Some assembly required……

[stick72]

I bought my patch panels from Southern Kentucky Classics, but I may have more to purchase. I was planning on putting on new bedsides, but I may not know what parts come with the bedsides. I'll probably show my ignorance here, do the bedsides include the "B" pillar? I was hoping for $700 per side they installed themselves as well

[jaros44sr]

Originally Posted by stick72

I bought my patch panels from Southern Kentucky Classics, but I may have more to purchase. I was planning on putting on new bedsides, but I may not know what parts come with the bedsides. I'll probably show my ignorance here, do the bedsides include the "B" pillar? I was hoping for $700 per side they installed themselves as well

From what I see of the bedside, they come with a portion of the 'B' post, but I 'm not sure if they go all the way to the bottom
don't know what you mean by "they installed themselves as well". If I get time I'll look them up. Make sure you ask how thick the sheet metal patch panels are.

[stick72]

Hemi43 - Good call on the doors. My old doors are pretty beat, I have new doors, but for the truck. They didn't have Blazer doors, and I've been procrastinating on cutting these. I'll have to start measuring and remove the top of the door. The old hinges have been through the derusting tank, I'll rebuild those with new pins and get a door on there to make sure nothing has moved around.

[stick72]

Today was a milestone, a part was actually put on the Blazer, rather than being taken off (or falling off). I test fit a door. Its a reproduction door, but fits pretty well. I was hoping for a little tighter gap, its running at a 1/4 inch, but very even around the back of the door. I put a strap on the opening to put tension on it but it didn't budge, and the passenger side measures the same as the drivers side. I have read that the reproduction doors are slightly off in the hinge area, and guys have had to shim them a bit. Its possible that when I put the new bedsides on I could tighten up the gap a bit at that time.

[stick72]

Been fitting patch pieces, hoping I was close to tack welding, but I've run into some fitment issues. Since most of the A pillar, inner and outer rocker and cab support were rusted away, I haven't really had a good reference point to know if new parts were in the correct location. In hindsight, I should have left as much of the existing rusty bolt locations as possible. I've test fitted the door and fender, and they fit well in relation to each other and the rest of the truck.

As a reference point, the inner rocker had a hole in it, and that hole seemed to line up with an existing bolt hole and the rear of the door opening. However, when that hole is lined up, the front fender lower bolt mount is about 3/4 of a inch too far forward to thread into the fender. Additionally, the floor patch panel doesn't fit well, as it sits a bit forward as well if I try to line up the "gutters" in the floor.

Everything appears that it would line up if a trimmed more off the back of the inner rocker, allowing it to slide back, but then the existing bolt hole at the rear of the inner rocker would not line up.

The top is still bolted on, and luckily one of the few things that isn't to rusty is the torsion boxes. Both doors fit well, and the openings all measure the same left to right, so it doesn't seem like the firewall has shifted.

Anyone else run into this? I don't want to trim the inner rocker to get everything to align, and find out I missed the real problem

[jaros44sr]

First you should be using zip screws or clecos to hold the patches in place, if you still need to move the patches, easy enuff to weld up the holes later

Second the outrigger, the patch that the body mount goes thru, has to be fitted under the floor patch

Third, the 'A' post lower patch has to be fitted along with the kick panel patch. When you fit up the 'A' post patch, make sure you can bolt up the lower fender mount. Don't cut anymore of your upper 'A' post as it will give you problems, like running into the plate for the door hinge

Patches are cheap, don't worry about screwing them up by cutting to much off. Also don't count on patches being a good fit, sometimes you will have to bend them or cut them to work

Post up pics with lots of light

JMHO

Also mount all of your sheet metal back on the front of truck, to check alignment of gaps

[72blaz]

I second Bracing the doors... You don't wanna deal with the nightmare I'm dealing with.