1988 K5 the "Big Blue" compromise

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I was at my desert place 2 years ago, and about 40 quail ran through the front yard- left a 6 foot wide blanket track of footprints in the sand- hundreds of yards long...
man! If that ever happens again and it’s not the season... sometimes self control is HARD

 

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After getting the new 35s rolling under the blazer, was time to get out on the trail and go explore!


The Lx450 I built for a good friend of mine. I would have liked to have bought that LX, but couldn't afford to build and operate the blazer AND a luxury Landcruiser at the same time.
SO it passed into the hands of a good friend of mine. we got it lifted, locked front and rear, arb bumper, and a CB installed so we could communicate in the back

This was near the area where i spent a lot of weekends camping, shooting, exploring in my young adulthood. There is a network of dirt roads that have been everything from old stage routes, to back entrances to missile testing sites that Lockheed would prefer nobody remember about.

 

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Crossing the big ruts brought my new tire rubbing issues to my attention. I wasn't too keen on tearing up the tires I had just dropped a grand on, and there was not going to be a taller lift in the Blazer's future, so the cordless Sawzall went into action.
I clipped off enough of the offending areas so as not to annoy me and distress the new tires for the rest of the weekend.

 

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Lots of steep canyons and ridge running out in the badlands. Towards the end of the day i stopped to hang out and have a beer, and found the truck wouldnt start again.
I'm not fond of the "oh F&%$ we are waaaaaaay too remote to get help now" feeling.
Couldnt figure out what was going on, so i hopped in the Lexus, and Jeff and I tore off in the dark looking for low roads and trails that might lead out of the area and back to the highway. The trails we took to get back there, were as steep and loose as either of our rigs could claw up and down, and crossed several steep ridges. Using straps and towing, there was no way we were going to be able to pull the blazer back out of the canyon where it was parked, and up steep trails, down again and across other canyons...

 

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We hunted for a while and came up to a locked gate that was about a 1/2 mile from the highway. We decided option A was to give another go at repairing, and option B would be to drag the blazer back the few miles to the gate, cut the lock, leave 20 bucks taped to it, and try to get back to the highway.

 

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Luckily, I sometimes have better luck finding things that are out of place when its dark, and a flashlight narrows my field of vision. Found the main charging wire had pulled out of the lug where it bolts to the alternator.
Funny thing is, my union electrician friend used his hydraulic crimping tool to "properly" crimp the lug onto the wire for me. Good job Bud! You talked a big game and I got stranded less than 2 weeks later!
I was able to disconnect from the battery, and stretch the charging cable out of the engine bay. It didn't take much effort to get the lug wiggled back onto the wire, held it on the bumper, and I used a rock and smashed the lug back down as hard as i could. FIXED! and its still running my Rock Crimp today- take THAT you overconfident sparky with fancy tools!!
The Lexus and Blazer were both happy to claw themselves back out of that valley and leave the way we came in. No need for gate and lock cutting.

 

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this was back in the spring of 2009 (i think).

I will say, I was not fond of standing on the edge of the slippery chrome bumper while trying not to fall out of the engine bay during trail repairs. This got the gears in my head turning for the next round of blazer projects and upgrades.

 

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The bumper is coming.

 

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but first, before the bumper... and part of the reason for the bumper... that damn tire rubbing!

this was the first time that I had made up my mind to start cutting into one of my trucks. It felt wrong!

I had already lopped off pieces of the front fenders while on the trail, and I wanted to clean it up - they looked very "not good". I Decided to recontour the entire rear of the arch, and then cut the hook/tooth/fang thing off the front for a few more inches of ground clearance up there.

 

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actually was able to peel up the trim, and lay it back down in a pleasing contour - then take a few measurements and repeat on the other side. The final trim position gave me a line to mark, and to cut to.

 

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The inner fenders came out while I was cutting, but I had no intention of leaving them out forever. I welded a lip back on to the inside of the new cut line, and then I bent and beat the inner fenders back until they touched the firewall/floor of the cab, and made new bolt mounts to keep them there. I don't think I have any photos of that, but final result had no sharp edges, and everything basically looks very stock -just with 3 inches of extra tire clearance over the stock fender's contour.

