Blazer Bed Floor Replacement

[Chad22873]

Pic from rocker and floor replacement. I am slowly getting pics posted. I am sure for anyone new reading that very few of my pics make any sense considering there is no order to any of them. As I go back with the new bed floor and inner bedside repairs I will post lots of pics. At least maybe that part of the build will make sense to someone.
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[Chad22873]

floor and rocker work
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[Chad22873]

Where would we be without spot weld cutters.
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[Chad22873]

Jaros as soon as all my bed parts come in I will start posting pics of the reassembly. Did you say you had a template?

[Chad22873]

Slowly finding more pics. Maybe I should get organized from here on out and try to make sense. Lol.
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[Chad22873]

More rocker and floor pics
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[Chad22873]

Both sides had an equal amount of rust
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[Chad22873]

Its nice to finally get it all cut out so that there isn't a 5 gal bucket full of rust on the flier every time you hit something with a hammer.
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[Chad22873]

more
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[Chad22873]

Fabbing up the new stuff.
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[hemi43]

I don't see any bracing ! Using the hard top to locate the windshield header is not sufficient. Before you start doing any welding in of the the rockers and rocker boxes, reinstall your doors and make sure you have proper gaps especially at the top of the "A"pillar. I can't stress this enough !!
Don't find out the hard way that the doors don't fit anymore after everything is welded up.
Dan

[Chad22873]

These are old pics Hemi. The rockers, rocker boxes, floor pans, a pillars, etc are all done. I just keep posting pics waiting on my new bed floor to show up. It all turned out well. Doors are on and everything lines up. Gaps are fine. I felt like the top was sufficient to keep it from moving back so I had braces that attached to the front fender bolt holes on the cowl and ran down to the front bumper brackets. I also only had my doors off to cut the old out and put the floor pan in. I reattached the doors before putting the outer rockers on so that I could play with them and get them into the right position. I also just did one side at a time and left the door on the side that I was not working on. The only thing that I haven't done is put the front fenders back on since doing the rocker work. Maybe I screwed up there. Hopefully my A pillar patches are in the right location for that. Based on my measurements they are but I guess we will see.

[Chad22873]

As I said before my pics are in no particular order. Thanks for the heads up Hemi. I really wish that I would have been on here before I started. Then...maybe I would have been able to follow your recommendation and do the bed floor first instead of the floor and rockers. Now I am waiting on a new floor that I am going to try and squeeze in without taking the bedsides off. I have fabbed up some stands that will bolt to the tailgate hinge holes. My hope is that they will support the rear of the bedsides while I take that rear cross sill out and slide the new floor in. The new floor has the rear sill already attached to it. Hopefully this works. I can assure you that if there is a harder way to do it.... I always have a way of finding it.

[Chad22873]

Here are a few pics of the floor going in. I managed to do it without taking either bed side off. I built some stands that bolted into the tailgate hinge holes and then slid the side out just enuf to get them off of the rear sill. You have to take the rocker box end caps completely off in order to get it to slide under the b pillars but it worked. I was concerned about sliding the sides out in the rear and what it might do to the b pillars or the front of the rear quarter. No harm at all tho. Here are a few pics. More to come tomorrow.
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[Chad22873]

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[Chad22873]

Originally Posted by Chad22873

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[Chad22873]

Originally Posted by Chad22873

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[Chad22873]

Originally Posted by Chad22873

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[Chad22873]

These are not very good pics. My phone just doesn't do well. I will have some nice ones taken with my iPad tomorrow evening. If there is a particular pic that anyone wants let me know. I will post it.
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[-Greg72]

I'm looking to buy a complete Blazer bed floor in the near future for my own restoration.

How crisp are the stampings, and how closely do they match the convoluted pattern of the original? Are they nice and sharp or more "soft" and rounded in those transitions from low spot to high spot on the floor?

Did you go with GMCPauls or SOKY Classics? Does anyone know if both vendors are selling the same part, or if one of them is "better" than the other?

I'm sure it's going to cost a fortune to ship either way (I'm in NH)


Thanks!

-G

[raggedjim]

Good job Chad. I probably should have replaced my bed floor, but I didn't!

Good luck, Rg

[Chad22873]

Thanks Jim. It looks a lot different now. The floor came from GMC Pauls. Shipping wasn't bad at all and it came in a crate that would take a tank to crush. I have never seen anything packaged so well. The floor was a perfect match. All of the holes lined up perfectly. I also bought new wheel houses and they fit just as well. I would highly recommend it to anyone. I had actually thought about just patching my old one but the new one comes with all of the cross sills as well. It was really nice to be able to just replace the whole thing at once. Glad I did it. As far as the ridges.....they are fairly smooth. Not what I would call a sharp crisp edge. Let me know if you have other questions. I have several other pics that I never posted.

[jaros44sr]

Originally Posted by -Greg72

I'm looking to buy a complete Blazer bed floor in the near future for my own restoration.

How crisp are the stampings, and how closely do they match the convoluted pattern of the original? Are they nice and sharp or more "soft" and rounded in those transitions from low spot to high spot on the floor?

Did you go with GMCPauls or SOKY Classics? Does anyone know if both vendors are selling the same part, or if one of them is "better" than the other?

I'm sure it's going to cost a fortune to ship either way (I'm in NH)


Thanks!

-G

Greg, glad you're getting to the point of sheet metal, you've got a tremendous build going, very over the top. Kurt said you are planning on having removable fenders, are you still thinking along those lines?
I'll have to stop over to your site and check out your progress

[-Greg72]

Originally Posted by jaros44sr

Greg, glad you're getting to the point of sheet metal, you've got a tremendous build going, very over the top. Kurt said you are planning on having removable fenders, are you still thinking along those lines?
I'll have to stop over to your site and check out your progress

Thanks Jim!

Yeah, I only have about 900 days left to finish this truck build.... It seems like a lot of time, but it really isn't!!

I spent a lot of time thinking about the amount of work it will take to restore / repair the original bed floor.... And it just doesn't make sense.

Here's where things stand as of last night:




Obviously, I'll have to pull the whole cage out to swap in a new bed floor (and make the rear strut mounts removable) but the build will take a HUGE step forward toward completion.

It's funny, in retrospect I've got almost nothing left of my original sheetmetal.... I've got new fenders, bedsides, floors, doors, rockers, etc. about the only parts that are original are the VIN tag and a few sections of the firewall!!!

-G

[jaros44sr]

Sorry I had to run out this morning, granddaughter got sick and Pops had to babysit.

Just wanted to mention truck looks great, and you have tremendous fab skills. Really like the roll bar design, may steal it

Sorry to much up your thread Chad, but I don't many chances to BS with -greg