1974 Chevy K5 Blazer Buildup - Recreating The K500

4. Hydraulic bumpstops were another addition that helped a lot. After a small jump ended with the front driveshaft closing off the exhaust so badly it shut down the truck, I decided that the Bilstein hydraulic bumpstops were necessary.

5. I also managed to get my original Radflo remote reservoir shocks off the front and returned them to Radflo to be modified into bypass shocks. Do they help? Oh yeah. And I saved a lot of money by just having my original shocks updated instead of paying for whole new bypass shocks.

6. The rear has remained the same double-triangulated four-link that it's been. The QA1 rod ends have seemed to last through the beatings as well. But I did have an issue where the jam nuts became loose, letting the rear axle walk sideways and snapping a coilover shaft. I had to replace this driver side coilover shaft, and add a new coil since the old one had caught and bent in a "U" when the shaft broke. I had the old shock rebuilt and it's bolted to the truck's rollcage as a spare in case somehing happens again.

7. Again, nothing much has changed in the double-triangulated rear that Fabworx riginally built. I have blown out a few driveshafts, but this last one I got from J.E. Reel with 1350 joints seems to be holding up well so far. Those two crossmembers in front of the four-link crossmember are to hold up the two transfer cases and doubler kit. Using the Offroad Design kit, there is a Chevy NP203 and Ford NP205 in back of the TH400 transmission. Why a Ford NP205? Because of the driver side drop that meets up with the front axle.

8. I also ended up replacing the spark plug wires and distributor with ones from Performance Distributors. A few wires had gotten close enough the headers to actually catch on fire, so these new LiveWires with heat shielding were a welcomed addition.

9. I switched up to an Odyssey PC1200 battery in front and used a battery box from West Coast Batteries. Jeepers and Creepers sent me some new cables built to the specs I ordered them at, and the front electrical became a lot cleaner looking.

10. The front end actually turned out pretty nicely. When the hood is pulled off, you can see the nice Radflo reservoirs hanging over the 462ci big block that was built with as many Edelbrock parts as possible. The old Edelbrock Pro Flo fuel injection system will probably get updated to the new Pro Flo II software in the near future as well.

11. Fuel delivery isn't just a concern at the engine side: after a whole lot of head-scratching about how the ECU could get so out of tune, I realized that the fuel pump might have gotten toasted, even though it sits a foot away from the nearest exhaust point. After Edelbrock sent me a new electric fuel pump, the truck was good to go again, and I found I needed a heat shield to protect the fuel pump.

12. The old PSC steering pump's body had torn at the top inlet. Dennis at Xtreme Unlimited showed us the trick of how to get the pump apart and back together again (and it isn't just using a whole lot of ass).

13. With a bunch of little additions made and the truck almost ready to roll again, I dumped the gear oil out of the axles and transfer case, changed the engine oil, and replaced all the fluids with some Amsoil synthetic juice. I can understand not using more-expensive synthetics in your engine since you commonly change that fluid, but I cannot imagine wasting your time with old crude in your axles, steering system and transmission (where the fluids are sometimes never changed).

14. After a different aftermarket shaft popped off the steering box while I was off-roading, I decided to try one from Flaming River with a smooth slip shaft. Not only did we replace the steering shaft with this new unit, we also replaced the entire steering column with a tilt column from Flaming River. We even had a fancy Flaming River steering wheel on this until it got "damaged." A quick stop to our local auto parts store got us a nice, well-priced Grant wheel for the meantime, but I miss that fancy Flaming River wheel.

15. A little more interior work was needed in the form of some new inner door panels. Knees bouncing around through whoops had broken the plastic of the original panels, but luckily LMC has perfect reproduction panels that we got our hands on.

16. The back of the cabin has been updated, too. Three Tuffy security boxes (and drawer) are bolted down in the back to keep every tool and spare part in a hard, locked, bolted-down, metal container.

17. Through some horsetrading, I got my friend Danny to finally paint the Blazer in his home shop. I had rattle canned the entire truck years before, and it really looked terrible. In fact, I'd never even painted the hood. We picked a close color in an industrial paint, and Danny laid it on after a bunch of prep.

18. I had also lost a headlight that had fallen out during off-roading, and the parking lights had somehow cracked as well. LMC had a selection of different styles that I could bolt into the front of my truck, so I ordered up some clear, plastic lights (the last ones were glass and the weight was probably why one broke out during off-roading) and we got them into a new front end. Since we were painting the truck, I had also taken the opportunity to order a new Chevy grille from LMC to replace the old GMC one I had. That was just a matter of personal taste-I think the Chevy front looks a lot cooler than the GMC grille.