Just got off the phone with my buddy, and he's done all this before (not on blazers, but other cars) with the exception of replacing the brake lines. He thinks he has most of the tools we'd need too, but we're thinking maybe wait until the snow melts, and do it when he has more time this spring/summer.

My older brother has a Haynes Manual, as we had a K-5 when we were younger. He may be willing to lend a hand too.

The body is still in pretty ok shape, some rust but nothing horrible yet.

 

I am sorry, but if you ask me, your mechanic is bending you over. I agree most of these things are relatively easy fixes other than the brake lines but can be done. I would fix what you can, then take the list that you haven't done yet and shop around for other quotes. $2700 for that is nuts.

Good luck with it all!

 

My first Blazer was a purple '95...got it with 110k on it and drove it to 245k. Of course no rust here in Tucson. It went through front brake pads like crazy for some reason though...never did figure out why....I just replaced them yearly (12k-15k miles).

Calipers, rotors, pads, shoes, drums are pretty inexpensive. The steel brakes lines are probably available through LMC Truck or similar and probably not all that difficult or costly.

Replacing the rear diff cover is very easy; messy, smelly yes, but the gasket, and oil is like $20 and a new cover is about $25. Look at RockAuto.com and get prices for everything.

Good luck.

 

Does the leak from the diff cover mean there's some problem underneath it? or will replacing the cover after cleaning and replacing fluids probably handle it?

I took some pictures of the blazer just for posterity, but I don't have a place online to link to them. What site do most of you guys use? i.e. photobucket flickr etc

I'm thinking about documenting the whole process with some quick pictures with my phone and some "journal" entries.

 

The leaking rear diff cover is not uncommon and will almost certainly be fixed with a new cover and gasket. Just don't forget to break the fill plug loose before you take the cover off incase you can't get it out so you won't be stuck with a non fillable diff until you can figure out the best solution. Yes there are options if this happens but no need to go into that now!

I use photobucket to host all of my pics and its very easy.

If you decide to replace all of the brake lines I recently bought a complete set from here https://sstubes.com/ and I don't have any complaints at all. They come "pre-bent" and mostly ready to install with a bit of massaging to get them in their homes!

Go ahead and start a build thread to document all of your progress as you go. You don't actually have to "build" anything but you can certainly use it as a log and its also a good place to keep things in order and ask questions if you need help so people can easily go through your history and better help to diagnose a problem if something may come up.

 

Depends if your mechanic did a proper diagnosis. If the cover is just rusted through, cleaning and replacing should make it good again.

Just have a look at it. If there's a hole in the cover caused by rust, you should be on the right track.

 

Absolutely! We like photos and videos too!! I use Photobucket myself for photos. Youtube for video.

I think you will find the Blazer forum is very active and can be extremely helpful for pretty much anything that you want to do. A lot of good people here, and only a few that will give you any difficulty. There are no stupid questions here. But please get rid of the Haynes manual - they are worthless. Get a subscription to AlldataDIY for your vehicle if you don't want to pony up for a factory manual.