Ratchet's Blazer - 1970 2wd with Original paint

[Chulisohombre]

Originally Posted by smbrouss70

Yeah, the whole reason I bought it on ebay is because those pics looked like an almost perfect match to the factory paint. My wife told me that I could paint it to match, but I told her that my old eyes have enough trouble seeing the full-size parts, I'm not even going to try to detail the 1:64 scale stuff.

Haha yep. I bought mine in red because I couldn’t find one blue. Wife said the same thing. But I wouldn’t do it good enough.
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[smbrouss70]

I picked up my freshly narrowed housing today. Check out the welds Darrell laid down!!! He is obviously skilled at what he does, his shop is full of drag cars that he is building the chassis for. I know who is going to build the roll cage for Oscar's truck now!

Anyway, I got it home and took about 1,736 measurements so that I can call Moser tomorrow and get some axles ordered. My buddy Jason wasn't able to get my calipers done, but he should have them for the Crazy Wheels Cruise-In on Saturday.

Next weekend, I will clean up the housing and paint it, then throw in some new wheel bearings and seals and wait till the Brown Santa brings me a box a little over 28.75" long!

[Advanced Design]

Nice to have the rear narrowed and ready for the next step! Impressive looking welds!

[Palf70Step]

Very nice!

[smbrouss70]

I ordered my axles from Moser Monday morning on my way out to TX for the week and the guy told me that they should be delivered next Monday, which upset me because I was going to have to wait another week to get it all together. But.... I just got an email from UPS saying that my "package" from Greg Moser Engineering will be delivered by the end of the day, FRIDAY!!!!

That means, hopefully this weekend, there will be pics of the Blazer, ...on the ground, ...laid out, ...on some 20" Gassers!!! Finally!

[C10_ustacould]

Originally Posted by smbrouss70

I ordered my axles from Moser Monday morning on my way out to TX for the week and the guy told me that they should be delivered next Monday, which upset me because I was going to have to wait another week to get it all together. But.... I just got an email from UPS saying that my "package" from Greg Moser Engineering will be delivered by the end of the day, FRIDAY!!!!

That means, hopefully this weekend, there will be pics of the Blazer, ...on the ground, ...laid out, ...on some 20" Gassers!!! Finally!

Hell yeah!!

[Palf70Step]

Kewl!!

[lks dcvn]

Soooo Close! Only a few more things to button up now...

[aggie91]

WooHOO!

[smbrouss70]

I pulled the factory tach cluster out this morning to bring to a buddy, so I decided to mount the new gauges in the bezel just to make sure I didn't lose any screws, etc. I really like these gauges, I can't wait to see them powered up.

We did some serious parts swapping at the Cruise-In, I brought my buddy the factory tach cluster, original control arms, and original gas pedal setup off of the Blazer, as well as some grill filler panels that I had stashed for later. I brought home a new door panel for my Duramax, a 700-R4 for the S-10, paint for the Blazer, and of course my re-powdered calipers. I think the color came out better than the swatches that I had ordered. Again, the pictures don't do the color justice, but if you ask the guys that saw them at the Cruise-In, they look really good.

Tomorrow I plan on getting the rearend cleaned, painted, and installed so that I can finally mount my wheels. Wish me luck. Pics to follow tomorrow, hopefully.

[Palf70Step]

[smbrouss70]

I got the rearend cleaned up and rattle-canned satin black. It is a pain in the @ss to get a rearend in and lined up by yourself... But it is in, and technically NOT on the ground, but it is resting on the tires. I need to center the rear end with the panhard bar. What upsets me is that the rim is not tucking into the bedside, so I might as well cut it apart and make it lower since I am this far into it, right?

[smbrouss70]

One more pic showing the rim NOT tucking...

[2wdChevyblazer]

First off..Your Blazer Looks Great.
The color looks really Good.
When you can, could you tell me your tire and wheel size
Thank You

[smbrouss70]

Thanks!

Front is a 20"x8.5" with 4.5" BS, and a 255-35-20 tire. I used PB 1" narrowed and 1" forward arms to use this backspacing.

Rear is a 20"x10.5" with 3.75" BS, and a 315-35-20 tire. I had to narrow the rearend and cut out between the inner and outer bedwalls to be able to fit this combo.

