seeing an under hood and interior shot before you start.

Thanks Willowrun! Glad you are following along. For some reason we missed getting interior shots and will be sharing what we do have. Oops!

Originally Posted by rodstored-72

ditto! will follow along as well!... nice looking blazer!

Thanks rodstored! Welcome aboard!

Originally Posted by Corts60

What a great start! Nice rig.

Thanks Corts60! Your Burb is awesome.

[Advanced Design]

We’ve had a number of Suburbans over the years though never a Blazer and are pretty excited about Garth. We put him on the lift to take a good look and determine the scope of the project / timeline we wanted to work within.

[Advanced Design]

The smart move would be to finish the 48 Burb project and for a lot of reasons my head and heart aren’t into that one right now.

So, with the years clicking by quickly we decided to take this one down to the frame and use reasonably nice parts to build Garth back with.

Our aggressive timeline goal is to make the C10 Nationals in Nashville for 2023. We went last year in the 72 Burb and had an awesome time. Anyway going to be a challenge to make that we know. Will try our best.

First step was to organize the shop and storage shelves.

We did a little test on cleaning the hood. And Garth came with a replacement fender for the one that is bent, likely from a tire and wheel coming off when driving.

Here is the only interior picture we have right now.

[Advanced Design]

With the extra help lifting the body and placing it on the body cart went smoothly.

[mongocanfly]

those outdoor pictures dont look like Illinois in Jan..!!!!
yall moving pretty quick on this

[lower50's]

Nice work so far! having a tractor helps a lot, must say I'm jealous.

[PowerdbyChevy79]

Clean Blazer.. great find!!!

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

those outdoor pictures dont look like Illinois in Jan..!!!!
yall moving pretty quick on this

We have had a decent run on temperatures aside from one cold snap this winter. Way better than the blizzard we had during the “Wire and Fire” event four years ago today, huh Greg?

Originally Posted by lower50's

Nice work so far! having a tractor helps a lot, must say I'm jealous.

Thank you! The tractor has been incredibly handy and has made some difficult tasks fairly easy. I need all the help I can get!

Originally Posted by PowerdbyChevy79

Clean Blazer.. great find!!!

Thank you! We really are enjoying this build with this solid of a start.

Once we had the body off the frame we hauled it outside for a good heated power washing. Lots of Texas dirt, engine oil and what appeared to be tar or undercoating covered the frame and suspension.

[Advanced Design]

We continued disassembly down to the frame and suspension crossmember.

Grandson helped us load components to run to neighbors farm to use their hot pressure washer to work on removing more gunk. He also helped remove some of the riveted on brackets and received a grandpa level class on how to do so.

The original frame wax is in good condition.

Then we dropped the frame off at the powder coaters and really didn’t like leaving it behind.

[mongocanfly]

G-kids sure have grown..!!!!!
I assume it's the same ones..

[evan]

Nice!

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

G-kids sure have grown..!!!!!
I assume it's the same ones..

Yep, same ones and they are really growing up. He is taller than me now.

Originally Posted by evan

Nice!

Thanks Evan!

After steam cleaning, the rear diff was better though needed wire wheeling which was done outside due to the continuing decent weather.

The pinion seal was leaking so I ordered one from local Napa store. The replacement was designed “thicker” and placed the seal deeper on the pinion flange. Had me a bit concerned though that part worked out ok. Throwing me off was this video about the pinion seals I had viewed….. https://youtu.be/eX-1MUTVnQ8

What didn’t work so well was when retightening the pinion, I went past the locations marks I made on the pinion gear snout, pinion flange and case. This crushed the sleeve more and increased the pre-load on the pinion gear bearings too much. Bad on me…..and the Milwaukee battery impact…wow did it move the nut quickly.

[Advanced Design]

I ordered the crush sleeve kit and since I hadn’t personally done a differential since about 1980, I viewed a couple good video’s to brush up, then dove in. The shim driver I fabricated made reinstalling the new shims simple.

Basically I tightened the pinion nut until the pinion had a rotational torque of 15 inch pounds on the used bearings, placed the same thickness new shims back in beside the gear carrier bearings and verified backlash.

Actually getting the pinion flange to tighten was a hurdle as there apparently was interference in the splines to the pinion gear splines. Multiple thorough cleaning and polishing with emory cloth resolved the issue.

[Advanced Design]

Threw the drum brakes back on, mounted the shop rollers and wife hit differential with a coat of paint.

I did explore using rear disc brakes from a late 2008ish Silverado. To make it work would require (I think) a new axle tube end and axle bearing flange in the tube….too involved for our timeframe. So I shelved that idea for another time or project.

Interesting was the leaf spring pin on the right side wasn’t seated in the saddle on the axle tube properly, probably from when new. Garth must have been dog legging a bit. I didn’t address the deformation as the lowering flip kit will put the spring under the axle tube.

[youngrodder]

Moving right along Doug. I can hear your AD Suburban swearing at you from here.

Marc

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by youngrodder

Moving right along Doug. I can hear your AD Suburban swearing at you from here.

Marc

Yeah, he is pretty p.o.ed, especially since he was moved to cold storage for right now.

We cleaned up the trans and gave it a painting too.

[lower50's]

You guys work fast. Looking good, fresh painted parts a nice.