1970 K20 Z62 Full Restoration

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by Orange71shorty

Did you paint your frame or powder coat? If paint do you mind sharing what kind?

We painted it. I powder coated the Blazer frame....which was fine. But since then we've only painted them. They painted them from the factory...and if there is a problem (something dripped, spilled or scraped) it's a pretty simple fix. Now, I tend to only want to powder coat factory black things that are going to be a tough install or subject to a lot of touches or potential abrasion. They tend to absorb the handling better without getting marked up or dinged.

I'll check with Eric tomorrow on the paint...I don't think it's anything special on this one. We've used different semi gloss blacks. It usually is whatever is in the shop or the paint du jour. The paint store we use honestly has gone through a handful of paint lines in the last couple of years.

Don't forget the General used the cheapest black he could get for those chassis and driveline pieces.

[uncle]

Man oh man! I can see now why you always look for top notch parts. First time in a while I’ve read through a whole build thread,but was worth the time. Excellent workmanship at every corner. I would have already pulled my last 3 hairs by now.

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by uncle

Man oh man! I can see now why you always look for top notch parts. First time in a while I’ve read through a whole build thread,but was worth the time. Excellent workmanship at every corner. I would have already pulled my last 3 hairs by now.

What a nice note Tim. Thanks bud. You gotta know a lot of your stuff is going on this truck. Wait'll you see the bumper! It turned out great. Also...thank you for putting up with all my "Hey you got this?" and "Hey you got that?" texts. You're an unbelievable ally in this.

[IronCanine]

A very busy week at work and enjoying middle school volleyball, so limited progress on my end this week.

These are the original spark plug wire brackets. I had them replated and then tried a couple of different methods to reproduce the insulation with varied returns. I tried PlastiDip first (actually dipping it). I did't feel like the finish was exactly right and it was difficult to get consistent coating thickness. I peeled that off and re-dipped a few times before abandoning it. Then I tried the PlastiDip spray and it was just too flat of a finish. Turns out they've got a new PlastiDip spray "Glossy" that was reasonable with several coats. I had to order it off Amazon.

The bolts that hold the spark plug brackets and heat shields are the same 5/16 "E" bolts that affix the inspection plates on the bell housing. The only difference is, the inspection plates have star washers and the spark plug hardware has lock washers.

[IronCanine]

I ordered date coded spark plug wires from Lectric Limited.

My 1970 shop manual is pretty specific about how the wires should be routed to avoid cross-firing. But honestly it is not a smooth routing. I took time to check Joe's K20 which appears to have its original wires and they are not routed that way...so that's good enough for me to forgo the shop manual.

All of my heat shields are of the reproduction variety...and they are fine. The only problem is, as far as I can tell, you can't order a correct complete set. You can order a set that has four "flat" shields, but the driver's side front shield for this truck should be the humped shield with the opening for the sending unit. So you have to order that separately. Most of the Corvette sites have em.

Routing the wires through the motor mounts is not super easy, but if you pass the distributor cap "boot" through instead of trying to pass the spark plug end through there...it's not too bad.

I have continued to debate the merits of taking the points out and putting a Pertronix set up under the cap. TBD.

[IronCanine]

I made a bit of bad decision to go ahead and marry the transmission and engine without having the clutch pivot lever installed. I did not have a new retaining clip at the time(which like a lot of things I could not just get quickly locally like was once the case). I had to order it in, and that was just the weekend that we had time to get those pieces together. I felt certain that I could get the lever on after the fact.

The short of it is...we could. But it was not easy and not what I'd recommend. I ended up having to order a second clip...but I guess alls well that ends well.

It took two sets of hands. Eric dropped by today and the assembly relented.

[IronCanine]

Speaking of Eric...he got a lot more done this week than I did.

First he got the upper dash painted.

Like everything else some considerable time was spent fretting over the interior blue. You can see in the paint code chart, there are codes specific to the interior paint. Steering columns, base door panels, GMC gauges and GB doors should all be painted the interior color which doesn't necessarily correspond to the exterior color (even if they are both, say blue). The upper dash is a flattened version of the interior paint.

At least in the paint stores in and around Athens, we found that having the original paint code didn't help us. So we planned to use the steering column to color match since there were areas with minimal UV exposure. What was surprising was that under close inspection, the column appeared to be the same color as the truck exterior. I did not expect that (though I can understand it). So what we did was just flatten the dark blue we already had and shot the upper dash. Turned out pretty nice actually.

Since the firewall turned out so good and since none of the interior will be buffed out for obvious reasons, Eric went ahead and shot the interior with the single stage we already had. The white on the cab will be next.

The more color that goes on, the more I love the color.

[1970cstblazer]

Originally Posted by IronCanine

I ordered date coded spark plug wires from Lectric Limited.

My 1970 shop manual is pretty specific about how the wires should be routed to avoid cross-firing. But honestly it is not a smooth routing. I took time to check Joe's K20 which appears to have its original wires and they are not routed that way...so that's good enough for me to forgo the shop manual.

All of my heat shields are of the reproduction variety...and they are fine. The only problem is, as far as I can tell, you can't order a correct complete set. You can order a set that has four "flat" shields, but the driver's side front shield for this truck should be the humped shield with the opening for the sending unit. So you have to order that separately. Most of the Corvette sites have em.

Routing the wires through the motor mounts is not super easy, but if you pass the distributor cap "boot" through instead of trying to pass the spark plug end through there...it's not too bad.

I have continued to debate the merits of taking the points out and putting a Pertronix set up under the cap. TBD.

My TBC engine has two flat shields and two of the angled shields. The difference is that my engine is set up for TCS, so there is a temp switch on the rearward passengers side head.

As for the Petronix, my emphatic position on this is a big NO! Petronix components are cheaply constructed, and seem to fail upon a heat soak. Stick with old stock USA made Delco Remy points/cap/rotor/condensers/coils and you will probably never have an issue. My Blazer starts faster than my late model fuel injected GM trucks!LOL

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by 68bowtie

I see why you love it. I love it too! I’m a sucker for blue.

Me and you both!

Originally Posted by 1970cstblazer

My TBC engine has two flat shields and two of the angled shields. The difference is that my engine is set up for TCS, so there is a temp switch on the rearward passengers side head.

As for the Petronix, my emphatic position on this is a big NO! Petronix components are cheaply constructed, and seem to fail upon a heat soak. Stick with old stock USA made Delco Remy points/cap/rotor/condensers/coils and you will probably never have an issue. My Blazer starts faster than my late model fuel injected GM trucks!LOL

The engine in this truck came out of a K10 and had TCS as well. But it still had three flats on it. I gotta figure it's always just what they have laying around. It was appropriate obviously to delete the TCS for this 3/4T.

I hear you on the Pertronix. I can say we've done it on the other three trucks in my sig and had no problems. But I am aware of the concerns. But I also sent my distributor to "the dude" to rebuild it and paid for the privilege....and then the points had to be replaced on the engine stand when it was run the first time. Also, I'll have limited appetite to service that points set up in this 4WD buried against the firewall with all these well finished surfaces.

Right now it's points, but I'm of two minds about it...because of my personal experience and maintenance concerns. Still probably TBD for this TBC.