1972 Blazer - 'Bullet' Project

[VA72C10]

nice progress. Did you chemical strip the fenders?

[lks dcvn]

Nope - I used to use the 3M strip disks like the one below.

I used to find 5 piece lots on ebay for pretty cheap so I bought 2 sets [10 total] and I am on my last one. I contacted the person that I used to buy from and they said that they were no longer able to get them - so I was at HF today and found that they have a similar product - for $4.99 each.

I picked one up being skeptical - but the one I got today worked better - yes something from HF worked better than a 3M product. It took me 20 mins to strip two fenders and the door to bare metal.

I have plenty of the 20% coupons for HF for when I go there - I wonder if I can get them to sell me a case for 1 SKU and get the discount - since the coupon is only good for 1 item.

[Chevyman63]

Nice progress Tom!!

Hey, a friend of mine owns a machine shop and what he does for stripped/rusted in bolts is welds an allen wrench to the stripped head. The heat breaks it free and obviously the wrench gives you a handle to spin it right out. Just a thought.

When you get that thing together, you need to take it for a drive up to Michigan!

[lks dcvn]

on heading North when done! When is the cookout this year Tim?

Did a crap load on the tub today.

Ground it all down to bare metal and coated it with rust prevention paint - which I did some digging on - I can do my body work over this - just sand the area in question with 220 grit and then apply filler, then another coat of the rust paint - and then primer/BC/CC.

Pix...

[lks dcvn]

Pix painted...

I got a few during shots. I started on the rough spots and worked out from there - most of the tub was to bare metal on the outside.

I did not do the back yet as I will need to swap in a better tailgate from my stash.

I will inspect this over the weekend to see what spots I will be working over. You can see a crease in the pass door, in the lower quarters, etc. - I will see if I can do some metal bumping on them before doing any filler work...

I need to patch the pass front quarter and replace the driver side rear by the light - then I should be good to go to put the doors, fenders and then start doing the interior -

[VA72C10]

Looking good!

[Chevyman63]

That looks great Tom!

And the cookout can be almost any time. I will get the plans started and we will see if we can get Kurt and Jim to show up.

[NorCalTank]

Great work..Is that rust bullet on the bedside and door?

[lks dcvn]

Thx for the comps guys - nice to have some motivation along the way.

Rust Bullet - pretty much the same stuff - it is the Master Series Coating found at www.nomorerust.com

I just picked up 2 more quarts for other stuff I need to coat - this stuff goes a LONG way - it covers on the first coat and the second coat is added protection.

I don't have a 'long term test yet' but this truck will probably see Ohio winters when it is done - so that will be a good test.

[JUSBLAZ]

Looks good! Take advantage of these nice days.

So hows the door? From the one picture it looks fairly clean. Was there any bad areas?

Rich

[Tom Vogel]

[QUOTE=

I used to find 5 piece lots on ebay for pretty cheap so I bought 2 sets [10 total] and I am on my last one. I contacted the person that I used to buy from and they said that they were no longer able to get them - so I was at HF today and found that they have a similar product - for $4.99 each.

I picked one up being skeptical - but the one I got today worked better - yes something from HF worked better than a 3M product.

[lks dcvn]

It was nice outside most of the weekend so I did some work in the driveway - cleaning up the 'new' seats, cleaning out the rust and grinding dust from the past 4 months...yuck.

Here are a few pix of the rust in the back [right around wheel wells - I take it these [wheel tubs] are just bolted in and I can clean that rust up and then bolt the wells back in with some seam sealer...can anybody confirm this?

There is also some minor rust in the floor near the tailgate that I will need to deal with as well...

I also mocked up the passenger fender while I was out there to see how it looked all one color -

[lks dcvn]

Today I got the front of the rear quarter welded in - it will need a skim coat of filler to get it really dialed in though...

I also filled all the trim holes on the passenger side while I had the welder out again.

That should be the last of the welding except for the windshield frame replacement - and I might leave that to a professional since it involves some tolerances for a w/s that I would hate to screw up and have to redo.

We will see though when I take it to get an estimate - I might faint at the price and tackle it myself.

I need to get the passenger door moved back a bit in the door opening - I will likely do that when I do both doors for the final fitment once I have the driver door on.

[VA72C10]

Nice progress...glad to see you moving right along!

Have you given yourself a timeframe for paint?

[lks dcvn]

No time frame on paint yet...I will be staying with the Blue to make it easier. I don't want to take the whole thing apart - I just want it to be solid and be dependable.

