My K5 Blazer Build

Follow along as I restore and customize my 1973 Chevy K5 Blazer Cheyenne.

[k5blazerbuild]

The Plan

So, what the hell am I going to do to this truck?

Exterior

Frame and underbody need a deep clean and fresh paint.

The front quarter panels, wheel wells (inner fenders) and hood are all going to be replaced.

Removing the chrome trim lines.

Replacing the rusted out tail gate.

Cut out and Bondo up the two minor rust sores on the body

At that point the body will be in near perfect shape and ready to get sanded down and painted.

Then it will be the removal of the dash and door interiors and I’m guessing a lot of cleaning and sanding before their also painted.

The white fiberglass roof is in great shape, but its coming off. I’m going with a soft top from Softopper.com. The top looks like the one below.

Finishing touches for the exterior will be some new bumpers and LED ring headlights. 

That will likely cover all the exterior work, for paint its going to be black and a slate blue. Similar to this:

Interior

All of the wiring is being replaced with a new wiring harness, going to be completely modern.

New sound system through out, with a header that will support bluetooth audio as well as handsfree calls.

A completely new digital dash and instrument gauges from Dakota digital

From there, who knows!

I’m sure I wont go in this order and it’ll all probably evolve as I move through, but this is the gist of it.

Get out there and do.

[k5blazerbuild]

To Start

This blog is going to follow along with my refurbishing and customization of my recently acquired 1973 Chevrolet K5 Blazer Cheyenne. 

I picked her up in early May, 2015. She is the more limited edition Cheyenne edition, has a newer crate GM 350 V8, new Edelbrock carb, manifold and other components - all with only about 45k on it, a rebuilt transmission, newer brakes and tires, an enlarged fuel tank and hubcap locks that free up the front wheels so its both 2X4 and 4X4 on demand. 

Mechanically she is very sound as a daily driver. Having already added a few hundred miles, I’ve been very satisfied with her reliability. 

The body and interior is another story entirely. There are several places of fairly large rust damage to the body - common for vehicles of this age, as well as a few dents in the front quarter panels (one of which is rusted through). 

On a positive swing, the frame, leafs, mounts, engine block and all other structural aspects of the core vehicle are in really good shape. They have about 40 years of grime on them, but that’s easily taken care of.

Next up, I’ll outline the current plan of attack and what my vision for Cheyenne is right now. Although, realistically, it will probably be an organic plan, evolving as my progress through the truck does.

Please feel free to shoot questions / comments / suggestions along anytime!

//MD