Ratchet's Blazer - 1970 2wd with Original paint

[GAc10boy]

Sweet rolling shots! Love this blazer. Can't wait to do HRPT one year!

[BigCountryx]

Glad i got chance to talk at Lamar Dixon and take a look at the Blazer. It's killer, I'm Jealous.

[C10_ustacould]

Originally Posted by smbrouss70

Made it home today around noon from the Hot Rod Power Tour. It was my first time and we did the Long Haul, about 3,000 miles round trip. The Blazer did fairly well, I burnt up the factory posi clutches and lost a fuel pump, not too bad in my opinion. The factory 3.07 gears paired with the overdrive on the 700-R4 made it get amazingly good gas mileage, but it struggled to maintain speed while climbing hills unless I floored it to get it to downshift. I met a few board members along the way, ran into Courtney Hansen at a restaurant, and have countless stories to tell my buddies that didn't go. My 2 running buddies and I got our pictures posted on TheBlock.com which we thought was pretty cool, plus they were incredible shots. Had countless offers to buy the Blazer, some would have been a pretty good profit, but I just couldn't do it. Here are some of my favorite shots of the Blazer by random people who posted to facebook or instagram, and of course, My Girlfriend and I. All in all, I would say we had a B!tchin' time!

Originally Posted by BigCountryx

Glad i got chance to talk at Lamar Dixon and take a look at the Blazer. It's killer, I'm Jealous.

I'm jealous too, I call it "Blazer envy" if only I could get Big Country to sell his...

[Coursey]

Originally Posted by Bucks68

I'm jealous too, I call it "Blazer envy" if only I could get Big Country to sell his...

X2!!! I am after one too!

[smbrouss70]

Originally Posted by BigCountryx

Glad i got chance to talk at Lamar Dixon and take a look at the Blazer. It's killer, I'm Jealous.

It was good meeting you too. Your truck is pretty sweet too!

[Advanced Design]

Smbrouss70, just came across your Blazer build. Very nice, love it. Sorry to miss you on HRPT.

[gringoloco]

Still in love with this Blazer. Couple questions:

- What's the backspacing on the wheels?
- What did you do about rear drums for 4.75 bolt pattern?

Thanks -Chris

[smbrouss70]

The wheels are only available in one backspacing per size, but the fronts are 17x8 with 0mm offset (4.5" BS) and the rears are 17x9 with -12mm offset (4.53" BS). The tires are 255/50-17 and 275/50-17 respectively. My axle is a wide 1970 rear. I do wish I had a little more backspacing in the front as the wheels are fairly close to flush with the fender. I will remedy that with some narrow PB arms if and when I decide to bag it.

For the drums, I ended up ordering a set of Moser replacement axles, but with the 5x4.75 bolt pattern and drilled a new set of 71-72 drums myself to fit.

[smbrouss70]

I finally got around to getting my hatch painted white to match the top. I also had another hatch handle re-chromed and re-keyed to install on the hatch. It is nice to have it look right AND be able to lock it!

[gringoloco]

Lookin' good! When's it getting bagged?

[smbrouss70]

I'm currently fighting the urge. I even have everything I need to include the Accuair setup, but all of my friends keep telling me to leave it alone that it is perfect just like it is.

[gringoloco]

They do have a point, but...

[smbrouss70]

You had those ready and waiting, didn't you?

[smbrouss70]

It's been a fun few weeks here lately. On the 19th of Sept, Ratchet won his first award at a car show. Now I can bump up the price when people ask "How much?", because it is now an "Award-Winning Blazer!"

All last week we were at Cruisin' the Coast. They had a free autocross setup for registered cruisers, so I thought, What the Hell? I can do this. I found out that it is EXTREMELY addicting, and it also isn't a good idea to run a Blazer with the top on it. Now my top is tweaked a little and I am having issues getting the hatch to open and close. Oh well, I'll fix it. I brought my times down pretty consistently on every run, starting with a 53.241 and working my way down to a 46.335 in 4 runs. I made a fifth run, but apparently starved the carb for fuel and it died mid course. I don't feel I did too bad for a newbie with a stock but 4-6 dropped 45 year old Blazer, as most of the "Pro" cars were running in the 36-38 sec range. Plus, I lied on my tech card and said that my seatbelts were adequate even though I don't have any installed right now, which made me have to drive with just my right hand as, my left arm was holding onto the driver's door for dear life. I took a ride in one of the "Pro" cars, so it looks like my truck build just got a whole lot more expensive, because I am HOOKED!