No more major welding now - just fixing the inside of the bed and the area around the rear tubs...

Once the minor welding is done - I will start the body work on it for the questionable areas [crease on pass door, B pillar areas, etc.].

There isn't any major damage on the body - just some bumps and bruises along the way that will need to be fixed.

[68 TT]

Great progress. Keep at it.

[1956cameo]

It's looking great!

[lks dcvn]

Thanks guys. I haven't done anything with the Blazer for about a week. The vacation has been mentally refreshing for this project. I stared at it almost every day for many months...so spending some time working on other projects has been nice.

Now that it has been warm - I got the yard stuff done, house stuff done and working on odds and ends that I have been putting off for when the sun gets here.

Once I get the part I need for the door [thanks again 1949gmc!]- I will hang the driver door again and be putting more time into getting it wrapped up -

[BLUE THUNDER]

Did alot of things to the house and yard this weekend too. Not much on the Blazer. House looks good, well, at least the outside does. Now I can put the stereo in the Blazer and maybe the two rear tires. The bullet is looking good.

[lks dcvn]

Got the door latch last night [from 1949GMC - who was nice enough to mail me what I needed for FREE - you rock Ray!] and then it started to rain so I had to head inside.

Now that I have the Impala SS and the 69 Blazer back from storage - they have run of the garage - so I am out in the elements. See why I wanted to get the major welding work done on the body...

I want to get the driver door ready [paint-wise] to go on the inside before I hang it - so I have some work to do first...

I have a ton of little odds and ends to do on this thing - including checking out the rust in the bed/wheel tubs [I keep putting it off].

[lks dcvn]

OK - got something done (finally)

I got that clean blazer tub, but there were no bolts that came with it to assemble a truck while it waits it's turn in the project rotation so I ordered a box o bolts from Randy [teeitup] and they showed up last night.

I figured I would clean them up a bit so I grabbed the bolts, a gallon or so of simple green and a spare bucket that I had.

Bolts went in and then they were covered with roughly a gallon [I had two partial jugs] of SG and I will let them sit until the weekend and see how the bolts turn out.

I also got the hood cleaned up today. It has some surface rust that was more annoying that damaging - it was rough to the touch, but one swipe of the strip disk and it was smooth as can be.

I used the HF strip disk on the top and then painted it with the rust paint [which I forgot to get pix of when I got done] - duh.

There is some minor damage on the hood, but not enough to stop me from using it. I will see if I can hammer it out to reduce filler consumption.

[lks dcvn]

Got some more done today after work, but only got one pic.

I started the process of removing the rear wheel wells - let me tell you - that sucks...

I tried to loosen two of them and then remembered that somebody said just to sacrifice the bolts and to tighten them until the bolt snapped so you can just take them out that way...well it worked for the most part.

I have 3-4 bolts per side left that I will need to use a cut off wheel with, but that shouldn't take that long to do.

I surveyed the rust on the inside and there is a spot near the gas tank filler tube in the bed that might need some more time to resolve. The inner bedside is weak there and I might be able to get the wheel well out, clean the metal and then just add a larger bead of seam sealer, but I won't know until I can get in there and see.

I also would like to talk to the genius at GM that made the torsion box cover one of the bolts on each side [rear middle bolt] from the underside...could not get at it to tighten it off...guess it will get cut off as well.

I did snap a picture of the hood now that it is coated though...looks a hell of a lot better than it did earlier this week [Before and After Shots] This pic is with one coat on the whole thing (that stuff really lays out thick). The way it was sitting yesterday I couldn't get to a few spots so I rotated it a bit to get those missed spots today.

I will likely add one more coat to the whole thing since it will see the elements the most.

Some minor body work to do on it - and then it will be bolted on the truck.

Total time to get to this point on the hood:

~30 mins to strip it
~2 mins cleaning it up
~2 mins wax and grease remover
~5 mins drying time
~20 mins painting with rust sealant

About an hour to clean up the hood yesterday and then another 20 mins or so to finish a few spots today

I am looking forward to seeing how the body work will be over the top of this stuff - might go well - might not - we will see. 220 grit, body work, another layer of rust sealant, etc.

[VA72C10]

keep up the good work

[OldCreek]

Take all of your clean bolts and then push them through a piece of cardboard. Then, you can hit the heads with a little black spray paint and make them look new.

[BLUE THUNDER]

looking good Tom.