2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating

[Advanced Design]

When I went on pause, I was replacing the KWIK ac mounting bracket, shown a few posts ago, with the Holley mounting bracket. The Holley look fits in better with the look of the factory accessory drive on the other side of the engine.

There was an issue with the GM tensioner not fitting as it is too thick / deep between the mounting bosses. The tensioner contacts the mounting bracket at this location before seating and tightening down. A tensioner from another source worked fine.

And the Holley instructions had the ac compressor mislabeled as an SD5 rather than an SD7 as shown on the label on the compressor. Anyway, using the Holley mounting hardware Holley had labeled as SD5 worked for mounting the SD7 compressor.

While I didn’t like the look of the KWIK bracket, I’m not sure it was worth the work and expense to switch over to the Holley bracket.

Having the new shop stool, which is an early birthday present from wife and our two daughters, helped increase the comfort working on the brackets.

[Advanced Design]

The Holley provided procedure to measure for belt length worked really well. Secured the correct belt on the second try working with O’Reilleys.

[Advanced Design]

Installing the new parking brake cables and refurbished supporting hardware was made easier with the disassembly pictures. Phone camera tech has come a long way, making zooming into detail easy.

It appears the parking brake cable will be in the way of the exhaust. Need to give that more inspection and thought…you know, when you sit there and stare at it for awhile? Doing cad cam modeling in your head working on a solution.

[Advanced Design]

Wife and I finished the firewall.

[Advanced Design]

Grandson, wife and I put the body back on the frame. Though we were tired, we did have fun!

[oldman3]

Looks good...Jim

[youngrodder]

Always motivating when you can set the body back on the chassis. It all looks really good.

Marc

[smbrouss70]

I'm late to the party, but I'm here now. Real nice work so far, can't wait to see it get finished up.

[spr85gmc]

updates? lookin' slick

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by spr85gmc

updates? lookin' slick

Thank you spr85gmc!

Yeah, I’ve been plodding along on this and other projects. Had a 6 month pause on Garth (this Blazer) and I’ve been back after it the last 3 weeks.

Working lunch here….

[Advanced Design]

I used the big block radiator for better cooling. The radiator cover is held on with 4 bolts, and I’ve been thinking the nuts won’t be accessible to remove the radiator when the front is assembled. What type of nut (cage nut?) did the factory use?

[Advanced Design]

Made transmission cooler lines mounting brackets and ran the lines.

[Advanced Design]

When I installed the right inner fender, I noticed corrosion perforations at the leading edge, so I fixed that.

[Advanced Design]

I’ve been struggling with the sway bar link install. The hole in the end of the sway bar is about 2 inches forward of the connection on the control arm. RideTech sent an updated connection, which extends forward from the lower control arm. The link still won’t connect, and Greg from their tech support advises I need the lower control arm parallel to the ground for connection. Not sure that will help as the connection angle will be even more acute.

[Advanced Design]

While installing the latch panel, I realized the receiver drier needed to be removed for clearance. While doing so, I dropped a small screw that disappeared.

Of course, it ended up under the radiator.

More updates later!

[Advanced Design]

To get to this point, as you know, there our countless tasks which makes you begin again to question why you took this challenge on…it’s easier, cheaper and faster to buy one done. For me, I enjoy the challenges and seeing the results.

While I purchased the Vintage Air direct fit kit, I don’t like the look of the panel and plastic cap that is screwed onto the firewall. Before painting the firewall, as shown on earlier posts, I filled in the large hvac blower motor openings. Then cut in a square bulkhead connector for the hvac lines.

Then after a lot of under dash effort, my grandson and I could not make internal lines that would fit from the hvac case to the bulk head connector. Poor planning and lack of square body building on my part.

We went to plan B, with grandson doing most of the work.

[Advanced Design]

Our plan B was to use the direct fit panel, and cut it down to weld directly onto the firewall. Not as cool as I wanted, though better than a bolt on panel. Really struggled with this one and had to move forward.

[Advanced Design]

My wife is a huge car enthusiast and partner in our builds. She is so good with bagging, tagging, renewing, organizing and buying many of the parts we need. She keeps me organized. Plus she does the painting and is always on the look out for something cool.

[Advanced Design]

Filled the column shift rod hole.

[Advanced Design]

Fixed some rust through on the right side cowl behind the big door seal.

[Advanced Design]

Grandson installed the Dynamat.

[OutlawDrifter]

Looking good!

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by OutlawDrifter

Looking good!

Thank you Outlaw Drifter!

To complement the larger Silverado brakes, I was going with a booster and master cylinder from a 2018 Tahoe as I saw on another build thread.

The master is too tall. Even sectioning the attaching bracket to get the master cylinder level does not permit hood clearance….so, on to plan B when the next Amazon order shows up.

[Advanced Design]

Removing the plastic spacer from behind the booster moved it closer to the firewall, which didn’t help much with hood clearance.

[Advanced Design]

Dropped a booster nut, searched in and under the vehicle for 30 minutes not finding it, and went on to something else. Hours later, it turns up at the “x”. I think it dropped into the random “shop black hole” and was spit out later.