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Swettysblazer's 1991 K5 Trazer: ONE TONS!

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swettysblazer

swettysblazer

Swetty The Yeti
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swettysblazer submitted a new Build:

Swettysblazer's 1991 K5 Trazer: Bed stuff and trailers

Well, I figured I might as well throw up a build thread for my truck. I got it when I was 17 for my birthday as my first car. This October I will have had it for four years. Anyways, I was looking for a truck and I had always wanted a Bronco. But all of the trucks I looked at were either rotboxes or they wanted too much money. My spending limit was about 3K. So I kept looking, and eventually spotted the Blazer. It was sitting in a parking lot, and me and my dad looked at it and it seemed to be pretty solid. I had something going on, so he called the guy who owned it and they set up a meeting to look over the truck and take it for a drive. The first thing that the PO did was take my dad through a field behind his house :haha:. After that, he came home and told me that he wanted too much. I was a little disappointed, but didn't dwell on it. Well, my birthday rolls around and I open a little box and it has a Hot Wheels Blazer in it. Under that was a set of keys :woot::woot: so they punked me on that pretty good. We wound up paying 4000 for it, and took it home. It had about 170,000 on it when I got it.

View attachment 229969

There it is the day after I got it home. On the way home, we noticed that either the seats had an Air-ride suspension in them, or there was a hole in the floor. Guess which one it was? :doah: Also, the muffler and exhaust was almost rotted off of the thing. So, we put a Flowmaster 40 on it and dual exhaust going out the back (big mistake, fumes were terrible). After this, we decided to conquer the floor. The area where the seats bolted to the floor was pretty shot. The backs were rotted through and you wound up doing the gangster lean no matter what you did. So the floor got fixed, and I drove the truck as it was for about a year. One day, me and a buddy went four wheeling up behind our house. We were doing fine, when his Jeep just died. So, we had a strap, and we were right at the bottom of a hill and I said I would pull him up. I told my other buddy to lock in the passenger side hub and I did the driver side. Apparently, he had never experienced this before.:doah:
So I put the truck in 4WD, and start to try to pull him. Nothing, so I just give it more gas. Big mistake, as I fried my trans (700R4). Long story short, the truck sat for a while before I could get the money to fix it. About a month later she was back on the road and doing fine.

Fast forward to June, and I bought a 4 inch Rough Country lift. I didn't know about...
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Read more about this build here...
 
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And here they are:
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On the truck.

At this point, it was August 2009, and I was entering my first year of college, so I only got to drive the truck for about a month lifted like that. So from then until about May of 2010, the truck sat and I didn't do anything to it really. I had gotten a decent job, so I started to put some money into the truck. I put a nice stereo in it with some subs and a homemade center console with some speakers in it. While I was away at school, my dad noticed the steering was real loose. Well, wound up that the frame is cracked. So I bought the ORD weld in repair kit and that helped for the mean time. More toe come later....
 
Thanks man! Like I said, after this frame repair kit went in, that helped most of the issues for now. I still think it needs the bolt in kit though. Anyways, after that, I put on one of the Summit Racing visors with the lights in them. I know most of you guys hate them, but I think they're cool haha. Then, I got the bright idea to put a set of headers on. So I got a set of Hedman 69230's from Summit Racing. I really like the fit of them, it negates most of the issues that other headers have with the shackle bolts and they are tucked up nice and high. I had to get a new Y-pipe made after that. Around that time, I also got a ck5 sticker :pimp::pimp:

truck17.jpg

Visor and sticker :thumb:

One issue that I've found with the bigger tires, is that this truck EATS brake pads. I have to change them about once every 18 months or so, which seems a little excessive to me. So I need to figure something out for that. But my ABS Controller was also bad. Put a new one of those in. Then, one day I found this:

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=284411

A lot of rust in the tailpan, but the rear floor is fine :confused::confused:. When I did the floor patch when I first got the truck, I used **** metal and it rotted and broke through from 3 and a half years of my big ass being bounced around. So I fixed the floor in the front and left the tail pan and rockers alone for now. Big Mistake. I was closing my tailgate one day, and the thing literally DROPS about 8 inches. The hinge from the tailgate literally ripped off of the mounting from the body... I was able to close the tailgate and get it locked but I don't even wanna look at it in fear that it will fall off... Then the muffler rotted out so I bought a Cherry Bomb Vortex and got that taken care of, and this is basically how she sits right now.

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Right now, I'm at school and can't work on the truck as I am four and a half hours from home and I drove my Ranger instead of the Blazer. So, the truck is off the road for now and sitting. Once time and money allows, now that I have another vehicle, I'll be getting back into it.

