{"id":1406,"date":"2024-06-11T16:20:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T16:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/?p=1406"},"modified":"2024-06-13T14:25:37","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T14:25:37","slug":"rare-and-restored-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/11\/rare-and-restored-1978\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare And Restored: 1978 K5 Chevy Blazer With Four Wheel Pop-Up Camper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Darlington\u2019s 1978 K5 Chevy Blazer is the rare pop-top Four Wheel Camper built specifically for Squarebody Blazers that really steals the show. Mike found the two-owner Blazer and Four Wheel Camper in Tucson, Arizona, brought the duo home, and began his restoration. Just before settling into the engine-swap stage of his project, Mike had to let go of the Blazer and camper (the home-buying process can really be a project-killer). Nearly two years later, Mike got word that his old Blazer was for sale on a used car lot in Ohio.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

Without hesitation, he arranged to bring his Blazer home\u2014for good, and just in time to be included in his wedding photoshoot. We met Mike at the 2024 Overland Expo West in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he walked us through some of the highlights of his lost-and-found-again Four Wheel Camper Blazer project.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it?<\/p>\n

Penci Design<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Engine Swap<\/h2>\n

Out with the Chevy 350 and in with the 5.3-liter LM7 V-8. Mike now rows through the gears of his NV4500 5-speed gearbox and has an NP241C to split up the torque between his axles<\/p>\n

Wheels and Tires
\nIt took a bit of fender massaging to clear the 35×12.50R15LT BFGoodrich T\/A KO2 all-terrains but the new tires and new-old steelies look right at home on the Blazer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lifted Suspension
\nNew leaf springs and Bilstein shocks from Offroad Design helped refresh the Blazer\u2019s load-carrying and bump-damping capabilities. Mike added Offroad Design\u2019s crossover steering, shackles, anti-sway bar, Pitman arm, and more.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Never Finished
\nHighway or scenic dirt road, the Blazer runs just fine with its new powertrain and Mike enjoys having it out in the backcountry. Follow Mike on Instagram @darlington.adventures to keep up with the Blazer..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike Darlington\u2019s 1978 K5 Chevy Blazer is the rare pop-top Four Wheel Camper built specifically for Squarebody Blazers that really steals the show. Mike found the two-owner Blazer and Four…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[9,10,11,12],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suv-news","tag-daily","tag-express","tag-news","tag-soledad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414,"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions\/1414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shozon.riv-er.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}