Post by Ryan Padgett on Nov 2, 2012 12:56:43 GMT -6
alright firing up the build thread. didnt take many pics during the build as it progressed and it isnt and probably never will be done but it went from bone stock to where it is now.
as it started i got rid of this
1989 k1500 cheyenne wt 4x4 i got for free (stock) and budget built it to this. 6" superlift ifs lift, lincoln locked, tired 4.3L v6 with sm465 trans on 35" tsl knock offs and mickey thompson classic locks. to buy this. it was a 1987 V10 Blazer. confused with the v10? that was the designation in 87-89 for what was before the k5 and then went on to be the V1500 through 91 and then a k1500 in 92-94 until the fullsize blazer went wayside for the tahoe. it had a TBI 350, 700r4 trans, np208 transfer case, 3.73 gears in 8.5" corporate 10 bolt axles and 31" bfg at's. the ac and heater both worked and the interior was actually in decent shape. the thing didnt look like it had much rust until i dug into it later but we will get to that. only mod it had was the 31's and a single flowmaster with the cats removed by the previous owner. it also had quad shocks up front so with first impressions of wheeling the thing it had NO articulation whatsoever. i bought the thing for 500 bucks. had 409k miles on it on its 3rd motor and 2nd transmission. came with a ton of receipts from upkeep on it and even had a sweet gunrack and what was left of a cb mount. also had a crappy cd player and some sweet junk 8" subs in back that sounded like crap. IIRC my first mod to the thing was a set of long tubes because it had a very annoying exhaust leak on the passenger side. little did i know that doing this i would have to remove the ac which ran off a belt that also goes around the power steering pump and the bracket that held the ac on would have to be removed as well which was a bracket that also strengthened the power steering pump. this would cause the power steering pump to wobble like a hula hooping teenage girl 
o well it did sound better but the headers i got were cheapy and warped and couldnt get to seal when the whole reason it had a leak was due to a broken manifold stud in the head.
here it is...only pic i have of it really when it was still on 31's
sliced a tire and decided to swap a set of 33's onto the rally wheels and i have absolutely no pictures of it on the 33's because that phase went by pretty quick because they were garbage. i sliced 2 sidewalls on them and opted out of them real quick and got a sweet deal on a set of 4 tsl ssr radials in 35x14.5x16 12 ply tires for 60 bucks. no tread but they did work on a set of 16x7 american racing aluminum wheels. could air down to 0psi and drive 55mph down the highway
trimmed fenders and didnt even have to and made it look like crap in the process...note to self dont use a sawzall to cut fenders
also somewhere along this time i put a sweet center console in, better head unit, and a set of warn hubs and flowmaster 40's on and i took the doors off
also put a ton of dents in it by this time and destroyed the bumpers and then this happened one drunk night climbing a tree
kept wheeling the thing until it finally broke....10 bolts are trash
and then the awesomeness kicked in and got to where its at now. not all in one shot but got wheeled a bit in between steps. 10 bolts arent worth fixing so i found a 4.10 geared 10.5" 14 bolt for 75 bucks and had rusty weld the spiders for the rear and found a 4.11 geared dana 44 front from a 3/4 ton for the front for 100 bucks. Ruffstuff brake caliper brackets were installed on the rear and used 3/4t chevy front calipers, rotors, brake pads, and wheel studs to make the rear end disc brake. i used brake lines on the front off a 2002 3/4t silverado for the added length and the rear center line is off of a 91 g20 van. steel lines run to the caliper bracket and then go back into rubber line for caliper movement and are from a 97 pontiac grand prix. rear ujoint is a cheap conversion joint right now until i swap the driveshaft yoke and axle yoke to 1410's. i opted to use 56" long rear leafs from the back of a 81 3/4t 4x4 and the original 8 leaf pack was narrowed down to 6 and we removed the overloads and flipped the springs around to move wheelbase a couple inches back. leafs were mounted in gatsby shackle flip brackets which are a complete pain in the ass to install. had my cousin jake make me some 7.25" long shackles for the rear to give me an almost perfect shackle angle and give it a perfect 4" of lift. For the front suspension we used the stock 52" rear springs without overloads and only 4 leafs in the pack combined with a 6" long shackle and moved the front mounting brackets forward of the front body mounts. combined with moving the rear the wheelbase is now at 112" from the stock 106'. for shocks in all 4 corners it is using inverted rough country nitro shocks. the stock front driveshaft was nowhere near long enough and the cv was shot in it anyways so i ditched the stock piece and got a new one from Tattons driveline made that doesnt utilize a cv. the steering geometry took some trial and error due to the wheelbase moving and i went from using stock to using a 4" raised procomp arm with custom length