1972 K5 "start them young"

[warrpath4x4]

this is less of a build thread and more of a way to log memories.

little back story, when I was a kid my grandpa had a 1972 C20 camper special and when he passed away my dad got it, we took that truck everywhere. it was his daily driver plus hunting, camping, getting firewood, going to the dunes. he traded it in before I had my license, one of my friends in high school had a 1972 C20 that looked a lot like my grandpas truck, I pop the glove box open and there were the stickers I put in there as a kid . well he wouldn't sell it to me, so my second vehicle I bought was a 1970 C10 that I drove for a couple years, I have had a metric ton of K5 blazers but always wanted a 69-72 K5.

years later I am married, have a 2 year old son and living in Wyoming. I was cruising craigslist and seen a 1972 K5 blazer for sale for $1900



go look at it, it will run if you hold the key but when you let go it dies, he cant even do that when I am there because he tore the distributor apart trying to figure it out. 10 years ago (from when I looked at it) it had a ground up restoration, engine, trans, transfer case, axles, suspension (3" lift), exhaust, body, paint, interior all redone. his son drove it for a while in high school then hit something, built an ungodly ugly bumper and since they got rid of the turn signals in the bumper, he switched the grill to a 1970 grill.









yes if you can make them out, those are original miles. once his kid went to college the blazer just sat.

[warrpath4x4]

I do not know who did the body work and paint but it was poorly done, and sitting in Wyoming weather it started to rust out in the usual places.















so I am standing there looking it over and planning on making an offer of $1500 when he says, "i think it needs a new distributor so how about I take the price of a distributor off asking price?" ok so where does that put us? "how about $1200?" heres $600 now and I will give you the other $600 tomorrow when I pick it up.

here are a few gems I found in the glove box









I got it back to work and put a new distributor in it since he had the old one torn apart and there was some rust in there, went with an aftermarket distributor since it was already converted to HEI, and yes I knew that wasn't the issue but it needed it anyways. it kept dropping voltage once you released the key, fixed a wire and it ran fine (after changing the starter and flex plate because he kept holding the key to move it).

[warrpath4x4]

one of the other reasons I bought the K5 is my son. he loves it and when he gets a little older we will rebuild it together and he will learn life long skills and have a nice truck for school that he built himself.

the proud owner once I had it up and running



the front was riding way higher than the rear, I called superlift and gave them the part numbers off the springs and they were correct. so I pulled an overload they had in there and it lowered it a little bit, but still riding high, was hoping the springs would settle some with more use.





when we rebuild the truck we will be changing the suspension anyways.

the rear view mirror had fallen off the glass and I hate trying to get them to stay, the windshield frame is the same between 70 and 72 and I knew on my 70 C10 that the rear view mirror bolted to the windshield frame so I ordered one up. also I had an aluminum radiator out of a suburban I was hoping to make fit but it wouldn't so I used the windstar fans I had on it and set them to a thermostat, installed a wiring junction box, and put the HID wiring harness in for the headlights (even with regular bulbs, they are way brighter with the wiring harness)

[warrpath4x4]

first time taking the top off it did not go so well, i used a forklift with some rope and 2X4's spanning under it, sounds good right? the ropes slid and the top went tumbling off over the side of the truck, i figured it was shattered. will it did make several cracks in it but the glass was still good and it still bolts on. now a soft top is in the wish list for it. but we were taking the top off for a reason........ Independence day!!!!

[warrpath4x4]

while in Wyoming it was my daily driver for over a year, then I got a 4runner and it was a once in a while rig. well one day I decided to drive it to work, start going down the driveway with a man hole cover in it..... start to hear cracking...... quick gun it...... OH S*@T......





so we lived in the old part of town and they had service tunnels under the roads, houses, driveways. the metal "man hole cover" was a plate of steel that was just bigger than the hole with a piece of plywood over it. held up for the 3 years we lived there, but this day the cover slid to the side and the whole thing fell in, if I had bigger tires it wouldn't have gone so far but I am glad I didn't have smaller tires because they wedged in there. so I was late to work because I had to run to our storage unit, get the hi-lift jack, come back, it popped right out and I just backed the truck up spitting the jack out. luckily no damage happened.

shortly after that I got rid of the 4runner and we moved to Nevada where it was the daily driver again for a few months until I got another suburban. July 11th we left it at my old work when we moved up here, it got picked up Oct 11th, and got delivered yesterday. Levi was so happy to see it he hugged the fender, he did the same thing 2 years ago after spending 2 weeks with the grandparents.

I really have not done anything to it in about 2 years except change the battery and the voltage regulator.

[Lurch]

Always fun to hear the story behind a rig. Thanks for sharing.