Right now, I don't know which route I want to go with the truck. Either cut all the rot out and replace it with new stuff and drive it as is, or go balls out and get either one tons and redo the whole drivetrain or wait and see what happens. There's not a lot of places to wheel legally by me, and I don't wanna get my ride impounded for doing stupid stuff. So, I was thinking of doing a mild buildup, with either a crate motor or maybe a 383 and a 14bSf.
 
Thanks guys! I've learned so much from this website its ridiculous, so I figured if someone can learn from something I've done its worth it to post up my junk...

Right now though, it has some major rust issues. I don't know if I should cut it all out and try and fix it, or try and hunt up a new tub, or go Trazer...
 
I didnt realize that thing was so rusty, either way Ive alway thought that was a really good looking truck.
 
That's the crappy part... the only rust on the body is on the rockers and on a little spot behind one of the wheelwells... But where there is rust its pretty serious.
 
max 02 said:
That is a nice looking blazer.:thumb:

I`d fix the rust... don`t chop it up!:D
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That's most likely the plan of attack. This whole truck has been a learning experience for me. I've been around cars and trucks my whole life because my dad owns a radiator shop, but this is the first time I've really dove into something. Right now, I need to get a welder first and some other things, but I think this is going to be a good thing to try and attack. I have another vehicle now so I can focus on the Blazer without worrying to get it out of the garage in a day because it was my DD.
 
X2 Please don't chop if possible, fix up the bad spots. The outer skin looks pretty good. Where is the real bad rust?
 
The worst spots are in the tailpan the front floorand the rockers. The other stufff is fine. The bodys good and the frame is solid.
 
Sounds like nothing but lot's a time and effort (money also):haha:. Hope it works out for ya. It sure makes it nice to have another rig to drive, so a person can tear into something and not be rushed.
 
livid4dirt said:
Sounds like nothing but lot's a time and effort (money also):haha:. Hope it works out for ya. It sure makes it nice to have another rig to drive, so a person can tear into something and not be rushed.
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Yup, I need to make some purchases before the ball gets rolling. At this point, it looks like next summer is when I;ll be able to start on it because of school and everything and that comes first.
 
So I have a question about the body stuff...

What's the best place to get replacement panels from? I've heard some horror stories about LMC... I know nothing will be a direct fit, but I don't wanna buy cheap **** either.
 
The best thing you can get is factory non rusted parts... like off a wreck, it`s twice the work, but you know it will fit good if you take your time.

Good luck! Take your time! You got a nice truck, just go slow.:thumb:
 
Finally Bro-dogg... Lol.

I get jealous of it every time I see it and then look at mine and see how low it sits lol.

And dude you can get that rust fixed. It looks so bad at first, but with some cutting, grinding, blasting, welding it can look good again. I truly loved what body work Ive gotten to do. Im siked to rip out my interior, cut and fix all the small holes in the floor, none in the back but some up front, and get going. On the rear fender just grind that out, get all the rust out however you gotta, and get your friend mr body filler in their. After that do like I did and run some type of bedliner, I used herculiner, still looks nice, and roll that from the trim line down, where all the rust issues start, inside and out. Sure its not like putting in a whole new rust free quarter panel, but you dont always need to do it perfectly right. I had the same rust spot on the rear fender (maybe not quite as bad) and thats what I did. That bed liner isnt letting any water into that filler to let it crack any time soon, and if it does ill just do it again. Took me a whole 3 hours from start to finish, and I havnt touched it since.

Im in the same boat as you man, like exactly, and theirs no need to always do everything the "way it should be done" sure it would be nice, but we dont have the time or money to do that stuff, so do what you gotta to get by till that college edumacation starts payin off then do it the right way:thumb:
 
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max 02 said:
The best thing you can get is factory non rusted parts... like off a wreck, it`s twice the work, but you know it will fit good if you take your time.

Good luck! Take your time! You got a nice truck, just go slow.:thumb:
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Deuling said:
Finally Bro-dogg... Lol.

I get jealous of it every time I see it and then look at mine and see how low it sits lol.

Im in the same boat as you man, like exactly, and theirs no need to always do everything the "way it should be done" sure it would be nice, but we dont have the time or money to do that stuff, so do what you gotta to get by till that college edumacation starts payin off then do it the right way:thumb:
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Thanks guys. Max, I didn't think of that for mainly one reason. Around me, theres really no pick and pulls and if there is, everything in the yard is rusted to hell and back. I think it would be more trouble than its worth to try and hunt up a wrecked, clean truck in my area.

Adam, you know how it goes man. SSDD. It'll get done eventually haha.
 
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