Converting a k-5 4x4 to a 2wd

[skorpioskorpio]

Originally Posted by Jlo1986

Thanks for the input. The Blazers i have come across for sale in California, range from $3600 (no motor/tranny) on to 18k. I just figured that any blazer i purchase, i will want to paint and do interior, not to mention motor work. Hopefully i can find something that runs and relatively rust free for 5k.

If that $3600 one is completely disassembled under a car port. I know that truck, it was one of my candidates a year or so ago, it looked pretty solid, but too far away for me in the state it was in, me being in the other end of the state.

I was amazed how hacked up most of the trucks I looked at were.

If you plan on doing paint, you may as well plan on doing rockers and probably at least pillar patches, it's the nature of the beast unless you find a truck that has already had them done.

I don't have any decent before pics, but mine had no rust showing through on the rockers just 2 little bubbles about 3/8th" diameter in the original paint and only on the passenger side, this is what was behind the rockers:



..and this was after removing a 2 gal bucket of rust from both sides. The drivers side showed no outside signs of rust at all until after removing the carpet and sile plates. After blasting the A & B pillars below rocker level are basically gone. Bear in mind that originally there is a panel that goes from the floor to the torque box, and that panel was almost completely gone on both sides.

These are before pics of the other surprise areas, the windshield corners, look perfectly solid:



But after blasting the top edges are gone, and there is some Alpine Lace Swiss cheese action going on under the windshield gasket but it's minor. There is also a bit in the kick panels and under the passenger seat in the floor. Other than that there was no blow through anywhere else and not even a trace in the cowl plenum or bed floor. Anyway these are the areas to pay close attention to.

Here is a pic of the parts involved in a 2WD conversion with a trailing arm rear, using Porterbuilt components. There is also a Moser 9" housing, a CPP hitch reciever (used in place of the last rear crossmember) and a Hotchkis trailing arm mounted rear sway bar. Ridetech coilovers, Corvette Z51 brakes and CPP modular spindles are not in the pic, and this setup will put the truck at a ride stance of about 9" off the ground at the frame at the center of the wheel base with a slight rake with 28.5" tall tires. This setup starts with bare frame rails with all crossmembers, and any 4WD mounts removed, leaving only the body mounts, the furthest forward of which will need to be modified as it also serves as the front leaf support.

[MrGoodpliers]

Hey, Livrat, I have been thinking about converting my Blazer as well. The plan would be a Porterbuilt trailing arm crossmember, stock trailing arms, adjustable track bar and 5 or 6 inch drop springs. Due to the 4x4 frame being straight, where will the coil springs line up? I know that a bracket will have to be made for the upper spring mount, but I'm wondering if there is enough room for the mounting bolt on the outside of the frame. Any pics of some of the conversions you have done would be great.

[skorpioskorpio]

Originally Posted by MrGoodpliers

Hey, Livrat, I have been thinking about converting my Blazer as well. The plan would be a Porterbuilt trailing arm crossmember, stock trailing arms, adjustable track bar and 5 or 6 inch drop springs. Due to the 4x4 frame being straight, where will the coil springs line up? I know that a bracket will have to be made for the upper spring mount, but I'm wondering if there is enough room for the mounting bolt on the outside of the frame. Any pics of some of the conversions you have done would be great.

In a mild spring drop, Porterbuilt makes it 3 ways, coils on the trailing arm with inboard mounted shocks in front of the axle, inboard coilovers with no springs on the trailing arms or coil overs at the end of the trailing arms with outboard mounts. I purchased the latter....However they never did deliver the upper shock mounts, well they sort of did but they were all wrong and for something unrelated, they also sent me a crossmember for inboard shocks that I now have to cut up to remove the mounts. At first they sent me a setup for a 2wd frame, which was all wrong.

When you are talking Blazers and converting from 4wd to 2wd, inches of drop seems kind of nonsense, mine will be about a 12" drop from where it started, and still be able to (just) slide a long neck beer bottle under the frame at mid point with a 28 1/2 inch tire. That's about the same as my factory lowered ZQ8 sport suspension optioned Sonoma (which would sit an inch higher than that with the same tires). Mine started with maybe a 3 to 4 inch lift and 33x12.50s. That puts the top of the tire at about 2 inches below the fender lip with the tread 2 inches in from it at the top.

In the end I'm not sure I'd do Porterbuilt again but that's another story.