1989 K5 Blazer project

[Captkaos]

Sunday, Oct 2nd 2011: Buddy came over in the morning and with some measurements and double checking we made a jig to located the holes and commenced to drilling.  1 Hole on the passenger side had to be center drilled with a smaller bit due to it overlapping an existing 4x4 specific hole and then ground to fit.  There is no turning back now, the main Porterbuild dropmember is in, I got the 2 outside brackets to mount/locate and 14 more holes to drill to get them mounted.

[thirsty]

Did you take pictures of your jigs? I am kicking my self now for not at least taking pictures of how I did mine.

[Captkaos]

No I didn't take pictures of them, they are just simple jigs for each side locating the holes.  Basically a piece of flat and angle mounted to the outside.  I can probably get pictures of them just not on the frame.

Here is a picture of the bracket I made hanging in place.  It isn't bolted up, but...

[crewcabfred]

this is a really cool swap, cant want to see the finished product!


Is that an all aluminum 5.3 or does it have a cast lower?

[Captkaos]

I can't wait to see the finished product either....

It isn't the Aluminum block motor, it is an iron block.  It is supposed to be an LY5.

[Captkaos]

Saturday, Oct 15th 2011: Using the upper Porterbuilt brackets as a guide and with some major measuring to ensure I got it all in right, drilled the holes for the upper control arm/bag bracket.  Top pic is the drivers side before drilling the holes, bottom pic is the passenger side after drilling the holes.



Pulled out the grinder with a cut-off wheel and started on the shock mounts and rear leaf hangers and got them removed, got one bumpstop removed and found the other side was spinning free so it need to be sawzalled off.



The proceeded to grind the rivets for the front leaf brackets (I am keeping the 4x4 core support mount).  You can see they are gone on the top pic



Mocked up the crossmember/engine mount to frame brace and found there were several bolts missing.  Put in a call to Porterbuilt to get the missing hardware, but I am close.  I need the hardware to finish up the front to put it on the ground.  At this time I am 20 bolts from having it all bolted in short of the control arms and shock mounts.

[Captkaos]

Want to know what it take to convert the front of a 4x4 to a 4x2?  There are 40 rivets and ~22 bolts that have to be removed to eliminate the 4x4 specific components

[Captkaos]

Monday, Oct 17th, 2011: Got word from Nathan at Porterbuilt that the rear kit I was waiting for isn't going to happen anytime soon due to his fathers health.  Prayers go out to him and his family during this time.

Friday, Oct 21st, 2011: Ordered a Pickup Truck Airbar Setup from Boris at Street Machinery I know since I have a Blazer I will have to do some serious modifications to it, so stay tuned.

[VileZambonie]

Lookin good!

[Captkaos]

Thursday, Oct 27th, 2011: RideTech's Airbar showed up.  Going to be modifying a lot of parts, or most likely creating new ones due to the extreme differences in Blazers vs Pickups.

Friday, Oct 28th, 2011: The remainder of the bolts for the Dropmember showed up today, still waiting on the motor mount bushings.

[VileZambonie]

Once you have everything mocked up are you powder coating or are you painting the frame?

[Captkaos]

I am going to paint it.  Don't want to get that far into this one.

[Captkaos]

Sunday, Oct 6th, 2011:  Got the shock mounts bolted up, got the shafts for the RideTech lower control arms removing and bolted up to the Drop member, got the passenger side RideTech upper arm bolted up, Drivers side will require the 4x4 style brake line to be either re-bent or replaced with the 4x2 style.

Better pictures coming....

[86K5Custom]

Any updates on this build?

[Captkaos]

It is on hold while I get my daily driver back to daily driver status.  Unfortunately, I am will also have to sort out the rear suspension..