tjs 72 Blazer Build

[tjsblazer]

Originally Posted by GMC-YA68

looking BADAZZ!

Originally Posted by grillzy

Looking great!

Thanks guys. Just feels good to actually be bolting stuff together instead of taking apart.

[grillzy]

When does the body come home? Did you pick a colour yet?

[GMaholic]

Great project,and super pictures, I notice the front end of the left hand spring, has a sort of end cap ??? Wht is that?? My 71 has the same sort of welded on cap over the spring end, and the one on my right side has broken off ( mine are welded on), Thanks, Jack

[tjsblazer]

Originally Posted by grillzy

When does the body come home? Did you pick a colour yet?

Embarrassed to say I just saw this post now. I haven't got much done lately. Between spring yard work and my kids being in competitions all over this time of year I don't get any truck time.

[tjsblazer]

Originally Posted by GMaholic

Great project,and super pictures, I notice the front end of the left hand spring, has a sort of end cap ??? Wht is that?? My 71 has the same sort of welded on cap over the spring end, and the one on my right side has broken off ( mine are welded on), Thanks, Jack

Mine is welded also. They are supposed to be Lh side only. And behind the spring on the Lh side is a bolted on angle piece that hangs slightly down behind it. My understanding is they are to help keep the spring from driving rearward in to the Driver compartment in a front end crash.

[tjsblazer]

Here is my pitiful progress. Finished getting the hubs together. Re-chromed rings, stainless screws, and restored knobs. I have also been fooling around getting a custom tranny mount made due to the NV4500 transmission but not along far enough to put up a picture.

Restored hubs. Disregard the dirty wheels in the background.

[tjsblazer]

I also spent the last 3 months piecing together a set of 5, 16" steelies for 6 lug. Had a really hard time finding these in the 4 nub variety. I'm going to press out the centers and put them in new 8" hoops so I can keep the factory steelie / dog dish cap look and run some modern size 16" tires. Leaning towards 285 75 R16's. I think they are a full 33" and about 11.5" wide. I think they look good in 16's. We'll see after I get the body back on to see how everything is sitting first.

[GMaholic]

Thanks for the reply / info on the spring cap. I'm running Toyo M/T Open Country LT265-75-16 on stock height. fills the wheel wells nicely. Jack

[tjsblazer]

Originally Posted by GMaholic

Thanks for the reply / info on the spring cap. I'm running Toyo M/T Open Country LT265-75-16 on stock height. fills the wheel wells nicely. Jack

Nice !! That is a clean looking rig in the pic!

[tjsblazer]

A little progress. Time for a marriage.

[tjsblazer]

Getting the NV4500 5spd mated up.

[tjsblazer]

Putting the brother-in-law to work!

[tjsblazer]

Gas tank installed.

[tjsblazer]

Got to make the custom tranny mount now. That 2x6 is real close to the right height.

[tjsblazer]

As she sits now.

[jlsanborn]

Outstanding build man, well done! I'll tag along here

[grillzy]

looking really nice

[hemi43]

Nice to see another Canadian K5 build. Where are you located? I wouldn't mind sending out some parts to get zinc plated but not sure where locally. Will be starting my build in a few weeks.

[tjsblazer]

Originally Posted by hemi43

Nice to see another Canadian K5 build. Where are you located? I wouldn't mind sending out some parts to get zinc plated but not sure where locally. Will be starting my build in a few weeks.

I live outside Guelph near KW. I'll pm you my contact details.

[hemi43]

Thanks for the PM !! Nice to see you're not that far away considering the great white North is huge.
Dan

[tjsblazer]

Managed to have an hour or so truck time today. Got the fuel tank install finished up getting the straps on.
When I first looked at the Assembly manual I thought it said 100-130 lbs ft. I couldn't believe it was that much torque on the 3/8" square u-bolt that holds the straps. After I hand tightened them I went back and checked and it was actually lbs in !!! Big difference. That is like 8-10 lbs ft. I hate when they do that.

[tjsblazer]

I also rechecked my header fit. I had done this once before when I originally was test fitting the NV4500 transmission. It did require just a little frame clearance primarily on the top flange. This was because I had moved the Engine 1.875" forward to get it where I needed for the transmission.

Just double checked now that everything was in for good to be sure. Nice clearance everywhere.

Rh side:

[tjsblazer]

Lh side is just as nice:

[tjsblazer]

These Headers are a TriY design made by Stan's Headers. The shop foreman is familiar with our era of trucks. I bought them bare purposely in case I had to make a small tweak. Turns out they fit great. I think the only reason I had to clearance the frame slightly was because of the Engine move as I said. The frame gets a little narrower as you move forward.

I'll get them Ceramic coated locally now.

Quality is top notch. I had both Doug's and Thorley's sets to try and the Stan's were definitely the cream of the crop.

Besides having great plug clearance everywhere (Heads are angle plug design). Check out the nice large square port to match the AFR heads. The other brands I tried were oval which severely bottle-necked the exhaust outlet on each side.

[tjsblazer]

Originally Posted by grillzy

looking really nice

Thanks very much. Seems to take forever to get anything done.
Charcoal vent lines from Inline tube were the latest battle. More on that later.