Left for dead: 72 2wd blazer build

[1956cameo]

jwgeorge, It was good talking to you last night. Sorry I didn't get a chance to check out your 68. I will check to see if we have any spare rear ends out at my dads place. I know I got rid of two rear ends like you need not that long ago so I am not sure what is left. I look forward to meeting up with you at the next cruise night. Feel free to PM me or post on one of my threads if you have any questions about anything. By the way, what part of Pearland are you in?

denny5625, Thanks! As always it is turning into a more in depth restoration than I was originally planning. Since I have done so much work to the body I am now thinking of taking it off the fram to detail the underside and the frame.

[1956cameo]

I got back to work on the blazer last weekend. The first thing we did was finish trimming up the donor floor section, clean the underside, rust treat it and tack it into place. Since I made the cuts where there are cross braces underneath there is no way to tell that anything has been done when looking at the bed floor from beneath the truck.


There was a little spot in front of the donor floor that still had some heavy pitting and holes.


So of course that came out and another donor panel came in.


I didn't think about it until the donor panel was already welded in, but I still have to transfrer the seat brace/bracket over to the new panel after I clean it up.


It still needs the rear portion of the bed floor replaced, but at least from the wheel wells forward the entire floor is solid.

[romarti0825]

Just found this thread today and all I can say is WOW! You've done an awesome job so far. I can't wait to see this once it's all done.
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[1956cameo]

romarti0825, Thanks dude! It's too bad life keeps getting in the way of my project. It looks like I am down to working on the blazer one day a month. Oh well, it seems as though I am always either short on time or money.

[romarti0825]

Originally Posted by 1956cameo

romarti0825, Thanks dude! It's too bad life keeps getting in the way of my project. It looks like I am down to working on the blazer one day a month. Oh well, it seems as though I am always either short on time or money.

Amen to that! I'm getting the second wind on mine. Trying to convert to 5 lug and get some better tires. But the money thing seems to get in the way. Lol...

[1956cameo]

Yeah. I was actually getting pretty stocked up with money until my wife and I decided we needed to buy a bigger house. Now it looks like all my blazer funds will be going towards down payment money. I think I will hit my second wind when I get some paint on her. Good luck with your project!

[jwgeorge]

Funny how adult life seems to do that to you!

[99-LS1-SS]

Wow, you've done a lot of work! I'm getting a 72 2wd next Tuesday and I'm a little worried it might be in similar shape to yours when you started. My issue is that I don't have the space or tools to do what you've done. I will be buying as many patch panels as I can. Where is the best place to buy quality patch panels that will fit without too much modification?

[PD1292]

Just checking in on your build, its looking great. Cant wait to see it finished. Thanks for the comments on my build and sorry you dont have a lot of time to work on yours. I have an extra frame i bought that was sitting on a farm for many years. There was no body on it but it is a 4 wheel drive blazer frame. I noticed in this picture yours has rear trailing arms and coil springs but it is a 72. Is that the original frame and did 72 versions come with rear trailing arms? The reason i am asking is, i am not sure what this frame i have is from. Mine has leaf springs in the back but drum brakes in the front
4X4.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by PD1292

Just checking in on your build, its looking great. Cant wait to see it finished. Thanks for the comments on my build and sorry you dont have a lot of time to work on yours. I have an extra frame i bought that was sitting on a farm for many years. There was no body on it but it is a 4 wheel drive blazer frame. I noticed in this picture yours has rear trailing arms and coil springs but it is a 72. Is that the original frame and did 72 versions come with rear trailing arms? The reason i am asking is, i am not sure what this frame i have is from. Mine has leaf springs in the back but drum brakes in the front
4X4.

2wd blazers came with the same suspension as a 2wd chevy truck, which was rear coils and trailing arms. Some of the chevy 2wd trucks had a rear leaf as an option. GMC 2wd trucks all had leaf springs out back. All original 4x4's had rear leafs springs. You will see many blazers that were converted from 4x4 to 2wd and still have rear leafs, which is the easy way to tell if it is an original 2wd blazer.

[1956cameo]

jwgeorge, It's ironic; I had more money for my old trucks when I was a broke teenager than I do now as a working adult!

91-LS1-SS, To be honest if it werent for my dads tools and workspace I wouldn't have been able to do a fraction of what I have accomplished. However I have seen board members do more on their projects with less than I have even at my own house. As far as patch panels, what I cant get from parts trucks I buy from "The Truck Shop"; and whatever they don't carry I have gotten from GMC Pauls. So far I have not gotten any reproduction panels that were bad quality. Good luck with your build!

PD1292, I agree with hgs_notes. It sounds like an original 4x4 frame converted to 2wd. Unless factory 2wd Jimmy's came with leafs in the back? Is that a possibility?

hgs_notes, Thanks for helping field this question. When it comes to suspension questions my knowledge is very limited.

[99-LS1-SS]

Originally Posted by 1956cameo

91-LS1-SS, To be honest if it werent for my dads tools and workspace I wouldn't have been able to do a fraction of what I have accomplished. However I have seen board members do more on their projects with less than I have even at my own house. As far as patch panels, what I cant get from parts trucks I buy from "The Truck Shop"; and whatever they don't carry I have gotten from GMC Pauls. So far I have not gotten any reproduction panels that were bad quality. Good luck with your build!

