Red Rover - 88 Blazer

SHINTON

SHINTON

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Location
Triad area of NC
This just came home this weekend, 110 miles no problems, hit 70 mph at times, with a bit of wandering but very driveable. Previous owner has put on 2.5" lift springs in the front, block in the rear and reduced the body lift to 1.5". 33x12.50 ProComp Xtreme A/T tires that look brand new and a Softopper that is in great shape, clear windows and no no leaks even after 2 hours of rainy ride home. Rear tailgate is from 86 pickup I believe and I have the blazer tailgate as well (power, needs parts to rebuild) Rear axle is 6 lug 14 bolt with factory posi and the front is 10 bolt from his 1980 Blazer, both sporting 3.73 gears.

Goal is to drive this back and forth to work as my toy, 20ish miles each way and light wheeling and camping rig. First goal is to make it "pretty" so the wife hates it less, hitting Econo-Paint asap and repainting the front grille back to a nice silver. New trim on passenger side, Rally wheel center caps and beauty rings and the 'lipstick on a pig' portion of the projection will have reached its first stop.

44944375_1285680804906942_309534848458948608_n.jpg
44885661_1285675918240764_168682564217733120_n.jpg
 
Judging by the background vehicles, I’d say, maybe... you’ve got experience with square bodies?
 
Charles Smith said:
were you driving up 220? I passed a blazer just like this yesterday
Click to expand...
Yes came up 220 from Rockingham back up to High Point! Funny how you see and remember some rigs!

As for the square body experience, those are the SELLERS pictures, he has a 1980 K5 and 1986 Truck, not sure what else!

When he bought the K5 it had like 12" of suspension lift and 3" body!! So he toned it down quite a bit and I have been very pleased with everything I have seen so far. Calling the paint shop today to see when we put on the first coat of lipstick and go from there.

Softopper is what sold me on the truck, I know they are $1000 by themselves and when I got there the 33 ProComps look brand new which is another $800+ Felt pretty good about the truck especially after it rolling home 100+ miles with no issues.
48357815_347594715796250_3015244192013090816_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
Dropped it off at the paint shop yesterday, going back with the Red coloring and they will patch up the rockers, few holes and dents, hope to have it back by this weekend! The motor is a Goodwrench 350, so it was replaced at some point, original TBI is my assumption and have not looked too closely at what else might have been swapped in there. Feels a bit like it is fighting itself, acceleration etc. but I am thinking this could simply be me used to modern cars? Our Mustang has 435hp and the Durango has 293 hp (350 torque) so 200 hp might just feel sluggish because it is geared to 3.73, 33s and she is a heavy beast!?

Probably waiting to order the new trim pieces etc. until after the Christmas rush is past us, killing the UPS guys already as it is!!
 
SHINTON said:
Feels a bit like it is fighting itself, acceleration etc.
Click to expand...

I had a 350 in my 2500 suburban. Low miles, and didn't use oil. I was underwhelmed at the performance. The 302 in my 96 bronco pulled much harder. The 350 in my 96 one ton dump is pretty anemic when it's unloaded. Put more than a ton in the back and it's downright pathetic. None of these had intake/exhaust or anything down to the engines. All bone stock. Suburban was auto, the rest were 5 speeds
Driven several 73-87 trucks in my time. 305 felt like a pinto. The only one I was impressed with had a 454
 
Somehow my old 72 GMC Jimmy with stock 350 felt (in my 'memory' which is now 15+ years out of date) stronger? But I am suspecting that is faulty memory on my end and that a 210ish hp engine pulling 4600+ pound pig around is just not going to feel like I am ready to qualify for NASCAR truck series anytime soon? Not sure I really know anyone now that "speaks" TBI / 350 / old school v8, back when I had Big Orange (72 Jimmy) we had an old timer that used to 'tune' for Petty and gang and he could make that old QuadraJet perform like mad!?

I suppose one solution is to just enjoy going slow... the more shiny option is to insert a LS.... but I am guessing I am going with Option A for now at least.
 
Lane's 87 had a TBI 350 that was rebuilt as a 383and has TB and injectors off a 454.
Its no dog...but far from a racecar either
 
If you want to pick up some Howard’s roller conversion lifters, a stock vortec cam idles pretty good with no tuning. it’s a lot more duration than the tiny factory cam but still pulls good vacuum. A higher psi fuel pump is to come by, and there are some stupid simple TBI mods that helps it breath a little better. I found some cheap shorty headers and build a full exhaust with a flow master merge collector into a 3” single. Sounded healthy but I found some bearing material in the pan and decided to swap a 5.3 in it.
 
SHINTON said:
Dropped it off at the paint shop yesterday, going back with the Red coloring and they will patch up the rockers, few holes and dents, hope to have it back by this weekend!
Click to expand...

Either that is one heck of a paint shop or they have no work at all and all hands are on deck!
 
When I called they said it was great time of the year, very slow and he said 3-4 days to do it all. For $595 out the door, this is your Earl Scheib type paint job, single stage enamel (same as I would have done at home) with just mild work on rockers. Not cutting out and rewelding in new metal but bondo, filler, smooth it all out, sand down the whole truck and let er rip. Will be interesting to see what it looks like at that price point, honestly it cannot be 'uglier' so...
 
dude....that cheaper than maaco.
That less than cost of material. if it looks decent hook me up with contact info
 
db105b4051f1a8f0b8dd526235731a40.jpg


Got it back yesterday from Econo Paint in Greensboro. Was very happy with the paint job, this is a good 10’ paint, if you get closer you can see 30 years of dents but from a few steps back it looks new!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
5281790f8231fab2edbadb53d3c0c9d1.jpg


Another from rear, did a nice job filling in the holes that were in the tailgate. Rockers came out good too.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
That looks great! Did you remove any trim, handles, mirrors etc before hand or did they do all of it as part of the cost? Do they do the door jams and inside bottom of doors too for that price? I have a 80s chevy that could really use a paint job.
 
jeepcj3a said:
That looks great! Did you remove any trim, handles, mirrors etc before hand or did they do all of it as part of the cost? Do they do the door jams and inside bottom of doors too for that price? I have a 80s chevy that could really use a paint job.
Click to expand...

Door jambs and such is extra. They taped up around all the trim. I am sure they can quote whatever you want. Kevin is the person I worked with.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top