Calling all K5 junkies! My K5 Blazer Build
 

Last week I picked up my second 89 Blazer, but this time I got a fullsize.

A little bit about the truck, I bought it for $800 fully knowing that it was going to need a lot of work. The truck has 155K on the body, and it has 28K on a brand new GM Goodwrench TBI 350 that runs strong, transmission shifts great too and the NP241 works great as far as I can tell. The guy that I bought it from had it sitting under a tree in his yard for at least 3 months maybe more with all the windows down, pretty much ruining the carpet. The guy bought it for parts and really wanted the engine out of it, but listed it for parts, but I think its just too good to let go for parts or scrap.

Whoever had it before him did some serious things wrong to the poor thing, trying to patch it up and get it to pass inspection one more time to get more use out of it, and this pretty much killed a lot of it.

Anyway, I picked it up and it started right up and drove away fine, but ended up springing a leak in the fuel line at the fuel filter so I had to get it towed the rest of the way. It stops, but only the front drivers side brakes are working, and it needs brake lines bad.

Once I got it home, I started to clean it out and try to get rid of some of the junk that was in it, and get the dust and dirt out of it so I could start gutting it. Couldn't really do much though because it was dark out.

The next day I jumped it and got some gas in it so I could move it under its own power to the backyard so I could give it a bath and get all the fallen leaves and branches off of it from sitting under the tree and it actually cleaned up pretty nice.

After that, the gutting began. I started to rip up the carpet and tear the trim off so I could get access to the sheetmetal to see how bad things were underneath. Strangely enough, I found I wasn't the first one to have done this to this Blazer. Evidence of someone else doing the same thing was everywhere. Under the carpet, it had a rubber matting all around everywhere, and then under that was carpet padding like what you would put in your house. Now, I've never seen anything like that in a car, so I'm assuming that its not factory?

Then once the carpet and everything was up and the seats removed, I started to find their handy work from before. There is pretty much rust in all the places that you would expect. The front floor pans aren't terrible, but they do need some work. At the back of the front floor pans is getting a little bad, but I don't think its anything that can't be fixed. Around where the truck bed flooring starts where the back seat is, there is rust on either side in front of the wheel wells where the under floor braces are, but the braces are still there and in tact so thats good. Usually they're gone when dealing with something like this.

The actual trunk floor is pretty good until you get to the back. There is one tiny hole where it looks like the floor bolts to the frame, but again it can be patched up. The worst of the rust though is in the back of the floor at the tailgate. One of the previous owners has the tailgate on welded metal bars onto the back of the Blazer and the sides of the truck to make it work, and really its sturdy, but not right at all. The rust is bad on either sides, and there are sizeable holes on either side, the passenger side being the worst. The rest cross member of the back of the floor is starting to rot out on the passenger side, so something is going to have to be done to keep it all together like it should be.

It needs new inner and outer front fenders, but those aren't bad. It has new rocker panels on it so those are good or will be once I get them cleaned up. The worst part up front is in the door jam on the passenger side door. There is a hole about the size of your fist in the door jam up the back of the door. I still think that it can be properly patched up though, and a new bigger rocker panel looks like it would cover most of the hole itself.

The good news about the Blazer is that the rest of the body isn't bad yet, and is still very solid. The frame is perfect with only slight surface rust with no holes or bad spots. It has a new cat-back exhaust on it, but its just too quiet, so I will end up replacing it with something louder, probably true duals, but thats a ways away yet. When I drove it the few short miles that I did, it rode smooth and drove nice. The engine runs strong and accelerates smoothly, and the transmission shifts really nice.

For $800 I can't complain. I got what I paid for, but I wanted a project like this so I could make it my own and do all the work myself. If it wasn't for the floor, this Blazer would be in excellent shape for the year and what it is, and apparently how badly it was neglected in the past.

This Blazer is a Silverado trim, so its top of the line and you can tell. Its pretty much loaded. Power windows, locks, rear power window, AC, and AM/FM Cassette with equalizer. On top of that, its got shields over the transfer case, and the gas tank, heavy duty suspension with dual front shocks, heavy duty towing package, heavy duty brakes, heavy duty battery, heavy duty cooling system with transmission cooling lines, and oil cooling system.

Wanted to see what everyone on here thought about it, and what I should tackle on it first. As of right now its completely gutted minus the dash out back drying out.

Let me know what you think!

Attachment 32502

Attachment 32503

Attachment 32504

Attachment 32505

Attachment 32506

Attachment 32507

Attachment 32508

Some shots of it with the Camaro

Attachment 32509

Attachment 32510

Attachment 32511

Attachment 32512

And for the gutted interior

Attachment 32513

Attachment 32514

Attachment 32515

Attachment 32516

Attachment 32517

Attachment 32518

Attachment 32519

Attachment 32520

Attachment 32521

Attachment 32522

Attachment 32523

Attachment 32524

Attachment 32525

Attachment 32526

Attachment 32527

Attachment 32528

Attachment 32529

Attachment 32530

Attachment 32531

Attachment 32532

Attachment 32533

Attachment 32534

Attachment 32535

Attachment 32536

With my Silverado

Attachment 32537

Attachment 32538

Attachment 32539

Attachment 32540

Attachment 32541

Attachment 32542

Attachment 32543

Attachment 32544

Attachment 32545

Attachment 32546

I went junkyard jumping today and went to three different junk yards in the area, and I can honestly say that all the other Blazers around here are in a lot worse shape than this one, despite all the works that it needs. These things are just really used for what they are, and that doesn't always mean longevity for them...

ha yeah i was just gonna post ive owned way worse then that. what ive learned from now on is to just go down south and buy them and the funny thing is they are usually the same price, you pay about 1500 here for one with rotted floors and you pay 1500 for a solid one down there with dings and faded paint.

i picked up my body and frame from mississippi for $350 off someone who stripped it and was just gonna scrap it. im so sick of rust

Yeah if I could have went and got one from down south I def would have, but that wasn't in the books so it didn't happen. I'm not sick of rust, just kinda tired of it always showing up on everything around here seemingly overnight.

The guy that got this was going to take the engine and tranny/transfer case out of it and scrap the rest, but I would have hated to see this thing get scrapped away. It still has life left in it, it just needs to be taken care of properly.