Had to buy - '77 Suburban

[Bourbon]

Very nice 84 SS!! As you could tell, I am a bit of a MCSS enthusiast as well. The only colors available in 83-84 on the SS were white and blue. The 83-85s had the tear drop mirrors while the 86-88 had the aero mirrors, T-tops from 85-88 and Aerocoupes from 86 (rare)-88. The notched tail lights (83-86) or smooth (87-88) of course they all has the 305 and minor changes to it and the transmissions available. The addition of black, burgundy, and silver were from 85-88. My buddy says blue was the fastest color!! Haha I own a blue 84 SS and a (currently) white 86 T-top SS along with my 88 Suburban. The 84 has a TPI 350 and the 86 has a 383.

[Willowrun]

Been a while since any updates, but there has been activity as time allows. I parked the Jimmy (it's a '78....I called it a '77 previously) in the 2 1/2 car garage a few months back and picked a way at some of the easy stuff. I purchased this blazer about a year ago from a CL add in Mississippi. 2wd K5's are impossible to find up here and I've always wanted one. The price was low and it "ran" enough to get on the shipper's trailer so I was happy. When it showed up it barely ran. I had to dump gas down the carb just to get it off the trailer.
Engine compartment and overall shot when I purchased it. I think I had put a different carb on prior to this shot and was in the middle of new cap/rotor/plugs/wires.

[Willowrun]

It didn't seem to be running on all 8 when I got it so I pulled the plugs. Found this thing on one of the plugs. A friend of mine said they sell them for fuel economy and/or to stop a bad cylinder from burning oil. I put new plugs in and after tuning it it runs very smooth with good power. I like keeping old drivetrains alive so I'm hoping this one turns out ok after driving it a while. If not, this will turn into an LS swap thread.

[Willowrun]

Other things done:
- valve cover gaskets
- steel fuel line from pump to carb
- crack free dash (wrong color, but works for this build). Also note, the gas gage is pegged at full

Not pic worthy is a rust free battery tray I found at the junkyard (rare in MI) to replace the rusty one, transmission gasket/filter replacement, and a replaced wiper motor I pulled from a low mileage cab I purchased last summer.

[Willowrun]

So with that out of the way, I should explain what I want to do with this thing: I like shiny, clean vehicles just as much as everyone else, but I find myself not driving those ones as often. Maybe it's because I have young kids (people with kids will understand that), or because I'm not one of those "neat" kind of guys that details everything so it is perfectly clean, or because I don't have time to constantly be cleaning, or because I get nervous about dings, scratches, etc. Actually, what I really think makes me like the old, used looking rigs is they have a lot of character...no two are alike. So with that, this K5 will be built with preservation in mind as opposed to restoration. I've done restorations and will do more in the future, this isn't one of them. If you need to see every part painted or powder coated prior to installation, won't happen here. A lowered, safe, 2wd beater is the goal.

So this Jimmy is clean, but by no means rust free. Accumulations of leaves and dirt will rust just about anything after this long. Since it will not get fresh paint I am cutting out the bad, replacing it, and will be spot covering it with matched spray bomb paint after minimal body work.

- Pass rocker needed to be replaced. Note I kept as much of the old as I could.
- A few small holes in fender were cut out and patched.
- Still need to figure out what to do with the driver door. I use old truck hoods for my replacement patches so I'll probably just cut out bad and replace.
- The hood was kinked so I was lucky to find one at the junkyard in a close (maybe the same) color with no rust or kink.
- Swapped in 73-74 GMC grill. I'm thinking it needs to lose the bumper guards

[UKNOWME]

Slam the burb and be done with it already!

[lolife99]

Great job!
Thanks for the info and pics.

[Willowrun]

It's been a while, but progress was being made. Since last update the lowering and other undercarriage work is 90% complete. I try to have my shop at least 32 degrees when working in it, so with the little heater I have struggling to keep it there I did lose several days during the last couple months. With that said, several layers of clothes plus carhartts do dampen the harshness of crawling around on concrete so I guess the cold does have an up side.
Since last installment I've installed all new brakes, ball joints, entire steering system from box down (tie rods, steering arm, etc), and u-joints, along with changing out the trans speedo bullet and shift selector seal. What took me 30 seconds to type took me 2 months to actually complete....sigh.
Something that slowed me down a bit was the drop spindles I purchased. I purchased CPP 2.5 inch spindles and installed them. Once I went to install the tie rods it was apparent that the tapered hole was undersized. I searched on here and yup, it's happened to others. I called Summit and they offered more expensive Western spindles as a replacement and got to them to me quickly. I have to admit the CPP's machined surfaces looked much better and were better looking castings, but the Western's had the right sized holes so back went the CPP's to Summit.
Still need to install shocks and front sway bar and then it's on to finishing some bodywork and getting the interior up to snuff.
Here are some pics from today with the new shoes. I cut one coil up front. Seems just a slight bit nose high so I'm contemplating cutting another 1/4 coil.

[Willowrun]

It will get beauty rings and caps once alignment is done. Couple more pics...a year ago and today.

[lolife99]

Looks great!

[68Timber]

Sweet!

[Low Elco]

Lovin' it! Great thread!

