Project: 40/Yr old makeover.

[BlazinC5]

Hard to believe one of my babies is 40.. This has been a long over due project I started back in 2004-5. A 4x4 to 2wd convertion. But she is in great need of a makeover still... So I worked my butt off the last 2 years in overtime and bought a few things I wanted for a long time. Like a 52" LCD w/awsome suround sound and as of last May I did Lasik surgury on my eye's, so no more glasses.. All the while knowing I had my Blazer waiting for some love too. I have spent the last 6+ weekends cleaning and organizing the garage to at least get this ole girl's build re-started....


A quick little background of myself: I am a machinist with a Farmboy heart, who learned most stuff on the job. Of which I was 12 the first year I worked wheat harvest. Mom held it off as long as she could... But I wanted to work with the big machines and trucks... First truck I learned to drive was a 67 C-50 with a split shift axle and 4 speed... Grandpa put a H.O 350 engine in it and I loved jammin away at them gears. Glass pack stacks sound so cool. My dad was the person who managed to accualy teach me all my driving skills, and most of my mechanical skills... He had a bunch of old repair manuals that from time to time I accualy would pull off the shelf and just read.. I learned alot there too. Dad was a Trucker so it wasn't often he was home, but he worked my ass off when he was home... Did you all know that there is always a hole to dig on a farm somewhere??? He is the guy on the right with the vest..



Notice the lil pinky held out from his mini wine glass? He always was a joker... This pic was taken not much before he suffered a massive stroke. We still do have my dad. He is as funny and cantankerous as always. But, he has a usless right arm, walks with a cane and isn't able to speek words anyone but him can understand... We manage pretty well though. I mess with him when I go back home every chance I get. I gotta keep him on his toes, So to speek. It just sucks when you know just a few years ago ya could call him up with a question, and he would have an answer for ya.. Even if it wasn't always rite. LOL Boy did he know these old trucks...





Back on track... I have owned this Blazer since 1998. The last two picks are from the fall of 02 and spring of 03. Unfortunatly,, I cant seam to get my older pics before the convertion to scan on this computer. But as you can see. At one point she was at 7 inches of lift with 38" super swampers. The pics accualy show 35"x16" wide Boggers. Dana 60 rear, with HD dana 44 front. I got some old blocks out one time and stacked them up then drove the front wheel up on them. It was 39 inches of flex before one of the rear wheels lifted off the ground. We had a good ole mud and snow flinging time back in the day too... But 4 Wheeling took a back seat after I got married and the ORV park was alot further away due to a new house. Plus, I had time issues and affording to break stuff then getting them fixed.. I knew I didn't want to get rid of her. And I couldn't seem to find a 2wd blazer that was in my price range.. So... my 4x4 needed to be changed to a 2WD...

[BlazinC5]

So.. I decided on making my blazer a 2wd get around rig. The handling with 7 inches of lift sucked and usfull practicality of keeping her a 4x4 was out the window for me. I began the convertion in 2004 ish. (hard to remember). I bought a 71 GMC 2wd longbox with no engine and bad tranny for $200. It had newer wheels and tires, but some of the perks left in the back of the box paid for the truck. Parts and tools for finishing my basment of the new house.. I moved both the dead 2wd GMC and my blazer into my 3 car garage, then started to dismantle both rigs for frame swaps.

I ran into an ufortunate setback once I got the GMC body off. Somehow I didn't notice the frame was bent real bad in the front drivers side and had a nasty crack in it when I boght it. I tried to bend it back with a porta power and chains but no dice. She was just to messed up. So the search was on for another frame. My buddy called me up and said one day. "Hey, we have a 75 camper special at my father inlaws, with a 454 and t-400. He would take $400 for them on the frame." I took a weekend and went over there to get them. Part of the deal was to take the body off the 75 for his father inlaw. I didn't mind it since it was like old times working with a friend who we spent countless hours as teens working on junk. The gears instantly got to turning.. I took some measurments and it turns out a 75 front portion of the frame is VERY similar to a 71. Not perfect, but hey it worked for me. So I hacked the front portions of the frames off.







I decided to go with a 45 degree angle cut as opposed to an L type cut due to the space and difference in frames I had to deal with. So my frame does in fact have a 75 front section and a 71 rear section.

[BlazinC5]

I never really had full clairity on what I was going to do to accomplish making my blazer a full on driver. I just felt this was a step to the rite direction.. So some of you may cringe or think I should have done it different.. Believe me. Some times I think the same things.. But I just am still plugging away at it.
Here is the only pick of the 71 GMC on the blazer frame I managed to get.

But back to the frame works:


I accually accuired the 75 frame in 2006 so it was a long process getting it to this point. I also had come across a 350 that ran for 45 buck. Since the 454 needed some work and i wasn't sure I wanted the bad fuel economy I used the 350 and T-400. Plus the rear axle of the 75 was a camper special (big brake drums) in great shape I also used it. The other one wasn't good at all. So I cut the mounts off rewelded the 71's to the 75's and put an ECE super track bar on her.



