1969 Blazer - 507 Light Blue

[harrisoncole4]

The advantage to replacement parts... no rust. The disadvantage... sometimes things just aren't where they are supposed to be.

[harrisoncole4]

As i mentioned earlier, the blazer floor was not yet available at this point so we had to cut down a truck floor. The existing floor on my blazer prior to disassembly was so rusty that i couldn't even tell exactly how the body line on the floor met up with the step up plate. While the result isn't 100% factory correct, it was still really well done. Once the weld was ground flat, i almost now prefer it over the factory flare up that is there.

The rockerbox area of the blazer is obviously fairly complicated. With all reproduction pieces, i was worried that everything wouldn't go together. it needed a slight modification so that the one end would sit on the cross brace properly. Other than that, the support brackets and the rest of the pieces all went in really smoothly.

[harrisoncole4]

Originally Posted by simicrintz

It always amazes me what some of you guys start with and then what you end up with. I will be watching this build for sure; rock on

I bought this thing when i was around 17 or so just before i started university so it was all i could afford at the time. In the long run it might have been better to buy one that was in a bit better shape, but then the before and after photos wouldn't be as cool!

[DeadheadNM]

Originally Posted by harrisoncole4

I have seen the Pacific Fab xmember. The reason i had thought the DD unit was the way to go was that most reviews seemed to say the DD will clear the front axle with less of a lift than the PacFab unit. I like the look of the 33's on stock height springs. I have not looked into it enough to see if either xmember can support that.

I’ve been really pleased with stock height and 33” tires for mine. I’m envious of all that skill with the metal work. I agree - the Pacific Fab website implies that it will clear with new springs. Seems a little iffy but here’s the quote:

“Note: This crossmember is designed to be used with new factory springs. If your vehicles springs are worn out or sagging a 2" lift may be necessary for clearance to the front differential.”

[harrisoncole4]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

I’ve been really pleased with stock height and 33” tires for mine. I’m envious of all that skill with the metal work. I agree - the Pacific Fab website implies that it will clear with new springs. Seems a little iffy but here’s the quote:

“Note: This crossmember is designed to be used with new factory springs. If your vehicles springs are worn out or sagging a 2" lift may be necessary for clearance to the front differential.”

Interesting... that statement seems a bit contradictory. I remember reading a PacFab vs DD thread on the forums here and it seemed to be split 50/50. Maybe i'll look through some build threads to see if any were run with stock height leaf springs.

[DeadheadNM]

Just curious: did your doors have latch reinforcement plates? I think 69 Blazer doors didn’t receive these.

[harrisoncole4]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

Just curious: did your doors have latch reinforcement plates? I think 69 Blazer doors didn’t receive these.

My doors did not have latch reinforcement plates. From what i can tell, they weren't added until 70. My blazer also didn't come with the bolt hole for the rearmost top hold down bracket. I believe those were added after 69 as well.

[DeadheadNM]

Yep. Probably not equipped with drip rail deflectors either I suspect.

[SeventyOne]

Amazing this one is being saved.

[harrisoncole4]

After the blazer tub was put back in one piece I took a few months off from working on the blazer. Here is what it looked like before I brought it back in to have the fab work finished up. We didn't end up bracing the doors or the tailgate when the top was off and I was a bit worried that things would not be perfectly aligned after i brought it back. Everyone on the forum here seems to reiterate that bracing is very important when the top and doors are off. I am not sure whether i am lucky or what, but when I brought it back to the shop after a few months everything was still aligned properly. If I had to do it again I would likely air on the side of caution and add some bracing.

[harrisoncole4]

Theres a guy a town over from me that has a whole hoard of NOS 67-72 chevy body panels in his barn but he is still unwilling to part with any of them. I was able to score a NOS front passenger fender for the blazer. I decided to order new reproduction doors, tailgate, and the drivers fender as opposed to fix the old stuff that i had. I was partial to using original metal, but the stuff i had was too far gone.