[Willowrun]

Thanks for the kind words guys! I pulled it out of the garage today and asked my son (11 years old) if he thought the stance was ok and he said it was so based on that and me having only a little more than an inch before hitting the front bump stops I'm going to leave it as is for now. Just need to throw rear shock extenders, front sway bar, and shocks and then suspension is done. A little bodywork (being sure to maintain "original" look) and then on to the interior. Need to get this thing at least presentable and drivable in the next 3 weeks or so as a couple dune rigs need some attention.

[lolife99]

If it was mine, I would remove the bumpstop and the metal bracket that it's attached to and trim 1/2 coil up front.
That should drop it another inch up front.
Just MY 2 cents,...

[Willowrun]

Originally Posted by lolife99

If it was mine, I would remove the bumpstop and the metal bracket that it's attached to and trim 1/2 coil up front.
That should drop it another inch up front.
Just MY 2 cents,...

Exactly what I needed to hear....an experienced opinion. Thank you for the advice, I now have my marching orders for tomorrow. So another 1/2 coil?

[Willowrun]

Had a couple hours this afternoon so I took Lolife's advise and dropped the front another inch. After getting the lower spindle out of the way by removing the lower ball joint nut I cut what I felt I didn't need out with a cut off wheel. I left the steering stop.

[Willowrun]

After cutting 1/2 coil out it is sitting where it needs to be. I feel 1 1/2 coils is about max of what I would do because there is just enough tension to hold the now shorter spring in the pockets with the suspension at full droop. Doubtful a shorter spring would fall out, but for me this is short enough.

I measured all 4 corners at the top of the wheel well and they are all within 1/8 inch. Very happy about that as I'm always concerned about a lean one way or the other.

Hope to get shocks and front sway bar installed next but will have to wait as I'm heading on a business trip to MX until Thurs. Hoping the snow is gone when I get back.

[Willowrun]

In the last month or so I was able to finish up the suspension, swap in some different door hinges on the drivers side, and most painfully, I finished the bodywork except for the dent in the lower drivers door....I've had enough bodywork for a while. I also cleaned up the center caps and rings and stuck them on. Finally, I fixed all of the tranny leaks. Oil fill seal, servo seal, new speedometer cable bullet, and the shift shaft seal were all replaced. The Jimmy no longer leaks.

While I was doing all of the work to this thing over the winter I was always a little worried because the drivetrain in this thing is unproven. The most I had ever driven was to the end of the road and back which was barely enough to tell if it was even getting into third gear. Now that it was finally at the point of needing an alignment I had a choice to make: Trailer it or drive it to get aligned.

I ended up setting the toe with a tape measure and decided to take it on a shakedown run to the gas station. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it ran and drove so I drove it to get aligned once the wife was home to follow me there. It rides and drives great

[lolife99]

Love your blazer!

[Willowrun]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Love your blazer!

Thanks! Also thank you for the advice....it was good to get it from someone that's been down this road before.
Next project is putting all new leafs in the '72 in my avatar and then I may move on to lowering the topic of the original post, the Suburban. Hoping I won't have to replace everything (steering components, ball joints, etc) that I had to replace on this Jimmy....

[lolife99]

Originally Posted by Willowrun

Thanks! Also thank you for the advice....it was good to get it from someone that's been down this road before.
Next project is putting all new leafs in the '72 in my avatar and then I may move on to lowering the topic of the original post, the Suburban. Hoping I won't have to replace everything (steering components, ball joints, etc) that I had to replace on this Jimmy....

Don't feel bad about having to replace front end components.
These trucks usually need these items.
The sad thing is,... most Chinese replacement parts probably won't last as long as the original GM parts.
And Quality front end parts really put a dent into the budget of a lowering project.

Also,... YOU are now the 73-82 2wd blazer lowering expert.
Pass on the knowledge!

[Willowrun]

It's been a while so here's what's new:
I've put about 1,000 miles on the Jimmy this summer.
Even though I had cut at least a coil and a half in the front, it just seemed like it needed to come down a little bit more. The last time I made a cut to the coils I cut about a quarter coil and it seemed like it only dropped it about a quarter inch. I figured this time I needed about another half inch lower so I cut about 1/3 of a coil and figured I'd be good. Wrong. Front end dropped almost an inch and a half. I'm sure it is where the end of the coil is positioned in the lower A arm that made the 1/3 coil cut so dramatic. It now had a major rake and it was bottoming on the inner fenders.....sigh.
I decided to get some drop springs, but unfortunately, I hadn't written down the measurements of the front drop as I cut the coils so I didn't know how much of a drop to get on the coils. I ended up ordering 3" drop. They raised it up about a half inch, but have settled some since then so I still hit the inner fenders with my tires on big dips in the road. I also had a rake that I didn't like.
When I initially tore down this Jimmy it had 1/2" lift blocks from the factory in the rear. I held on to them and with the rear axle now over the springs I used the blocks as lowering blocks. Seems to sit right now. Just a little bit of a pain with the front end rubbing every now and then.

[Willowrun]

There are a lot of little things that still need to be done to this thing, but since it isn't "nice" I can still drive and enjoy it while I pick away at small things as time allows.
One of the things I was able to do was install a chrome grill I had picked up. I removed all of the argent gray that was on it from the factory so it is now all chrome. I'm not sure if I like it or not but it was so much work that it's going to stay this way.

[LordDevlin]

Any chance you still own this 77 burb? Its a beauty!

[Willowrun]

Nope, I sold the Suburban as I had it for several years and it just kept getting moved to the back of my barn. I sold it to 72c20customcamper who commented on it above. I believe he has since sold it.