draglink(that bent to hell just driving down the road) to where its at now. now it is using high steer arms that are made from steel blanks i got from norez and drilled and tapered myself to mount on both drivers and passengers knuckles. instead of using studs on the passenger knucle i used wheel bolts for a john deere that are grade 10 and highly unlikely to ever break and i used loctite on everything. the holes for the arms are drilled straight and reamed for gm tre's but gm tre's wouldnt clear going above so i had to use tre's for a 64 ford f100 and then made the bar out of 1 1/4" .120" wall dom with weld in bungs. i also installed crossover which is by far one of the best upgrades yet besides the 14 bolt. this consists of a steering gearbox out of an 84 2wd and then the craziness.... i didnt wanna spend 80 bucks on a pitman arm from sky so i used a rugged ridge drop pitman arm for a jeep yj and drilled the hole bigger to use 3/4" heim joints. the crossover bar is also made from 1.25" .120" wall dom. for wheels i am now using 16x7 steelies that are plastidipped black running 37x12.5x16 tsl ssr's that are makeshift tennessee cut. motor was upgraded to a 78 4 bolt main block with flat top .06" over pistons and a crane cam. i reused the tbi heads and am running a car tbi intake which flows more. the throttle body is from a 454. headers were upgraded to thorley stainless longtubes and i welded in a o2 sensor bung so the thing will actually go closed loop. trans remains the same as well as tcase. radiator is out of a 78 chevy and runs electric fans from a ford taurus. fuel pump is from a tpi silverado and upgraded feul pressure spring with a 18psi spring from harris performance. then we got crazy with the sawzall and grinder and went to town on rust. factory weight of an 87 blazer is 5280lb. cut fenders to clear tires and cut out inner fenders. dovetailed front all the way to the radiator basically minus 7" to mount headlights. custom grille made from expanded metal and bowtie emblem from a wheat truck? dovetailed rear all the way to the frame and cut quarters to clear tires. no tailgate, no top, only interior left is the seats, dash, and console. wired up some 6.5" speakers in the sides of the console. bedlined entire interior. painted the exterior white and olive drab brown....was supposed to be green but ended up shit brown like the ww2 officers coats....anyways thats basically how it sits. aaaaaand the pics
flex pics
STILL IN PROGRESS!
special thanks on this build goes out to everyone for doubting it, the always delicious anheiser busch, my big brudduh chris, rusty, jake, everyone else in RCW, toyota, ford fairmont station wagons, jeep, and john deere yellow and green paint
as it started i got rid of this
1989 k1500 cheyenne wt 4x4 i got for free (stock) and budget built it to this. 6" superlift ifs lift, lincoln locked, tired 4.3L v6 with sm465 trans on 35" tsl knock offs and mickey thompson classic locks. to buy this. it was a 1987 V10 Blazer. confused with the v10? that was the designation in 87-89 for what was before the k5 and then went on to be the V1500 through 91 and then a k1500 in 92-94 until the fullsize blazer went wayside for the tahoe. it had a TBI 350, 700r4 trans, np208 transfer case, 3.73 gears in 8.5" corporate 10 bolt axles and 31" bfg at's. the ac and heater both worked and the interior was actually in decent shape. the thing didnt look like it had much rust until i dug into it later but we will get to that. only mod it had was the 31's and a single flowmaster with the cats removed by the previous owner. it also had quad shocks up front so with first impressions of wheeling the thing it had NO articulation whatsoever. i bought the thing for 500 bucks. had 409k miles on it on its 3rd motor and 2nd transmission. came with a ton of receipts from upkeep on it and even had a sweet gunrack and what was left of a cb mount. also had a crappy cd player and some sweet junk 8" subs in back that sounded like crap. IIRC my first mod to the thing was a set of long tubes because it had a very annoying exhaust leak on the passenger side. little did i know that doing this i would have to remove the ac which ran off a belt that also goes around the power steering pump and the bracket that held the ac on would have to be removed as well which was a bracket that also strengthened the power steering pump. this would cause the power steering pump to wobble like a hula hooping teenage girl 
o well it did sound better but the headers i got were cheapy and warped and couldnt get to seal when the whole reason it had a leak was due to a broken manifold stud in the head. here it is...only pic i have of it really when it was still on 31's
sliced a tire and decided to swap a set of 33's onto the rally wheels and i have absolutely no pictures of it on the 33's because that phase went by pretty quick because they were garbage. i sliced 2 sidewalls on them and opted out of them real quick and got a sweet deal on a set of 4 tsl ssr radials in 35x14.5x16 12 ply tires for 60 bucks. no tread but they did work on a set of 16x7 american racing aluminum wheels. could air down to 0psi and drive 55mph down the highway
