87 Lifted K5, budget find and now the fun begins

[bird7263]

Hello all, many of you I have talked with before. I have been lurking around the 73-91 K5 builds for a while. I am coming over from the 60-66 threads. Many of you know my Pabst Blue Ribbon bagged 66 short step.

This is my 4th K5 blazer I have owned. This will start my build thread. I found this gem for $2000. Straight, with the lift already on it. Newer TBI 350 and 700r4. It has 411's and runs very strong. The kid I bought it from took off the exhaust and used it for temporary mud truck for a few months. I picked it up and dropped it off at the exhaust shop before I even brought it home. Now it has all new 3 inch mandrel bent with no cat and a flowmaster. Next stop was the pressure washer at the local car wash. I did not want to leave the 20lbs of mud in my driveway. Today I spent about 3 hours shampooing the carpet to get all the mud out. The front clip was repainted and the back half is stock paint.

I have lot of buffing to do, to make them match. Everything works except for the passenger side window switch. I am on a mission to find a few interior parts like a passenger arm rest, window switch few more misc items. I will keep you posted as I start to really go through the blaz and add all my personal touches.

[cochino12]

Looks like a pretty solid start, dont forget the progress pics too.

[bird7263]

Will do, It snowed here today so I could not get much work done. Also I tested out my 4wheel drive today. Found out my 208 pops out of gear. I am hoping its just a linkage issue and not the drive forks inside the case.. Anybody ever adjusted this linkage before. How tight or how loose does it need to be?

[884x4Sub]

2 grand.......!
awesome deal for that truck......it blows me away what you can pick these things up for.

[big10ratrod77]

a boy at school just bought one just like it. man it looks like u got a good one i like it

[bird7263]

Ok, been a while since I updated. I have been busy with this and trying to balance a family with a 9 month old. God bless my wife for being an awesome mother and still letting me wrench when I have time.

So, I have gone through everything for the most part. Had a to put a new TBI on it, replaced both exhaust manifold gaskets along with the doughnuts gaskets. I chased down a exhaust that was driving me crazy. I was ready to drive it off a cliff and found out it was the EGR valve gasket. $.96 to fix that.. WOW. Cheapest fix for the most annoying thing on a rig. I have spent several more house shampooing the carpet and still have not got all the mud out.. I have at least one or two more sessions with the shampooer.

Yesterday and today I took advantage of no rain. I cut and buffed out the entire paint job. As mentioned before the front clip and been painted and the back was all stock with lots and lots of oxidization. Here are a few pics.

I am trying to decide if I want to run spare on the out rear tail gate rack or not. I like the look of clean with no spare but the mounts and all hardware are in place.

Let me know what you guys think. Or any other ideas you might have. I am going to eventually tint the front windows to match the back and also go with a Lund Moonvisor.

I will post up some better pics when I can get a sunny day. Thanks for looking!!!

[tvblazer78]

Nice Blazer!!

[Tony_SS]

that thing rocks! You guys up in OR and WA have all the good ones up there!

[bird7263]

Today I was able to get the dash mounted tach and nice dash mat put in place. I cant stand driving with out RPM's.

Does anyone have any experience with running a 35 inch spare on the tail gate rack? Seems kind of heavy. I dont want to crack the body corner where the swing mounts are.

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Damn sweet looking blazer nice score! I used to have an '81 just like that 4" lift 35"s it was a squeeze but if I remember right I had mine full spare in the back between the tailgate and the back of the seat no major problems with it there. Mine had a little surface rust on the back so I didn't want to try and mount the spare to the tailgate or I would have.

[Jonboy]

I had a similar spare rack on my '75. It was fine with a stock spare, but my "spirited" driving caused it to tear up the quarter pretty good with a 35 on it. I wouldn't chance it.

[bird7263]

Sooooo, Did I ever have a job. My top has some mystery leaks coming from it. My front carpet was all soaked(not to mention all mud stained, no matter how many times I shampooed it) from the leak. The kid I bought it from had just thrashed it in the mud when he was driving it. The padding was soaked and smelled like mold and mildew.

So I tore it all out and decided to start over fresh with what I had. So out came my pressure washer. I washed out the carpet. and put new sound deadner down. (Peel and Seal form lowes. Check out my build thread on my 66 for more info. Cheap and awesome) I also found the Top is leaking right at the 90's where it meets the cab and at the rear. I ordered new seals but really want to wait til summer to put them on. It rains like a bastard here in Oregon, but I really need the warmer weather for the weather seal glue to seat. Never fear I have some killer secret permatex window sealer the is thin and seeks out small leaks. That will hold me til I get the new seals on. I really want to linex the top while its off anyways.

Here are a few pics. I will post more soon. The pressure washer made my nasty moldy muddy carptet look new again. I also ripped out all the back carpet and am doing the same this weekend. I have have the front all put back in place. I also filled up a few cracks in the floor where the seats bolted down to with some fiberglass and extra hard resin and hardner. More pics to come.......

[justpball]

cool bro, it going to be nice!

[bird7263]

More work tonight. I had to rip up the factory black padding in the rear with the jute padding underneath. I was soaked and rotten. I have good carpet and jute padding for the rear, but I am gonna have to figure out how to make shift a thick pad in the rear similar to the factory stuff. I am thinking a thick rubber sheet from Coastal Farm then put the padding and carpet on top that way if it ever gets wet again, I can just take it all out quickly and let it dry and wipe everything out. Any thoughts?

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Looks like a hella of a job looks like its finally coming clean inside. Your idea about redoing it sounds good to me I think it would work well!

[bird7263]

So here a few pics of my rear going back in. I used 1/4 inch rubber matting from Coastal Farm Supply. Its $5.99 a linear foot. Who can beat that.. It fit perfect and is easy to take out if need be. Then I put the carpet and padding back in. I pressured washed the carpet first. It got all the stains out and made it look new again. More pics to come soon!!!

[bird7263]

Sorry. I posted the same pic twice. Here is the rubber matting I used before the carpet went back in.

[tvblazer78]

Wow that mat made it look a lot better, I should have tryed that for mine.

[yote1234]

man, where do you guys find such nice blazers?? im looking...