"Slowly but Surely" Big J's build thread...

[Big J]

I think my favorite song on that show is "have ya ever had one of those days"....

[5150]

yeah, by Paul Thorn. Great Song.

When you coming back down to Bowling Green??? Got your money built back up yet??

[Big J]

Originally Posted by 5150

yeah, by Paul Thorn. Great Song.

When you coming back down to Bowling Green??? Got your money built back up yet??

Nope, no dough, Christmas has tapped the feed the Blazer fund. lol.... I do have some deals that I'm working on, if those come through then I'll have the money for paint and the rest of the parts I need, hopefully. It'll be a few months before we make it back down that way. I'll be sure to holler at ya before we make the trip.

[Big J]

I got some work done tonight. Cleaned up the inside where the dash bolts up and sprayed some paint on. Did some trimming on the new dash and it fit like a glove. Welded it up and ground it down...... Done! Now onto the drivers floor.

[Alvin]

Looks good Jason! Glad to see you're making some real progress.. I just bolted wheels on mine

[Big J]

Originally Posted by Alvin

Looks good Jason! Glad to see you're making some real progress.. I just bolted wheels on mine

Yeah, progress rocks.......
I checked it out, looks sweet with those wheels, gotta love it!

[Big J]

I feel like crap but I couldn't stay away from the garage, lol..... I say again, being sick sucks! Went over for awhile last night and this morning. Got some metal cut out and a piece ready to weld in. I cleaned out the rocker box too. The rear part had 2" of dirt just crammed in tight. I had to take a screw driver and bust it up before the shop vac would even touch it. I'm thinking about putting some kind of filter or screen over the holes before I close it all in to prevent dirt from building up in there again.

[Big J]

Finally felt like working on the Blazer today. I figured since I can get to the inside of the box it was time to mount up the seats. I still need to weld some nuts to some plate then to the under side but I've got the hard part done. Getting them situated and holes drilled, lol... I'm going to go ahead and make up some mounting plates for the roll bar and weld those in too. I finally remembered to take out my sun visors too, lol. I've been meaning to do that ever since I started but for some reason kept forgetting. They came out easy, NO stripped nuts thankfully. Someone was wondering what else we worked on in the shop so I'll post a couple pics of those too. I also got a new toy for Christmas, well it was more of a gift card that got spent on what I wanted, a 14" metal chop saw I took a pic of the drivers seat slid forward with the back tilted up. I didn't try but does it look like enough room for someone to squeeze through?

[Big J]

Some more pics.

[Big J]

Fabbed up some seat mounts today. I just took some big flat washers and welded a nut to one side, then drilled some holes in the floor surrounding the bolt hole for the seat. Then I bolted the washer/nut in place and welded it to the floor. Turned out pretty sweet. I still have a little more grinding to do but it doesn't have to be perfect. I'm coating the floor in rubber.... I filled in the other holes too. Lots of holes, lol.

[Big J]

Made some progress yesterday. I'm close to getting back to the actual sheet metal work. I cut up some plate and welded some nuts to it to weld to the under side of the bed. It will make nice and easy to install/remove the roll bar. It was fun knealing on the floor with one arm/hand jammed up inside the torsion box trying to hold the plate up and the other hand trying to thread a bolt in.... The passenger side floor was a bit rough so I fixed that area up best that I could with what I had laying around. I need some bed floor pieces. The roll bar will cover the little mess I made not to mention the rubber coating. All that matters to me is that its solid. After I got all that done I started the rocker box. That meant the torch. I love using with the cutting torch, fire fire . I got the bad cut out and made a template. After a little grinding I welded it in. I still need to finish up the second piece and weld on some tabs but that shouldn't take too long. Did I say I love the torch, it gets it done but man would I love to have a plasma cutter, lol.

[Chevyman63]

Looking good Big J.

[jaros44sr]

Hey J, I have a center section of a bed floor left( between the wheel wells) if you need patches for the bed, LMK J.

BTW nice work

[Big J]

Thanks for the compliments...... PM sent on the floor section.

Got some more done today
Finished up the box and started fitting metal. I still have a ways to go, yall know how it goes, put it in, take it out, look at it, put it back in, still to big, take it back out, look at it again, lol........ and so on till its done.......

[Big J]

And some more.... I think all I have left to do to the drivers floor is por15 the inside of the box, fit the floor support, then cut out a big piece to fill the hole in the middle and weld it in....... So close, lol. I had a good weekend. Hope everyone else did too!

[vtblazer]

Great work J.

Can I throw in a reminder about welding around magnets?

[Big J]

Originally Posted by vtblazer

Great work J.