 

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you can see the final cut line in this one - and how much extra ground clearance did I get on the front corners when the fangs got trimmed? 3-4 inches? At first, I was going to cut those off even with the bottom of the grill -maximum ground clearance and better approach angles? - but after looking at it for a bit, I felt that going any further would start exposing too much core support and hardware- would look funny having all that exposed all the time?

On one hand, who doesn't appreciate the occasional flash from the drunk girl who can't manage her drunk life in a miniskirt? -but on the other hand, I don't really want MY truck being the drunk girl, and doing that 24/7, because that's just dirty.

So, I stopped cutting the front fangs and left them low enough to keep most of the naughty bits hidden, and I am happy with how it turned out.

 

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At this point we were putting a winch into the Lexus bumper and i was thinking about what to do for a bumper on the blazer, now that the front was a little higher.

I liked the way the front looked without a bumper at all, but the thought of running an unprotected fender directly into a dirt berm, or a snow bank seemed like too much body damage to risk. Sometimes you just need some ramming power, and i needed some kind of protection up there.

I liked some of the tube bumpers I had seen on the internet and on CK5... but i wanted a winch, and this is was not going to be a prerunner "go fast" kind of truck, so I kept looking.

 

[82355]

Cool rig. I would have loved to have bought that when you did.

As for no roll bar, nothing special there. I don't even know if the optional rear roll bar was still an option by '88.

All 1988 Blazers had V-belts, so that was not a low trim option either. The first year for the serpentine setup was 1989, and then all Blazers (Jimmy and Suburbans as well) had it.

The reason the radiator support had a punch out on both sides was because they used the same radiator support for pickups, Blazers, Jimmys, and Suburbans. The pickups with a six cylinder had the air intake on the other side. So there was a punchout on both sides, and they knocked the appropriate one out on the assembly line.

Martin

 

[scouthead]

Cool rig. I would have loved to have bought that when you did.

As for no roll bar, nothing special there. I don't even know if the optional rear roll bar was still an option by '88.

All 1988 Blazers had V-belts, so that was not a low trim option either. The first year for the serpentine setup was 1989, and then all Blazers (Jimmy and Suburbans as well) had it.

The reason the radiator support had a punch out on both sides was because they used the same radiator support for pickups, Blazers, Jimmys, and Suburbans. The pickups with a six cylinder had the air intake on the other side. So there was a punchout on both sides, and they knocked the appropriate one out on the assembly line.

Martin

well I'm glad they did that, because i love my "franken air cleaner dual duct ram air power jammer bammer"!

worked out well. matter of fact- I just found a carton from the last air cleaner element i bought - the tall one. STP SA3549

 

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a few posts back I mentioned liking some of the tube bumpers i had seen... with possible bumper builds and cage work on the VW buggies looming, I purchased a JD2 tube bender and a few sets of dies. The first thing i built was a perfect 360 degree ring out of 1.5 inch DOM. Not sure why- seemed like something to do and steel was less expensive back then. It's still hanging on the wall somewhere.

Also, the 2nd thing I built was a custom cart for my welder. I see it snuck into a few of the photos i just posted. I think Ive named it the RED TURTLE, and i will probably post a build thread for it soon because i have a bunch of photos -Where should i stick that? probably in the Tool forum?

 

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Anyway... THE BUMPER is coming

 

[82355]

well I'm glad they did that, because i love my "franken air cleaner dual duct ram air power jammer bammer"!

worked out well. matter of fact- I just found a carton from the last air cleaner element i bought - the tall one. STP SA3549

Yep. I never built the dual snorkel air cleaner like you did, but when I switched my 1988 V10 Suburban over to a serpentine setup, I switched my air intake tube over to the other side, and knocked out the punch out like you did.

Martin

 

[scouthead]

Yep. I never built the dual snorkel air cleaner like you did, but when I switched my 1988 V10 Suburban over to a serpentine setup, I switched my air intake tube over to the other side, and knocked out the punch out like you did.

Martin

I think i would have had to do that as well, but i used the serpentine brackets out of a car - i think it was roadmaster. The cars had less vertical clearance under the hood than a truck does, and the ac compressor and alternators were pushed a little out to the sides, but slung lower on the engine, so my snorkels still had a clear path to the core support.

 

[82355]

Mine were from a Camaro.

Martin