My 72 Jimmy Frame Up Rebuild

[gwgator]

I bought this back in July on a whim and really with no idea what I was getting into. Of course what I thought would be some simple body work quickly turned into a complete restoration. The further I got into it, the more I decided I wanted to completely rebuild the truck. I am no mechanic or body man but I am in the auto salvage business so luckily have access to lifts, equipment, good tools, etc and a couple employees with experience in body work and restorations. I have to give the credit to them for the work. I like to help where I can but mostly stand around drinking beer and probably slow them down.

We made a lot of progress tearing down the truck pretty quickly but then it sat for a couple months when work got too busy. We just started back on it this week and are working putting the floor pans, rockers and pillars back together. The tub is off the frame and the frame has been sandblasted and primed. The 350 ran but needed some work so we are going to rebuild it.
Here are a few pics from when I first bought the truck. I have more pics at work and will upload as I go.


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[lks dcvn]

Looks like a good start to me...

[vtblazer]

Same ole story...

Welcome to the board, looks like a nice project to watch.

[gwgator]

Yep, seems to be the case with all of these. I will upload more pics today. We got the driver's side rocker box in last night so I am feeling good about seeing progress instead of just tearing it down.

[1949gmc]

Another Jimmy...... gotta love it!!

[gwgator]

Here are some more pics of the tear down and what the floors/rockers looked like.

[Classic Heartbeat]

Great project you have. I am shipping out your rocker box reinforcement plates and rear floor supports today. However looking at these pictures I would say you need the Bed "B" pillar patches that we discussed on the phone. Just let me know if I can help you further. WES

[gwgator]

Thanks Wes. We've patched up the one on the driver's side pretty well so I think it will be okay. I am going to take another good look at it though. I may need the one on the passenger side or both but I will let you know for sure.

[swyfor5]

Wow, great teardown pic's! Very nice!

[gwgator]

Thanks for the info Wes! I will be posting up some more pictures tomorrow after tonight's progress.

[Classic Heartbeat]

I pulled the pictures from this thread, because after thinking about it I didn't think I should post them in your build thread. I started a new thread using your picture though. Thanks for your great photography.. WES

[gwgator]

No problem at all. Feel free to use any of them in this thread or any other. Let me know if there are any other specific pics you are looking for. I have a bunch more that I did not post and can get any you need while it is at this stage.

[Classic Heartbeat]

Thank you for your offer and like everyone else here I will be watching the repairs. It will be cool to see our parts being used. I have used them here a few times rebuilding other Blazers, but for some reason didn't take good pictures. WES

[gwgator]

Here are a few pics of the current status. We got the drivers side rocker box in but it still needs to be finished up on the front edge. You can see the patch we made for the B pillar in a couple of the pics. This patch was made before I knew Wes at Classic Heartbeat made that replacement piece. It should work fine but the passenger side looks worse so I will probably cut it out and replace it completely. Last night some work was done on the outer floor pan patch but we're having some trouble getting everything to line up just right. I am hoping that is fixed once the the front edge of the rocker box and floor pan are tightened up. If not we may need to cut out the front cab support and rework it a bit.

Rocker Box in place




Patch made to B Pillar (still needs some grinding and touching up)



Still a long way to go...

[lks dcvn]

Looks like you are heading in the right direction -

On my A pillar the cab mount fit just inside the torsion box - yours seems to fall just outside of it...not sure if that matters, but figured I would point it out.

I don't have a pic right now, but if need be I can show you what I am talking about...

[gwgator]

I understand what you mean. Thanks for pointing that out. I think we may have jumped the gun on welding that in place. I think it is throwing everything else off so I may cut it out and start over on that piece.

[1949gmc]

Cut, grind, weld, repeat. Then, sometimes you have to do it over. Ain't this stuff fun??

[Classic Heartbeat]

lks dcvn is correct. The front floor support should be dead even with the outer edge of the rocker box. The rocker back plate sets directly on them 90 degrees from the floor. WES

[pound41]

Mine is actually sitting down in that divit in the rockerbox
Great work I have been pecking away for years
Good to see another VA blazer being saved

[gwgator]

We looked at it again today and decided we will need to cut that cab support out and redo it. I am thinking we will bolt the A pillar, outer floor pan patch (inner rocker) and cab support together to line it up and dictate the exact placement of the cab support before doing any welding. Hopefully the passenger side will move along a little better as we figure things out on this side. My goal is to get the body work and painting done and have it driveable sometime this spring and then keep working on the details from there. That may be unrealisitic but I guess we have to shoot for something.

[lks dcvn]

I ran outside and snapped a few pictures of what mine looks like [no welding yet] - it is just laid in there for now...it fits right behind the 'lip' on the torsion box - it is snug - but it fits right in there and (as pound41) mentioned it sits down the the depression in the torsion box [probably why it rusted out as sand and water found their way to the lowest spot and rusted it out -duh].

I can't say mine are perfect (or the right way) - just trying to help -

[gwgator]

Great...thanks for the help and pics! We are going to redo this part tomorrow night so hopefully we'll get it worked out.

[swyfor5]

Just gotta say, great work guy's! Love all the pic's of these hard to do areas! Need all the help I can get in this area!

[1956cameo]

Glad to see another build thread. Looking forward to seeing more progress.

[gwgator]

I've finally got a few updated pics. This part has taken some time to get right but we've learned a lot so the passenger side will hopefully go a little smoother. Basically everything on the driver's side floor and rocker area is complete other than welding in the outer rocker. We should have that done this week but will hang the door first to make sure everything lines up right.

We replaced the rocker box, rocker box end cap, outer floor pan, front and rear floor supports, both door pillars and the inner kick panel. we still have some floor patches to do also but that will be easy compared to the rest of it.






Here is the new rocker box reinforcement panel from Classic Heartbeat compared to what was left of the old one.



Here it is installed.



I will be glad when this part is over and we can make faster progress on some of the body work.