New life for an old 2wd, farm Blazer

[turp mcspray]

First a little background. This blazer was purchased back in the mid 70's, by the current owners father. Eventually it was taken over by one of his sons, Joel. (Joel is a forum member here) It was used as the family truckster, and eventually served farm duty in south central S.D. It was used hard, like most farm trucks are. Used as a field vehicle, driven by kids that were much too young to be driving, etc. It has been rolled twice. Once by a twelve year old cousin, and once by Joel's brother. Joel said that once upon a time, the rear hatch fell down on his brothers head, smashing his face into the tailgate, and knocking out his front teeth. Ahhh...the memories! It spent several years at a body shop, that didn't do it any favors. I met Joel here on the forum. He asked if I might be interested in doing some work on the blazer. Being a blazer lover myself, I said YOU BET!
It is a non CST blazer, but has lots of options, and a GREAT color combo.
I will try to post pics on a regular basis.

[turp mcspray]

I asked Joel if he had ever looked under the rubber floor mat. He said no...and I started to get nervous! It had been rolled to the driver side both times. Once onto the side, and the other, all the way onto the roof. Note bow in bedside and windshield frame.

[turp mcspray]

Some interior shots.

[Splash4195]

Cool project! What are you going to do to it?

[turp mcspray]

It belongs to a customer. More pics on the way.

[turp mcspray]

Here is the original spid. Factory 2wd, with some nice options. Makes you wonder why they didn't check off the CST box, on the invoice.
Pulled up the floor mat, and as expected...ruuuuust!
Although, I have seen MUCH worse, it was still a bummer.

[PHAT TONY]

I'm ALWAYS in for a 2wd Blazer project!

[turp mcspray]

Bad rust under pass seat. Only way to get this piece is to buy complete floor, or find a used piece.
Floor to firewall seam is broke loose from being rolled twice.

[BlazinC5]

Nuthin like a nice long straight edge to point out how much work you have ahead... Before I read that it had been rolled a couple times, I was thinkin to myself. "Oh man,, I wonder how bad mine will look when I get around to doing the body work.." Yeah,, I tend to jump the gun and look at pictures first.

[turp mcspray]

Some of the previous shops work. They put on rockers and "fixed" some rust on the front part of the floor. Silly me. I thought roofing tar, was for...roofs. Pinchweld is damaged from having the cowl pushed ahead, after being rolled. Kick panel is also buckled from cowl being moved.

[turp mcspray]

Removed mud to see what was hiding. Lower fender hole was just filled with mud. Note expanding foam behind fender, that oozed out from the rocker. I'm sure it will get uglier, the deeper I dig.

[turp mcspray]

Bedside has lots of damage, and previous repair work. Front of bedside is pushed inward. When the cowl was jacked ahead, they went a little too far.
Bexside is a lot worse than the pic shows. That is my sons dog, Buddy. He was inspecting the blazer. I'm pretty sure he's thinking "quit screwing around, you got lots of work to do!"

[jaros44sr]

Ok, ya sucked me in to watch with the cute puppy face, plus the fact that you have a bent, rolled and rusted project on your hands...GOOD LUCK!

[PHAT TONY]

......holy jeeze.

[turp mcspray]

Passenger side patches. Rockers were welded to A & B pillars, and expanded foamed, in between.

[1949gmc]

Man, do I wish I was closer to SD so I could offer my help on this one! Way more fun when someone else is calling the shots (and paying the bills).

[turp mcspray]

Dirt and rust.

[turp mcspray]

Right side had LOTS of dirt, and a huge mouse nest. I wonder if anyone is home?

[BlazinC5]

It's pics like that that make me feel mine has a chance when I get back to rocker and floor replacment this spring... I feel your pain.

[454stepside]

man roofing tar and rust have so many uses it's unbelievable and me personaly have never had any luck welding to rust lol

[jstplyn331]

Good luck with the build, Keep the pics coming.....

[turp mcspray]

Turns out it was the local mouse cemetery.
More rust! It's ALWAYS worse than it first appears.

[turp mcspray]

Patched some holes where the wheel tubs bolt to the floor. Wheel tubs are garbage.
Tailgate is caved in, and rusty.

[turp mcspray]

My oldest son wants to learn, so I let him do some paint and mud removal.
He understands that we all have to start at the bottom, where there isn't much glory! LOL!

[turp mcspray]

Time to clean up some of the previous repairs. I probably should have thrown the doors and fenders away, but the customer preferred I save them if at all possible, since they were all original to the truck.