Project Jimmy Lives!
Back when I had just finished up high school, I ended up purchasing a 1974 K-5
Blazer. I loved the beast, but eventually had to sell it. After longing for
a replacement and searching for a good deal on one to use as a trail beater for
4 wheeling, I stumbled upon my new project. My father-in-law found this just up
the road from him in Andover, CT. I will try to keep up to date pictures and
information on the transformation from "needs repair" to trail/fun rig. A detailed budget
will be kept and added here soon. Here is the chronology so far:
August 13, 1999, Day 1: (Click
to see pictures)
The pictures show the condition of the vehicle. It falls into the needs work category. First
thing we noticed is it needed windshield, roll bar, and seat belts. The sale included new
rocker panels since the old ones were cut out. J came with a 10 inch suspension lift, spring up
front, blocks in the rear, and a 3 inch body lift. The tires are 44x18.5 mudders on Aluminum
rims and are in excellent shape. Engine turned over, but didn't run. Locking hubs up front,
extended brake lines all around. No rear drive shaft as the old one was too short. Exhaust
in pretty good shape. Heater and heater blower had been removed but were included. Hood not
seated properly on body. J came with no top, but the doors were in the back. The nice thing about
this project is for a '71 it had very little rust. The plan is to keep it up in CT until me and
my father-in-law (Larry Tebberts) have several chances to work on it and get it into shape. He is being a
great person and letting me stow it up there and helping me work on it! I think he is having fun
with it himself as he has already been doing some of the work without me, hehe. My wife is
also excited about this as we will have a truck to haul stuff with. We plan to put a channel of
some sort behind the front seats that a metal/wood sheet will slide into. This would then turn the
back of the rig into a pickup like rear so we can carry things easier and hose it out when we are
done.
August 14-15, 1999:
Father-in-law has J towed over to his place. After looking under the
hood for a bit, he discovers why the engine won't run. Spark plugs hooked up in wrong
order. He proceeds to determine cylinder one and rehooks up the plugs in the proper order.
Engine fires up and runs on the third crank. Not bad for having old gas in it and not really
having run for about 4+ years. At this point, he even can move it around the yard on the front
drive train. This is excellent news as we know engine, transmission (first gear), transfer case,
front differential and brakes all work to a point. This weekend he also got a book on early chevy/gmc,
so we have some kind of a reference to start with.
August 21-22, 1999:
Replaced fuel pump (leaking). Adjusted valves. Ran engine for a while to burn off old gas.
Replaced light switch for head lights. Some of the turn signals and brake lights work. Front
headlights don't work yet. Driver seat had a few bolts added which were missing. Engine running
much better, but carb needs replacing or rebuilding. We may replace carb, because we don't
think it is the right one for the engine/transmission it is on. Will have to figure out
what engine is in there and go from there. After thinking about it and talking to some classic
Blazer/Jimmy people, I think I am leaning towards selling the 44's and getting some smaller tires,
perhaps 35,36, or 38s. Then I would also like to lower the suspension lift. I would also like to
go from blocks in the rear to springs all around. I am currently leaning towards a 6 inch lift.
May 2, 2000:
Wow.....lots have been done that I haven't typed up yet. Let me try to summarize:
After much work and parts were replaced in the engine, it was running, but if you tried to accellerate
it would die out. Father in law found a donor truck for $300 and swapped 350's. We also got a
nice 3 core radiator and seatbelts out of it. :) Put in a new rochester 4 barrel and the engine
humms now. This past weekend, I got up to CT to help out and we did the rear suspension. We took
out the rear springs and dropped from 7 leafs with a overload to 4 plus the overload. The springs
now allow the vehicle to move some when you push on it where as before it didn't budge. We then did
the shackle flip. We cut holes in the shackle holders and welded a support on just in case. We have
not replaced the U-bolts yet, as we don't know what height we will finally need to level it off. I am
in the midst of selling the 44 inch tires so I can pay for the rest of the buildup. We are going to
replace the front springs with a 4 inch lift and probably go for 35 or 36 inch tires. The rear driveshaft
now fits in beautifully and we can run in 2H. Before we had to run in 4WD since we had no rear shaft.
After that, we reattatched the front bumper with better hardware and welded on supports and channel iron
for a rear bumper. We included attatchment points for a receiver and 2 tow hooks. We also figured
out how to attatch the roll bar, which is finished, to the frame and discussed how to install the
nerf bars that my father in law built. I did manage to get
more pictures while up there, but don't laugh. The suspension is only half done!! Click here to
view pictures. Pictures include shots of "new" spring packs, shackle flip, new engine,
front end suspension and steering so I can figure out what needs to be changed, etc.
January 31, 2001:
The JImmy made it to NC finally. New pictures of it and close ups of the tires for sale are added.
May 2001:
Finally get new tires!!! Here is the beast on its first official drive around town.
I have now found a few problems I have to deal with. I replaced the calipers and front brakes to help slow it down.
It also seemed to have trouble with its get up and go. Turns out, the pedal to the medal isnt pulling on the cable
enough to open the 4 barrell, so I have to adjust the cable shorter. It does shift through all 3 gears and 2 and 4 wheel
drive work!! Getting there!!!!
Aug 2001:
Pictures from the first mudding adventure.
It was a local test run on a trail. Worked quite well except for the secondaries getting stuck slightly open
and the engine revving high. Still have to check that one out. Crawled effortlessly through lots of thick goop though!