1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

While this project is far from done, i am at least at a stage where i can start sharing some of the work that has been done to this blazer so far.

My interest in the 67-72 chevy/gmc trucks really began with the crew cab builds that were popular around 2014ish. I believe "project penicillin" was a build that i thought was wickedly cool, as was the first crewcab truck that rtech fabrications did. Around the same time, IronCanine started working on his silver 70 k5. After watching that build for a bit, I was hooked and had to get a blazer of my own. After heavily researching for few months i came to the conclusion that i really wanted a 69 for a few reasons. 1.) I was a huge fan of the 69/70 grill. 2.) 69 had the lowest production run. 3.) The 69's had a bunch of weird one year quirks 4.) In Ontario Canada where i am from, 1969 was the 2nd last year blue plates were offered. We have had boring white ones since then, and i thought that it would be a neat addition to the build.

I couldn't really afford a nice one at this point, so i looked all across the eastern United States for one. Here is what i found.

It was located in Columbia Tennessee, and had no drivetrain or top. But it came with a proper ownership, and a few of the hard to find pieces were there. Looking back on it, I would recommend buying one that was in a bit better shape. That being said i was, and still am super pumped about this truck.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

The truck is a 1969 507 light blue with minimal options. It had all the seats, the top, and a few minor options but it was fairly basic. Originally it was a inline 6, 3 speed manual. By the time i got it, the front seats had been replaced, the radio hole and doors hacked, and the driveline gone.

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

The goal for this project is to restore it to as close to original as possible on the outside and interior, while making some modern improvements to the driveline. The front crossmember will be replaced with a dirty dingo unit to support an LS3 and 4 or 6 speed automatic transmission mated to an NP205. The idea with all these mods is to make sure that they are all reversible should trends change in 10-20 years. By then, people might be doing electric swaps to these things. My knowledge on these trucks pales in comparison to some people like DeadheadNM and IronCanine, so there may be times where i accidentally use parts that aren't factory correct. If there are things that i am doing that were not done that way originally, please let me know. I have been fortunate enough to have had a large amount of space to store and work on this truck in my parents shop. The conditions to my free rent of this space was that i put a roll bar, 3 point belts, and headrests in the blazer. To do that, i will have to run non factory bucket seats, but the goal is to upholster them to look as original as possible.

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

The inspiration for my build is this cover truck from the 70 brochure. While the brochure is not the same year as my truck, it appears to sport the 507 light blue that was only offered until 1969. Additionally, the interior colour of the top almost looks to be body colour as well. Another feature that was discontinued after 1969.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

Here are some photos from the initial disassembly. You can see that basically every panel is junk. Considering what i paid for it, i knew it was going to be really bad but it was almost worse than what i expected. I guess thats what happens when you buy sight unseen.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

Here are a few major pieces i picked up along the way. The bed was a blazer bed cut down and modified a bit. This seems to be a trend so far, but looking back on it, it was not in as good of shape as i had initially believed. The front dash/cowl/window frame was an excellent piece. Thanks Too Much Stuff for helping me out with that.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

Looks like you’re off to a great start. I’m definitely on board. Color choice is great. 69 model Blazers are fun - good luck with the build.

Have you seen the Pacific Fab/Tilden 4wd X-member? Only mentioning because it looks closer to an oem piece and sleeker than the DD.

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

I'll watch, seems to be in ruff shape, how are your welding skills and tools.

Mine was ruff, but not as bad as yours, good luck with your build, you've got quite the challenge in front of you

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

I have seen the Pacific Fab xmember. The reason i had thought the DD unit was the way to go was that most reviews seemed to say the DD will clear the front axle with less of a lift than the PacFab unit. I like the look of the 33's on stock height springs. I have not looked into it enough to see if either xmember can support that.

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

Thanks! My welding skills are non existent... but there is a super talented custom metal fab shop a few km down the road from me.

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

I am fortunate to have a really good metal fab and restoration shop not too far from me. The place is called Lost Time Hotrods. After securing a few more of the key parts i was ready to begin the build. At this point in time blazer specific floors were not out, so we had to cut down a truck floor like everyone else. The guys at the shop were surprised at how many blazer specific pieces were reproduced these days. They used to make the rocker boxes by hand in the early 2000s.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

I was also able to score a really nice double wall top. Due to the construction of the double wall top, they're prone to a lot more issues that the single walls. If you have a 70-72 i would personally go with a single wall top. With the 69's the interior of them were painted body colour. Because the single walls never came with the interior painted body colour, you are kinda forced to go with the double wall when looking for that factory correct appearance.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

The previous owner of the blazer bed had hacked off the b pillars so he could use the bed for his short bed c10. The piece being held was just removed, but these photos show where exactly the b pillars had been cut at.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

The edge had also been radiused, so there would have to be a patch extending the outer skin as well.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

It always amazes me what some of you guys start with and then what you end up with. I will be watching this build for sure; rock on :metal::metal::metal:

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Utilizing my existing B pillars from my rusty blue body along with some off the shelf patch panels, they were able to fab up some rust free pillars that could then be fit into the opening.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

This piece was made to continue the body line into the b pillar. This is one of my favourite pieces of the project so far.

