1947 S10 4x4 Blazer swap

[oldman3]

Sweet video Mike, truck looked great running down the road...Jim

[msaintg]

thanks, Jim, My buddy took it with his new dash cam. I think I am going to have to get me one.

[msaintg]

small update. It has been about 1.5 years since I finished building the truck (never finished the fan shroud or the electrical hookup for the wipers) and the wife has been driving the wheels off of it.... over 15,400 miles so far!

She got into a gravel storm on the freeway which chipped the windshield and the paint on the front end, but nothing major. Yesterday she rubbed the wall when backing out of the garage, again nothing major. Man I am soooooo glad I did not put too much work into the body work and paint on this truck

motor on

[rgunlock]

Well, she's picking up a few scars, but sounds like she's getting a lot of good use!

[99 to Life]

well, I feel a truck is meant for work. just a symbolic and practical piece of art that really helped define this country. kinda like the horse, or wagon or wheel etc. she is putting it to work, more than most of us on here!!!! I'm glad I like patina for those very reasons, its alot of upkeep for paint. though I'm planning some painted trucks soon, living on dirt roads suck. glad to see your getting some use outta your hard work.

[msaintg]

ya, I couldn't get mad at her, she felt really bad about it. She is normally an excellent driver. What happened is, we moved into a new home and the new garage is a lot tighter than the old one and the truck is parked on the opposite side than it was before. I guess she was just in too much of a hurry. Funny thing was.... she did it on my birthday.

[rgunlock]

Happy Birthday, and congrats on the new home!

[msaintg]

small update..... chevy is still motoring on like a champ, so I have not done anything to it, except enjoy it. I moved 6 months ago, so I spent 4 months tiling the kitchen counters, painting the whole interior of the house, wood flooring in 4 bedrooms and all new light fixtures, ceiling fans, and bathroom faucets. I finally got back to working on the CJ5. got it done (almost) just in time for an all Willys car show. here is what the jeep looks like now after a full frame off restoration (8 months worth of work):

[99 to Life]

congrats on the house and the new project. glad to here the truck is going good.

[Purcell69]

I just stumbled across your thread and started reading it yesterday. That is a great build you completed (both actually)! I had to chuckle when you mentioned reusing the motor mounts, only because I did the same thing. Unlike you, I can't begin to imagine the time/$ I have in my build, since it has morphed over twenty years.

I bought my '57 project when we still lived in AZ for $1500 with a good title, no motor or transmission, uncut frame. This was around 1995. Since then, we moved to OK where I converted the straight axle to disc brakes and added power steering. I didn't like the way it drove due to some hellish bump-steer. After that, I cut the stock frame and added a Camaro clip. Even with 2" spacers between the frame and subframe, My nose was in the weeds, which was not what I wanted. I finally got to where I am now, on a 1994 Dodge 4x4 frame.

I like the idea that you didn't do what everyone else was doing, and converted a 4x4 Blazer to 2wd to suit your needs. I'd toyed with the idea of using my Chevrolet drivetrain in my build, but opted to use the Dodge drivetain instead, because it would be different than all the SBC stuff out there and I all ready had all of the needed parts from my donor truck. Like your build, I'm not looking to be car show material, just something I can enjoy driving.

Any plans for another build?

-Joe

[msaintg]

thanks guys.

no, joe, no plans for another build. I am actually thinking of selling the jeep already because I am too big for it. my head goes all the way up to the roll cage and I cant see out of the front windshield without hunching over.... I am only 6'-1". My wife just grins because she thinks she is getting another vehicle. I think I prefer house projects to vehicle projects, but I don't have any projects in mind for the rest of the year.

[DeanTX]

Mike, I've read your thread over many times. Not sure if you check in here much anymore. I was wanting to know if you swapped out the stock bar keys for lowering ones?

[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.

[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?

[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!

[oldman3]

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

[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.

[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