1947 S10 4x4 Blazer swap

[msaintg]

hi Dean,
ya, I put in lowering keys, but it is not really necessary. It sat too low with them (it was bottoming out on the bump stops). I have it dialed up to almost the stock location now.
I first tried to put lowering spindles on it, but those don't work for the '96 model year.

I do have small update on the Chevy..... I finally broke down and bought the LED lenses to put in the stock tail light housings. My wife was complaining that the lights were too dim and she was afraid of getting rear ended. I think she has driven the Chevy so much, she will be needing new tires soon.

Mike

[DeanTX]

Thanks Mike, if stock torsion keys work on yours, mine should be ok stock too since I am going to use a heavier V8 engine.

Your build has helped me a lot with my '51 to 4x4 Blazer frame swap. I don't really want to run the gas filler neck to the fender but I am not sure if there are any other solutions with the SUV gas tank. I tried mocking up a regular S10 tank and it sits way too low past the bottom of the frame.

Great to hear your truck us getting a lot of use.

John D.

[msaintg]

so I added the LED tail lights onto the Chevy and low and behold...... the Cruise control stopped working!!!!! WTF!!!! Have you ever heard of such a thing? I expected the lights to possibly flash faster because of the lower resistance of the LED lights, but they actually flashed SLOWER! So long story short, after a lot of wiring variations and cursing, I had to add the original bulbs back into the circuit in lieu of the hassle of adding a resistor to the circuit (hillbilly engineering). The bulbs glow very dim, so I mounted the bulbs behind the license plate. So now all lights and CC works and the bonus.... they flash at the correct speed too!

This is how i mounted them for testing. I told my wife that I was going to leave it that way, but she didn't find the humor.

[joedoh]

glad to hear its still going, this truck is one of my favorites!

Originally Posted by msaintg

so I added the LED tail lights onto the Chevy and low and behold...... the Cruise control stopped working!!!!! WTF!!!! Have you ever heard of such a thing?

on older chevrolets, the cruise control system ground is on the + brake wire, which rests at ground as long as the pedal is not pressed. that way when you push the brake pedal it shuts off the cruise control module and "resets".

I used to work at a stereo shop on the... seedy... end of town and worked on three different cars, regals, caprices, and cadillacs. they would always come back, even moths later, because the "new radio made the cruise control quit" and all it really needed was a new taillight bulb, a broken filament would have the same effect, the cruise wouldnt work. we knew it wasnt related to the radio and replaced a lot of taillight bulbs.

your fix is correct, add a resistor across the new bulb and viola!

[msaintg]

small update: truck has been going a little over 3 years now. Wife has put over 30K miles on it!! We had to put new tires on it yesterday I thought the tires would rot off of it before she would wear them out, but she proved me wrong. Now she is talking about making it her daily driver when her car wears out. The poor little V6 is pushing 200K miles, so it would probably need a rebuild.... even though it is still running great. The cheap paint is still holding up, but the truck has a lot of rock chips in the front. Mike

[99 to Life]

congrats on everything 200k, not to worry man. but if you do, I'd get an engine now and rebuilt it and have it ready to go when you yank that out. very cool she drives that thing so much.

[iowaboynca]

congratz on 3yrs/30k!...That's 10k per year, not too shabby.

[DeanTX]

Great to have a vintage truck back on the road and put to good use.
What kind of comments has your wife heard while driving it?

[msaintg]

Originally Posted by DeanTX

Great to have a vintage truck back on the road and put to good use.
What kind of comments has your wife heard while driving it?

thanks guys. I get more enjoyment out of my wife's pleasure with the truck than I do with the truck itself. She gets thumbs up and comments all the time, but I get nothing when I drive it. maybe I am not looking around or am too focused on what I am doing to notice.

she got a phone call once from a guy wanting to buy the truck on one of the rare times I had the truck out. she came to me all mad and asked if I was trying to sell her truck.

she likes getting 'nice truck' comments but she does not want to discuss 'what has been done to the truck' or 'what is under the hood' questions. she just defers and says she doesn't know.

[oldman3]

Congrats on the truck doing so well, and adding up those miles...Jim

[dug224]

Just scanned back over the entire build. Great job at a lightening pace. Your seatbelt solution worked out nicely.

[msaintg]

Another year has gone by, so it is time for another update.
Wife wore out the old V6 (still running great, but was leaking a lot of oil) and the transmission rebuild on the 4l60E did not hold up (was slipping in 1st gear). Sooooooo, wife just got a fresh crate V6 and a brand new transmission installed by the local repair shop. They did a great job and they had her back on the road in less than 2 weeks. Now she wants AC installed.

[joedoh]

what a great update! I always thought the 4.3 was a perfect engine for the weight of these trucks, anything more just makes it too skittish on the rear tires in my opinion

[msaintg]

my brother took the wheels off of his 68 camaro and went back to the original rally wheels, so he gave me these. The old wheels had too much reverse offset, but these fit the truck perfectly. I just love how they fill the wheel wells. The only downside is that they are 12 years old. They still look perfect because the car never left the garage. I think I will replace the fronts and try running the rears.

[msaintg]

6/3/2018 - I have been working on the AC & heater for the truck. I got it all installed and off to the mechanic to get the AC charged. I know it is not a fancy unit, or even that attractive for that matter, but it was easy to install and more 'period' correct. I also added visors. I purchased electric door locks too, but I have not attempted to install them yet.

[iowaboynca]

kewl!!!

Keep us posted on how the AC turns out. I'm thinking of a similar setup

[rgunlock]

Good to see that the trucks getting a little more love Mike!

[joedoh]

I used that unit on a truck, great way to get it all in one! you will need a on/off heater valve though because the heater core and AC core share the same air flow, so unless you can turn off the coolant flow the AC will never get cool, the heater will be "on" at the same time.

It bears repeating that your truck is awesome.

[msaintg]

thanks guys.
The AC is working great so far (AZ hit 113 degrees today). Wife is driving the truck daily now. No engine temp issues with the new radiator and fan in front of the stock radiator. (still no fan shroud)

[msaintg]

hi guys, time for another check in.
Hard to believe the truck has been on the road over 5 years now. Lets see, what's new....... we moved again, so the truck has its very own garage. it doesn't have to share with the common cars.

[msaintg]

new AC works just OK. The heating unit works real well though.
The new engine and tranny have over 3000 miles on them and are running great. Wife decided that the truck does not get good enough gas mileage to become her daily driver, but she still drives it a lot. I thought my old 'rebuilt' transmission had a slip, but the new transmission did the same thing, so I investigated the issue further. turns out the throttle position sensor on the engine was failing. just a few bucks and now it is shifting perfect.

I still have NOT put the electronic door locks on it because I am dreading working inside those doors, but I will do that soon. She did get me to build a console for it. I covered the door panels with the same vinyl that I used on the console. I also replaced the garbage carpeting with new automotive carpet. here are some pics.

[oldman3]

Truck still looks good, nice job on the interior...Jim

[99 to Life]

nice garage, congrats on the move. glad to see you still working on this thing. very nice build that gets used. can't beat that.

[msaintg]

thanks guys.
I love this site. everyone is so friendly and supportive.

[99 to Life]

In deed, when I started out about 9-10 years ago, I knew nothing about cars or trucks. This site made alot of that possible to do. Nice community for sure.