Desert Storm
 

Desert Storm:

96/97 Blazer 4 door 4x4
(can never remember which year it is lol)

Right now desert camo paint job.. soon to be hot rod black

Got the truck for $600 as a cheap daily. needed tires badly so i put new tires on it. Besides paint havent really done much else to it so far while trying to figure out which way i want to go with it.. here are some pics of the progress on it so far.

When i first got it.. nasty faded red paint job..

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1384454845

Offroading behind my shop!

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1384454845

Camo spray paint job in progress w/ new tires!

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1384454845

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1384454845

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1384454845

Doin Work and pullin bushes!

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1384454845

Front end taken apart to build my custom grille/bumper for it

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1384454845




That is all the progress on it so far.. more to come very quickly.. i have one of my body techs looking into fabbing up some leaf spring shackles and then i will crank my t-bars, install the shackles, and align it. hopefully a body lift will be in my near future as well

Next paint job will be an actual paint job and will be satin black!

The paint job is kinda cool. Good work.

I think that's a 95-96. They updated and changed the front end in 97.

How many miles? I like the camo paint too

acutly 95-97 have 2 differnt headlights 98-05 had the updated version.

its got a lot of miles.. i am fortunate i live very close to the shop i work at so i only drive about 50 miles a week. It had 214k when i bought it back in march and now has just over 216k.

and thank you for the compliments on the paint job.. i thought it would be different to do and it definently looks a TON better than that faded red when i got it.. but i have grown tired of it. lol good thing it only cost me $75 lol

What colour are you planning on painting it?

i am going to be painting it Satin Black. I have looked into it and done a lot of research and talked to my painters (it helps working in a body shop lol) . I am going to be using the John Deer Satin Black tractor paint. From what i have read the hot rod blacks have a tendency to turn chalky over time and i do not know how durable it would be to off road use. The tractor paint would work best because i park the truck outside all day and should stand up to the abuse of off roading.

wow. long time since i have updated this. since the last time i posted i have a 2.5" suspension lift, 2 " body lift, 31" federal mud tires. the biggest news to report is that i am picking up an 89 wagoneer parts car this weekend. deal is done, just gotta get a trailer to go pick it up. will be using that as a donor to swap in the dana 44's. will be using the sky sas kit and probably the ORD shock hoops. plan on doing SOA and hopefully enough room to run 37's.

any pictures of the new look?

the last one is before the body lift.

https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1439901397

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...pswmcmhk56.jpg

Attachment 30770

You sir may have found just a bit of mud ;)

Nice shots

yea. i did. it was so sloppy that my buddy with an F350 lifted on 42s got stuck twice trying to get around to me. oops. lol

on a sad note.. the guy with the wagoneer sold it out from under me.. so back to the search for axles now.. maybe i will just look and find some 2.5 ton axles and build a beast out of it.

anybody here swap the rockwell axles into their blazer?

ok. been a long while since i updated this. have had a ton of fun wheeling this thing.. The time has come to get rid of the IFS and upgrade. Solid Axle swap in progress...

Donor Truck:
1985 K5 Blazer

ordered 4.88 gears (front and rear)
mini spool for front (has manual hubs)
already equipped with G80 rear locker
37" Goodyear Military MTRs
16.5x8.25" steel procomp wheels

Still need:
NP241C transfer case with VSS option

axles are coming out of K5 this weekend and will start tearing them down to find out what replacement parts are needed during the rebuilds.

Pic is of donor truck.

trying to decide if i want to buy the SKY OFFROAD sas kit or just fabricate my own...

If you have the ability fabricate your own. The sky front hanger it's great but their rear hangers aren't because they force you to mount them below the frame rails. I have the sky hanger up front but I went outside the box and used Ford ranger rear shackle hangers for the rear to tuck them up inside the frame.

It has been a while, I had almost forgotten about this build.

update: picked up tires saturday. they are massive. pulled and sold the factory wheels off of the K5 yesterday. started pulling the axles out yesterday. will finish pulling them tonight so i can start tearing them down for the gear change. (my three year old next to tires for reference lol)

It's funny how when you buy your blazer and upgrade to 31s you think damn these are big then you do an SAS and get 37s and your like well s*** these 31s are tiny! Then you get stupid like me and go to 40s and think man 37s are so small lol. Here's one of my 40s next to a 37.
https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1456177403

I think those are bigger than my CUT rear tractor tires!!
:icon_eek:

gears and install kits showed up yesterday! also picked up some orange high heat engine paint to paint the axles and leaf springs with!

anybody paint leaf springs before? should i take them apart to paint them? or just paint them still together..

I just hit mine with black paint anytime I'm in the area and have a can of paint in my hand lol! It's your truck but are you sure you wanna go orange under there lol!

yea. new paint scheme will be black and orange. roof will be orange, body will be black rhino liner, suspension will be orange, and thinking about orange wheels (will probably just use plasti-dip at first to make sure i like the wheels before i paint or powdercoat my brand new pro-comps)

update.. finally got the k5 body/frame out of the garage. pulled apart the rear diff yesterday. fluid actually looked fairly clean, and very little metal shavings on magnet. locker looks in excellent shape as well! going to install the new gears this weekend and replace the brakes on it. first time doing gears.. have done a lot of research so i think i have a pretty good understanding on how it goes.. wish me luck! next friday i will be ordering the sky sas kit for it. thank god for bonus checks! lol

so... lost my job a week after my last post.. project has been at a stand still since no extra money coming in. BUT now i am working again, so once savings is built up a little bit more the swap shall continue!

Rex actually gave me his old stock ones. I just painted them all together. So far it is holding up okay.

Sorry to hear about the job loss... Congrats on the new job!

I have painted my 3 or 4 different sets of leaf springs while together. Hell I am to the point where I just touch up everything under my truck with a rattle can whenever I see a faded area and I do it without much discretion for overspray on anything from the body down lol!

I've done them both ways.

If you're going for a "high quality full restoration," you might want to take them apart. If you'd rather be driving it, you don't have to disassemble.

Any rattle can will do for painting them assembled. Maybe put a touch of Vaseline in the groove between the leaves, to keep the paint from sticking them together, and then clean it all off after paint.

If you want to take them apart and paint all the surfaces of all the leaves, the best thing I've found is brush on Rustoleum paint, first coat(s) applied normally, following the directions, but for the last coat, I "thin" the stuff 10-15 percent (one part in ten or maybe one part in eight) with straight 30 weight, non-detergent motor oil. The oil gives a bit of slip to the surface, and takes away from the tackiness that Rustoleum paint is known for. Also, if you have them apart, replace the little plastic/nylon pads at the ends. Doorman has replacements, available almost everywhere pretty cheap.

If you get paint on the rubbing surfaces of the leaves, there's always a potential for squeaks and noises. Be careful. That's why I mix oil in the final coat, to avoid excessive squeaks and groans.