BluewaterFX
Registered Member
Well, jumping on the bandwagon, figured I'd start a build log. My dad had an 86 K5 which he got rid of for a s10 jimmy in the early 90s. I loved that truck, went through a series of vehicles and never really seemed to care for any as much as I did the old K5.
With some thought and a touch of reminiscing, I'd realized I wanted my own K5 and set out to find one, days turned into weeks and they turned into months of scouring craiglist. I'll point out that in this area, anything 4wd is "hot" right now, mid 90s Z71s, ragged out are selling upwards of 4 or 5 grand. Every teenager is driving one. So finding a K5 that wasn't ragged out and priced reasonably made the search tough. I'd inquired about several and things always fell through. One Friday evening Im surfing the local craiglist areas and come across an 1982 K5, looks pretty clean, body looks straight and its at a dealership...$1800. Monday rolls around and I call first thing, 8am, ask them the initial questions, trying to get a feel if its worth my time to drive the hour to look at it. By lunchtime Im walking into the dealership asking for the salesman who posted the ad. Shake hands and walk around to the back, he hands me the keys, give it a 10-15 minute test drive, get back, check the 4WD, check all the fluids, everything checks out pretty good. Talk him down to 1400, (1700 w/ taxes/tags/titles). I pay cash and drive it home, 72 miles and it didn't skip a beat, idled a little high but quieted down once she warmed up.
Here she is the day I got'er home.
MeMa's Blazer...(Im not MeMa, and that plate is gone
) hopefully that means it was babied by an older woman. Which 2 months or so later, seems to be the case.
A friend of mine had been dodging a debt for some time and I knew he had a set of wheels he'd pulled off his IFS rig, albeit a set of 20s on 33" nitto MGs. I gave him a call asking how much he wanted...$50 more than he owed me, so for $50 bucks I got the wheels and the 33s. I also have a set of 35" nitto MGs with ~75% tread left off my previous truck. Some of you may of seen the post I made inquiring about spacers, was going to have new studs tapped in as recommended but realized I'd need spacers anyway with the offset on the wheels, so I took that route.
In the meantime, waiting on the spacers to come in, I'd started the bodywork and prepping it for paint. Nothing fancy, gonna be a weekend toy, something to play in the mud with. Phantom grill came in, got that on:
And finally got in the spacers, so got the wheels on, completely stock ride height and scrubs just a touch on a quick hard turn.:
After a week or so of sanding, primering and prepping I feel ready to spray. At this point I'd planned on getting a new hood and new tailgate. Since then I've decided "f--- it" and just going to spray them and rock it the way it is for a while. Here it is, flat black with a matte clear.:
And new tail lights
I was pretty sold on the truck being a 5.7, but a mechanic buddy seems to think its a 400 and not the original motor. Either way, its weak as piss with 3.08s.
A week or so passes and I drive k5 over to some property where I hunt. Haven't had any mechanical issues with it since I bought it up until this point. Drove to the back of the field, put out some corn, hopped back in the truck...wouldn't turn over. It sounded like it wasn't getting fuel (and the battery was dead). It has a new battery so at this point, my suspicions were confirmed that the alternator was bad. I had a friend come jump me off and the truck sputtered and spit the whole way home...fuel filter. So, went to the parts store, bought a new high output alternator, fuel filter and some other general maintenance stuff. Came home, pulled the transmission pan, new trans filter, new oil, put in the alternator and the fuel filter. Truck started up and drove the best its driven since Ive gotten it, so I was pretty excited to say the least.
Went and put 40 bucks worth of gas in it and made it 50 yards are so and it cut off, sputtering and spitting and couldn't get it cranked up. Sounded like it wasn't getting fuel...again. So, walked back to the gas station, poured some fuel in the carb and it fired up after some babying and ran like a dream, drove it 15 miles or so to a buddies shop to have him help me try to diagnose the problem, after looking it over, I got in and went to crank it up...nothing.
Gave it 20 or 30 minutes to "cool off" tried it again...still, it'd turn over but just wouldn't fire up. Pulled a wire and checked to see if it was getting fire...notta. So at this point, I'd collected some parts and figured it was time to do some stuff. New edelbrock intake, holley carb and rebuilt the distributor. So I got everything finished up and went to turn it over...nothing. Pulled a wire, still not getting any fire at all. Made the decision to ditch all the ESC junk and go back to the dinosaur days. 3 or 4 days pass and the distributor arrives, new plugs and wires go in as well.
Had it 180 out initially, turned the motor over, dropped right back in and fired right up. Went back the following day, set the timing and drove it home. Idles a little rough now when its "cold" but purrs like a kitten once its warm.
I do decals for a living, mostly boat lettering and related work but had some left over carbon fiber vinyl from wrapping some dash pieces, did a set of 4x4 decals featuring Jake (the corvette skull) for a kind of "ghost" look on the flat black.
And thats how shes sits right now, got a 3" bodylift waiting to go on...waiting til funds allow and Im gonna buy the suspension lift and do it all at once. Gotta get rid of these damn 3.08s, gonna swap out the factory 10 bolts and 1/2tons and look into new gears. I don't care much for the wheels, plus coming off an IFS rig, the center caps on the rear but not the front just don't do it for me. So, gonna trade the 20s and both sets of tires for a smaller wheel and ~38"s once the lift is done.
