24 November 2008, 11:39 am
After doing some reading on ColoradoK5.com, I have come to the conclusion that the headers from my Chevelle would fit the Blazer just fine! I almost took them to the scrap yard with a load of other scrap metal a few weeks ago and was glad that I had not. They have light surface rust on them and can be cleaned up for the purposes of my Blazer, but I was going to be getting either stainless steel, or ceramic coated headers for the Chevelle. When I was down to my dad’s house a few days ago, I grabbed the set of headers.
I took the Blazer for a spin down to the tire/exhaust shop at the end of the road to have them give me an idea of how much it would cost to have an exhaust system installed. They use heavy pipe for their exhaust systems and bend it up right there, but they are quite expensive.
On that drive, I still had a pronounced bog at initial throttle opening. WOT was good and it revved freely with greater throttle. I have found several references for tuning the Rochester Quadrajet carb and all signs point to a malfunctioning accelerator pump. I will be pulling the carb again soon and will likely be fully rebuilding it.
I definitely need to get the exhaust fixed up and then move on to tuning things up. It is difficult to hear what is actually going on with the motor when the exhaust is leaking out of several places!
Several local and online retailers have a performance dual exhaust system that would bolt up to the headers so I will likely be going with that arrangement.
14 October 2008, 12:45 pm
I am sorry to say that there has been little progress made on any of the projects that I currently have started. A lot of other things are currently taking precedence. Being a volunteer fire fighter and training associated with that and an increasing requirement for time at work have taken a large chunk out of my free and family time. As a result I have not been able to do a lot of the work on my various projects that I was expecting to have completed by now.
One thing is for sure, I have to get the lawn mower deck finished for a co-worker before it gets too cold outside. That way I can move in the Blazer and get to cutting on that thing.
I did just pickup a new 1/8” thick steel counter top for my main work bench. This will allow me to use the bench for more than just a junk accumulation point. I will be able to cut, weld, and grind on it. I had a piece of 1/8” thick steel sheet bent to conform to the bench with an 11” back splash and a 2” lip on the front. I will post up pictures of the top as well as installed photos once I get it put in. Only thing prohibiting me at the moment is the amount of junk that is on my bench!! LOL
2 October 2008, 8:54 pm
So I took the Blazer for the first real drive ever. This afternoon I drove it down to a friends house about a mile down the road. Drove quite nice on the road, but the tires sing! Not just a hum!! I maybe got it up to around 50MPH and it was loud! They sing over the exhaust that leaks out of many holes before and after the mufflers. The hole in the back of the bed make the effect even worse!
Anyway, it was an enjoyable drive. A new exhaust is definitely on my TO DO list!!
28 September 2008, 9:07 pm
Earlier last week I had found an eBay auction with original 1976 K5 Blazer front seats, complete. The seats looked decent and had the complete bases which is more than I can say for the seats that came with my Blazer. More on that on the ‘Interior’ page. I purchased the seats for $10 and $90 delivery charge. We had agreed to a $1/mile (one-way) charge and that I would meet the seller just south of Binghamton, NY to pick up the parts.
After talking with seller, I found that he also had a pair of doors, and a set of later model chrome mirrors. For an extra $100, I purchased these parts as well.
24 September 2008, 8:50 am
Well, Monday night I got the whole back end stripped down and cleaned up as best I could with a vacuum. Someone decided to cut a hole in the bed to swap out the sending unit in the tank so I will need to get a patch panel for that (junkyard). I also got the passenger seat out and floor stripped down. The seats were not original and there are quite a few extra holes in the floor that I will need to weld up before I am all said and done, but all in all it is quite clean. Surface rust is all that is there.
Instead of putting carpet down inside, I think I am just going to throw down some bed liner on both sides of the floor (inside and underside) and call it a day. That way I will not have to do anything but prime and cover with bed liner!
I was able to partially identify the motor as well, details of which can be found on the Drivetrain page. Since it is a car engine, I am not sure if it will be a 4-bolt main. I may just build up my other engine and drop it in, then do something else with this one… Not sure yet.
