Military Blazer Build

[79vette]

Over the next couple months I'll hopefully be finishing up building my M1009 Blazer. I'm going to post up all the pics I have from the build up to this point, and document the remainder of the project as I go.

The truck was a factory 6.2 diesel backed by a TH400 and NP208, with 10 bolt axles and 3.08 gears. When I bought it from the national guard it was on 33" Goodyear MTRs.

Today it has a 2 speed aux trans (Advanced Adapters "Ranger"), SM465 and NP205. Axles are 10/12bolt with 3.73 gears and ARB lockers in both ends. Still on 33" MTRs and still has the 6.2 diesel.


The first project was the floor replacement. I bought it with bad floor pan rust, like to the point the seats were about to drop out onto the road and I would not allow a passenger to ride in the truck.

Here's some photos of the carnage. 3 of the 4 bolt locations on the passenger side were cracked through, and there was >2" of vertical motion of the seat every time the truck hit a bump.

[79vette]

First step was to torch out the rotten metal and make a carboard template, and then transfer that to new 16ga steel. As you can see the rockers are pretty bad and I should have done them at the same time, but this was my only daily driver and I needed it back on the road ASAP. Rocker replacement will be a later post...








There's an annoying upward bend in the frame which I had to box around, since I was working with flat sheet. After fixing that it fit up, and it was easy to drill and plug weld into place.




Then cut the hole for the 24v panel wiring (the military had a power distribution point near the rear bench seat for radios and other gear) and made a couple patch sections for the rear cargo area. Ignore the lousy welding here

[79vette]

I wasn't able to reproduce the stamped ribs in the replacement floor, so instaead I used a 1"x3"x.060" rectangle tube cut in half to make a 0.5"x3" C channel, and welded that to the floor as a stiffening rib. This spans from the front floor support to the rear floor support and provides a load path from the seats into the underlying cab structure, so the flat sheet metal floor isn't supporting the weight of the seats.

I dont have photos, but there is a piece of thick wall pipe welded between the C channel support and the floor sheet metal to allow the seat bolts to clamp up on a solid piece instead of crushing the channel.




Repeat process on the other side.






At this point I took a quick break to go pick up some new toys. Still no center section built to connect the 2 sides of the floor and the transmission tunnel cover was installed installed with one bolt, so I almost lost the turbo on the interstate...




After picking up the turbo, I raised and extended the tunnel cover to accommodate the SM465 and auxiliary trans.

[79vette]

Built a raised section to clear the driveshaft and connect the 2 sides of the floor, made a couple more patches for the extra rusty spots, welded everything solid, and sprayed primer

[79vette]

Applied Peel-n-Seal from Lowes to the floors to help reduce vibration and echos, cut out some rubber floor mats, reinstalled the interior (and rifle rack!), and its like a whole new truck. At least I dont have to wear safety glasses to keep road gravel out of my eyes when I drive now...

[Corts60]

That thing is going to be rugged! Very nice.

[84 400]

Would love to know more about the ranger. Have one ready to go in ny 77 (has a 6.2 from a 1028 and sm465) but the tunnel and drive shaft mods are slowibg me down

[79vette]

Originally Posted by 84 400

Would love to know more about the ranger. Have one ready to go in ny 77 (has a 6.2 from a 1028 and sm465) but the tunnel and drive shaft mods are slowibg me down

I'm quite happy with mine, and happy to answer any questions. What would you like to know?

You gotta cut a hole in the tunnel for the new shifter and offset all the driveshafts ~7" back (longer front, shorter rear). I did a bunch of tunnel work to raise the transfer case up a couple inches for better clearance, but I probably wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't cut the entire floor out already.

Advanced Adapters recently discontinued them and I'm looking for another. If for whatever reason you decide to not install yours I'd be happy to buy it off you

[79vette]

Here's a few pics from my center console build. Everything was done with a grinder, because I didnt have a plasma at this point.





Water bottle holder was sized to fit a 1L Nalgene, which is my favorite water bottle of all time.

[79vette]

The switches and switch guards are stainless look-alikes for the titanium hardware made by Rockwell for the Space Shuttle switch panels. A bit silly perhaps, but its the looks i was going for.



I also installed an intercom from a general aviation aircraft so I can run headsets on the highway. The military considered sound insulation to be optional equipment, and the diesel motor is too loud to yell over at freeway speeds


Installed USB charging for all the latest gadgets and gizmos


Headphone and mic jacks for the headsets



Box all assembled and mocked up. Ready for exterior paint and final wiring

[79vette]

I sprayed paint on the box, and left a masked off strip at the bottom. The plan is to wire everything from the bottom, and then weld in the bottom panel and touch up the paint at the end.


Here's some pics from wiring day. I made a spreadsheet showing all the needed connections and copied it to my tablet, grabbed some cold beverages and the soldering iron, and went to work.


Made up a pigtail harness for the intercom box


Here's everything wired up. Intercom, headset jacks, seat heaters, switches, USB chargers, and LED lights for inside the box.


This milspec D38999 connector allows the box and all components to be removed from the truck. There's 37 circuits that connect to various hardware outside the box, and this connector packages everything in a compact and waterproof plug.

[79vette]

Got all the wiring finished, and made up the harness for the truck side


Made up some magnetic covers for the exposed wiring on the headset jacks and intercom box, welded in the bottom of the console and sprayed paint




Here it is installed into the truck

[Corts60]

Man that is some nice work. A man after my own heart with the wiring details. Well done!

[mikelom]

Awesome work! The center console looks nice and very functional.

[Pontiac1976]

Very nice work but the only thing that might give you trouble. Is if you ever need to replace the body mounts on the frame to body,( If the spot welds that are on the center floor patch are on the frame in this pic ) But very nice work on the consol. Keep up the good work.