Project: Blue Devil 89 K5 Blazer

[MrBeast]

So it is about damn time I get started on this. I have only had this rig since 2005, it is a 89 K5 Blazer, Actually though it only has about 115,000 miles on it.



There is a bit of a story attached to this rig, I bought it in California, loaded it up on my semi trailer, and hauled it back to Montana with me. I drove it there though 2005 and 2006, then in 2006 I hauled it to Texas and parked it at a friends house in Arlington. Then in the beginning of 2007 when I moved to Corpus Christi, my friends here were nice enough to bring it down for me.

I had not been using the truck very much, in fact hardly at all. The motor was developing a slight knock, so I opted not to drive it and it sat quite a bit. Then when my friends renters wound up losing the engine in their S-10, I sold them the blazer for way less than I paid for it so they would have a way to get to and from work, and it would get them to keep paying the rent to my friend who has been really really good to me.

Well unfortunately they didn't keep paying the rent, or the power, or anything else, they did however trash the house they were renting never taking out the garbage, and having 22 cats, 3 dogs, and a rabbit living inside the house.

I at the time was renting the detached garage next to the house from my friend and doing mechanic/welding work there. Well so it happens, the people didn't take care of the blazer either. They ran it out of oil a few times. They never really did any maintainence to it. (or clean it for that matter) and eventually the engine blew.

Well the guy, who is in really bad physical shape was in no kind of shape to fix the engine himself. So I called a friend of mine, who is a damn good machinist, and called in a personal favor. He actually volunteered to give us a crankshaft he had there for free, and he would turn it and chamfer all the holes, as well as give it a full shot peen, magnaflux and balance and he would build the motor, all we would have to do is pay for a set of pistons, rings, and a gasket set! Sweet deal right?

Well this wasn't good enough for the guy, he had the nerve to question the ability of my friend the machinist, and decided to let himself in to my shop, tear the truck apart himself, and when he was unable to reach the bolts on the back of the engine (because he weighs like 350+ lbs) he took a 3/8" drill bit and proceeded to drill a couple of hundred holes in the floor around the front of the tranny hump, and make what he called a "race car style access panel" I called it one of the biggest hack jobs I have ever seen.

By the time he had finished this great magnificent act of twittery, he had put himself into diabetic shock. Walked out of my shop leaving all the doors wide open for who ever wanted to come by and help themselves to any of the tools I have in there, went in the house and went to bed.

This is how I found my old truck and shop the next morning. You can imagine my level of anger at this point. But I choked it down, tried to do the right thing and make somthing good out of the situation. I helped get the engine out of the bay, and they hauled it down to a machine shop here in town, dropped it off, only to find out that the bores were scored bad, and I mean really really bad.



Well the guy then insisted that his mother was really sick, and that we needed to fix it for him. So he jumps on an airplane, flies to Oregon, never to be seen or heard from again.

The good thing was, he left his wife behind, so I was able to get my hands on the title before she skedaddled. So After all of that, I got my blazer back.

Currently in the Garage I have a 350 out of an 89 Suburban that I am going to install after I clean it up, throw a set of gaskets in it and paint it.

First though I will have to fix the giganormous hole in the floor, and get that right, as well as rip out all of the carpet because it is totally ruined. Luckily I think that the door panels, and side panels are going to be savable. But it will need a new head liner, and a dash pad.

Other goodies it will need are new wheels and tires, and I am going to redo all the brakes as well. I am considering stuffing a 8 lug 10 bolt and 14FF in it that I have, but I am a long ways out from there yet.

First things first, I am going to get it cleaned up and running right, then I will worry about the details like that.

My goal is to get it cleaned up and running good enough to use as my daily driver.

And to wrap it up, here are a few pics of it buried in the snow!





And the hole it came out of





I think I am going to wind up painting it all Royal Blue, Thus the name "Blue Devil"