1947 S10 4x4 Blazer swap

[Rods57]

Thats great, all one color is a good day.

[msaintg]

Very true I plan on wet sanding and putting a second coat of paint on the entire truck once it is all assembled because I discovered the paint will go on smoother and shinier if I reduce it more with acetone (gives me one more chance to fix my crappy body work too).

[dug224]

Originally Posted by msaintg

Ok 2/8/2013 is my one year anniversary from when I brought the project truck home, so it is time for some calculations…… I have 520 hours and $6472 invested in it so far. Not bad, I am still averaging 10 hours per week on it…..and that is less than $125 per week spent on it. I know people that spend more than that on cigarettes!!

Man...I had hoped you included something like this. Great job keeping it "on the cheap". I am trying to keep mine at about $10k when complete and appear to be on track. I will have $100k in labor in it but I don't buy cigarettes or play golf. Great job. dug

[msaintg]

thanks dug, I know a lot of guys don't want to know how much money or time they have invested in their trucks, but I guess that is the engineer in me coming out. I managed to get the hinges painted so I was able to hang the doors. Still need some more TLC to get them hung properly, but I am getting closer.

[msaintg]

week 64 - Well I FINALLY got the dang doors hung without them sticking out to far, sticking in too far, or hitting the door frame. I got most of the hardware inside the doors and got the windows working (I couldn't figure out how to put those metal clips on the track strip so I left them off for now). Then I started to make some door panels and put the trim on the windshield.

[mknittle]

Looking good!

[Russell Ashley]

" I know a lot of guys don't want to know how much money or time they have invested in their trucks"
I have an Excell spread sheet on my truck and have kept track almost to the penny of how much I have invested. I want to know, just don't want my wife to know, LOL.

I've followed your build from the beginning and you've done a great job. The truck is looking great.

[msaintg]

thanks guys,
I am happy with the build overall. I am kinda at a cross road right now, don't know what I should work on next. I am not happy with the paint job, so I might start wet sanding the whole thing and try to get the finish better. Might work on the interior. Might pull the plugs and see if I can figure out what my engine problem is... so many things to do, so little time. Going to get too hot to work on it soon. Oh well.

[msaintg]

Week 65 - I spent about 6 hours over the course of 3 days wet sanding with 400 grit sandpaper. Dam I'm tired! Doesn't seam like I got much done either.

[Daze57]

still looks good - v nice door alignment

[msaintg]

thanks daze57, I am more relieved than happy about the door alignment. I never thought I would get them to close, but I finally got it. Now I can't get the new repro door latches to actually latch! I gave up on them, so I am sending them back and I have Easy latches on the way. Don't like the thought of taking the doors apart again, but I am confident this will fix my problems.

[Daze57]

yeah i have to pull mine off my 57 to drill a couple of loom holes - kind of dreading the fact of pulling them considering they are lined up pretty good
gonna have to do the old 1/8 inch drill bit hole line up trick - hope it works
your truck is is v nice sir

[Daze57]

i have bear claw latches - v happy with them also

[msaintg]

week 66 - I spent another 10 hours sanding on the truck... I think I will be painting next weekend. I also spent some time installing my new bear claw latches. I had some fit problems where the latch is molded over the corner, I had to trim that bump down on the doors. The screws that came with the kit to hold the rod on were too short (were not long enough for the nylon lock nut to catch), so I had to make a run to the store to get some longer ones. But the biggest problem was that my (1947) door handle mechanism must be different than all the other ones I have seen. My push rod comes out the bottom of the mechanism (all the others I have seen, and what the kit is designed for, come out the top), so I had to modify the rods to accomodate for that. All in all, very nice stuff.

[msaintg]

I figured out (at least partly) why the repro door latches did not work. The cam is not grooved like the original, so it would not catch unless it went all the way.

[msaintg]

week 67 - Well, I have spent the last three days in the 'paint booth'
I am very pleased with it so far. It is way shinier and smoother than before. Now I just need to realign the doors and hood one more time.

[msaintg]

I couldn't wait... I had to get the lettering on. Wow, that was hard lining up every letter one at a time and getting the spacing right. I wanted to get brown lettering to match the bumpers, but I settled for black. Times like these I wish it was a Ford (you know... half as many letters)

[88Lt1wagon]

Very nice, looks like you succeeded with getting them straight, and nice paint

[msaintg]

thanks.

I want to give the dark brown stuff another coat too, but then I don't EVER want to do body and paint work again!!

[msaintg]

I spent the day aligning the doors so that they latch. Doors close and latch well now. I could not get one of the hood hinges to cooperate (sticks up an inch at the passenger side hinge), so I will have to come back to that later. I also installed the mirrors, headlight rings, and the chevy logos on the hood.

[msaintg]

week 68 - I only had a few hours to work on the truck this week. I painted the door panels to see if I want to go with a dark accent color. I think I like it. I also started putting the insulation in and I got the headliner done.

[rgunlock]

Your truck is looking fantastic Mike! Must feel great getting down to the finishing touches.

[msaintg]

thanks rick,
Ya, I am really wanting to finish it. It is getting hot fast here in AZ and my work schedule is changing so that I will only be able to work on the truck at the hottest part of the day. With that in mind, I hauled it off to the mechanic today to check out the engine and tranny issues.

[Daze57]

looks really nice

[msaintg]

Thanks Daze57.

Well, I got it back from the mechanic today... Engine problem was not the head gasket... it was the intake manifold gasket. Mechanic had to replace the spark plugs, oil and coolant too. They did not find anything wrong with the tranny, except a stupid mistake on my part. I connected a vacuum line from the engine to the breather hose on the transmission... I was sucking tranny fluid into the engine and burning it. duh, me stupid I would never have found that.

If any of you guys in the Phoenix area ever need an excellent mechanic, I highly recommend ATD Automotive!! They are off of 2010 W Parkside Lane #126. I drive all the way from the east valley to see them.