GRIZZ’s ‘79 - 2WD BLAZER Challenge over in London, England. “~It’s not a Project~”

[Grizz1963]

So Craig got in well after 8.00pm and we had fish and chips, and sat chatting till late.

Then off to bed, Craig slept on the couch, full,house at Casa Grizz.

Up, coffee and chatting by -6.15

Later we were out to gather all Craigs treasures, fetch my trailer from Uncle Bobs place, clean it and pack it all.

Then we found some 25mm square tube and also some 20mm to use as inserts…….

Craig chopped the chassis in 2 and I proceeded to weld it all up, 10 inches longer.

Shod with off-road buggy wheels, bought from John the lodger, it will be a great tool

Hacksaw at work.



And the 10 inch extension.



Braced, welded.



Some rattle can over the welds became burgundy all over it.

Mickey was already there inspecting, and then @mercdan68 popped in for a chat, declined coffee, but good to see him and chat about his boy destroying a perfectly good cat 😉



Dan left, Mickey left and by 1.00pm Craig left for his 200 mile run home, trailer behind the ML Benz.

As Craig left, Dean @gentabout and his daughter, I mean wife Yvonne arrived for a visit and to deliver some special cargo………

We sat out on the deck, shared 100 stories, great to meet up, and even nicer having good company.

Eventually they left, in his MG……….

Embarrasingly his car refused to start, as he had left the lights on when he arrived a few hours earlier.

Jump pack to the rescue, the car barked into life, and then they were off home.

Very Nice car.



And the contents of the parcel they had delivered………



Thank you very much Dean.

So answers on a postcard……

What is the paint for?

Thanks for checking in.

[Grizz1963]

So after Mickey and @mercdan68 left, Craig and I had less than an hour before he had to head back home via a detour to pick up another machine.

He came sans trailer, but left with my 5 foot, tall caged trailer and his car already half full.

So first was to generate space for the fuel pump pipes and wiring on top of the tank.

2x4 seemed a perfect shim to create and keep the space while setting up to weld the tabs.



Mickey had just reappeared to give me a nice two tin trolley jack, so took a pic of us worms, then promptly left again as they had a lunch date.



So welder out, tacking started, first two tabs in position.



At this point Craig had to leave, and s I saw him off, Dean @gentabout and Yvonne landed….. and an awesome visit followed.

Actually loved stepping away for a bit, like this mornings breakfast meeting.

Once we had done an mini inspection of the garage, they left, and I headed back down to resume fabrication.

Weird how I could not get the tank up square, the mounting holes were also not quite in position, so some drilling and filing ensued, followed by BFH action to make both step down a tad.



Tacked in, then removed for a decent weld up.



Good Sally had come back with the dog, so I shut shop early and went for a walk.



Found this oil can at the side of a farm building.

How long has it been there?



Right.

Breakfast and driving the S10 calls.

Later.

[Grizz1963]

Not been to the Kent Breakfast meeting for American cars for some time.

It had become a roving kind of meet and to be honest, bootfairs trump food any day in my world.

But they may have a new venue 20 miles from me……

So today I popped up there, after Sally suggested I need to take a break from the garage.

No regrets ultimately.

In early, had breakfast and left by 10.30

Nice to have the truck out for a proper blast down the motorway.

Company good as always, and I left early to carry on with the Rezin Rockit build.


Venue is just off the A2/M2 at Ebbsfleet near Bluewater



£9.95 eat as much as you can, drinks unlimited too is a decent deal at a pub style restaurant.



Breakfast included 3x Croissants, and two Flat white coffees from a machine that were quite drinkable.


Outside.

Stripes roolz.

















A nice group of guys, random mix of cars and trucks.

And no dick swinging.

[Wikid61]

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=419251 This mammoth thread has plenty of tech for the front end being dialed in from mild to wild. Also a good amount for rear leaf spring improvement in ride & handling.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Wikid61

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=419251 This mammoth thread has plenty of tech for the front end being dialed in from mild to wild. Also a good amount for rear leaf spring improvement in ride & handling.

Awesome thread.

Thank you for sharing.

[Grizz1963]

So after filling the galactic sized tank with enough fuel to run 10 Smart cars for a month, I headed down to Strood to get the wheels aligned but typically the original £30.00 offer was not available as they did not have the details for the Chevy Blazer in their system.

They not so friendly guy behind the counter suggested I go to another shop.

So off to STS I went.

Friendly, knowledgeable guys, relieved me of £65.00 and sent me off with a truck that felt completely different to the one I had taken there.

WIN !!





The results spoke for themselves.



From there I went driving around, looking for another decent photo venue.





Eventually got home with a silly grin on my face.

The truck is Happy at 70mph on the motorway.

