I’m looking at buying a fairly clean 84 K5 Blazer. The body’s pretty straight, there is some rust that can be fixed by cleaning and glassing it, and most of the electrical works. It’s got a 327 in it now with a 700R4 trans. The motor has some issues, and the trans is original and hasn’t been rebuilt. It prefer to just yank them both out and replace them both. I can do that myself, but I wondered what options you guys thought best while on a budget. Ive found a few rebuilt 350’s with rebuilt transmissions for +/-$1500. I don’t need a hot rod but mainly just a somewhat reliable vehicle my son can drive when he turns 16 in 5 or so years. I want to use this as a lesson for him in working on vehicles.
Other plans would be to clean and repair rust spots and a couple small dents, then coat the whole vehicle with Raptorliner. Do the little bit of time consuming, but not overly expensive repairs inside. And then just drive it. Possibly replace the hard top with a soft top. I can buy it for less than $3000 as it sits. Probably closer to $2000. I figure I should have less than $5K in it once everything is done and back to working order.
What/where do you suggest the motor/trans search? What would you put in it if other than what I named?