Thank you for the two companies 1956cameo! I had not run across either of those yet. It just so happens that The Truck Shop has a part I haven't been able to find anywhere yet.

[wholio]

Originally Posted by 1956cameo

Thats what I was thinking you would need. I was hoping it would be smaller pieces. The only parts cab I have that is complete enough to give you everything in red is completely rotted out in the cowl area. I was really hoping I would be able to help you but at this time it doesn't look like I will be able to do much for you. I will let you know if something changes though.

thanks bro

[1956cameo]

99-LS1-SS, Glad to help! I forgot to it before; but the parts board is also a great place for finding patches that aeren't bieng reproduced.

Wholio, No problem. Sorry I couldn't have been better help for you. If I run across anyone in our area that has a cheap cab for sale I will give you their info.

[wholio]

Originally Posted by 1956cameo

99-LS1-SS, Glad to help! I forgot to it before; but the parts board is also a great place for finding patches that aeren't bieng reproduced.

Wholio, No problem. Sorry I couldn't have been better help for you. If I run across anyone in our area that has a cheap cab for sale I will give you their info.

thanks bro

[1956cameo]

It has been a busy summer with my wife and I trying to sell our house and me changing jobs but I was able to find a way to make progress and eliminate the amount of grinding I have to do. I employed my teenage niece to grind down welds at $8 an hour! She works teenager hours (1-5 hours a week) but hey any welds she grinds down I dont have to grind down. I told her once she finishes grinding welds I will get grinding pads and sand blast sand and let her strip the blazer of all its paint.


While she has been working on that I was able to finish replacing the original bed floor with donor patches.


I was planning on replacing the rear lower bedside sections but the reproduction panels I got from Key Parts were worthless. So I focused on converting my 1970 truck doors into 1972 blazer doors. I started by removing the "smooth" section that was where the 1972 door "dimple" should be.


Fortunately I still had the original blazer doors, and while they were completely rusted out I was able to remove the dimples section from them.


The smooth section removed.

[1956cameo]

After some grinding and a shot of primer no one will know they weren't factory 1972 doors.


When I was removing the original door panel from the donor door I found that it had rust behind the panel. The rest of the doors are solid as a rock but somehow it formed rust here. So of course more patches needed to be done. Fortunately these sections were still solid on the original blazer doors so I was able to use more of the blazers original sheet metal.


The welds aeren't pretty but that area is now solid and rust free.


The area that was rusted on the other side of where the door panel goes.



I dont have pictures but I was able to remove the blazer braces off of the original doors. Unfortunately I didn't have time to install them but it gives me a starting point for next time.

[jwgeorge]

I don't understand, what is the difference between a Blazer door and a pickup door?
And what kind of door does a Suburban have?
I'm so confused!

[1956cameo]

Hey George!
Well as you propably know the blazer doors dont have the top section that the window rolls up into between the vent window and the back of the door. Even from the factory these were just sawed off with sawzalls. Then on top of that the factory added some braces to the door where the striker goes. They were added for extra strength due to the higher demands that were usually placed on blazer bodies. Unfortunately I dont have pictures of them but I will post pictures once I get them onto the donor doors.

The difference between truck doors and suburban doors are also tied to the top channel section. On a truck it is rounded and on a suburban it goes to a 90 degree angle.


I know these pictures aerent great but this is the original truck door before I started modifying it to be a blazer door. See how the top section (where the window rolls up into) is rounded.



On the suburban the same section goes to a 90 degree turn (no rounding).


And as you can see that entire section is missing from a blazer.


I dont know if this helps but if you want I can take better reference pictures for you to show you what I am talking about. Or if anyone else wants to post pictures fo the defferences they are more than welcome to.

[stealthy '69]

I don't spend much, if any, time on the blazer side of the forum, but I will have to now. It looks like you're getting a lot done. I'm pretty jealous of the shop and tools you've got to work with. Keep it up, you'll be done in no time.

[1956cameo]

Stealthy69, Thanks for the comments! I feel like I have been working on this blazer for ever and I am hoping to kick the restoration into a higher gear this fall. I wish the shop and tools were mine but they all belong to my dad. If this restoration was relying on my toolbox it wouldn't be going very well right now!

[stealthy '69]

Like mine. It rely's on my tool box and my watch, which is probably why it's been on jack stands for almost 2 years with nothing done. I'm looking forward to seeing more updates to help motivate me to getting a few things done.

[1956cameo]

It would definately be extremely hard to do anything without a shop full of tools. From my experience the most important tool a guy can have is a nice air compressor, and a welder. Once you have a good air compressor and welder you can slowly build a collection of tools around that.

[jwgeorge]

You know, access to the right tools helps, but having the talent to use the tools correctly and artfully is the real key to this! You have shown that you have the talent to take the tools and do beautiful work with them. So the tools are only as good as the user.

[1956cameo]

jwgeorge, Thank you for the kind remarks! I am definately still on a learning curve, but I get more comfortable as time goes by. Some of my other project cars used to scare me because of the rust they have. Now I look at them and say no big deal.