New life for an old 2wd, farm Blazer

[turp mcspray]

One side together! On to the other side.

[VA72C10]

Great progress!!! Really bringing this one back to its' original luster

[turp mcspray]

Drivers side rust.

[turp mcspray]

Driver floor and inner rocker area.

[turp mcspray]

Rocker, lower hinge pillar, new bedside.

[PHAT TONY]

Your welder is sure feeding this thing alot of wire!

[turp mcspray]

The new bedsides are very nice pieces. I think I took 5 1/2" off the front of the bedside. I decide to use the original inner, and the new skin. The inner needed a little fine tuning.

[turp mcspray]

Got the inner where I want it. Rather than weld in the old filler neck hole, I just cut a new hole, and bent the lip around the edge like the original. Getting the new side fit.

[turp mcspray]

Tailgate gap is looking good. Getting ready for the finish cut on the factory side.
I think I got the filler hole in the right spot. Need to finish up the inner B pillar, so I can install the bedside.

[turp mcspray]

I made my inner B pillar pieces slightly wider than the originals, for a tighter fit to the bedside, which I will seam seal, to keep the crud from getting stuck between the two, and hopefully the rust from forming in there again.
Test fitting the filler neck and grommet.

[Hart_Rod]

Nice work Turp!

[turp mcspray]

I cleaned up the inner and gave it a shot of undercoat. I hit the outer as well. Bedside is welded on!

[turp mcspray]

Front weld seam. Ready to weld in the rocker panel. For anyone with beat up and rusted blazer bedsides, I HIGHLY recommend going with new shortbed sides, VS. hammering and patching beat originals. It is much easier to do than most would probably think.
Sheesh! Time for a break. Posting pics is a lot of work in itself! I still need to post some more pics to my own thread, as well as start another for a shortbox Super that I am building for another customer. Once again, thanks for looking. I hope everyone enjoys the thread.

[hgs_notes]

So thats how you build a blazer from scratch. I had been wondering, and now I know. Looks great.

[1956cameo]

It's really neat seeing this old blazer get put back together. I'm always interested in seeing how professionals work. I'm also really digging that 68 charger in the background. I'm currently saving up for a 68-69 R/T.

[turp mcspray]

The red charger is a 383/auto. The owners parents bought it brand new. I also have a 69, triple black, hemi/auto charger in the shop. I think there are a couple of pics with it on a rotisserie in the background.
As far as the blazer, things ALWAYS end up being worse than they appear. And as always, it's hard to draw the line and not get carried away with the "since we're doing this, lets go ahead and do that". We'll see where this project ends up going. (hint) The can of worms has been opened. LOL!

[lks dcvn]

Great work! It is somewhat comical that start to finish this thread is less than two months.

I am impressed.

[rsavage]

Super work turp! I really enjoy watching your skills.

[67swb72klb]

nice work coming along good !

[Splash4195]

It's coming along!

[turp mcspray]

Originally Posted by lks dcvn

Great work! It is somewhat comical that start to finish this thread is less than two months.

I am impressed.

Actually this thread got a late start. The Blazer is a lot further along than the current pics show. I don't want to spoil the fun by posting all the pics at once. Trying to keep a little suspense going. LOL!

[72c5]

Turp-

What a tremendous job you are doing! Can't believe how fast you work! Most guys would probably take a full day to correctly patch just a single door corner (from both sides like you illustrate). You just keep digging, cutting, fabricating and patching! Like the other poster says you must go thru a lot of welder wire!

Thanks for taking the time to document this build, I'm sure there's something everyone can learn from this!

With the quality of the work you are doing, the line at your door is only going to get longer!

[turp mcspray]

I'm usually not extremely detailed in my explanations of what I am doing. If anyone has any specific questions as to why or how I am doing something, don't be afraid to ask. Sometimes people are intimidated by someone who can do something that they think they can't. I've been doing this stuff as my job for about 25 years. I also spent 3 years as a Street Rod instructor at Wyotech. During which I have gotten to meet and work with many great and extremely talented people such as Chip Foose, Troy Trepanier, and Fay Butler, just to name a few. All of which I was able to learn some valuable things from. At the end of the day, I'm just another 67-72 lover like the rest of you. If I can pass on something that I have learned, and help someone out in their build, I am more than happy to do so. And yes, my shop always seems to stay very busy, for which I am very greatfull. I am one of the very few people I know, that can actually say they are doing what they dreamed of doing as a kid!

[jaros44sr]

Great job, im sure the owner will like it

When you get time, maybe we could go into a little more detail on how to hang the bedsides. I would like to tackle that job someday, plus i could undercoat an area that i have no access to at the moment

Remember, you asked for questions

[turp mcspray]

Wow, It's already been a month since the last time I posted pics. I've been hitting my own blazer pretty hard, every saturday, so I haven't had time to keep the thread going, like I should.
Before I forget, I'll give a LITTLE better description on the bedside install. I should have taken more, and better detailed pics as I went.
I started by drilling out the spotwelds holding the inner and outer skins together, as well as the tack welds around the wheelwell area. In my eyes, this was the quickest, and least amount of work to do it.
Next I cut 5 1/2" off the front of the new skin. This will put the weld seam over the inner B pillar panel (you can see what I mean if you look up inside the front of the bedside area with a light, from the bottom of the bedside). I cut the top rail of the bedside back at about a 45 degree angle. I took some measurements of the gas neck area, so could duplicate it on the new bedside, in the right spot.
Next drill out the spotwelds on the original bedside, just like on the new.
Cut the front of the bedside back 6" or 7" (enough to be able to overlap the new side).
Same on the top rail. You will final trim these later.
Once the old side is removed, hang the new side for a trial fit. Once the bed to tailgate gap is good, and the front edge is overlapped, and fits the contours nicely, install some sheetmetal screws in the top rail, and in the rear taillight area. This way after you remove it, you can get it back in the same position.
Next I took the gas filler piece that I cut from the original panel, laid it in position on the new bedside, and lined it up with my earlier measurements. I then took a sharpie and traced the inside of the hole. Cut your hole about a 1/4" smaller than your drawn line. Try to make your cur as accurate as possible. Next I took a small channel lock style plier, and bent the 1/4" lip inward to duplicate the factory stamped lip. Do a little hammer and dolly work as needed. Test fit you filler neck and rubber seal. You could weld in the filler hole piece, but then you would have to deal with the extra work from welding on flat side panel piece. To me this is the best and cleanest way to add the hole.
Moving on to the front of the bedside, scribe a line down the front edge, and your top rail angle. Remove the new bedside.
Now trim your original side back to your scribe line. At this time deal with any inner B pillar rust. There will be some I am sure! You may have to reinstall the side to fine tune your edge where the old and new will be buttwelded together.
As far as the lower front bedside to door area, I took the piece of the new bedside that I cut off, and made a small patch out of it, to extend the new bedside all the way to the door, and into the jamb. Sorry, but I forgot to take any pics of this step.
Once everything fits to your liking, you can weld it on. Before welding around the wheel well, look down the side or take a long straightedge to it, and make sure you haven't pushed it in too far, making a large "dip" over the wheel well.
I hope this makes sense with the lack more detailed pics.