My 74 K5 Blazer

[bmchevy1979]

Well I figured I have had it long enough to make a thread on it. I bought it on Tax Day 2013 It had been sitting behind a buddies barn since the 90's when one of our friends broke the frame and collapsed a valvespring on its 400sb
so I picked it up for $800 hoping it was out of the dmv system so I could use its pre-smog registration since I could not get my 79k5 street legal do to non-compliant smog equipment but it had a brand new motor with less than 50 miles so it became my parts truck and I decided to fix the frame of the 74 so the first thing I did after I got it home was pull the front clip and pressure washed all of the old grime and dirt off of it

[bmchevy1979]

Then I pulled it int the shop and began preparing the frame to fix and yes it was completly in two pieces

[bmchevy1979]

And with the help of four heavy rachet straps and three hi-lift jacks and of course tonss of measuring I managed to get the frame straight I welded it back together and plated it as well. then I pulled the top off and began cleaning up the interior as well as install my camaro tach and speedo

[bmchevy1979]

then came the fun part because while I was fixing the frame I had my cousin pulling my 79 to pieces between the two of us we managed to get both trucks ready in about 2-3 days pulled both motors cleaned and fixed frame of 74 pulled wiring harness and guage cluster from 79 and put everything back together except for front clip and interior of 74

[bmchevy1979]

finished it up while I was replacing wiring I upgraded the headlight harness with relays and everything lit up brighter. The registration was out of the system so had Highway Patrol inspect vin and $100 later she was on the road. drove it in its tri-tone paint for about 5 months then got a wild hair and threw a flat black paint job on it dont have any pics from when I first did it last pic is when I got new tires for it and put on the factory spoke wheels

[bmchevy1979]

Of course all summer I drove it with the top off then in august I put the six inch lift out of a 75 that I got. Ran it and wheeled it but decided it was way to stiff for my liking and in the mean time found out a fallen mulberry tree in my driveway is more stuborn than a stock steel bumper so I went to the old bumper off my 79

[silvereagle07]

Nice work! Running and driving good? I did like the original paint scheme.

[bmchevy1979]

and before I got the chance to change out the 6inch lift I had bigger issues I made a good cutaway of a th350 but I had plans for a change anyways I had gotten a sm465/np205 for $150 about 6 months earlier and had gotten pedals and linkage to complete that part of install. I shortend the front driveshaft myself and got it really close but it was not exactly right but I am able to move the truck just dont want to take it down the road to far no vibration dont want to take any chances work is 33 miles each way

[bmchevy1979]

put my old 2inch lift back in and made longer shackles out of 3/8" plate I had. installed trans tunnel and found the ground clearance issue I had forgotten about. and that brings it to current as of right now I am still waiting on a rear driveshaft to be able to drive it far and the 350 that I put in is telling me it does not like the stock components along with the performance ones but a built 400 is sitting at the machine shop getting the final touchs

[bmchevy1979]

Originally Posted by silvereagle07

Nice work! Running and driving good? I did like the original paint scheme.

Yeah I kick myself for painting over it should have just matched the fender and hood to the truck

[bmchevy1979]

Figured I'd add a few updates to this. I don't have all my pics available at the moment. But I have some. As you can see it got lifted up again but not as high as before I did a shackle flip in the rear using factory front spring hangers and another truck I had donated some 4in springs for the front and i finally did a 3/4ton swap with a 14bolt ff which had the same ratio as my front so I just went through my Dana 44 and swapped the 8lug outers over

[68Timber]

Last pic, love it. No school like old school...

[LT7A]

That's a great rig. It seems like the perfect candidate for a transition from beater to sweet driver. Whenever you uncover some of the original paint, maybe you can get it matched and slowly switch panels back over. I'll bet you can carefully sand off that black paint a little bit of time with like 1500 grit wet sandpaper. Maybe start with 2000 grit, but that many kind of be slow. 1000 grit, actually takes off an appreciable amount of paint in a short amount of time.. I think it looks cool now, but overall proportions and drivability would probably better at the 2 inch lift level if you can get the front evened out with the back. It's cool that you saved it, and looks like a rig that would be worth holding on to and making nice a little at a time.

[bmchevy1979]

LT7A I actually have the lower balance that goes under the grill that isn't painted over I swapped it for the straighter one. So when I decide to finally have it painted I still have a panel to get a good paint chip from