[smbrouss70]

I guess I need to play catch-up for a bit. The weekend before Easter I didn't get anything done on the Blazer, but I did get a pile of dirt that was behind my shop moved up to the shop driveway to fill in low spots that were holding water. More importantly, without the pile of dirt behind the shop, I could use the brother-in-law's little tractor to finally install the A/C that I've had for almost a year! I need to do some more insulating in the shop to get the A/C to keep it really cool in there, but it is definitely an improvement, now that it is starting to get warmer.

[smbrouss70]

Easter weekend, I came down with Bronchitis so work on the Blazer slowed down drastically. I did get the calipers all reassembled after the powder coating was done and got the rears installed. I started modifying my spindles to mount the fronts but ran out of time.

[smbrouss70]

The following weekend, a buddy came down for the weekend so that we could piece together a good under dash A/C out of all of the parts in my stash. While he was here I got him to help with a few things around the shop that I needed a second set of hands to do. Before he left, we changed the rear u-joint on my driveshaft since the 10-bolt takes a 3R u-joint that has the clips on the inside of the cups. When I went to install the driveshaft I found out that a 10-bolt has a longer pinion than the truck 12-bolt that was taken out... The driveshaft was now too long to fit.

Luckily, I had already picked up a second-hand ECE center crossmember. I figured I would put that in and make some 1/2" spacers to go between the crossmember and trailing arm brackets, which would center the rear wheels in the wheel wells better and give me more room for the driveshaft at the same time. Unfortunately, the borrowed air hammer that I was using just wasn't cutting it (literally) on the factory rivets, so I ordered an Ingersoll Rand long stroke air hammer and had to wait a week to get it in.

Once the air hammer came in, I tested it on 2 rivets before the A/C went out on the house. That finished off my weekend trying to get that fixed with limited parts availability on a weekend.

This past Monday, my wife had a 2 level cervical fusion surgery, so I haven't really been able to play in the shop. But this weekend, she told me to go get something done on the Blazer since I am running out of time to get it ready for HRPT. She figured she could text me if she needed me in the house to help her.

I was finally able to get the trailing arm crossmember changed out and the spacers made. The new air hammer is a BEAST! I still don't ever want to change out one of those crossmembers on a complete truck again though, it is way easier on a bare frame. Once I got it all back together tonight I aired it out and basked in the glory of centered rear wheels! Tomorrow, I will try to install my driveshaft again, it should fit now, but if not I can still get it shortened locally pretty quick.

[smbrouss70]

I don't have a good shot of the before with the 20's on, and there is no way that I am going to un-do what I just did to get one, but here is the before with the 17's and the after with the 20's...

[Advanced Design]

The ac will be really nice!
Nice work on the brakes and rear end centering.
Hope the wife heals quickly.

[Palf70Step]

Very nice Steven.

[smbrouss70]

Thanks Doug and Bill!

I hope she heals quickly, but more importantly, I hope this fixes all of her pain.

[smbrouss70]

Well, the driveshaft fits! I cycled it through the full range of travel and it doesn't even come close to bottoming out in the transmission. It is further into the transmission than when I had the old axle in there, but that just means that there is more spline engagement, which in theory should make it stronger and more stable.

After I got the driveshaft in, I was tired of laying on my back on the creeper, so I decided to do a little interior work that I had been putting off. I finally installed my Accuair ashtray mount in the dash. Of course, it involved laying on my back on the floor board to be able to see. Just as I suspected, with the transmission in Park, I can't pull it out all the way, but I can still get to the "All Down" button, which is the important part, so that I can look cool. The Accuair system will automatically go to ride height when I start the Blazer, so I really don't even need to pull it out until I park anyway. Here's a few pictures for y'all, the one with it halfway out is with the transmission in Park.

[Bennett68C10]

Looks good Steven, I like how you added the spacers to the center crossmember to center the rear wheels in the wheel well. I need to do that on my Suburban.

[smbrouss70]

Thanks Keith. It was a mod that I was planning to do later... after HRPT because I thought I might have to get another longer driveshaft built, but when my current driveshaft was too long, it was kind of a necessity.

I think it would make a big difference on your burb since the wheels are tucked up in there on that body style. If you're going to do it, be prepared to cut a sh!t-ton of rivets, laying on your back with no good access to the top rivets.