Picked up my 4wd 1995 back in April 2010 for $400. Has a salvage title and was in it's second accident as well as a dead transmission. 130K miles at the time.


I pulled everything that appeared damaged off the front and had to do some creative straightening to a lot of parts.


Pulled the trans after that and rebuilt it.


So by September I had been driving it a bit and it just looked cobbled together.


The muffler was rusted out while I was doing the transmission so it needed a home made 2.5" catback with a turbo muffler($40). It made the 4.3 sound like a 5.7


Fast forward a few years and the doors still would not open or close well since the pins had worn through the bushings and enlarged the holes. So I started replacing the hinges with ones off a Camaro. Word to anyone wiser than myself. Don't do this. It's way more work than it's worth.


As of today that is mostly done but still needs some final adjustments.

So far last year I got a roof rack made so I can haul 4x8 sheets of whatever on the roof.


I'll stop here and start snapping some completed photos because I have also installed a 2" body lift, 31" tires, a reciever hitch, and am working on the bracket for the 1-ton idler arm upgrade. All the while it's pretty much become a daily driver and have been fighting through the troubles of keeping an abused Blazer on the road.

Goals of this build are really to get a full size truck but until then this has to be capable of more than it was designed for.
*G80 rear
*Front reciever
*Winch
*Increase vehicle reliability

First task was moving this shed down the street, through a back yard, and pushing it sideways into my yard.

I'll admit that it outperformed the neighbors Rubicon across the street.

 

just bust out some rattle can and spray that fender red, should make a big improvement. winch is a good mod that thing has saved my butt more then once

 

That's the plan in the spring. I was going to do it this fall but time got away from me before the cold hit. I'll probably do the bedliner thing even though it's all messed up anyway. I'm starting to wonder about pulling the carpet and putting bedliner on the floor as well. Makes more sense anyway because it took me 3.5 years to clean the interior more than vacuuming out the fries from the P.O.

My brother-in-law seems to like buying off-road vehicles like a Landcrusier which is nickle and diming him to death as well as a Jeep which is not made for moving anything but itself.
Overall what I'm building is useless in Nebraska unless you make the drive to go wheeling.

On a side note, I came across some 1/2" plate the other day and am thinking it would serve a good purpose as a land anchor. Still thinking about the design since I can't exactly copy it but still need to get the geometry correct.

 

Got some good work done on the idler arm bracket so far this week. I seem to have made an error in one of my measurements so I'll have to get that corrected today.
It's all made out of 3/16" and each piece is milled to size so it wouldn't have that rough sawn lumber look to it. After the preliminary trial fitting I'll add all the gussets and extra plate for mounting that the other brackets seem to have. If it all works out I'll have my own bracket for $10.




As I had planned on originally, I will make up a drawing of what I have above with all dimensions. If anyone wants to recreate it, feel free, but you have to come up with all the rest as far as additional reinforcing to prevent it from folding over under steering abuse.

 

Got the corroded battery cable and leaking power steering hose replaced today as well as greased the front joints.
I made the corrections to the idler arm bracket so that's ready for welding next week. I wish it had been done so I could install it while it's warm this weekend.

 

Pulled out the rusted spare tire carrier yesterday. Hopefully I can get that to work again so I can have a spare tire for the first time. I'm mostly interested in getting it working to hold something heavy for traction in the winter.
Here's a few pics from the other day. Still nothing to look at but it gets me to work almost every day.

 

Still looks good with the lift/rim/tires even if the paints a little mismatched. At least its not like red and school bus yellow or some crazy color lol

 

True. I'm not a big fan of the body lift since it exposes a lot of the very rusted frame. There is not a square inch of it that is not rusted... not sure what happened to this thing in the past but it couldn't have been good. Probably drove gravel roads until the previous owner started college here.
I didn't have to change out the door but it was half covered in a good amount of bondo so I figured, why not.

I should have the idler arm bracket welded up today if I get some free time. After that it's ready for the trial fit and hopfully permanent installation soon.

 

I have the same color blazer that's just about ready for retirement. Engine has 320k on it with no major work. Just regular oil changes, trans service, and tune ups. I really like the stance of the blazer. Just start wire wheeling that frame and spray with under coating. Once all your trim pieces are back on, it will look good.

Rick

 

I had to test out 4 low for the first time. So far I have just enough approach angle in the front and rear to get the front up a good amount with the rear still at ground level.


I wish I had tried going all the way up but I'm afraid the receiver would have started dragging and I would be stuck.