Brakes work beautifully

30 miles test drive, worked for me.

Reversed down the tight drive, planning to give the window tinting another go.

Realised the garden has grown a lot over the last few years.




So trimmed that lot back and raked up all the dead winter leaves.....



With the weather constantly changing between rain and not raining I decided to open the rear tailgate and service the window raiser mechanism






Greased all the gears, sprayed the invisible parts with STS and then tested and shut it all up again, happy.




And them thought I would give the window tinting another go.......


Big mistake, again.

So I left it alone.




So that ended up a great day for me.


Only the MOT left to go do when I get my day in lieu back.

Then lots of fun, random things after that.

I hope.

[Wikid61]

The rebuilding of the rear leaf spring pack is straight foreword/easy. You may consider it when you add the rear shackle mount to lower the rear then. Congratulations on finding a good, competent shop in dealing with your need's. The 2WD Blazers are not popular in the states it seems. I dig them like all rough-to-nice.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Wikid61

The rebuilding of the rear leaf spring pack is straight foreword/easy. You may consider it when you add the rear shackle mount to lower the rear then. Congratulations on finding a good, competent shop in dealing with your need's. The 2WD Blazers are not popular in the states it seems. I dig them like all rough-to-nice.

Thank you for all your replies and taking the time to post up information and motivation on this thread.

I do plane on adding new rear spring bushes to the rebuild, just need to wait and see what is in the shackle kit, as I do not think there is an upper leaf spring bush, so ai May have to order both.

Finding the shop was a bit of luck, I was not impressed with the $80.00 charge, but the moment I drove it, the work was worth the price.

Over here the K5’s are popular too, but I like different, so a 2WD is my flavour.

Also I have no use for 4WD.

[Grizz1963]

So my day started earlier than I would have liked, but in exchange I got to collect the centre caps for the truck.

Did some laundry, single life rocks.... ermmm maybe.

Got out by 10am and chatted to Mickey next door for about half an hour, then got the cars swapped around, started the truck up and reversed it down to the garage.

First jonpb to do as to mark and drill some holes in the license plate backing plate, get some nuts and bolts to attach said number plate.

I wanted to mount it up high against the top of the rear bumper.

Got that done, ensuring maximum space for when the Towbar gets fixed in there.

[a href="http://s294.photobucket.com/user/niknakpix/media/bicycles/2C234802-7DAC-486B-B553-DC1E43A71E0A_zpso6yctcae.jpg.html"][img src="http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/bicycles/2C234802-7DAC-486B-B553-DC1E43A71E0A_zpso6yctcae.jpg" style="max-width:100%;"][/a]

Remember in the engin bay, the radiator shroud was missing, as it had been removed and not replaced and subsequently thrown away by a previous owner.
Then I found one to but over in Essex, including cost of fetching it, as £25.00

So having undone the top radiator hose and removed it, I managed to wriggle it into place over the fixed fan. Slipping it into the S-clips,I also had to move the lower hose Jubilee clip to allow the shroud in.
For the top fixing, it was two tims of nuts and bolts. Allowing me to find pieces that fit into the look, and the right size.

The two top corner fixings took forever to seat and get to grip, and my sausage shaped fingers could not get in to hold it all in place.



Fixed.



After seeing @Disasterbus success with his air filter and aluminium foil, I thought it prudent to try the same method on mine.

Starting here......



Removed.






Halfway there.



Resulting in this.




Back in place, far from perfect, but certainly improved.

[Grizz1963]

Late afternoon, I got to the bit I had been looking forward to.

Fitting the centre caps, and then the Stainless steel trim rings.

So Centre caps.



And add the trims.



All together now.

Really needs to be out In Good lighting with a decent background.



Front end.



And my personal favourite angle today.



By 3.30 it was getting chilly out on the drive, the breeze did not help, at that point I was trying to get the Towbar made up and mocked up, but have realised that finding a C10 Unit from a hedge or the back of a shed, makes more sense. And I was not in enough clothing layers, so I thought, bu66er it, another day, another battle to be fought.



I had planned on making a backing plate for the radio today to support or at least make look better, the broken and missing section under the dash.

However, chilly weather and forgetting about it altogether made me come in.

However, weirdly I got a message from friend Bill in Gulfport, Mississippi tonight on Messenger to offer me these pieces.



Serendipity

Life.

[Grizz1963]

Just about up to date with the update and this build.



Few more pics and a actions.



So.....

WINDOW TINTING.

Make sure you select the right shade.

I went for 35% and should have gone to 70%

Too late now, as it’s done.

Under £10.00




Going to try keep it short.

Mate Kevin came over from Maidstone in his absolutely envy provoking chipped, lowered and pimped out VW Van.




