HAVING OWNED MY 84 K5 FOR 22 YEARS THIS WILL BE ABOUT THE THIRD TIME I HAVE RESTORED IT.
THE BIG DIFFERENCE THIS TIME IS LOTS OF RUST. I STARTED THE PROCESS TWO MONTHS AGO BEGINING WITH THE TAIL GATE. I HAVE A GOOD SALVAGE YARD REPLACEMENT TAILGATE, WIND UP
TYPE. I'M REUSING THE ORIGINAL WINDOW. I PURCHASED A REPLACEMENT TAIL PAN. I'VE CUT OUT THE RUSTED AREAS OF THE BED FLOORING AND PILLERS. I CLEANED THE TAILPAN RUBBER MOUNTING INSULLATORS AND REFABRICATED THE METAL COVERS THAT ARE GLUED TO THE ROBBER INSULATORS.

TOMORROW I BEGIN ASSEMBLY OF THE TAIL PAN AND HOPEFULLY THE MOUNTING OF THE TAIL GATE, AND INSTALLATION OF THE WINDOW, TIME PERMITTING. IF THAT GOES WELL I'LL THEN CUT SHEET METAL TO REPLACE THE REAR BED FLOORING. THE OTHER THING I WANT TO DO IS FABRICATEINNER REAR FENDER SHEILDS TO KEEP THE BED FLOOR, TAIL PAN AND GENERAL REAR BODY AREA PROTECTED FROM THE WHEELS THROWING WATER, SNOW, MUD AND DIRT UP ON TO THE REPAIRED AREA.

AFTER I FINISH THE ABOVE I'LL BE MOVING ON TO REPLACING TRANSMISSION COOLER LINES AND EXHAUST. I HAVE THE NEW TRANSMISSON LINES READY TO GO IN. THE EXHAUST IS GOING TO BE CHANGED TO A 70'S DAUL EXHAUST FROM THE STOCK EXHAUST HEADERS TO THE REAR TIPS. I'LL HAVE TO RE-TITLE THE TRUCK WITH ANTIQUE TAGS TO LEGALLY BE ABLE TO DELETE THE EMMISIONS CONTROLS AND CATALITIC CONVERTER. SHOULD BE FUN.

 

Just a request, but could you please take off the caps lock? All caps is really hard to read, especially if you're going to type a lot...

 

Sorry about the caps. How rude! I think I was have way through my Post when I realized I had Cap Lock on.

 

Sunday night, I'm tired. Yesterday I installed the Tail Pan. Hardest part to doing that was getting to the carriage bolt nut which is part of the rubber pad assemblies that the Tail Pan bolts on top of. The nut is
located in the frame and totally surrounded by the frame and gas tank. To get a socket wrench on the nut there is a 2" hole on the bottom side of the frame. The problem I had was the bolt itself was too long and the wrench socket not deep enough. Had to shorten the bolts. Then after I got the pan in I was able to slide the hinges attached to the Tail Gate into the slots in the Pan and bolt the tailgate to the Pan and bolt it in Next I installed the Window into the Tailgate. Today I fabircated the replacement Rear Bed Floor. I use Gavenized steel from an Electrical Panelboard Box I got from work. I sawed the box up so I could retain the flanges on the side. Placed the new steel over the Tailpan and used sheet metal screw and glue to fasten everything together. Then the aluminumCarpet End Trim piece went in and the access panel cover for the Tail Gate went on. Looks good, windo rolls up and down and tailgate opens and closes. Only one problem I can't get the Deflector peice that goes between the Bumper and Tailgate in. I can either remove the tailgate or take the rear bumper off to get the deflector installed. Guess the bumper comes off tomrrow night after work. Problem is when ever touch something I find more things that need fixing.

 

Got the Deflector plate in tonight. Another nightmare. Thought I'd remove the rear bumper to fit it in but the bolts were froze and I was afraid I'd wind up breaking them off, so, wound up removing the tailgate.Deflector easily installed. However, reinstalling the tailgate prooved challenging.
The tork springs took alot more effort this time and after I got it all back together the tailgate was miss aligned. After trying everthing I could think of I finally found that the right Tork Spring had shifted and
was causing theproblem. There's a small tab on the plastic piece that the tork spring goes though
at the tork spring holder on the tailgate. There's a cutout on the edge of the holder that the tab on the plastic needs to align with. A few taps witha hammer to slideand turn the plastic piece to align with the holder solved the problem and and the tailgate now work perfectly. Next comes the Transmission cooling lines. Should be a peice ofcake as they are prebent. Maybe this weekend.

