New Blazer in WA State

[C.I.Blazer]

Hello Everyone!

I have been spending an incredible amount of time on this forum reading and researching. So let me start by saying Thank You to everyone for all the help and entertainment you have give me already. I have been wanting a first gen blazer for a long time and, for whatever reason, finally decided the right time was now.

I spent a fair bit of time looking around, but truth be told once I decided I was going to get one I acted pretty quickly (for me). Just got back yesterday from an 800 mile round trip to pick up my new 1971 Blazer. Never purchased a car based solely on pictures and phone calls before, so I was not exactly sure what to expect, but overall I am quite pleased. I think I have spent so many hours looking at builds on this site that start with SOOOO MUCH RUST, that I was convinced I was going to pick up a pile of rusty metal. While she does have her rust issues, I think overall they are not so bad.

My son recently turned 16 and he and I have a 2004 Suburban that we have been learning to work on and use as our adventure vehicle. My wife has a car and I have a car that I use for work. With the cost of teenage driver insurance we decided to try and get by with two cars between the three of us which works well 90% of the time. The other 10% I get home from work and they are both gone, which means I am stuck at home (actually kind of nice sometimes).

So my goal is to have a bit of a rolling restoration. Something I can drive locally, enjoy, and learn on with my son. If it is down for a few weeks at a time that is not a big deal, but I do not want it taken apart in pieces for the next three years. Time with family is very important to me and I have a pretty demanding job right now. It has been a life long dream to do a frame off restoration and that will be my longer term goal. For now, I want to get it in good safe running condition, stop the spread of rust, work on various aspects of the car, and learn mechanical and some body work along the way.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself as I am sure you will be hearing back from me with lots of questions. I will add pics below. Looking forward to the journey!

[C.I.Blazer]

After driving for 6 hours we spent some time with the PO (great guy) and finally got it loaded up right at sunset. Drove about half way home, spent the night and arrived home around noon the next day.

Truck was originally Hugger Orange (per the SPID) but looks to have had at least three different colors underneath ending in the $#%@ you see here. The PO bought it this way 15 years ago and neither of us could figure out what the painter was thinking. Learning to paint a car is DEFINITELY in my future.

[C.I.Blazer]

The truck also came with a soft top. How are we feeling about that 70's velour upholstery? Or the home made roll bar / shooting platform?

[lks dcvn]

Looks like a good platform to start with. These trucks are pretty good at hiding rust so make sure you are ready to commit to finding more once to dig into it.

Congrats on the new Blazer! Always good to see another one get the attention it needs to stay on the road for 50 more years.

[C.I.Blazer]

Thanks dcvn! I really appreciate your response because it was actually your old build thread that gave me the confidence to pull the trigger. I know I will find a lot of issues that are not apparent on the surface, but I loved how you jumped in and learned along the way. This is very much about learning, having fun, and enjoying the journey for me rather than just trying to get to the finished product.

I already know I have rocker and floor issues but will be curious to see the bottoms of the A and B post once things are opened up. The rocker boxes / torsion boxes sound full of rust and dirt, but with the exception of a small spot in each one they feel pretty solid. At least solid enough for now.

[lks dcvn]

Time is on your side now as many of the parts needed to fix the rust are available and easy to come by now compared to even 5 years ago.

I was able to replace ALL of the rear sheet metal on a different Blazer project over just a few weeks... I still have panel adjustment in my future after I check/confirm a few other potential spots that are known to rust.

If you need any help or have questions - post them up here (with pix). This group was instrumental in helping me learn a LOT about these trucks.

Best of luck with your new project! Enjoy.

[72ironmike]

Congrats & Enjoy the Journey !

[Ptjsk]

Love it! Good luck with the build.

Pat

[Ol Blue K20]

Welcome and good luck with it.

[praisegeetarman]

From a fellow Washintonian congrats on joining the Blazer club. I get it about buying a classic from pics and conversations alone. I bought my 67 Camaro sight unseen. Looks like a great start. What part of Washington are you from?

Keith

Originally Posted by C.I.Blazer

The truck also came with a soft top. How are we feeling about that 70's velour upholstery? Or the home made roll bar / shooting platform?

[underliner6]

Great Blazer! A few weeks ago I took the plunge of painting my first car after I couldn’t stomach the coat of paying someone to do it. I am still in the process of painting my 1972 Camaro panel by panel and so far it is turning out great for my first time. I bought a $100 harbor freight gun and some good PPG primer, base coats, and clear. I’m in it for under $1000 in materials and though i have made plenty of error, I am super pleased with the results. Just some inspiration for your new K5!

[C.I.Blazer]

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

DCVN, your new build looks great. Do you have a build thread of that one too? I am curious, your first build you spent a lot of time repairing existing panels with patches and in this one you appear to just be replacing whole panels. I assume replacing the whole patch is easier / better albeit more expensive? I am new to welding / body work (really this whole process) like you were when you started. What would you recommend?

Keith, I am on Camano Island which is about an hour north of Seattle. From your profile looks like you are in the Yakima area? Drove right through there picking her up just outside of La Grande Oregon.

