Short Stuff building a '65 Blazer

[mnky30]

looks great keep up the great progress and the pics.

[hotrodhomi]

Nice

[Bazooka]

This is going to be Awesome. Great work! I look forward to updates..

[joe231]

Come on man!!! your killing me, where are all these supposed "pics" you have?????

don't make me cite you for failure to post pics

btw, I really like that '63 grill on there too

[badpeanut]

Nice work!

Subscribed.

[65sublime]

Alright already! More pictures! Sorry, I took a couple nights off to work on the sub.





This picture looks really strange with the bumper hanging out 20 inches. …But not for long!




Got the body on the lift and rolled the frame out.



I laid out a 12” “z” cut with a 10” overlap. The frame was in great shape, only took a quick hit with the wire brush to clean up.



Cut and welded on the outside. I’ll go back and diamond plate the inside later as I had only a couple days to slice & dice the frame and get the body off the lift.




A little grinding smoothed it right out.



In this shot you can see how close tranny x-member got to the trailing arm x-member. A one piece driveshaft is a natural. The “back of cab” body mount needs to move 12” to the rear.




This is the splice at the rear (-8”). The frame steps down here several times for the sub. The top is not finish welded because I wanted to put new metal in, on either side of the cut, where the rubber from the body mounts must have held moisture and rusted out that area.





Lowered the body onto the shortened frame. …Now that looks better!





Did some eye-balling of the wheel well now that I had an opportunity to center the wheel up. Turns out that it looked best right where the splice dimensions suggested.

[LILRED66]

Watching this thing develop in front my eyes has to be one of the best motivation tools I have ever experienced. Actually, it makes me feel pretty insignificant with my restoration and fabrication skills! Impeccable work.

[TimE]

That thing is lookin' good!

[62 short step]

Wow!! Great work!!

[65sublime]

I haven't quite got the hang of adding text and photos where I want. Hey, how do I reduce the picture size slightly?




I laid out where the gas filler door might go and decided it looked too big. Had to come up with a plan B.




Voila! A smooth quarter. I put in 4” dropped spring while the body was off. It’s moving in the right direction.



Hmmmm… Plan B!








There was a tunnel of sorts, through the rear quarter where the filler tube ran. The plan B was to pop out the taillight to expose the gas cap. This required the upper part of the tunnel be redirected. Built inside of it is a mechanical latch and release mechanism. Just a nudge on the vertical rod and the taillight slides straight out. I thought a hinge would take up too much of the small opening I had to work with. The filler tube has not been modified to fit yet.









Different, eh?

[62 short step]

Yep thats different! But looks great!

[bird7263]

Holy Jesus. I think I am in love.. I am slammed out 60-66 lover and owner as are most on here.. But can you imagine what that 65 Blazer would look like on a set of 36's or 38's.. Something to think about!!! I love it dude.. keep up the great work.. I am gonna stay tuned.

[MrPhotographer06]

subscribed

[Dinos63]

duuuuude what a nice job, and thanks for all the photos,this is slick nice work

[PBFAB.COM]

I have wanted to do this for a few years now! Looks great! I was going to call mine the "Stuburban". I will definitely keep an eye on the progress!

[Frizzle Fry]

I've seen that done on a few show cars (gas filler). Very nice job! Can't wait to see more.

By the way, where did you find you inspiration pic? There's a good chance I made it Those are the proportions I always used anyway. I did quite a few of those chops (some better than others) between 1999-2006 when I was working nights and posted them various places... Regardless, you picked the right look!

[scotts62]

Wow! Subscribed! Nice work!

[daveodom]

Nice!! Why didn't chevy think of it sooner?! Excellent job and keep up the good work.

[BuiltByBrooks]

Wow!! Thats bada$$

[ChiefRocka]

Nice man, very nice !!!

It looks perfect...

Good Job.

[66 jewels]

Awesome A+++++++ would love to do the same project ,but make it a 4x4 since it is hard to fit the 5 of family in a truck Keep up the Good work

[jonzcustomshop]

nice! as I was looking at the pics I thought of your plan b, and then viola! there it is... funny
what did you use for the hardware? I need to do a light / gas door like this on my dads 55 chev...

[Slimegreeeeeen]

Wow. I give major kudos to you. How about doing something like this with an olds toranado transaxle mounted in the rear. Of course, whipping it together on photoshop is easy. Having the balls to do it is another thing altogether. Thanks for sharing your awesome project. Keep up the good work. I'll follow it with great interest.

[65sublime]

After the wheel wells were welded in place, I started stripping paint and bondo off the rear quarters. The left side wasn’t too bad. The right side was creased ahead of the wheel so I ordered a patch for that area.





There was a bit more bondo in the right rear corner. Much to my surprise, someone had gone crazy with a slide hammer. There wasn’t a lot a could do there so I cut it out and put in some new metal.




When the outer quarters were ready I painted the inside. Then fitted welded and ground the inner panels.
I found a trick to fit panels that worked for me. I clamped one panel over the other and used a 1/32” thick cutoff wheel to cut through the second panel while holding the wheel tight to the edge of the upper piece. You get an even 1/32” gap all the way around, which I found just right for mig welding. This avoids measuring or marking mistakes, as the patch is the pattern. This worked well on the inner panels because only the vertical edges needed to be fitted. The top and bottom were clamped in place while trimming.

[65sublime]

Back when I removed the plywood floor from the step up rear area, I saw the edge of sheet metal, near the tailgate that the wood bolted to, had rotted away.



I had a local sheet metal shop bend up some 16 gage to replace the top and flange area.



Here the piece is welded and then ground.




I found more ugliness in the corners behind the sill piece.





More of the usual ….patch, weld and grind.




While I was working at the back I filled the barn door hinge slots and holes.



Plans are to add gas cylinders on the hatch and cables on the tailgate.