1972 Blazer - 'Bullet' Project

[lks dcvn]

pix before I head out to the garage for tonight...couple pix from last night.

I will slap some paint on the underside of the floor to protect it before welding in the new torsion box...that might save it from rusting out as soon.

[lks dcvn]

I have soccer tonight so I have to wrap up early...did get some grinding done - ready to weld the new torsion box in...

progress pix -

Forgot to add that once I did the mock up of the torsion box - I took it down - cleaned up the bottom of the floor and then coated it with rust preventative paint. No more rusting [hopefully] on this thing - it will be coated on both sides -

[Gillnetter]

Make sure you bolt your end caps on before you weld your torsion boxes on.It also helps hold everything in place.

[lks dcvn]

Great idea - I need to do that before I do any welding for sure.

These things are cumbersome to hold up under the truck and do anything with - the end caps will be helpful and maintain the integrity of the area.

I will do that tomorrow and get some pix - it is really creeping up on my deadline.

Once this rocker box is welded in - I have the b pillar support piece and the front of the rear quarter to do on the passenger side and then the major stuff is done. I will be looking at a replacement driver door this weekend from another board member - so that may put my driver door crappy patch job out of my mind - 6 bolts later and I might have a solid door -

I know that there is some minor rust in the bed near the wheel wells and I can take a look at that when all the 'major' stuff is done.

I will likely be doing Al's Liner on this thing when done - just so I won't have to do any of this stuff on this truck again...

I am looking forward to getting this thing out of the garage and taking it for a spin with no rust holes in it...and, of course, the hardtop off.

[Gillnetter]

I used a floor jack and a 2 foot piece of 2x4 to hold my torsion boxes up in place.It worked great!Get a buddy to help ya its nice to have a helping hand.

[Gillnetter]

Here are some pictures of mine.

[Gillnetter]

Hope this works.

[lks dcvn]

Thanks for the pix!

[lks dcvn]

Update for the evening...

Few pix of the underside coated with the rust preventative paint.

Then I used the floor jack to hoist the torsion box into place and got everything bolted in -

Then I marked where the holes were going to be for welding them in and tomorrow at some point I will grind those spots to bare metal and then weld in the torsion boxes - thus completing the major work on the driver side of the truck for rust repair -

Things left to do:

Weld in torsion box [and paint new welds to prevent rust]
Check on replacement driver door [Sunday I hope] to swap for the one on it now
Weld closed the remaining trim holes in the body on the driver side
Examine body damage near rear driver tail light - see if I can fix it.
Turn truck around again to move back to other side
Fix the front rear quarter panel on the passenger side [right behind door]
Check on rust in the bed floor near wheel wells
Fill new seams in the floor with sealant [waiting for it to warm up a bit for this]

[lks dcvn]

Scored some good parts today...

1970 Blazer Body from CA - media blasted and epoxy primered underneath
Chassis was media blasted and painted at the same time
Completely rebuilt 350, NP205 and 350 transmission
NOS Rockers mocked up
NOS Passenger Blazer Bedside Installed
Extra front & rear 6 lug 71 Blazer axles [front disk brakes]
1 set 15x8 6 lug GM Rally Wheels with trim rings
2 1971-1972 Bucket Seats with tracks
1 1969-1970 Passenger Bucket Seat
1 1971-1972 Blazer Rear Seat
OEM Metal Gas Tank
2 GMC Front Grills
1 GMC Front Core Support
1 pair NOS Blazer Doors
1 pair NOS GMC Fenders
1 solid [no damage or rust]Chevrolet tailgate
1 solid [no damage] driver side blazer bedside
1 GMC Tailgate Band

The Body and some parts will probably be used on this project:

1970 2wd Blazer Project

Heading back out to the garage soon to try and wrap up some more on the Blazer...

[lks dcvn]

More pix

[lks dcvn]

even more pix - today was a good day -

[VA72C10]

Great Score!!!

[Chevyman63]

Sweet!!

[BLUE THUNDER]

Looking good Tom. The Bullet is looking great. Excellent score on the parts Blazer. Are you gonna part it out or build it up as well?