Can I throw in a reminder about welding around magnets?

Yep... What happens?

I still haven't used them to weld with, just to check things out. I just picked up some of those Intergrips, I'll be using those to weld in the panels. Found a really good deal on Ebay.

[vtblazer]

Originally Posted by Big J

Yep... What happens?

I still haven't used them to weld with, just to check things out. I just picked up some of those Intergrips, I'll be using those to weld in the panels. Found a really good deal on Ebay.

Basically, the magnetic field messes with the bead.

Saw a thread on it somewhere, interesting reading for sure.

[Yukon Jack]

Your progress continues to look great!

[DURRTY]

Nice work. progress is fun stuff!

I don't know about welding with a magnet in the that close to the joint but they are right over the joint so it looks like they are just to hold them in place to tack. Tacking them in place with a magnet is fine, thats what those particular magnets are for. I have used them for years at work and at home.

The welding arc creates its own magnetic field so having another magnet near would likely pull the arc out of place. I'm going to get the answer though I'm interested to know.

[Big J]

I'm getting close to finishing up the drivers side floor and outer rocker. So I had a few minutes last night and cut up those nice truck doors I got from Alvin. Its not to hard to turn a truck door into a blazer door, just a few cuts. I may do a quick how to thread on it.

[Big J]

Got some work done. Brushed on some Por-15 inside the box. Welded up the cab/floor support, outer floor, kick panel, front pillar, the big square support/plate that goes under the floor and on top of the floor support. I still have some touch up to do but alls well. I got ahead of myself and tossed the door on. Everyone knows how easy that is to do by yourself. I wanted to see what the outer rocker looked like with the door. Well the door hinges are of course worn out so tomorrow I'll be pullin' the door to rebuild the hinges. I should be able to finish up the floor too. Maybe even finish turning the truck door into a blazer door......

[RustyParts]

Originally Posted by 71jimmy

Forgive my jumping in with a question here. I'm also working on this area on my Jimmy. Been following all the varies posts and have gleaned great info from them. The one item I've not seen discussed is what I have circled in the pic from Jarros44sr.

I don't think anyone makes a patch panel for this area. Has anyone repaired this area? How/what have you done? Any ideas appreciated. Thanks

I don't mean to hijack, but here's what I did to repair this area. I had my bedside off when I did this, but I believe it can be done with the bedside in place. I did it with three pieces of plate.

The first piece I replaced was the piece with the hole in it. I used the hole as a reference and scribed a line across and cut it off the bedside.

I then cut off the flanges from this piece so I could use what was left as a pattern.

Then I tacked a square piece of metal roughly the size I would need to replace the rotted piece onto the bedside where the hole is and using the old piece I cleaned up, I placed it against the new metal and traced out an outline of what needed to be removed.

I checked the contour before I cut any metal by laying a yardstick down the side of the front quarter panel and moving it down checking the line traced onto the new metal.

The next piece was easier, I cut a piece of plate using the measurement off the flange still left on the bedside, appox. one inch and long enough to go the length of the first piece and bending it as I tack welded it.

The last piece has an additional lip on it so it was a little more trouble. Again I cut another flat piece long enough to go the length of the first piece and I allowed enough width for the lip along the outside.

I tack welded this piece the top next to the bedside and using a straight edge against the "B" pillar I drew a line down the metal so it would line up with the "B" pillar. After I scribed the line I allowed another 3/8" past the drawn line for the bent lip.

Bend and tack the piece in place.

Using my cutoff tool I cut a series of notches about an inch apart down to the last line drawn for the lip this would allow me to bend the metal for the lip. Bend the lip using a pair of vice grips and weld the lip up and grind down.

Recheck the alignment and weld up the cracks. It's really hard to put in handwriting, but if you study the pics you can understand what I'm talking about. Hope this helps out and apologies for the highjack. Rusty

[jaros44sr]

Thanks Rusty, I thought that you did alot work in this area of your Jimmy. Good description and pics....thanks for the help. J.

[Big J]

No problem Rusty, we're all here to help. Everytime I see something like what you had to replace, I thank God and my uncle for being able to purchase the green tub, lol.....

I got some more work done today. Rebuilt the drivers door hinge and welded up a small crack in the door below the top hinge. I also finished up the blazer door conversion.... Got the patch cut out for the drivers floor but gave up on welding it in, lol.... I figured it was about time to hit the couch, lol... Don't think I'm lazy, I also rotated the tires on my car and cleaned it out in between workin' on the blazer lol....

I know the plate around the door latch isn't pretty. Keep in mind I'll be sandblasting everything and epoxy primering it all.....