2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

My wife and I decided we wanted a new project to update a bit before we jumped back into the 1948 Suburban build. My auto passion had taken a hiatus the last few years and has returned with a vengeance.

We started our search looking at several possibilities, only to be disappointed by untruthful descriptions from sellers.

Then we saw this blue and white 2wd K5 on a Friday. The Blazer had spent its life in the San Antonio TX area, had one owner since 1977 and was very clean. The seller provided great pictures, video and honest information. By that Sunday night we had driven 10 hours one way to bring “Garth” home.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Garth was as rust free and in probably a bit better condition than described. Guessing the first owner had been involved in the aircraft industry or hobby in some way based on the patch on the hat, aviators and unopened pack of Camel cigs left in the center console. I’ve noticed some of the fasteners have been safety tied like aircraft.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Garth, named for the original owner, was loaded up and hauled back to our place in Illinois.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Great looking blazer Doug..!!!

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

And 10 hours later on that Monday night we pulled into our shop. These trips were much easier to do 30 years ago!

And we will have more updates on the project soon. Our simple plan escalated just a bit.

Thanks for checking in!

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

'77's are cool and yours is very nice based on the pics. Following along as a fellow 2wd square K5 owner. Interested in seeing an under hood and interior shot before you start.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

ditto! will follow along as well!... nice looking blazer!

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

What a great start! Nice rig.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Thanks Greg! We are flying pretty fast on this one…..we hope.

Thanks Willowrun! Glad you are following along. For some reason we missed getting interior shots and will be sharing what we do have. Oops!

Thanks rodstored! Welcome aboard!

Thanks Corts60! Your Burb is awesome.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

We’ve had a number of Suburbans over the years though never a Blazer and are pretty excited about Garth. We put him on the lift to take a good look and determine the scope of the project / timeline we wanted to work within.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

The smart move would be to finish the 48 Burb project and for a lot of reasons my head and heart aren’t into that one right now.

So, with the years clicking by quickly we decided to take this one down to the frame and use reasonably nice parts to build Garth back with.

Our aggressive timeline goal is to make the C10 Nationals in Nashville for 2023. We went last year in the 72 Burb and had an awesome time. Anyway going to be a challenge to make that we know. Will try our best.

First step was to organize the shop and storage shelves.

We did a little test on cleaning the hood. And Garth came with a replacement fender for the one that is bent, likely from a tire and wheel coming off when driving.

Here is the only interior picture we have right now.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

That's a really nice Blazer!! I miss our '87 Jimmy we had.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Thanks lower!

Once the shop was organized we started disassembly and of course bagging and tagging parts / bolts.

The control arms were coated in what appeared to be dirt, tar and concrete. Took a hammer and chisel to remove what ever is on them.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Wow, clean underside and the replacement front fender in proper color and trim is crazy. That's what dreams are made of right there.

Has the suspension been planned yet?

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Yeah, Garth has the right stuff to be a nice one.

The suspension has been planned out and we won’t be using the original control arms nor spindles.

We found a 6.0 and 6L90E on FB marketplace and headed down to Evansville, IN the same day to pick it up before someone else beat us there.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

We cleaned up the engine, did a cam, valve spring and oil pan change, then painted the block black. The aluminum parts will be left in natural finish.

We had friends over for a shop day doing the engine updates and removing the body from the frame.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

With the extra help lifting the body and placing it on the body cart went smoothly.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

those outdoor pictures dont look like Illinois in Jan..!!!!
yall moving pretty quick on this

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Nice work so far! having a tractor helps a lot, must say I'm jealous.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Clean Blazer.. great find!!!

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

We have had a decent run on temperatures aside from one cold snap this winter. Way better than the blizzard we had during the “Wire and Fire” event four years ago today, huh Greg?

Thank you! The tractor has been incredibly handy and has made some difficult tasks fairly easy. I need all the help I can get!

Thank you! We really are enjoying this build with this solid of a start.

Once we had the body off the frame we hauled it outside for a good heated power washing. Lots of Texas dirt, engine oil and what appeared to be tar or undercoating covered the frame and suspension.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

We continued disassembly down to the frame and suspension crossmember.

Grandson helped us load components to run to neighbors farm to use their hot pressure washer to work on removing more gunk. He also helped remove some of the riveted on brackets and received a grandpa level class on how to do so.

The original frame wax is in good condition.

Then we dropped the frame off at the powder coaters and really didn’t like leaving it behind.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

G-kids sure have grown..!!!!!
I assume it's the same ones..

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Nice!

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Yep, same ones and they are really growing up. He is taller than me now.

Thanks Evan!

After steam cleaning, the rear diff was better though needed wire wheeling which was done outside due to the continuing decent weather.