Drivline is done so time to put the frame back under the blazer to test fit it all


Everything seemed to work out great with body mount swaps and clearances. Exept the front frame horns, they are very different. So I cut the old ones off and did what I could freezing my butt off just wanting to take it for a drive and get done before the snow came. Yeah I didn't do very good with that portion. So I still have to rework that to this day. I still think I want to keep my front bumper and not go roll pan in the front.

[BlazinC5]

One of the other major setbacks for getting the blazer driving back in 2006 was the pinch at the pumps. I had to make a job change and fuel was killing me. My old motorcycle was an 86 and eventually it was going to die with the milage i was racking up. So my severance pay and the money from the sale of the 71 GMC went to this.

A 2005 Buell XB12R Firebolt. I still love this bike as much as I did when I bought it. I couldn't pass it up for 2/3 the price of new and only had 2750 miles on the clock.

The next 2 pics are the day I pulled the blazer out for it first drive as a 2wd. Late 2006



Now I told ya about the snow thing when finishing up my front frame horns. We had a doozy of a snow year. This pic is late january 2007 after we got a big warmup. we lost most our snow in a day.. so as I always do when I can get it out and on street level. I warmed up the engine of the bike up.

Fast forward a few more years, I didn't get anything accomplished on the Blazer. Yet again I ran into the issue of job hunting. This one took about 5 months and drained any set aside money I had. So the Blazer suffered for it. 2010 rolled around and I accuired some parts, found I had a flat cam in the 350, plus I was really itching to do something more to the blazer than leave her in poor shape. I threw a cheap cam in the engine so it would run just well enough to move her in and out of the garage. My driveway has a pretty good slope so pushing it in and out was out of the question. I set out on a mission to E-mail myself ideas parts and tools i need to do it better this time I put her into the garage. Now that it is later than I anticipated in the year, I won't get much accomplished before it is to cold. But she is in and my plans currently are to make a good looking body worthy of a nice engine and trans.
This pic is 2 weeks ago when I felt the garage was at about 90% organized.

Let the fun Begin,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Umm Again.

[BlazinC5]

Outside of saying my Blazer was needing a 40 yr/old makeover I forgot to say she is in fact a 71. I guess it was the exitment of starting a build thread I forgot. It does have a 70 grill from a PO. But it will be getting a 71-72 grill someday. matter of fact, I have one hanging in the garage...
First order of business was to strip out the interior. I have known she needed floor pans and rockers for a long time. So that was the top of my list.
time for the interior to be stripped.
Gee, I hope you all like pics.. Bwaahhahaha

[BlazinC5]

can you believe how easy it is to strip an interior of these things. 2 hrs later I even had it vacumed out.

[BlazinC5]

I sold it on the frame with the green GMC body. I have no idea if the guy who bought the rig still has it.. Kinda funny but I saw that truck this last summer painted white, and it looks like he put a short box on it. Or rather shortend the box for a Blazer frame I assume.. (I didn't get a close enough look.) The bumper however I built myself. Sturdy enough to bump a tree stump and not bend, but not heavy enough I could still put it on myself.. With six inches of lift it's aproch angle looked great. Somewhere I have some video of it on the Blazer before I pulled the body off for the frame swap. I will see if I can figure out how to upload it... No promises lol I ain't to computer savy... BTW, that bumper was a prototype for the bumper I put on my 94 GMC.. I have another better pic somewhere on here but,,,,,. I upgraded a few things.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Looks like you guys get just a little bit of snow...

[Splash4195]

Wow that's allot of snow!

[BlazinC5]

Yeah there was a couple of back to back record breakers about 3 years agoish. Last year I fired up the snowblower only once due to a lack of snow.. This year "they" are predicting big snow again.. Well, I may not even fire that snowblower up.. It seems the kid is in great need of things to do rather than find ways to get into troubble. I may even have him shovel it from one side to the other and then back again a few times if he don't knock off the skipping school crap.

[oldschool18]

Thats a nice build you got going on there....

[BlazinC5]

Thanks Oldschool. With any luck it will start warming up around here and I can get back to work on the Blazer... At least today it was sunny and somewhat warmer so I felt like cleaning up around the rig a little bit...

[rsavage]

Great story and build going on. Subscribed.

[Secret Squirrel]

Always warm down here in Shreveport, time for a move BlazinC5. It's so warm you'd be done already! Plus I need your help on the Elky!

[BlazinC5]

I finally couldn't stand it.. I had to go and do somthing with the Blazer. It is sunny here today even though it's only about 35 deg. So not to bad. I grabbed my lil parabolic heater and set it up pointed at my back side.

So grabbed the welder and welded up the cracks in my lower door mount of the A-pillar. It just needs a lil more cleanup on there and the nut thingy put back in place for the backside.

here is the backside, inside the A-pillar. Seems it turned out pretty smooth.

I also cut out the lower kick panel to help fit the inner rocker panel.

[BlazinC5]

So I began fitting the inside rocker panel too. I still have a bit of cutting and fitting but it looks like it will fit nicely.

Ever wonder what it looks like way up inside the A-pillar. You can see the door light switch too. I was surprised my camera took that shot.