Cut the tinting film to size on the outside of the glass, keeping in mind, there is a sticky, or outside, side.



Once trimmed to size, move to the inside of the vehicle, spray the glass wet, as well as the tint film once you remove the backing sheet.
Slide into position, squeegee all the water out while getting it smooth.



Many hands, octopus and all that.



Repeat prep.



I also used a heat gun to help remove and smoothe any kinks out.



While we were at it, Nicola’s dad popped in for a chat and to check up on the new car, he has always loved cars, especially V8’s



Result






And out in the street after Kevin and I did a 10 mile test drive, where we found the front wheel beauty rings popped off after 5 miles.

So it’s back to looking for trim rings that work.


Final pic of the tinting, here you can see it, not dark enough, but nice.




End of the weekend and another job jobbed.

Few more pics tomorrow, bed now.

[Grizz1963]

This thread now up to date in real time.

Will continue t update as a record of what I am and have done to the Blazer.

Please do feel free to contribute and advise.



Lazy start to my day off work, only got up at 07.00 when Harley had bugged me more than I needed to stay in bed.

Did some work admin, lazy brekkie by 09.00 and garage by 9.30

Not bad for a lazy day.

So tried out the Bobble Heads Ernie had sent for the truck.



Then truck time.

First thing I did was to remove the beauty rings, clean them and wrap them up back into their original box

Then made up a special tool to get the centre caps off with. They are buggers to get on too.



Then consulted the destructions. Posted here in the interest of record keeping.


Not the same as my Blazer ............ Ooops.








So looking in.





Offered up.

Notice gas filler pipe is in the way.



Mr Rattle Gun called in, easy work, another great tool I bought a long time ago.



Other side removed too.

Rear axle and suspension supported on the jack, rest of truck on axle stands.



Top shackle bolt fitted, needed to come out again as lower bush sleeve did not fit into support cup.









More later.

[Grizz1963]

And this is where I stopped today.


So the old shackles came out, looking worse for wear.





Crawling around with 5 layers was not too bad, though my back still objected by the end.



One side.






Other side.






Side view after.









Final numbers.

Started with Front 680mm
Rear 790mm

Front raised to 710mm
Rear dropped to 780mm

Today shackles brought rear down to 740mm
Front stayed at 710mm

Happy with how it sits now.

Project??

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Indian113

Rian, I had a Dodge Ramcharger in the 70's they were the Dodge answer to the Blazer. It leaked so I bought some roll of rubber gasket material. I tried the foam but it collected water and then it seeped moisture in. If you can't find it you might take a Bicycle Tire Tube and put it between the top and body.

Thank you Ray

I will investigate various options. Possibly over the weekend.

Dennis used to build these for GM.

His advice.


I don't think you will find a aftermarket seal that will work.Even the factory ones fit like ****. Once you take the roof off you will see why it's so hard to get them to stop leaking. The main problem is getting the seal to stay in place while you get roof back on.

You will need a couple of buddies to help you. It has to go down and forward at the same time while someone is inside lining the bolt holes up making sure that the gasket don't fall out

I was thinking of making some kind of cross shaped carrier to then lift it all hydraulically on my own.

REMEMBER THIS THING ? https://youtu.be/vfTC9wyQKK0

Will see how it all unfolds.

[Grizz1963]

Had a couple of questions on how I do selfies when working alone before, explained that a timer and stuck inside a roll of sandpaper with a rag to hold it upright works easy.

Getting a video done is as easy, Beanbag, Camera, masking tape to keep it all together and then just edit the long film down to where you want it.



Another bit of frivolous spending on the Blazer.

Classic tone hooter and a nice push button for less than £15.00



Right, back to the backup or reverse light issue.

Another example recommended by Bill in GulfPort was this design and item.



Small enough to fit in places.









Photophuckit account renewed tonight, I get really peeved at these companies holding us to ransom but the contribution the forums and friendships generated here, make to my life and threads worthwhile.




Now we can post up pics again.


.

[Grizz1963]

.

MINI MOTO ROAD TRIPPISH THING, PONY EXPRESS........ THURSDAY.


Just confirmed.


I am leaving home (Rochester, Kent) at 06.00 sharp on Thursday morning to go up to meet @pegasus at the National Motorcycle Museum at B92 0EJ at 09.00 sharp (traffic****ery excluded) to collect the mini motos. I also am collecting a bunch of bulky stuff in Essex on the way back, so space is limited.

So space available for a human or cargo on the way up,( Ford Focus wagon that cannot be abused) between these points, and in the time frame only, if anyone needs to move stuff.

PM to make contact.

[Wikid61]

"From Russia with Love" if that is indeed the girl friend, he is a very lucky man. And to quote Wayne's World: ~EXCELLENT~

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Wikid61

"From Russia with Love" if that is indeed the girl friend, he is a very lucky man. And to quote Wayne's World: ~EXCELLENT~

Its his wife and mother of two.