 

Back to work on my Blazer this weekend. Rolled it into the garage cause it rained most of Saturday. Had a tarp down on the garage floor under the Blazer and started working on the engine compartmen and front fenders. Basically a search and remove misson to knock loose rust off and see how bad things are. Used a shop vac to clean the the junk out. Looks like the inner fenders in the engine compartment are really bad and I'll plan to eventually replace them but for now I'm just going to cut most of the bad spots out and patch. The outer fenders actually look good and what I'm finding is the rust seems to be onareas or pieces that attach to the cab and fenders, remembering that the tail end of the cab was really badand I already tood care of fixing most of that. Moving on, I bought a new Battery and Battery Cables.After I removed the old battery I
cleaned up the Battery tray and sprayed it with CRV Zink anti rust spray. Goes on like primer, good stuff. Well I had the battery out I pulled the old cable out and cleaned up the area. Ran the 35" Negative cable to the engine and the ran the 54" positive cable to the starter. Hardest thing is bolting the positive to the starter solaniod which sit on top of the starter. Tight space to work a wrench in but do-able. Then put the battery in and connected the cables. Done! Then I proceeded to do the Transmission cooling lines. I had bought prebent tubing for this for both lines. I ended up having to cut them about a foot from the transmission connection point. I had them run from radiator to tranny ok but could not get the thread to go in at thetranny. It's such a tight area to work inI decided to cut the lines and use a splice pressure coupling at that spot. Made it much easier to get tne tranny connection done. So, on to the next thing. I need a new exhaust system and I need to do some body work prior to getting it painted. Probably order the dual exhaust and muffers next. Keep you posted.

 

While it is nice to read about the progress you are making on your rebuild, but I have to ask why this is in the DIY submissions section... Probably would do better in one of the tech sections or maybe I should just create a new "Projects" section.

 

I'm not sure I can answer your question. Either location works for me as long as the string continues. I'm not even sure how it originally moved to DIY.Geneally my thinking is to provide information on what I'm dealing with in restoring an 84 K5 with common rust problems. I'm not a professional restorer or mechanic so DIY fits. I'm open to suggestions or questions, your call. I'm OK with what ever you want to do, just let me know where I wind up so I can find it.

 

OK here's the latest. I fabricated some inner rear fender sheilds to block the rear wheels from throwing water, mud, stones etc. up into the rear tail pan and floor areas. Also, started pulling the side molding off the doors and fenders, I have new replacement trim that is in a role and will need to be sized and cut to fit. But for now I'm seeing some rough spots (rust) that was behind the trim. So, once remove I'll sand and primer in preperation for painting. Sure has a lot of rust in areas that can't be seen or repaired. This will cause me to consider how far to go with this project, or how practical cost wizs this will be. But, bottom line is I will have it on the road and will use it. The K5's are a lot of fun. I also have, for the sake of mentioning it, a 69 Chevy C10 Short Bed Pro Street that I built (I'm second generation original owner), in show condition and I have a 68 AMC/AMX class 2 condition which I show. So point is the Blazer is for something to do and have fun with. Anyone that would like pics of the trucks or car email me and I'll reply. If I was more computor savey I'd add them here but I can't figure out how. Tried but don't know where to find the picture's url and got a files to big error message?

 

Moving along, today I removed the Side Molding Trim. I used a Heat gun, Screw driver and Razor to pull it of the rear quarters, doors and front fenders. Came off slowly with alittle effort. I did this in preperation for eventual painting when all is ready. There were a couple areas that rust had occurred under the trim but all in all it's not to bad. I have a roll of new matchingtrim to replace the old trim, after painting is done. I also began removing the fender wheel well edge trim which is screwed on and comes off pretty easily once you break the screws free. I'm going to have to drill out some of the screws that are frozen. I'll remove other trim, as much as possible, and do sanding, patching andsome paintingwith primer, prior to turning it over to the Paint Shop. My K5 is Frost White with Burgandy Side Panels and I'm staying with this color combination. The original owner was a Fire Cheif.The red was repainted about ten years ago and still looks good except for a couple spots around the fenderwells. I'll prep those areas and try touching them up to see if I can reduce some of the cost by only having the Paint Shop do the frost white.