My 'kinda' finished K5

[Snake41_83]

Here are some pics of my K5. Purchased the truck in November of last year while I was still in Germany (got my dad and brother-in-law to go pick it up for me in Kansas City). It was in pretty good shape when I bought it, some rust in the typical spots and requiring a little mechanical work. The PO had apparently been tweaking the carb and lit the thing on fire. A large section of paint had bubbled off the hood, so he must have gotten it pretty hot. New carb, rebuilt 350 transmission, new headers to fix the pretty substantial exhaust leak with the old junk ones, basically totally new cooling system to fix an overheating problem that turned out to apparently be a bad guage, new tires to replace the dry-rotted old ones, new distributor cap/rotor/ignition coil/module, and currently in the shop to repair the currently busted Vintage Air AC.

Finally got the old girl back from the paint and body shop last week. Unfortunately, I haven't been doing a very good job of taking pictures during this process, but my body and paint guy took a few pictures of the repair process that I will post when I get 'em. I originally wanted to do the body work and paint myself, but as I've never done it before and this is my daily driver, decided it would be faster to have a pro do it.

Got all the new interior parts from LMC (radio from Best Buy). New sound/heat mats under all the carpet, rebuilt instrument cluster, seats out of a junked '03 Tahoe, original bed side panels, and other random repro parts from LMC.

Pretty psyched with the way it turned out. Still need to redo all the seats (just an O'Reilly's seat cover on the original back seat, it is a little rough underneath), thinking about some custom side panels in the back to mount those 6x9's, pre-positioned amp wiring under the back seat for a future sound-system expansion, and hopefully a 3 or 4 inch suspension lift and rebuilt front end in the future.

Still need to put the dorr sill plates in and the trim on the tailgate. The old tailgate was rusted beyond repair so it is a new tailgate with no holes for the trim. Not sure how to put the holes in it for the trim now without screwing up my paint Also thinking of putting black molding around it in the future, but haven't decided on that yet.

So now the old girl is rust free and running like a top. Gotta say I'm happy with it so far. BTW, it started out Yellow, but I couldn't bring myself to drive a yellow truck every day.

[Snake41_83]

A few more pics. What are everyone's thoughts on the moulding? Can't decide if it would look better with it or without...

[oldschool18]

I like the way it looks right now!

[My3Sons!]

Great looking K5! I love that color blue (sorry for all those who love Yellow, I'm with you on that one). It's such a great stock look, you should think about going with stock rally wheels, I think it would look perfect, especially with some bigger tires and a 3-4 inch lift!

[hilljob26]

wow,,even got the tow hooks,,nice rig

[ColoradoK5]

Nice K5 man I like the clean look myself.

[swyfor5]

I like the no side molding look myself. Going that way on mine, nice K5!

[Snake41_83]

Yeah, i think I'm leaning towards the clean look too. Plus it would save me a little money towards that 383 and 700R4 I'd like to put in it someday.

[rads42]

Truck looks great, awesome job so far. I'm of the opinion thought that the molding would look great. I think it give's it a more "finished" look. Truck will look great either way obviously but to me it looks like it just got out of the paint booth and you haven't put the molding back on yet.

[Snake41_83]

Got the truck back from the AC guy yesterday. Didn't realize AC work was so expensive, but it was worth it! Now I have cold air, don't know how people live in this central TX heat, man.

Next step is to fix my stupid fuel gauge. Put a new gauge in it when i rebuilt the instrument cluster, but that didn't fix it, still parked at 3 o'clock. I messed with it a little bit after work today and it seems to have a good ground, I guess I'll have to investigate further...

[red71cheyenne]

Good looking K5, I'd stay with no moulding. I went that way too. Your gas guage has a fuse in the box for the dash and check the connection to the sending unit as well.

[hotrodhomi]

It looks great.

[99-LS1-SS]

I vote no to the side molding. I think it looks very good the way it is right now.

[Dale99]

Looks great!

[Snake41_83]

Well you were right about the fuse box being the problem. I just went out and looked and found a mysterious wire running in to the intrument cluster wiring bundle from the fuse box, then I noticed an unplugged wire that I traced all the way back to the sending unit. Looks like the PO had ran a new wire from the sending unit to the fuse box and out of the fuse box to the intrument cluster. Plugged all wires in and the guage works like a champ now. Amazing, guess I should have paid more attention to the wiring!

There are still a lot of mysterious wires that are running here and there, most of them just cut and doing nothing. Wondering why all the wiring is screwy.

And thanks for all the compliments, I love driving my old Blazer. Get a lot of looks and thumbs-up from others on the road. After a new alternator and voltage regulator last weekend she has no problem running all the electrical anymore either. Drove three hours home Thursday night with the AC going full blast, radio cranked, and all the lights on. Running like a reliable daily driver!