Pics and story in the link I posted up above the report on the parcel.

CLICK LINK. https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...d.php?t=376409

I have saved some pics of them to post from the thread. You know, in the interest of research and public knowledge

















With his son.







And the new daughter.



Stas a few years ago.

[Wikid61]

The '73/'74 bottom grill is less busy & cleaner in its layout. A round tube grill seen in my post blends in w/the era & shapes of the grill surround (round headlamps esp). the present grill screams for billet era wheels ('80's-early '90's) seen in pix. Now one more, the black tires & black wheels clash w/the bright white & the new graphics. Chrome silver or even dull aluminum painted upon those steelie's will eliminate this & liven up the scene. Yes, these are my opinions & not a formal critique of what should or should not be.

[Wikid61]

Some factory ad's on topic.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Wikid61

The '73/'74 bottom grill is less busy & cleaner in its layout. A round tube grill seen in my post blends in w/the era & shapes of the grill surround (round headlamps esp). the present grill screams for billet era wheels ('80's-early '90's) seen in pix. Now one more, the black tires & black wheels clash w/the bright white & the new graphics. Chrome silver or even dull aluminum painted upon those steelie's will eliminate this & liven up the scene. Yes, these are my opinions & not a formal critique of what should or should not be.

Originally Posted by Wikid61

Some factory ad's on topic.

Good morning,

Are you not meant to be in bed, sleeping?

I see you are in Iowa, we may be back there again in August or September.

Thank you for the replies and posting up the examples.


I prefer the look of the pre-egg crate grill, but also liked the second one, but being offered a new in the box grille for $50.00 vs LMC $40.00 price, with a friend collecting it...... works for me.

The billet grille fitted on it is in need of refurbishing, it was also painted black at some point, and the previous owner cleaned most of that off.



The wheels are an interesting option that can be edited often as one wants.

Before getting the stainless steel trims the plan was black Centre and Silver Hammerite paint around the edges.

The current black steels to me makes the chrome look more shiny or contrasts, but I will look for pics with silver steelies to see what that looks like.

I love advice, chat, observations on here because I know so little, so happy for any input.

[Wikid61]

1 gallon of fuel stateside in 1978? About half the price of one of those patches. Yep 15-16 dollars to fill your 30 gal fuel cell. It (gas) has always been a scam run by USA-UK powers that be NOT in the lime light. Pulling strings of those who are.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Wikid61

1 gallon of fuel stateside in 1978? About half the price of one of those patches. Yep 15-16 dollars to fill your 30 gal fuel cell. It (gas) has always been a scam run by USA-UK powers that be NOT in the lime light. Pulling strings of those who are.

Morning

Rain over in Iowa?

Decent day here.

Wearing 5 layers at the top, one tracksuit bottom and a hat plus some shoes with socks ��

Yes, sadly the powers behind the powers are the real powers that be.

Won’t change our enjoyment of cars.

Just headed out. 11.00 am here. Cold forecast later today.

Its a warm enough 50’F out here right now.

[Wikid61]

Rain all day & then continued to sleet into the mid evening. Cold. Glad to see more folk 'awake' than just what a talking head reading a prepared script for the general sheep errrrr...uh public, yeah thats the ticket. Late night indoor activity for me? Here are 2 of 6 mag wheels I score over summer. They are 15x8.5 5x5. 2 were curbed rash & the other 4 had been marred by an incompetent tire machine operator. Spokes were blasted & barrel was hand sanded 5 steps. Paint for the spokes & back sides, chrome silver. Would look good on the Blazer. Also a stash of 4 15x7 5x5 as well. restored a few years back. Mine still sets. Motor & trans fresh & waiting for my former boss to have time get in his shop to do the deed.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Wikid61

Rain all day & then continued to sleet into the mid evening. Cold. Glad to see more folk 'awake' than just what a talking head reading a prepared script for the general sheep errrrr...uh public, yeah thats the ticket. Late night indoor activity for me? Here are 2 of 6 mag wheels I score over summer. They are 15x8.5 5x5. 2 were curbed rash & the other 4 had been marred by an incompetent tire machine operator. Spokes were blasted & barrel was hand sanded 5 steps. Paint for the spokes & back sides, chrome silver. Would look good on the Blazer. Also a stash of 4 15x7 5x5 as well. restored a few years back. Mine still sets. Motor & trans fresh & waiting for my former boss to have time get in his shop to do the deed.

I love those Daisy rims.


Do you have any photos of a Blazer or C10 with them on?

I just got done cutting grass.

Not a pleasure as its so wet, but its done.

Truck next 🚐