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The step up plate, the edge of the floor and then b pillars were all attached together first, then the floor was used as a scribe to cut the existing floor on the black bed to the right size. from there, everything seemed to line up really well!

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Upon closer inspection of this bed i realized that it was not quite in the shape i had expected. Lots of bondo tucked in spots that were hard to see or covered up by brackets. Once we got a few of the brackets off we could see the full extent of the damage.

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A jig was made to get the correct ribbed lines in the bed floor. The ends of the braces were taken off the floor of the rusty blue blazer body and then grafted on.

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The tailgate area of the bed floor was also a disaster. The rear most cross sill had been brazed and bondo'd to the bed floor. Fortunately there are lots of available reproduction parts for this area, so all the repairs went in quite easily.

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Unlike the bed that i had picked up, the cowl/firewall/windshield frame assembly was in really good shape. A few minor repairs and it was good to go.

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Few more.

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By this point all the major repairs to the body tub had been made and it was time to assemble all the pieces. The bucket seat floor brace was salvaged from the existing floor of my blue blazer. (I think it was the only thing still intact on that floor)

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The advantage to replacement parts... no rust. The disadvantage... sometimes things just aren't where they are supposed to be.

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As i mentioned earlier, the blazer floor was not yet available at this point so we had to cut down a truck floor. The existing floor on my blazer prior to disassembly was so rusty that i couldn't even tell exactly how the body line on the floor met up with the step up plate. While the result isn't 100% factory correct, it was still really well done. Once the weld was ground flat, i almost now prefer it over the factory flare up that is there.

The rockerbox area of the blazer is obviously fairly complicated. With all reproduction pieces, i was worried that everything wouldn't go together. it needed a slight modification so that the one end would sit on the cross brace properly. Other than that, the support brackets and the rest of the pieces all went in really smoothly.

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I bought this thing when i was around 17 or so just before i started university so it was all i could afford at the time. In the long run it might have been better to buy one that was in a bit better shape, but then the before and after photos wouldn't be as cool! :lol:

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

I’ve been really pleased with stock height and 33” tires for mine. I’m envious of all that skill with the metal work. I agree - the Pacific Fab website implies that it will clear with new springs. Seems a little iffy but here’s the quote:

“Note: This crossmember is designed to be used with new factory springs. If your vehicles springs are worn out or sagging a 2" lift may be necessary for clearance to the front differential.”

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

Interesting... that statement seems a bit contradictory. I remember reading a PacFab vs DD thread on the forums here and it seemed to be split 50/50. Maybe i'll look through some build threads to see if any were run with stock height leaf springs.

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

Just curious: did your doors have latch reinforcement plates? I think 69 Blazer doors didn’t receive these.

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

My doors did not have latch reinforcement plates. From what i can tell, they weren't added until 70. My blazer also didn't come with the bolt hole for the rearmost top hold down bracket. I believe those were added after 69 as well.

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Yep. Probably not equipped with drip rail deflectors either I suspect.

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

Amazing this one is being saved.

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

After the blazer tub was put back in one piece I took a few months off from working on the blazer. Here is what it looked like before I brought it back in to have the fab work finished up. We didn't end up bracing the doors or the tailgate when the top was off and I was a bit worried that things would not be perfectly aligned after i brought it back. Everyone on the forum here seems to reiterate that bracing is very important when the top and doors are off. I am not sure whether i am lucky or what, but when I brought it back to the shop after a few months everything was still aligned properly. If I had to do it again I would likely air on the side of caution and add some bracing.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

Theres a guy a town over from me that has a whole hoard of NOS 67-72 chevy body panels in his barn but he is still unwilling to part with any of them. I was able to score a NOS front passenger fender for the blazer. I decided to order new reproduction doors, tailgate, and the drivers fender as opposed to fix the old stuff that i had. I was partial to using original metal, but the stuff i had was too far gone.

There was a bit of a mix-up from the manufactuer when ordering some of the body panels from Bills Truck Shop. They sent two of the same door instead of a L+R. Bill was super good about it and gave me a truck door at a good rate. While both of the doors went in with a relatively minimal amount of work, the truck door did fit better than the blazer door.

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

A few slight tweaks like this to the body lines to get them to match up.

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Some almost finished door gaps.

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Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

Great progress. It’s really coming along. Do you have fresh body mounts in place? Worth testing fit of the top now?

Re: 1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue
 

I'm a little partial to '69 code 507 K5 Blazers. There is a lot of good looking metal work going on there. Hope that you are related to your metal guy or have deep pockets. 507 blue '69 Blazers are striking. Good luck. I am following your restoration.