Other bad news is that none of the seats are original. The back seat looks to have come from another Blazer so that is good, but the front seats are from something different entirely.
Here are some pics of the progress from Monday night:
Last night I did a carb cleaning and general tune up. I did not mess with the plugs or wires, but I adjusted the timing and carb jets so it was running better. Started it this morning (38*F outside), fired right off with no pumping of the pedal, and it sat up on the high idle for a few seconds. Tweaked the throttle and it dropped down to normal idle and stayed.
Now I need to get an HEI distributor for this thing. I will not mess around with points. For the time being, I will probably just steal the distributor from my Chevelle.
22 September 2008, 8:51 am
The trip down to NYC and back was quite uneventful. Traffic was almost non-existent until we reached Route 87 and even then, it was moving along quite well. The round trip was ~11 hours covering 523 miles with five stops total; breakfast (30), fuel (15), pick-up the Blazer (60), lunch (30), and fuel (15). We left at 5AM and were in Tarrytown at 9:45AM. Tom (seller) arrived at around 10:15AM.
Before loading up, I took the truck for a slow spin around the block just to see how things were running. The engine needs a good tune up and will need to have the carb tuned as well. There was a noticeable bog with a quick stab of the throttle which may be caused by a faulty accelerator pump. Rust was a bit more substantial than I had originally thought, but all of the panels are reproduced so replacement will not be a problem. The last thing I noted was that the steering was quite free. I do not want to say that it was loose because it really was not. It just takes very little effort to steer even when idling in park which leads to it being touchy while driving. I will look into tightening up the steering box prior to putting the vehicle on the road.
After we were all loaded up, we dropped Tom off at the train station and were pulling onto Route 87 at around 10:45AM. We made the trip a bit longer by getting off of Route 87 too soon and having to drive down narrow Route 17 for about 25 miles. It was amusing watching the faces of oncoming and overtaken motorists! I am sure that this stint was nerve racking for my father as the lanes were only as wide as the trailer. Other than that, nothing worth noting. We pulled into my dad’s place at around 4PM to pickup my Rainier and then were at my place around 4:30PM to unload the truck.
19 September 2008, 9:34 am
Well, tomorrow I will be making the trip down to NYC to pickup another project, a 1974 K5 Blazer. I have said that I need another project like I need an extra hole in my head, but… I have wanted one of the old fully convertible K5 Blazers for quite some time now and this deal was too good to pass up.
My father and I will be making the trip down with his fifth wheel flatbed. The seller has said that the truck would likely make the drive from NYC back to Seneca County, but I would rather not chance anything going wrong. Plus, I do not intend to put this truck on the road right away so it just makes sense to flatbed it.
Once we get back from the retrieval, I will post up with pictures and the work that will be required.
8 September 2008, 8:49 am
I parted out a 1996 Chevy Astro van on August 30th which had a hydroboost brake booster. The unit appears to be in good working condition, but I am still planning on putting in new seals to ensure that there is no leaks when I get everything installed and working. Check out the Brakes page for further information.
25 August 2008, 1:15 am
I did some more work on the passenger door to the Chevelle today. In the process of messing around trying to fit a large panel across a complex curve, I finally decided to cut the piece down and make it into two separate pieces. I was able to get a 3″ by 1″ piece partially welded in. There is still some slight metal working to do before it will be welded in permanent, but it is looking more and more like a complete door all the time. At some point I might like my work enough to snap some pictures.
Hopefully I will be able to work on it more in the coming weeks. Fire practice/classes are taking up quite a bit of my time now though. My dad also needs some help out at the shop so the Chevelle may find itself on the back burner again…
25 August 2008, 12:28 am
Well, I can’t say that it was easy, but I successfully split the Chevelle information from my family information and now have both subdomains working. Now I just need to setup an index page for the main domain so that it can push to one of these.
If you were looking for my family information have a look at the links on the sidebar.
