My Newest "Project" 1984 K5 Blazer (pic intensive)

[JeremyG]

Will try to keep the back-story short... friend of a friend needed a place to keep this truck "for a few days" because he busted the rear axle. He came a few days later with a "new" axle, took the old one off, then realized it was the wrong "new" axle.

A few days later, the guy who was helping him totally disappeared, and the same day, the owner of the truck got called to work in Florida. So off he went.

Fast-forward 8 or so months, I call him and tell him to get the truck off my property, and he says there's no way to do it, would I like to buy it? Well, not really... then he started telling me the story:

It has a high-end lift kit, a BRAND NEW Chevy "Crate" engine (350) with lots of little upgrades like stainless steel braided gas lines, edelbrock carb, a really nice air filter, nice Chevrolet valve covers, etc. etc. It also has a newly rebuild transmission AND transfer case. He has all the receipts for all of the work, over $5500 of work.

I really hadn't even looked it over very well, so I went out and looked, and the body is VERY straight, no rust to speak of, no dents, no previous bondo work, etc.

Ok, fine, but I'm not buying it... until he says, "I only want $900 for it". WOW! I say, "ok, make it $750 to cover storage costs and I'll buy it. SOLD.

The next day I find a running 1982 K5 with the correct rear end, and picked that up for $600. Now I have about 1.7 complete trucks, including a running "backup" stock 350 motor and a good x-fer case/transmission as a backup.

Anyway, my son (who just turned 16) and I are restoring it. We're doing it "right",tearing the entire interior out and starting over.

So, without further ado, here's some pics!

Exterior:








Interior prior clean-up:







So this is after a short afternoon of work.. the BEST thing about this truck is that the cap comes off, and there's a sweet roll bar that shows.

[JeremyG]

And another wide shot with top off:



Here's the interior with most everything torn out:



But before real "clean up"








All that work was done back in July, before it got WAY too hot to work on it. It sat until this week... (continued)

[JeremyG]

Just in the last couple days, we have done a TON of work...

Prepped everything in the interior for spray-on bedliner. This is power-washed, scraped, wire brushed, and 60-grit sanded (we are carpeting the wheel wells, so we didnt' bother taking ALL that really difficult-to-remove stuff off of there):












Now, the interior in primer:

[JeremyG]

And now, with the spray-on bedliner. Note I couldn't wait to take the pics so this is only after about 10 minutes of drying. The photo really makes it look blotchy but it's not, and it's better now that it's more "cured".







I put 1 coat along the center of the front, even though we'll carpet here, just to help with noise deadening:

[JeremyG]

As I worked today, I kept looking under the wheel wells and they were NOT up to par... so Ryan prepped and primed and I bought some Underbody paint and some of the old standby Rust Oleum Gloss Black... the underbody went in the wheel wells, the gloss black on anything else visible.

Here's before/after pics:

















And a few more "After" photos:

[JeremyG]

One more "after" of the wheel wells:

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And FINALLY, Ryan really wanted to change up the roll bar. So:

Before:


Sanded, primed, and wet-sanded:



Finished, with Chrome paint:



A couple close-ups, it's VERY shiny even without any sanding, but I'm thinking about hitting it with 2000grit wet and then some buffing compound...






So, tomorrow we're swapping the rear ends between the trucks, and probably going to go ahead and put the roll bar back in.

Still have some stuff to do:

- Replace dash pad (new one is on its way to us)
- Restore instrument panel trim piece
- Paint lower dash (probably the chrome paint, but we're still debating)
- Restore all interior trim and headliner (probably going to find a nice fabric or leather and wrap them all so they are material instead of painted metal)
- cut, upholster, and install rear panels (that go along the side of the bed)
- Carpet front half and wheel wells
- Replace all door and window seals
- Replace cap seals
- restore cap (remove windows and clean/service them so they slide perfectly, use spray-on bedliner on the outside of the cap and some sort of fabric on the inside.)
- restore headlight trim pieces
- buy/install billet grill
- install new steering wheel
- replace tail lights and turn signal lights with "clear corners" in the new Chevy style.
- find/replace all the emblems


In the spring we're going to have the seats completely re-done, but he has to save up the $700 to have it done Part of that will also be fixing up the interior door panels.

Then, time for the paintjob.... we're still debating about that, too. I really like the spray-on bedliner look and told him we could 2-tone it (it comes in black/white/grey/red/blue) but he wants a custom paintjob which is like $3000. Bedliner would cost us about $150 so there's going to be some arguments there. LOL

This has, so far, been a really fun project and reminds me of when I was 15 and my dad and I restored a 66 BelAire.

I'll post pics as progress is made, hope you enjoyed the story and the pics!

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

very interesting, my 74 gmc truck still has a place in my heart.

[Zaroth]

Jealous. Always loved that year. I wish I had the funds to fix up my 90 Silverado like this.

[FeaRpb]

Very nice.

[JeremyG]

Jealous. Always loved that year. I wish I had the funds to fix up my 90 Silverado like this.

Dude, it's CHEAP...

Spent $140 on all the various spray paints, sandpaper and a sanding "sponge".
$250 on the new dash pad.
Carpet I will probably just buy 'by the yard", less than $100, or I may splurge and get a pre-formed piece for $350
Steering wheel, I couldn't believe how expensive.. like $250 for a decent one.

Of course the re-upholster of the seats isn't cheap, like $700 is my quote but I'm sure if I walk in with $500 cash they'll do it.

Paint is another story unless I can talk him into bedliner!

But yeah, it's gonna be pretty nice