Jim, that is great to hear. As part of my rolling restoration, I want to see what I can do about the paint job. Main goal is to stop the spread of rust and get something on the body to protect it. I dream of doing a frame off one day. Maybe down the road but in the meantime I definitely want to learn to do some painting at home.

First step is to do the regular tune up work. Brakes were just done by the PO so really just fluids, spark plugs, and try to diagnose some drips.

[C.I.Blazer]

I think one of the interesting aspects of this whole process is trying to decipher what has been done to these almost 50 year old cars along the way. That doesn't look right? What the heck is this? Who did this and why? Especially a vehicle like this one that is by no means a stock, original condition example. I wish I knew more about the history of this truck.

According to the SPID the truck originally came with a 350 and 4 speed manual transmission. Sometime prior to the person I bought it from, it was swapped for a TH350. The PO told me that he just had the tranny rebuilt and that the shop that performed the work told him that it had been "built" and "upgraded" like a high performance tranny would be for racing. Don't know exactly what that means. I do know that it has an old B&M ratchet shifter in it (i had never even heard of a ratchet shifter before). Not sure if this was done for fun or for some specific application.

Last night I got another interesting surprise. I was able to get a pic of the casting number on the block and it appears that it is a 400 and not a 350. I assumed they swapped the tranny and transfer case onto the stock engine, but now it appears they must have just put in a while new drive train.

Any thoughts on the 400? From a bit of research sounds like some like it and some don't. I just want a good vehicle for street and mild off road driving so it probably doesn't matter too much to me just good to know.

[lks dcvn]

No build thread on the blazer above yet - I'm working on that one when I have time.

Replacing body panels almost 10 years ago was pretty difficult for those who live in places where things rust. It was a 3 step approach:

• Locate clean OEM sheet metal somebody wanted to sell (usually out West)
• Have seller be interested in helping to ship something huge across the country
• Afford the cost of shipping it across the county

Back then - many people were doing rust repair as replacement body panels were hard to come by. Others found ways of grafting fleetside short bedsides onto the Blazer structure to get to clean metal.

Today - you can buy the parts off the shelf and save yourself a LOT of time and energy in getting to clean sheet metal. The new Blazer parts are pretty good when it comes to fitment - nothing is perfect and will require some work to have everything line up.

What would I recommend on approach? In those days - I had more time than money. Spending $40 on a patch panel and then hours to get it right as I learned how things went together was an educational journey. Now, I have more money than time and swapping over a floor or bedside can be done pretty quick. Each approach has value - it just really depends on if you want to be a student of the craft or get it on the road and just drive the truck. You can always do both - fix a few things now to learn and then down the road swap the full panel as rust never sleeps and progress is always being made on replacement sheet metal.

[hemi43]

Originally Posted by underliner6

Great Blazer! A few weeks ago I took the plunge of painting my first car after I couldn’t stomach the coat of paying someone to do it. I am still in the process of painting my 1972 Camaro panel by panel and so far it is turning out great for my first time. I bought a $100 harbor freight gun and some good PPG primer, base coats, and clear. I’m in it for under $1000 in materials and though i have made plenty of error, I am super pleased with the results. Just some inspiration for your new K5!

What color are you going? If there's any metallic, you will regret painting panel by panel. You will end up with a car with every panel looking different. FYI

[C.I.Blazer]

I know nothing about painting but I had read that about trying to paint piece by piece with metallic paint. I think I will stay away from that and just try and get back to a halfway decent version of the original hugger orange. That should hold me until I can do more of a restoration with a more professional paint job.

Thanks for the advice.

[underliner6]

Originally Posted by hemi43

What color are you going? If there's any metallic, you will regret painting panel by panel. You will end up with a car with every panel looking different. FYI

The color is PPG Marrakesh brown which is a BMW color. I have the front fenders and bumper off which is why I’m painting them off the car. Sounds like I may have shot myself in the foot!

[C.I.Blazer]

Well, looks like the engine in the Blazer is no good. Trying to figure out what to do next. Posting this in the Engine section if anyone has any advice.

Thanks!

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...10#post8586210

[jaros44sr]

Originally Posted by C.I.Blazer

I think one of the interesting aspects of this whole process is trying to decipher what has been done to these almost 50 year old cars along the way. That doesn't look right? What the heck is this? Who did this and why? Especially a vehicle like this one that is by no means a stock, original condition example. I wish I knew more about the history of this truck.

According to the SPID the truck originally came with a 350 and 4 speed manual transmission. Sometime prior to the person I bought it from, it was swapped for a TH350. The PO told me that he just had the tranny rebuilt and that the shop that performed the work told him that it had been "built" and "upgraded" like a high performance tranny would be for racing. Don't know exactly what that means. I do know that it has an old B&M ratchet shifter in it (i had never even heard of a ratchet shifter before). Not sure if this was done for fun or for some specific application.

Last night I got another interesting surprise. I was able to get a pic of the casting number on the block and it appears that it is a 400 and not a 350. I assumed they swapped the tranny and transfer case onto the stock engine, but now it appears they must have just put in a while new drive train.

Any thoughts on the 400? From a bit of research sounds like some like it and some don't. I just want a good vehicle for street and mild off road driving so it probably doesn't matter too much to me just good to know.

Parts are available to go back to original on the for sale section, see shifters there all the time