UPDATE 11/11/10: Tons of progress pics start in Post #21. We're making good progress with the interior!

My 16yo son and I are rebuilding an 84 K5 Blazer (also have an 82 donor). Between the 2 trucks there's about 1.7 fully running trucks. The 82 is donating the rear axle and some interior parts, and will serve as a backup engine/transmission/transfer case (got it for $600 and it runs great)..

The 84 has a Chevy Crate Engine (350) with intake manifold, 4bbl Edelbrock, upgraded ignition, stainless steel gas lines, etc. and some dress-up parts as well.


Here's the plans:

Within 1 month:
Swap rear end.
Clean up and make sure the crate engine is ready for starting (has been sitting for 8 months)
Strip Interior
Restore Dash (needs dash cover and we're changing the color of the metal portion, plus the instrument bezel is being re-done)
Herculiner the back end (from rear seat back).
Dye/paint the interior trim
Swap headliner
Find new seats
Restore back seat
re-cover door panels
Replace ignition cylinder and door lock cylinders
Replace carpet

At that point we will make sure it's running 100% before having it painted. The truck is about 99.5 un-rusted, it's extremely clean including the frame. There's some very minor door-ding type dents and one very small dent on a rocker panel.

We're thinking Smoke Grey Metallic, or a very Silver Metallic.

After paint, there's a bunch of small things, like we'll replace all the turn signals with new, and probably a nice billet grill. Tint windows. And some other stuff.

Our plan, within 3 months, is that it will be a new-running, fully "restored" (although not totally original) truck with upgraded interior (power seats, etc.).

Will post up some pics soon and will post pics as we go along.

 

Oh Yeah, in case you are wondering what "BAB" stands for... Big A$$ Blazer... since most people think of Blazers as little SUVs, we wanted to make sure people know this is a big one!

 

JEREMYG, you can use edit to not double post... But it sounds like a good idea, I would be very interested in seeing it develop... Also, lucky kid... gets to help build a blazer!

 

yeah sorry about that...

But yeah, he's excited... he has baseball practice every day at 9am over the summer and since it's 108 degrees around here, the best time to work is early morning...

Tonight he said he's going to be waking up 30 minutes early for the next week and going out to remove all the interior pieces and to clean up the floors in prep for new carpet and Herculiner for the rear.

 

We want pics

 

Alright, as promised...

A couple exterior shots:




It's not really a GMC, it's a Chevy - that's just a replacement grille (which will be replaced again during the project).

 

Interior prior clean-up:

 

Then, we spent just shy of 2 hours doing the following:

- removing seats
- removing all trim front/back
- remove rubber floor coverings
- a little bit of carpet removal (most is gone, got about 1/2 of the remaining out)
- started to get the roll cage unbolted but the bolts are rusted so sprayed some PB Blaster on them and that will be worked on later

But most importantly GOT THE REAR CAP OFF.

Let me tell you, this truck looks SWEEEEEEET without the cap. We're half-considering not even re-doing the cap and leaving it off...

That's my son in white, and his friend next to him...

 

And finally, the interior cleaned of major stuff... still needs to be actually "Cleaned"..

Coming from the midwest and remembering the 66 Belaire that my dad and I put together, I'm amazed at how little rust is on this truck...

 

Oops, I lied... 3 more pics...

Instrument cluster



And door panels - don't worry these are coming out next and will be completely re-finished:







Also decided today that we're going to work AT NIGHT instead of in the mornings. Even at 9am the sun is SOOO hot out here, the tools get too hot to touch after even 2 minutes sitting in the sun.

So tomorrow night... off goes the roll bar and the door panels, and also taking off the seatbelts and the trim under them. May possibly get to the dash cover as well.