After working on that for a little over three hrs. My hands were freezing, as also my air tools. They get to cold, they loose power and hanging them off the front of the heater only lasts for a few min once I put the air to them. So I feel I did accomplish at least somthing today. But after a HOT shower it's time to get ready for work.
BTW Squirrel, Maybe in the future. I'll keep ya posted. But you should put a post up somewhere to show the elky off. After all, it is kinda a truck. And it's crazy cool too.

[BlazinC5]

Spring has finally sprung around here. My original plan for the day was to clean up some stuff in the garage and do some rearranging of things out there.. Soon after clearing the spot next to my blazers drivers side I found myself tinkering with my parts. Long story short, cleaning took a back seat.

I been contemplating the way I was going about the rocker and floor replacment. It seems as though there really is no good way to get into the underside of the floor with that rocker box in the way.. So.. Time to get the tools out. My boxes are in great shape so I don't want to damage them any more than I have to.. After careful thought of how to remove the welds from them and the cab suport (and some trials and that ain't gunna work's). I came up with the plan. I used a wire brush on my cordless drill to remove the old undercoating at the welds and a couple of flat areas near the front and the rear of the box next to the welds.


Those flat area's I am talking about, I went ahead and got out a small drill and 1/4-28 tap. Putting the tapped holes there are for 2 reasons. One: for alignment perposes when I put the rocker back in, and two: too hold the dang thing up so it don't fall on my head. keep in mind, I used a 28 fine thread tap just because the sheet metal suport for the cab is thin. it will have more thread in the hole to grab than the corse thread of 20.


Time to dig some weld out now.

[BlazinC5]

After muddling through a few different ways to dig the welds out. I came up with a couple of my favorite air tools. A Dyna file (on the left) and a 3" cut off disc on a small angle grinder. (on the right)

I have this thing about air tools... I love them. Even though my air compressor is I think older than my dad... And yes I got it from him. It barley works for my air tools. But for now it works, and while it is pumping back up, it allows more time to drink beer. First off, I used the cut off disc to hog out the bulk of the weld. At least, where it would fit up there between the frame rail and the rocker box. And of course beeing carful as to not cut into the cab support.

Next, the Dyna file. For those of you that don't know what a dynafile is.. Basicaly it is just a hand held belt sander. Off hand, I don't know what grit I am using here, but it is course and grinds the weld pretty fast. Because it is about 3/8" wide, It is accually pretty easy to grind in tight spaces and just to the base metal without going to far. Plus it grinds flat.

Now that I ground out the welds, It is pretty much a D shape. I'll be able to reweld that area where the factory welded it.

As for the tapped hole I have now, I will probably just plug weld it when I am all done re-attaching the rocker box. I am hoping that tomorrow I can finish grinding out the rest of the welds. (only two were left under there before the wife got mad at me for not coming to dinner.) and I am hoping that I can just drop it down and fatigue the welds on the very front lip still hidden by the front clip. One last thing. Saftey first... Saftey glasses will not work with all the dirt, undercoating and metal shaving flying around in that tight space. Use a face shield.

[oldschool18]

Take a step back and then think how great its going to be to get her on the road again, and then keep taking pics cause I have to do the same thing to mine but my rocker boxs are already off.....thank you mother nature......lookin good Blazin

[jaros44sr]

Well done, youre getting there! You cant imagine how many times i was ready to throw in the towel on the sheet metal job, probably the most fustrating job of my whole build so far. Even had to buy new panels, cause i screwed up one or two

Trust me, they will start to fall in place, youve waited all winter to do this job. Keep going, cause if i can do it, you can do it. Sometimes you just have to empty your entire tool box, to get it to fit. And, it doesnt look like you have enough tools out yet LOL

[BlazinC5]

Originally Posted by jaros44sr

Trust me, they will start to fall in place, youve waited all winter to do this job. Keep going, cause if i can do it, you can do it. Sometimes you just have to empty your entire tool box, to get it to fit. And, it doesnt look like you have enough tools out yet LOL

I been thinking of another way to attack this stuff, so hopfully next weekend things will be figured out.. And Trust me when I say, the pics don't show hardly close to the amount of tools that I have out. or what I will be getting out.. And BTW, Oldschool, Every time I go into the garage and I see this truck, I envision it on the road, haulin a$$.

[jaros44sr]

Originally Posted by BlazinC5

I been thinking of another way to attack this stuff, so hopfully next weekend things will be figured out.. And Trust me when I say, the pics don't show hardly close to the amount of tools that I have out. or what I will be getting out.. And BTW, Oldschool, Every time I go into the garage and I see this truck, I envision it on the road, haulin a$$.

Let me guess, panel adhesive and rivets....i was looking at a spot weld gun today, under a hundred bucks, cause i have to dissassemble my hood and all the bracing to repair rust on the leading edge

[y5mgisi]

Great build!

[BlazinC5]

Originally Posted by jaros44sr

Let me guess, panel adhesive and rivets....i was looking at a spot weld gun today,

I was thinkin it might be easier to just mold them parts back with clay. But a spot welder would be pretty cool too.

[Tom Vogel]

Really Good Job on that nut!