Omar’s Ultimate Build: Ten Years with a K5 Blazer

A Decade of Dedication

Omar Delgado is serious about C10s. He’s been known to dabble in an OBS here and there, but ’67-’72 GM trucks are his number one passion. About a decade ago, he was ready to add another to his long list of builds.

“After owning a couple of C10s, I noticed that the K5s were starting to get popular,” he said. “I found myself looking at different style Blazers: lifted, dropped with tops, and then roadsters just caught my eye, which is when I started the search process. It was time to go topless!”

Don’t worry, Omar—we know what you meant. California weather is usually great for top-down cruising, so it made perfect sense.

It didn’t take too long before Omar got a solid lead on a Blazer, so he went to go check it out.

“I had a buddy who did restorations here at a local bodyshop and was putting one together to sell,” Omar said. “I remember he was doing the final touches, and he had just painted it. It was a two wheel-drive with no notable rust, so I went home and talked to my wife about it. Of course, the answer was, ‘Omar, what do you want another truck for? Sell the one you have first!’”

“To my surprise, it was the Blazer I was going to buy for $4,500! The guy I knew still had it and had never touched it.”

This is where Omar had to get creative. And by creative, we mean he completely ignored his wife’s advice!

“The Blazer was on my mind for about a week—I couldn’t stop thinking about what I could do with it,” he said. “I was just getting out of a build and getting bored, so I was really overthinking it. By the end of the second week I went to the body shop on my lunch break with $4,500 to buy it. It was just my luck that it had already sold to another guy that I knew before I could buy it. So, I kept looking, but prices were on the rise since they were getting more popular.”

Omar kept his eyes wide open, checking out every potential candidate. About a year later, he was making his daily rounds on Craigslist when his luck suddenly changed.

“I was scrolling and saw a post for a ’71 K5 Blazer that was painted and in good shape with no rust for $6,500,” he said. “To my surprise, it was the Blazer I was going to buy for $4,500! I immediately called and, yes, it was the same one! The guy I knew still had it and had never touched it.”

“Omar admits that there were times during the nine-year build that  he wanted to give up, but meeting new friends such as the Peña brothers and  Isaias Vega helped push him to the finish line …”  

As it turned out, the current owner was about to be deployed and wanted to free up some funds instead of letting the truck sit while he was away. Omar didn’t want the Blazer to get away from him again, so he jumped into action.

“I said, I can go get it right now, and he says, ‘It’s 11pm, but if you have the money and a trailer come and get it,’ so that’s what happened,” Omar said.

Now that he finally had possession of the Blazer, he came up with a game plan and, three months later, began tearing it down. Things started simple enough, as Omar just wanted to lay the truck on the ground.

“It was going to be a simple K5 Blazer, bodydropped on 24-inch Racelines I had bought for it,” he said. “I took it to my buddy’s shop, Castro’s Fabwerks in San Martin, California, where he worked off the original frame. He Z’d the front 3 inches and added a Stone Fab 3-link kit, an AccuAir VU4 block, and used POR-15 to paint the frame. It was done plain and simple, then it was off to Jesus Ramirez for bodywork and paint.”

That might have been where we ended the story of Omar’s Blazer had he not completely out of the blue decided that he wanted to get even crazier with it after he got a hit of inspiration and called Jesus with instructions to stop working on it while he figured some things out. He then called Jesus back and gave him the new game plan: the Blazer would now have a raked and chopped windshield frame, cut and capped doors, a molded one-piece front end, and a ton of other work. And that was just the body!

Omar wasn’t going to go that wild with the body without doing just as much work underneath.

“I called Griffin from Acme Chassis and asked if he could build a full frame for my Blazer,” Omar said. “We agreed on a full Stage III chassis with a modular Ford 9-inch, front and back sway bars, and a CPP big brake kit.”

Once he had the chassis back home in San Jose, he mocked it up and sent it to Way’s Customs for new stainless steel hardlines, after which it made its way to Showoff Motorsports for powdercoating and chrome. Not too long after, Jesus called Omar and told him the body was just about ready for color, so Omar picked it up and headed out to Precision Auto Body in Ukiah, where everything was expertly finished in Lexus Ultrasonic Blue.

With the Blazer nearing completion, Omar then reached out to Intro Wheels for a quick brainstorming sesh, where it was decided to go with 24×9 and 24×15 concave rose gold Twisted Infamous billet wheels to really set off the brilliant blue paint! The roadster then went off to Peñabros Customs to tighten up all of the loose ends, which included installing the drivetrain, the complete 510 Car Audio interior, fresh stereo, A/C, exterior trim, and everything needed to get it roadworthy.

Omar admits that there were times during the nine-year build that he wanted to give up, but meeting new friends such as the Peña brothers and Isaias Vega helped push him to the finish line and made his Blazer better than he ever could have imagined. To date, Omar has driven it to tons of shows across California and beyond, and plans to keep driving it year round—weather permitting, of course!

Build Specs

OWNER

• Omar Delgado
• 1971 Chevy K5 Blazer
• San Jose, CA

Chassis & Suspension 

• Work by Way’s Customs and Peñabros Customs
• Acme Chassis Stage III air-ride chassis
• Chrome front and rear sway bars
• Slam Specialties RE-7 airbags
• QA1 shocks
• Modular Ford 9-inch rear end with 4.10 gearing and limited slip differential
• 14-inch CPP big brake kits front and rear
• Polished 7/8-inch bore polished master cylinder
• Stainless steel brake lines
• Custom aluminum fuel cell

Wheels & Tires

• 24×9 and 24×15 Intro Twisted Infamous concave rose gold wheels
• 255/30ZR24 and 405/25ZR24 Pirelli P-Zero tires

Engine & Drivetrain 

• Work by DM Engine Dynamics and Powertrainworx
• 2006 GM 6.0L V-8 (blueprinted)
• Brian Tooley Stage 3 camshaft, rocker arms, polished intake, and headers
• Holley Sniper EFI
• Polished Front Runner  pulley kit
• Polished alternator, A/C compressor, water pump
• 2006 4L80E automatic transmission
• 3,000-rpm stall torque converter

Body & Paint 

• Work by Isaias Vega at Precision Auto Body and Jesus Ramirez
• 1967 C10 grille with aluminum trim
• Grant  Kustoms front roll pan
• Molded ’67 C10 fenders and cowl
• Windshield pillars sectioned 3 inches
• Flush-mounted windshield
• Doors cut down and capped to match quarter panels
• Grant Kustoms rear Cal Combo skin

Interior/Stereo

• Work by 510 Car Audio and Peñabros Customs
• Retro tiger eye vinyl upholstery
• Custom molded bucket seats
• Dakota Digital HDX gauges
• Intro Twisted Infamous rose gold steering wheel
• Custom center console, door panels, and subwoofer panels
• Custom dash pad and kick panels
• Stinger 10.4-inch head unit
• JL Audio amplifiers, component speakers and subwoofers

Photo Credit: Victor Lopez