The pinion seal was leaking so I ordered one from local Napa store. The replacement was designed “thicker” and placed the seal deeper on the pinion flange. Had me a bit concerned though that part worked out ok. Throwing me off was this video about the pinion seals I had viewed….. https://youtu.be/eX-1MUTVnQ8

What didn’t work so well was when retightening the pinion, I went past the locations marks I made on the pinion gear snout, pinion flange and case. This crushed the sleeve more and increased the pre-load on the pinion gear bearings too much. Bad on me…..and the Milwaukee battery impact…wow did it move the nut quickly.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

I ordered the crush sleeve kit and since I hadn’t personally done a differential since about 1980, I viewed a couple good video’s to brush up, then dove in. The shim driver I fabricated made reinstalling the new shims simple.

Basically I tightened the pinion nut until the pinion had a rotational torque of 15 inch pounds on the used bearings, placed the same thickness new shims back in beside the gear carrier bearings and verified backlash.

Actually getting the pinion flange to tighten was a hurdle as there apparently was interference in the splines to the pinion gear splines. Multiple thorough cleaning and polishing with emory cloth resolved the issue.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Threw the drum brakes back on, mounted the shop rollers and wife hit differential with a coat of paint.

I did explore using rear disc brakes from a late 2008ish Silverado. To make it work would require (I think) a new axle tube end and axle bearing flange in the tube….too involved for our timeframe. So I shelved that idea for another time or project.

Interesting was the leaf spring pin on the right side wasn’t seated in the saddle on the axle tube properly, probably from when new. Garth must have been dog legging a bit. I didn’t address the deformation as the lowering flip kit will put the spring under the axle tube.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Moving right along Doug. I can hear your AD Suburban swearing at you from here.

Marc

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Yeah, he is pretty p.o.ed, especially since he was moved to cold storage for right now.

We cleaned up the trans and gave it a painting too.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

You guys work fast. Looking good, fresh painted parts a nice.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Thanks lower, this Blazer build is pretty much our day job, so we are getting a lot of shop time in on it. Clean, fresh parts are nice!

Wife is a great shop project partner. She likes things neat, organized and tidy which helps productivity. Parts ordering, receiving and verifying, storing and finding again can be challenging. She makes it easy. And she is really good with a wrench too.

The leaf spring shackle bushing has been difficult to find. The one that was closest to fitting had a split rubber bushing so I returned it……all taking extra time.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

We plan to have a rolling chassis by the end of this week.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

While I should have stayed with the factory ac system, I do like the clean look you can have with Vintage Air so we ordered the sure fit system. They make a great product, though I didn’t like the look of the plate that goes over the existing holes.

To avoid using the plate, I filled the holes with 19 gauge by butt weld and metal finishing the shrink as best as possible. It probably would have been cleaner to replace the firewall on that side and maybe less work.

I still need to drill for the ac and heater connections, fill small bolt holes and support the evap case under the dash by welding elevator bolts to the firewall.

Yeah, I should have stayed with the perfectly good factory system.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Nice firewall work..!!

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Doug

I stared with a VA sure fit for my Suburban but didn't care for out cluttered it looks coming out of the firewall. I modified my fittings to dump out of the side of the cab and I ran my hoses under the frame and up. It allowed me to really keep everything clean. I also modified my condenser brackets to avoid drilling thru the firewall to mount. I will say I'm not sure how your system is set up but don't be afraid to modify to taste.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

n2billet and Roger at RPL Customs used a non-A/C heater box (camaro I think)
to hide the firewall fittings on this squarebody 2wd blazer.
Looks clean and factory at the same time.

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

This is really nice..

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Thanks Greg, hopefully it will come out looking good!

Your Burb looks awesome and the firewall is so clean! That is the direction I’ve gone with the 48 Burb and will give more consideration on what I’m doing here with Garth. The fasteners will be mounted inside on the firewall is current plan.

Wow, that is well executed and looks really good! Gives me something to consider. Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, a couple great ideas shared right there…..that is why I appreciate this forum so much!

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

Wow. The one Keith showed is really nice

Re: 2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating
 

For the suspension components we started with a Bell Tech drop kit…I think it was called a 4 / 6…which included the usual….a flip kit for the rear, lower coil springs and drop spindles for the front.

The instructions, as hazy and copy degraded as they were, called for the rear springs to be re-arched 2” higher to offset too much drop from the flip kit. Instead, we opted for new springs with the additional 2 inches of arch from St. Louis spring company. The springs were ordered on Monday and they arrived at our shop on Wednesday. I am impressed with their speed of manufacture and the quality of the product.

While the Bell Tech instructions were difficult to see, a flip kit is pretty straight forward and the parts went together extremely well.