72 Blazer build

[lleff]

looks like you are making some great progress. i really like the paint booth, looks like a great idea, i might have to steal that one

[twp1]

Where did you get the front floor pan with the 4x4 tunnel?

[twp1]

Nevermind I just saw Southern Kentucky Classics

[Slippy]

Up next was a bunch more parts, painted the doors,fenders,tailgate and the hood. Everything turned out pretty good. Had some dust specs on the hood but it will all be Color sanded and polished anyways.

[twp1]

Slippy and lks dcvn ! After seeing what you guys did with the metal work I have decided to do the same on mine! Looks great keep up the good work.

[Slippy]

Started polishing and sanding all the painted parts before putting them in a shed to keep them safe before final assembly. Sanded out all orange peel and dust nibs with 1500grit on the orbital and then 3000 grit. I use 3m 3 stage polishes and get pretty good results. Probably have over 100 hours in polishing. Slow and steady.

Also My helper and I washed the body and got it ready to paint. Up first I masked it to spray the bed liner on the bottom. 2 coats of black raptor liner.

[Slippy]

After the raptor liner dried for a few days I masked off the bed liner and gave the outside of the body it’s new coat of shiny black..
it was quite a marathon of painting because I did the inside and outside of the body all at one time. My dad suited up and came in the booth with me and ran the rotisserie while I painted, made life a little easier for me. My anxiety about painting this blazer black and having the body straight has finally went away after seeing the black on it. I’m loving it and pretty happy with how it looks.

[HARDCORECASH]

Wow looks great!! Nice Work!!

[twp1]

Very Nice!

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks fantastic!

[Slippy]

I don’t know if there is a real finesse way of putting the body back on the frame but this is how we did it. Outside in the snow at 20 degrees.

Again sorry for the sideways pics but with my IPad I don’t know how to fix them.

[lks dcvn]

flipped right side up. I would have been nervous to do that with fresh black paint.

I used the lift in my garage to slap an empty tub down on a 2wd frame and it was nerve racking with old paint. Nicely done!

[Slippy]

So after finally getting my paint booth back out of my shop it gave me some breathing room and I have been working pretty steady at reassembly. I’ve been taking it fairly slow and steady as to not scratch anything. Started laying out some of the American auto wire wiring harness and finished up my relay/fuse box for the engine wiring harness.

Also bought a lokar shift linkage and installed rebuilt steering column and then the new shift linkage. Seems to work really nice. 4wd shifter wasn’t so easy. Looks like we have come up with a design to make it work. With the np241c the shift pattern is completely different than the np208 so the shifter will sit in a different position when in 2wd but it is what it is. I will get some more pics when it’s finished.

[lks dcvn]

Nice work! Let me know how that American Autowire kit works out. Which one did you get?

[Duraburb]

Amazing work! The Black looks slick!

[Slippy]

Originally Posted by lks dcvn

Nice work! Let me know how that American Autowire kit works out. Which one did you get?

I got the Classic Update Kit, same one I used when I did my Jimmy. Its a pretty sweet kit, includes,ignition switch,dimmer switch and coverts it to the small plastic fuses instead of the glass ones. I bought it through Matts Classic Bowties which is a vendor here. It has pretty much everything you could need. Doesn't come with the heater wiring which I find annoying but whatever I guess.

Still waiting on my gauges from Matt, I ordered the RTX series from Dakota Digital. Probably the part that I'm the most excited to see. Check them out on their website. super slick..

[lks dcvn]

I have the same wiring kit planned for my 72 blazer build. Odd about the heater wiring though. On my Blazer - I'm doing a heater/defrost only kit since A/C on Blazers is almost useless from those who have installed it and I shaved the firewall.

I am also looking forward to using the RTX gauges. When my project started - I was excited for the VHX gauges - glad I waited. By the time I need the gauges again - they may have something newer on the market...

[Slippy]

Hey Guys, sorry I haven’t updated in a while, Reassembly has been going pretty decent and I’ve been poking away at it.
Doors are on and completely assembled now, the felts drove me crazy as the holes in the doors were in a different spot than what was on the felts strips. Ended up having to carefully make new holes.
I finallly received my new gauges from Dakota Digital, they are the RTX series and I have never seen cooler gauges in my life, so glad I went with them, I will have to get a pic tomorrow and get it posted, all I had on my phone was a video.
All dash wiring as well as rear taillight wiring is complete now and the American auto wire harness worked as expected.
My dad and I have been working on recovering the seats and are slowly getting them done also.
My windshield luck has been pretty crappy, we ended up cracking the first windshield during installation when we were roping it in, a metal pick has no business near the edge of a windshield..haha.
The second windshield we installed without any drama but once it was installed we could see a manufacturing defect in the glass causing distortion when you looked through it, so it came out again also and am still waiting on the third one.
Also received my new SPID from Jeff at Outintheshop.com, looks incredible.

[Slippy]

Couple pics of the RTX gauges, these are totally customizable and easy to install. Can change backlight colours and functions through app on my phone over Bluetooth. I got the interface so that all of the data is transferred through the obd2 port straight from the computer. Couldn’t be happier.

[lks dcvn]

Nice progress. I really like those gauges.

[Slippy]

Things are staring to come together nicely, adjusting panels for hours on end can drive you crazy but hopefully worth it in the end,

I received a bunch of parts from LMC and the inner and outer grille were both damaged, I was very happy with how they handled it, no questions asked and they had new ones on the way, they don’t even want the old ones back.

I had started the engine numerous times and everything seemed to be good, but after going for a little drive around my yard it was apparent that I had some transmission issues,it is a 6l80 computer controlled trans and it was stuck in limp mode and wouldn’t shift or do anything, after reading different forums for about 10 hours I realized I had wiring issues, after changing some wires around and adding a relay for the trans controller I think it’s working now.

I have to say if it wasn’t for forums such as this one I don’t think a lot of these builds would be possible, seems like every problem someone else has encountered before and had a solution.

I wouldn’t have been smart enough to figure out the trans issue on my own for sure. Haha

[72jimmy4x4]

Hello. What motor mounts and headers did you use? How was the fit? I am gathering parts for my Jimmy. Have a 6.0 and a 6l90e to put in. Great work on your build.

[Slippy]

Originally Posted by 72jimmy4x4

Hello. What motor mounts and headers did you use? How was the fit? I am gathering parts for my Jimmy. Have a 6.0 and a 6l90e to put in. Great work on your build.

I used the pacific fab crossmember, it worked great and seemed to be a bit more affordable than the dirty dingo. As far as the headers, they are speed engineering LS swap mid length headers.Only thing about the headers is you will need the MSD adjustable spark plug wires as the factory plug wires will hit the headers. I picked the headers up from eBay. The exhaust is a 2.5 inch stainless kit from Jegs. It’s a build yourself kit with Flowmaster Flow FX mufflers. It’s fairly loud but I like it.

Anything else just ask!

[Slippy]

Spent the last couple weeks getting the top fixed up, I had a massive crack in the front corner and a piece missing in the door jam area. I use 3M smc repair 2 part glue. That stuff is awesome but for $100/tube it should be. I coated the whole top with raptor liner that I thinned down and I believe it’s close to the OEM finish. My glass has some scratches. Sure wish someone reproduced the glass.

[3757chevy]

Looking good.