trimmed fenders and didnt even have to and made it look like crap in the process...note to self dont use a sawzall to cut fendersalso somewhere along this time i put a sweet center console in, better head unit, and a set of warn hubs and flowmaster 40's on and i took the doors off
also put a ton of dents in it by this time and destroyed the bumpers and then this happened one drunk night climbing a tree
kept wheeling the thing until it finally broke....10 bolts are trash
and then the awesomeness kicked in and got to where its at now. not all in one shot but got wheeled a bit in between steps. 10 bolts arent worth fixing so i found a 4.10 geared 10.5" 14 bolt for 75 bucks and had rusty weld the spiders for the rear and found a 4.11 geared dana 44 front from a 3/4 ton for the front for 100 bucks. Ruffstuff brake caliper brackets were installed on the rear and used 3/4t chevy front calipers, rotors, brake pads, and wheel studs to make the rear end disc brake. i used brake lines on the front off a 2002 3/4t silverado for the added length and the rear center line is off of a 91 g20 van. steel lines run to the caliper bracket and then go back into rubber line for caliper movement and are from a 97 pontiac grand prix. rear ujoint is a cheap conversion joint right now until i swap the driveshaft yoke and axle yoke to 1410's. i opted to use 56" long rear leafs from the back of a 81 3/4t 4x4 and the original 8 leaf pack was narrowed down to 6 and we removed the overloads and flipped the springs around to move wheelbase a couple inches back. leafs were mounted in gatsby shackle flip brackets which are a complete pain in the ass to install. had my cousin jake make me some 7.25" long shackles for the rear to give me an almost perfect shackle angle and give it a perfect 4" of lift. For the front suspension we used the stock 52" rear springs without overloads and only 4 leafs in the pack combined with a 6" long shackle and moved the front mounting brackets forward of the front body mounts. combined with moving the rear the wheelbase is now at 112" from the stock 106'. for shocks in all 4 corners it is using inverted rough country nitro shocks. the stock front driveshaft was nowhere near long enough and the cv was shot in it anyways so i ditched the stock piece and got a new one from Tattons driveline made that doesnt utilize a cv. the steering geometry took some trial and error due to the wheelbase moving and i went from using stock to using a 4" raised procomp arm with custom length draglink(that bent to hell just driving down the road) to where its at now. now it is using high steer arms that are made from steel blanks i got from norez and drilled and tapered myself to mount on both drivers and passengers knuckles. instead of using studs on the passenger knucle i used wheel bolts for a john deere that are grade 10 and highly unlikely to ever break and i used loctite on everything. the holes for the arms are drilled straight and reamed for gm tre's but gm tre's wouldnt clear going above so i had to use tre's for a 64 ford f100 and then made the bar out of 1 1/4" .120" wall dom with weld in bungs. i also installed crossover which is by far one of the best upgrades yet besides the 14 bolt. this consists of a steering gearbox out of an 84 2wd and then the craziness.... i didnt wanna spend 80 bucks on a pitman arm from sky so i used a rugged ridge drop pitman arm for a jeep yj and drilled the hole bigger to use 3/4" heim joints. the crossover bar is also made from 1.25" .120" wall dom. for wheels i am now using 16x7 steelies that are plastidipped black running 37x12.5x16 tsl ssr's that are makeshift tennessee cut. motor was upgraded to a 78 4 bolt main block with flat top .06" over pistons and a crane cam. i reused the tbi heads and am running a car tbi intake which flows more. the throttle body is from a 454. headers were upgraded to thorley stainless longtubes and i welded in a o2 sensor bung so the thing will actually go closed loop. trans remains the same as well as tcase. radiator is out of a 78 chevy and runs electric fans from a ford taurus. fuel pump is from a tpi silverado and upgraded feul pressure spring with a 18psi spring from harris performance. then we got crazy with the sawzall and grinder and went to town on rust. factory weight of an 87 blazer is 5280lb. cut fenders to clear tires and cut out inner fenders. dovetailed front all the way to the radiator basically minus 7" to mount headlights. custom grille made from expanded metal and bowtie emblem from a wheat truck? dovetailed rear all the way to the frame and cut quarters to clear tires. no tailgate, no top, only interior left is the seats, dash, and console. wired up some 6.5" speakers in the sides of the console. bedlined entire interior. painted the exterior white and olive drab brown....was supposed to be green but ended up shit brown like the ww2 officers coats....anyways thats basically how it sits. aaaaaand the pics
flex pics
STILL IN PROGRESS!
special thanks on this build goes out to everyone for doubting it, the always delicious anheiser busch, my big brudduh chris, rusty, jake, everyone else in RCW, toyota, ford fairmont station wagons, jeep, and john deere yellow and green paint