The next immediate project is to completely redo the sound system, got all the stuff here just been under the weather lately. DVD in the dash, 6.5"s in the rear seat area, new 6x9"s and two 12" subs.
With some thought and a touch of reminiscing, I'd realized I wanted my own K5 and set out to find one, days turned into weeks and they turned into months of scouring craiglist. I'll point out that in this area, anything 4wd is "hot" right now, mid 90s Z71s, ragged out are selling upwards of 4 or 5 grand. Every teenager is driving one. So finding a K5 that wasn't ragged out and priced reasonably made the search tough. I'd inquired about several and things always fell through. One Friday evening Im surfing the local craiglist areas and come across an 1982 K5, looks pretty clean, body looks straight and its at a dealership...$1800. Monday rolls around and I call first thing, 8am, ask them the initial questions, trying to get a feel if its worth my time to drive the hour to look at it. By lunchtime Im walking into the dealership asking for the salesman who posted the ad. Shake hands and walk around to the back, he hands me the keys, give it a 10-15 minute test drive, get back, check the 4WD, check all the fluids, everything checks out pretty good. Talk him down to 1400, (1700 w/ taxes/tags/titles). I pay cash and drive it home, 72 miles and it didn't skip a beat, idled a little high but quieted down once she warmed up.
Here she is the day I got'er home.
MeMa's Blazer...(Im not MeMa, and that plate is gone
) hopefully that means it was babied by an older woman. Which 2 months or so later, seems to be the case.
A friend of mine had been dodging a debt for some time and I knew he had a set of wheels he'd pulled off his IFS rig, albeit a set of 20s on 33" nitto MGs. I gave him a call asking how much he wanted...$50 more than he owed me, so for $50 bucks I got the wheels and the 33s. I also have a set of 35" nitto MGs with ~75% tread left off my previous truck. Some of you may of seen the post I made inquiring about spacers, was going to have new studs tapped in as recommended but realized I'd need spacers anyway with the offset on the wheels, so I took that route.
In the meantime, waiting on the spacers to come in, I'd started the bodywork and prepping it for paint. Nothing fancy, gonna be a weekend toy, something to play in the mud with. Phantom grill came in, got that on:
And finally got in the spacers, so got the wheels on, completely stock ride height and scrubs just a touch on a quick hard turn.:
After a week or so of sanding, primering and prepping I feel ready to spray. At this point I'd planned on getting a new hood and new tailgate. Since then I've decided "f--- it" and just going to spray them and rock it the way it is for a while. Here it is, flat black with a matte clear.:
And new tail lights
I was pretty sold on the truck being a 5.7, but a mechanic buddy seems to think its a 400 and not the original motor. Either way, its weak as piss with 3.08s.
A week or so passes and I drive k5 over to some property where I hunt. Haven't had any mechanical issues with it since I bought it up until this point. Drove to the back of the field, put out some corn, hopped back in the truck...wouldn't turn over. It sounded like it wasn't getting fuel (and the battery was dead). It has a new battery so at this point, my suspicions were confirmed that the alternator was bad. I had a friend come jump me off and the truck sputtered and spit the whole way home...fuel filter. So, went to the parts store, bought a new high output alternator, fuel filter and some other general maintenance stuff. Came home, pulled the transmission pan, new trans filter, new oil, put in the alternator and the fuel filter. Truck started up and drove the best its driven since Ive gotten it, so I was pretty excited to say the least.
Went and put 40 bucks worth of gas in it and made it 50 yards are so and it cut off, sputtering and spitting and couldn't get it cranked up. Sounded like it wasn't getting fuel...again. So, walked back to the gas station, poured some fuel in the carb and it fired up after some babying and ran like a dream, drove it 15 miles or so to a buddies shop to have him help me try to diagnose the problem, after looking it over, I got in and went to crank it up...nothing.
Gave it 20 or 30 minutes to "cool off" tried it again...still, it'd turn over but just wouldn't fire up. Pulled a wire and checked to see if it was getting fire...notta. So at this point, I'd collected some parts and figured it was time to do some stuff. New edelbrock intake, holley carb and rebuilt the distributor. So I got everything finished up and went to turn it over...nothing. Pulled a wire, still not getting any fire at all. Made the decision to ditch all the ESC junk and go back to the dinosaur days. 3 or 4 days pass and the distributor arrives, new plugs and wires go in as well.
Had it 180 out initially, turned the motor over, dropped right back in and fired right up. Went back the following day, set the timing and drove it home. Idles a little rough now when its "cold" but purrs like a kitten once its warm.
I do decals for a living, mostly boat lettering and related work but had some left over carbon fiber vinyl from wrapping some dash pieces, did a set of 4x4 decals featuring Jake (the corvette skull) for a kind of "ghost" look on the flat black.
And thats how shes sits right now, got a 3" bodylift waiting to go on...waiting til funds allow and Im gonna buy the suspension lift and do it all at once. Gotta get rid of these damn 3.08s, gonna swap out the factory 10 bolts and 1/2tons and look into new gears. I don't care much for the wheels, plus coming off an IFS rig, the center caps on the rear but not the front just don't do it for me. So, gonna trade the 20s and both sets of tires for a smaller wheel and ~38"s once the lift is done.
The next immediate project is to completely redo the sound system, got all the stuff here just been under the weather lately. DVD in the dash, 6.5"s in the rear seat area, new 6x9"s and two 12" subs.
