1947 S10 4x4 Blazer swap

[msaintg]

thanks, My wife and I are really loving it. She has even gone to 4 car shows with me so far (before I built it, she said she would NEVER go to a car shows with me) I think she likes the attention she gets
My little brother brought his 54 Willies pickup over last weekend. He wants to do a lot of body work to it, but he lives about 3 hours away from me, so he is not going to get much done working on it just one weekend a month. He thinks I will work on it for him, once I get tired of looking at it sitting in my yard..... NOT!

[msaintg]

my steering has gotten very stiff and difficult to turn the steering wheel. I asked all of my friends for advise and I have checked everything I can think of that would cause the steering to bind up on me. Well, today as luck would have it, it got very hard to turn and I started to hear something from the floorboard area. This is what I found..... the steering column had grabbed a stand of carpet and wound it up and packed it down in the base enough to bind the steering wheel..... AND of course, it left a big mess in the carpeting. I never noticed it before because I had a piece of carpet in there as a floor mat. Rather than be mad that my carpet needs repair, I was sooooo happy that my truck steers great again! woo hoo, I like simple fixes.

[nvrdone]

Love reading the build thread.
Where did you buy the carpet?

[msaintg]

thanks, I tried to keep some kind of order to it.

the carpeting is just some 'commercial' carpeting from a local flooring store. I thought 'commercial' meant it would hold up better than 'residential', but I was wrong. My heal wore a spot in the carpet after just one week. Oh well, that is what floor mats are for.

I had to replace a strip 3" wide and 27" long, but it turned out OK. It is hard to hide seams with low nap carpeting. I had to hurry because the wife was waiting to drive it.

[msaintg]

I didn't realize how dim my tail lights were until I was driving behind my truck the other day. The directional and brake light bulb is down at the bottom of the lens and hard to see from a distance. Just for grins today, I took some LED lights that I bought awhile back and added them to the tail light housing. I have no idea if they are going to hold up or melt, so I did not mount them at all. They are flexible, so I just curled them around in the housing. They actually fit in there very well. It is hard to tell from the comparison pics, but they are brighter.

[99 to Life]

just browsed through the whole thread, very cool. Glad your wife is into the truck, def makes life easier. Love that sign she bought you. Keep racking the miles up man. I like the color scheme.

[msaintg]

I was still not happy with the rear tail lights after adding the LED lights... the directional and brake lights were still too dim. I realized that I had the bulbs positions swapped, so I rewired the lights to use the middle bulb for the directional/ brake lights and the lower bulb for the running lights. I am happy with it now.

I went to the weekly car show Saturday and saw a few 'new' vehicles that I had not seen before. I actually stayed by my vehicle for the first time to talk with people rather than walk around the whole time. It was fun talking to people. Here are a couple of pics of the vehicles I saw for the first time. The first is a 1947 suburban and the second is a 1948 3100. Check out the passing mirrors and factory wing louvers on the '48. The guy with the '48 did a real nice job doing a static drop on an S10 suspension.... it is only 2" off the ground. Oh, that is a real bullet hole in the hood too.

[msaintg]

I am still playing with the ride height. I adjusted the front end up some more, so it was sitting almost level. I started out with 3" blocks in the back, then I cut them down to 1.5". Now I have completely removed the rear blocks. I think I finally like it. I gave it a bath and took it out for some pics.

[Truck Guy99]

Truck looks fantastic! Its come a long way since you first dragged it home

[msaintg]

thanks, I am really enjoying it now that it is running. I cringe at the thought of doing another one. My little brother has me helping him with his '54 Willys pickup. We just replaced all 6 stake pockets last weekend. good times.

[msaintg]

Intel had an emplyees only car show that drew over 60 cars and over 600 spectators. Not bad for a 1st annual

I got to park next to this hot 65

[msaintg]

7/4/2014 - Small update. Wow, I can't believe I have been driving this truck for a whole year now! I have racked up over 8500 miles on it. That's a lot of miles when you consider it is not my daily driver.

I bought a house in Payson and have used the old Chevy quite a lot running back and forth between Mesa and Payson. Payson is about 70 miles / 4000 ft higher elevation than Mesa and the Chevy's cruise control works waaaaay better on the hills than my 2001 F150. The F150 goes way too fast on the down hills. The Chevy transmission holds you back on the down hills.