There was a bit of a mix-up from the manufactuer when ordering some of the body panels from Bills Truck Shop. They sent two of the same door instead of a L+R. Bill was super good about it and gave me a truck door at a good rate. While both of the doors went in with a relatively minimal amount of work, the truck door did fit better than the blazer door.

[harrisoncole4]

A few slight tweaks like this to the body lines to get them to match up.

[harrisoncole4]

Some almost finished door gaps.

[DeadheadNM]

Great progress. It’s really coming along. Do you have fresh body mounts in place? Worth testing fit of the top now?

[rsavage]

I'm a little partial to '69 code 507 K5 Blazers. There is a lot of good looking metal work going on there. Hope that you are related to your metal guy or have deep pockets. 507 blue '69 Blazers are striking. Good luck. I am following your restoration.

[harrisoncole4]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

Great progress. It’s really coming along. Do you have fresh body mounts in place? Worth testing fit of the top now?

Looking forward to getting to the point where it looks like a truck again. People don't really get the vision and the $$$ on said vision when they see a pile of parts laying there on the floor. body mounts are all brand new. I think new body mounts make a significant difference. The top has been test fit, but all the nuts were just spinning inside the top so you couldn't quite get an accurate read on the fitment. The metal guys came up with a cool solution to fix a lot of the deficiencies found in the double wall tops.

[harrisoncole4]

Originally Posted by rsavage

I'm a little partial to '69 code 507 K5 Blazers. There is a lot of good looking metal work going on there. Hope that you are related to your metal guy or have deep pockets. 507 blue '69 Blazers are striking. Good luck. I am following your restoration.

No relation to the metal guy... but I think my parents have realized I am not going to be able to move out till this blazer is done lol. Being a one year only colour on the year with the lowest production numbers makes it that much cooler to see another one out there. Now if I could only get my hands on a factory 69 517 maroon blazer... Thanks for following along!

[harrisoncole4]

A few photos of tailgate fitment. I was pleasantly surprised with the fitment of all the reproduction swing panels.

[harrisoncole4]

The only reproduction body piece that required significant modification was the drivers side front fender. With that being said, the fitment issues were mostly located in the front section where the grill meets the fenders.

[harrisoncole4]

This was the final piece of metal work that was needed on the body. Even when comparing this side to the point where the original grill meets a NOS passenger fender, it is clear that this was likely a weak spot for panel fitment on the original trucks. Super happy with the outcome here.

[harrisoncole4]

The passenger door had the top frame cut off shortly after these photos. Besides some minor tweaks to the cowl this marked the end of the metal work on the body.

[lks dcvn]

Nice progress. Keep the pix of the progress coming!

For the torsion box install - any idea how much was cut out of them to line them up?

I will need to get a set in the future, but wasn't aware I would need to do that much massaging to get them to fit.

Any plans to coat the torsion boxes on the inside?

[harrisoncole4]

Originally Posted by lks dcvn

Nice progress. Keep the pix of the progress coming!

For the torsion box install - any idea how much was cut out of them to line them up?

I will need to get a set in the future, but wasn't aware I would need to do that much massaging to get them to fit.

Any plans to coat the torsion boxes on the inside?

Thanks! There wasn't anything cut out of the torsion boxes length wise. The issue was that they curved up too much towards the b pillar. This is why that giant cut was made in them, so that the portion of the rocker box towards to b pillar could be moved down a bit to correctly line up with the mounting location under the bed. I don't think this modification has been required on all people replacing their torsion boxes. It could be that I got a bad set of repro boxes or the fact that the b pillar area on my blazer was spliced together from pieces belonging to three different blazers.

The plan is to undercoat the underside and the floor of the blazer tub in line-x. The underside with be the regular black coating and the floor colour-matched to the body. When the rocker box end caps are taken off it should provide sufficient access to spray line-x inside. This would all be after primer, etc.

EDIT: It was only the drivers side that required that modification to the torsion box. See passenger side below.

[lks dcvn]

Looks great - thanks for following up!

[bmfm64]

Originally Posted by harrisoncole4

The metal guys came up with a cool solution to fix a lot of the deficiencies found in the double wall tops.

Can you share some of the repairs on your top? I have a few spinning nuts as well.