1947 S10 4x4 Blazer swap

[mknittle]

I never count the tools.

[pinecrest]

Nope, tools don't count. If you use them a second time, then only like 1/2 of the cost of these tools went to the truck. So, you see, you can probably deduct at least 1/2 of the tool expense right off the bat. Feel better?

[Daze57]

''one can never have enough tools'' -- nietzsche

[msaintg]

ya, tools are always a good investment. And I am NOT counting them as a cost of the build. The funny thing is that I have a shop FULL of tools and I didn't know I needed anymore tools when I started this project. Now I have a plasma cutter, engine hoist,a second floor jack, paint gun, flaring tool, tube bender and two new 4.5" grinders! God I love tools.

[Russell Ashley]

I never consider it a "need" for a new tool, I consider it an opportunity, LOL.

[msaintg]

week 26 Well between work and this intense heat here, I only manage to spend a couple of hours this week working on the project truck. But I did manage to get the gas filler tube lengthened.

[msaintg]

week 27 - Battled the heat again this week and only managed to get the front bumper mounting brackets made. It was a lot more work on the 4x4 Blazer frame than the pickup frame. I had to leave an extra 1.5" on the frame when I cut off the front horns because the Blazer anti sway bar mount is much more intrusive than the S10 pickup. And because of that mount, you can't just weld a mounting plate to the bottom of the frame. I had to cut the bracket back about half an inch (first pic) then weld my plate in place (second pic). Unforunately, my bumper brackets are still about 2" farther to the outside than stock, so I will have to drill new holes in the bumper and fill old holes. I purposely mounted my bumper about 2" closer to the grill than the stock vehicle since I don't have the sheet metal that goes in that spot.

[msaintg]

more from week 27 - I worked on the bumpers and tailgate. I made new square holes and filled old ones on the front bumper because I could not mount the front bumper in the same place on the Blazer frame as the old truck frame. I had to do the same thing with the rear bumper because I took 10” out of the center and I had to make my own mounting brackets. I tried in vain to drill the holes... just kept making the drill bits go dull. Then I thought… duh, use the new plasma cutter. Piece of cake.... and square too! I worked on putting sheet metal on the inside of the tailgate too. I did not have a piece of metal large enough to fit, so I did it in 3 pieces. I still need to do some work on the ends to finish it up. Just for fun I weighed the old and new tailgates…. Old = 24lbs, new = 36lbs.

[Daze57]

very nice work !

[cleanshaven84]

I love your creativity with this build. Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[msaintg]

thanks guys. I have built a lot of stuff, but I have never worked with sheet metal like this before. Such a learning curve. I built a rock crawler out of a Suzuki Samurai (using ALL Suzuki or custom built parts), but there was no sheet metal when I was done. heres a pic

[msaintg]

sorry, my wife wants me to post two 'other' things I did that she thinks was 'more' creative than the rock crawler.... I built this table for her and hand painted the garage door to look like wood. anyway...

[shok]

Nice table, I taught myself to weld, if you can say I know how to weld , by making some tables. Nothing as nice as that tho.
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[msaintg]

A few people have asked my how I am able to take the cab and bed on / off so much all by myself. Well, I use an engine hoist and a welding table that I built years ago to build RV gates. The table is 5' x 5' and tilts almost verticle to both sides. Makes loading, turning, and unloading heavy panels pretty easy. Heres a few pics

[msaintg]

week 28 - Big milestone this week. I spent about 26 hours on the truck project. I finally got the frame cleaned and painted. Before I could do that I had to remove 4 of the 6 running board mounts and remount them higher up. I also reenforced them while I was at it. I decided that I did not want to use the transmission with the transfer case hanging off of it, so I found a shop on Craigs list that would rebuild my transmission for me and convert it to a 2X4 tranny. They also through in a new drive shaft with the smaller spline. The old tranny cross support bracket will not work with the 2x4 mount, so I will have to build a new tranny cross support next. The last pic shows the tranny clearance problem.

[cleanshaven84]

Looks like some good progress. Keep it up man!

[54 jimmy]

make sure you leave a stub part of the front cv in the wheel bearings or the will come apart on you while driving. they will seperate. a bolt and nut will work too with washers. just drill a hole in the bolt to put a cotter in it to keep it from backing off.

[msaintg]

54 jimmy... are you talking about what I did in the first pic in post #10? I was going to replace the spindles with 2X4 spindles, but that did not work. I cut the spindle off of the front CV shafts.

[54 jimmy]

yes sorry i didn't see that you had already done that.

[msaintg]

Week 29 – I modified the transmission cross support bracket by cutting out the center section, flipping it over and welding it back together. I then installed the gas tank and began the arduous task of installing the fuel and brake lines (the lines were all original, but I had to modify them because of the motor being moved back 5”, the frame lengthened 9” and the new bed mount was a little in the way). It is not done yet, but after 5 hours of struggling with it, I had to take a break, if you know what I mean.

[msaintg]

week 30 - I finished up connecting the fuel lines after I installed the charcoal canister. Then I moved on to do some more rust repair on the front cab corners. Here are some before and after pics of the cab corners.

[msaintg]

more from week 30 - I spent a couple hours making a mounting bracket for my windshield wiper motor and mounted it up under the dash. I could not mount it in the stock location because my guage cluster sticks out too far there. I ended up turning the motor around. Luckily I don't have the cowl vent to deal with. I hope it still works that way.

[chevyboy73]

nice! I will for sure watching this

[msaintg]

week 33 - Spent this week doing body work on the firewall and cowl area. I also spent some time doing misc. stuff on the chassis like painting the radiator support. My goal is to get some paint on the firewall next week so that I can put the cab back on the truck.... and not have to take it off ever again.

[msaintg]

week 34 - I spent this week doing more body work on the cab and finally got some paint on it. I decided to stay away from any metalic paint because of my skill level, my dirty paint environment, and my crappy tools. I think a light, basic color will hide my defects better. It is hard to tell from these pics, but it is a cream color. It is just Rustoleum from Lowes. It comes in quart cans, no mixing, called 'Almond'.