The video below is of my fastest run, but is a little shaky before I leave the starting line.

Ratchet's Blazer running the Auto-X at CTC 2015

[Palf70Step]

That picture looks familiar.

[Advanced Design]

Congrat's on the car show win! The CTC looks like a great time. Will have to check it out in future.

[Nobby]

Sweet !!That looks like fun..Good seeing ya'll again.

[smbrouss70]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

That picture looks familiar.

That was actually one of Jeff's pictures, but they do all look the same.

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Congrat's on the car show win! The CTC looks like a great time. Will have to check it out in future.

Thanks! 7639 Registered Classics 1989 or older with about 10-20% more un-registered cars all set along 60 miles of beach for a week long cruise... How can it not be fun?

Originally Posted by Nobby

Sweet !!That looks like fun..Good seeing ya'll again.

It was good to see y'all too Nobby!

[LUV2XCLR8]

Yup, we had a blast, i'm hooked also, just not in my budget

[smbrouss70]

It's been a while since I posted anything about the Blazer because I have been busy getting my shop built and equipped... slowly. Chris (bowtie468) and I have been slowly building another engine for the Blazer and it is getting close to being ready for me to bring it home and make it pretty before it can go in.

The block is an old Goodwrench crate motor that came out of Oscar's truck. It only had 22K miles on it, so we brought it to the machine shop and all it needed was a good cleaning, hone, and replace freeze plugs and bearings. We re-used the crank and connecting rods, but added some Speed-Pro hypereutectic flat-top pistons and rings. Combine that with a Lunati hydraulic roller cam and some 62cc Trick Flow 195 Heads it brought my compression up from 8.0:1 to 9.75:1. It should be just over 400 HP at the crank and should make the Blazer scoot a little bit. I had everything picked out before they released the new ZZ6 crate motor but the specs are very similar so that is what I am basing my HP figures off of. It'll never be a screamer, so I'll probably never have it dyno'd. Hopefully, I'll get it in before the Goodguys Spring event in Fort Worth so I can bring it there.

[Palf70Step]

Yeah, she is going to have to work hard on that brideg with all the BBC this year.

It is looking good Steven

[smbrouss70]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Lookin' good! When's it getting bagged?

Originally Posted by smbrouss70

I'm currently fighting the urge.

Apparently, I lost that fight with myself. New wheels and PB 1" narrowed/1" forward arms have been ordered. I went with the minimum backspacing on the back wheels, so once they come in I will have to fit them in the tubs so that I can measure to get my rear end narrowed.

Yesterday, I arrived home to this... Yep, it's getting close to HRPT again!



One of them items in the box from Summit was the very first piece of shiny billet aluminum that I have ever bought. So what do I do with it? Bring it to work and make it not shiny, of course. I think paint will have something to hold onto now!

[gringoloco]

Dewd! It just keeps getting better. Wheel selection? It is it a surprise? Watching. Intently.

[smbrouss70]

Nah, it's not a surprise to anybody but my wife when I told her how much.

I wanted to go up in size, but keep the theme of a classic Hot Rod and still have a wheel that not everybody runs. I fell in love with the wheels that superflysteiny "was" going to put on Cheap Trick, the American Racing Gassers, so the decision was pretty easy for me. I don't want to tub the Blazer and have to cut down the back seat, so I am only going to run a 20x10.5 with the minimum back-spacing (for that deep look) and narrow one of my "extra" rear ends. I am hoping that if I do the mod that n2billet did on Lucy, I may be able to stuff a 315/35/20 in there and make it tuck, if not, I'll run a 295/40/20 like everybody else. On the front, it will be a 20x8.5 with the maximum backspacing, which is only 4.5" due to the dish that the wheel centers have. That is why I had to order a set of narrowed PB arms to get them to tuck in a bit more. I'm not sure what size tire I will run on the front because it will depend on what I can fit in the rear.

I already have some Slam Specialties bags, Viair 480C compressors, and an Accuair system that was going to get used on my other truck, so I'll just steal those from it. That truck will get built after the Blazer is done and will be setup for Auto-X'ing, so it doesn't need bags anymore.

Here's some pics since I won't have the wheels and arms in my hands for a month or two, you know how that goes... I also added some pics from Lucy, in case you don't know the mod that n2billet did. SactoJim also put these wheels on his beautiful truck, which shows how they look with a blue similar to mine, although in an 18" size.

[darkhorse970]

Love it!