[lks dcvn]

Haven't decided yet Mario - I know the 2wd needs a body swap or a ton of body work...

I now have all the parts to have a driver [minus brake work] for pretty cheap and have it pretty much rust free with OEM sheet metal...

I didn't do much yesterday afternoon out in the garage - I am waiting to see the driver door that board member JUSBLAZ has that I will be looking at later today so I am waiting to put the front fender back on until I see if I will swap doors or not [probably will though].

This morning - I got the torsion box welded in and did the door open/close test again - works good - tested the door lock/unlock - worked good - driver side stuff is mostly done...however I did have to wallow out 2-3 holes on the b pillar support a little bit to line everything up - not a big deal I guess.

I got the rest of the trim holes welded up today on the driver side and moved to the rear of the truck where I knew there was some body work waiting for me [pix in the next post]

There were small 'tie offs' for lack of a better word that I haven't decided if I am going to reuse - they might be useful down the road sometime. I will see if my buddy who powder coats can clean them up a bit.

[lks dcvn]

Rear Body Damage - nasty damage in a bad spot.

I tried to pop it out - no dice.

It is raining or I would go out and check the extra bed in my backyard to see how it looks and cut it off and patch it in.

[70k52wd]

Thanks for checkin out my Blazer thread. I see you kinda like Blazers too.
Your doing a great job on Bullet. Really nice parts score.

[lks dcvn]

Got the new door last night [minor rust on the bottom ridge, but nothing like the other blue door] - but didn't get it mocked up last night.

I did today though after work.

I don't know if I got lucky or not, but it fit great the first time I bolted it up.

Then I went to loosen the parts from the blue door to find that some PO had tried to loosen most of them and stripped most of the screws on that door - so I will have to figure that out tomorrow.

I am dragging the white door to get media blasted tomorrow and see if I can get a coat of blue paint on the inside of it before I hang it again...wish me luck.

Pix are below.

[VA72C10]

cool. Maybe try a combination of soaking down the fasteners in pb blaster or wd40 overnight and then use a dead blow with a hammer against the screw with the screwdriver in place to remove it. or get one of those screw removal tools.

[1956cameo]

Congratulations on that awesome score! Alot of good parts there.

You are really starting to leave me behind in the dust. Since I am bieng trasfered to a new position at work in a couple of weeks that gives me less days off I will be falling even further behind you. Oh well keep up the good work.

Also how does the door and rocker panel fit up with the new door on there?

[lks dcvn]

Door and new rocker - fit is a bit different than the blue door - but close enough for me not to worry about it - We will see how the fender lines up...

It is a GM door so the fit was closer than an aftermarket one for sure. The gap at the front of the rocker and the b pillar area was where it was a bit different, but after mocking it up and looking at it - it was pretty close.

I have the door off the truck again so I could prep it for painting the inside...

The parts truck should be in my driveway this afternoon -

Does anybody have a crappy top near me that they would be willing to part with for cheap/free?

[jaros44sr]

No screw can withstand a 2 lb. brass sledge and an impact driver. Driver head will form the phillips in the screw

next PBPower Blaster

then heat

then drill the head off and use a stud extracter if all else fails

Nice work ur doin'

[lks dcvn]

No luck with the impact driver -

I moved on to something else and gave it another treatment of PB Blaster.

Front Fenders were on my list to get done this week so I can get the whole truck painted at once...

Some surface rust here and there on the fenders so I stripped the emblems, removed the lights and stripped the paint.

I haven't had much luck finding the 3M disks to strip the paint so I might have found an alternative -

Once they were stripped I cleaned off the dust and treated them to a rust prevention paint coat...

While I was doing it - I stripped the suspect parts of the new door and then coated that as well.

Pix are below.

I am hoping to get this thing back in one piece in the next two weeks. Not sure if I can pull it off, but that is the goal.

[lks dcvn]

More pix of the fender/door work...

Also got the grill out today for the first time in 5 months - hit 70s here today and the rest of the week should be warm and dry.