I even used it to haul stuff on occasion.

[rgunlock]

Congratulations on the new home Mike! Glad to hear you are enjoying your truck so much.

[msaintg]

thanks Rick, I do love getting out of the valley when it is so hot. The new house is just the latest 'project' of mine.

I had a near miss on the way home the other night. I came across two deer standing in the road. I went between them about 50 mph before I even realized what they were. You just don't see deer in the road in AZ! That would have made a real mess of the '47. Oh well, all is good.

[OrrieG]

I made that run many a time heading up on the Rim to camp. I went to school at ASU. Daughter was born at Mesa Hospital, we were pioneers, one of the first couples the docs and hospital let use natural child birth and the father in the room (damn hippies!). Someone said Pedro Wongs is still open??

[msaintg]

if Pedro Wongs is still open, I can't find it.

Ever since I built my truck, I have had a small clunk only when I back up on a turn. I could tell it was coming from the drivers side front wheel, but I could never find it. so, I have been waiting for it to worsen so that I could locate it. Well, this weekend after my 300 mile road trip to the route 66 car show in Flagstaff, it finally revealed itself. I had replaced the lower ball joints when I built the truck. Evidently, I didn't get the 4 bolts quite tight enough and the ball joint was shifting ever so slightly in the control arm. All tight now.

Oh, I averaged 22mpg

[msaintg]

I made another 300 mile road trip to Flagstaff last weekend to visit my brother. The Chevy ran perfect, but I had two small problems.... my driver side door handle (on the inside) stopped opening the door. I have the easy latches (which work perfect), but the door is very, very tight when closed because of the rubber door seal. I guess I will have to adjust the door handle mechanism. The second problem I had was I ran into some rain and the windshield leaked. I don't know what to do with that because I have already sealed it TWICE with silicone inside the 'H' rubber. can't figure out where I missed.

On a different note... I found a new project.... 1957 Willys CJ5. This project direction will be totally different than the Chevy..... going all original on this one.

[99 to Life]

Glad to hear the truck is running good. Do you have the standard window rubber or the deluxe? My dumb a** wasn't aware of the two years ago when I did my 51', I put the deluxe rubber in cause I had it laying around, come to find out it is for the stainless trim that goes inside it. So without the stainless in there, the rubber isn't solid. I bought the $80 stainless but it needs put in before the window goes in and I didn't want to take it out, so I still have to swap it out. None the less I get the occasional leak, I'v put silicone throughout as well.

Mine leaks some in the center of the windshield, so not sure if thats a common problem or if I just need to put the right rubber in to make it tighter. Also my rubber was old as I said, so I'm thinking worn out rubber is going to be more prone to leaks than a new seal.

[msaintg]

I only have the standard rubber (no SS trim). Ya, mine is leaking in the middle too. I didn't have anyone to help me hold the center divider on the outside when I put the screws on from the inside, so it is not on very well. maybe it is not putting enough pressure on the glass there? it's funny, I never planned on driving it in the rain, but I have done it 4 times now.

[rgunlock]

Your next project looks fun Mike. Glad you weren't as burnt out on doing these as you sounded right after you finished the truck.

[msaintg]

LOL, ya, I was totally burnt out after the chevy. I just went at it way to hard and fast and I HATE body work. Its been a year and I am old enough to forget how much work it was. The jeep will be way simpler, I am going to take my time and just tinker with it. If I paint it, it will just be a skuff and paint deal.

[rgunlock]

yeah, I think a goal of "just make some progress each week" without actually setting a specific goal of what to get done helps keep it from feeling like a chore.

[msaintg]

I decided to put the truck to work..... I put my wife's new logo on it. I figure if you're going to put a logo on your truck, it might as well be a real business.

[99 to Life]

Goes well with the truck, nothing wrong with promoting family biz.

[msaintg]

Thanks, I like it. My wife was very surprised that I would put something so permanent on the truck, but I figure she will use it more, and I want it to be driven.

last week she was cruising down the freeway and ran across a construction area where they had left a bunch of gravel on the road. Everyone slowed to 45mph but she still got rock chips on both halves of the windshield and also took out a headlight. She was very upset. I didn't care. I was actually quite pleased that the insurance company would pay me to fix it. I was able to fix it and pocket a little cash.

I was experimenting with my first youtube video. lets see if this link works: http://youtu.be/1Go8d6wnJDI