1972 Blazer CST Frame off Project in NC

[lks dcvn]

Looks awesome! Very nice job - really close now...

[scott123]

The 8-383 fender emblems?

Where did you order those from?

Your build is awesome. I did a frame off many years ago and like a dummy let it slip away.

Scott

[UGAK5]

Originally Posted by scott123

The 8-383 fender emblems?

Where did you order those from?

Your build is awesome. I did a frame off many years ago and like a dummy let it slip away.

Scott

Thank you!

Page 8, post 193 provides the detail on the 383 emblems. Love them.

[UGAK5]

Question for the forum -

For those guys that have OEM leveling mats under their carpets in the back, how thick are they? I think I may have rigged up a solution for making my own leveling mat, but don't want to spend all day Saturday doing it to learn I made it so thick the carpet can't cover it. Mine will be a little less than half inch at its thickest, and a 1/4 inch at its thinnest when I'm done.

Thanks

[DeadheadNM]

With a tape measure on a loose set here I get ~5/16" maximally and ~1/16" minimally.

[UGAK5]

Thanks Pete, I should be around 6 or 7 16ths. That should work.

[UGAK5]

I measured again - more like dead on 1/2 inch. Anyone think that'll be too thick?

[jeffg1010]

Blazer is looking great! I am in Mooresville and I'm building a '72 2wd ... although yours will be done before mine will. Will yours be ready to run some miles in time for the last leg of the Hot Rod Power Tour that is coming to town next month? At minimum, my goal is to take mine to the C10 Get Together in Mooresville after the tour.

[my kids toy]

Very nice build.

[UGAK5]

jeffg1010 - Thanks for the comments, and the info on the Tour. Between work, family, hobbies, etc., I haven't looked into any events that are going on around here. That said, she's road worthy now! Plenty of small things left to do, but as of 1030 pm last night, 82 miles on her - all in small trips around my town to shake down gremlins and test things. All in all, very pleased. Nothing too tough to fix.

I'm way behind on updates, but it also starting coming together really well in a push towards the end - way faster than I expected!

[UGAK5]

So, it you read above - I owe everyone some updates!

First one is carpet for the front passenger area. I went with ACC carpet and very pleased with it. Went in well and was fitted well. I laid it over the top of my butyl rubber sound and heat deadener. Worse part was cutting out the dimmer hole and shifter holes - then the seat bolt holes. Nerve wracking. Took my time and used small screwdrivers stuffed into the bolt holes to keep everything lined up.

I also installed stainless steel thresholds from Classic Heartbeat - - look really nice in my opinion.

Once I had derusted, sanded and painted the passenger seat brackets, I installed them first and shimmed them to align everything and compensate for the butyl rubber subfloor. That turned out to be easier than mounting the bracket to the set first.

Got my twin shifter knobs on - - look so good - - but I need to build a custom carpet ring thats wider than the one in the picture - just too narrow to get a good bite on the trans tunnel.

Lastly, the seat belt retractor is for a chevelle and is a new reproduction from Morris seat belts. I bought a full set from them for front and rear, which works except for teh drivers side retractor. Sourced a NOS on ebay for that. Paid dearly.

[UGAK5]

Then on to rear carpet.

I did not have the leveling mat so I made one. I bought a really stout and heavy rubber mat on Amazon that you would use under a treadmill to stabilize and cushion it. I then cut 20 or so 4 foot strips that were 1 1/8" wide. I put the rear seat in place and cut the strips to length to fill the gaps of the 'troughs' in the bed floor ribbing. Once I had them fitted where I wanted and trimmed up, i ran a piece of 3M double stick carpet tape over them to hold them in place to the bed floor.

With that done, I started cutting out the larger flat mat pieces to go onto the bed floor. Trimmed them all to size and left the are under the rear seat bare, like stock. Once I was happy with the fit, I peeled the other side of the double stick tape off and secured the mats to the floor.

I like the double stick tape because it keeps everything in place, but isn't permanent - and the 3M kind is super effective. I am sure there are various ways of doing this, but I am happy with how mine turned out. The floor is solid, maybe a tad hard, but i wanted the weight in the back, and sound deadening, without going with the butyl rubber stickier than boogers stuff.

Lastly, I added the rear stainless carpet strip repoped from a board member here, Utahboy, GREAT work.

[UGAK5]

Seat installation time. If you want to read the long version of the 'Seat Saga', look at this post: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=762551

The short version is PUI quality left me disappointed, so I am going with custom seats and rear bedside panels. Rear seat will be ready next week. I will do the panels after experimenting with speaker placement and will redo the front seats this winter when I wont be driving it. The fronts were recovered in the late 90s by the PO. I am too excited to drive it to lose my front seats for 2 to 3 weeks!

Not much fabrication here - just installation and sweat.

[UGAK5]

WINDSHIELD! That seemed like a pretty big accomplishment to get to the stage of needing a windshield!

I went with Pilkington. Unfortunately, you can no longer clear from them, just ones with the shade/brow at the top, but I think the look turned out fine. I used original shallow trim scavenged from Dwayne that I had a metal polishing company polish up for me. I also went with a gasket from a company called Steele Rubber. It was recommended by my installer (he has 30 years experience and grew up in SoCal customizing these trucks) and when I compared it to the Precision gasket (and I love the precision products), the Steele gasket was far superior. Turns out its made 8 miles from my house in Denver NC. A really good product.

Stainless wipers from GMCPaul finished it off.

[UGAK5]

I had the original console, but it was in bad shape. I disassembled it, washed it, repaired cracks and polished up all the original trim (Barkeeper's Friend is an awesome product for that). I then used SEM products the prep, re texture over the repairs and paint it. Really pleased with the result and will see how it wears.

I replaced the original bolts with the same stainless 'rivet screws' that I bought on eBay and used on the grille in lieu of rivets. Liked the look better. I had to buy a new chrome plate for around the ashtray as the original was missing.

My best learning through all this is call the manufacturers of products you are using (or thinking of using) and talk to them. The folks at SEM walked me through everything i should do to test the plastic to make sure I used the right primer. Folks at Precision took pictures and sent me drawings. 9 times out 10, the people at these places love what they do and get excited to talk with you about it. Has helped me tons!

[UGAK5]

I needed to finish up the front end, so I got the headlights in then attacked the grille. I learned quickly that is not a one dude job, so a buddy came over to help. Maybe everyone else knows this, but what seemed to work best for me was to fully assemble the grill first off the truck. First I put the insert on, emblems, then the end and center support brackets and tightened everything up. As stated above, I used rivet screws instead of regular rivets. I went that route because i liked the look better and it gave me more ability to shift things around to get it to fit.

Link to rivet screws: https://www.ebay.com/itm/25-pcs-10-3...72.m2749.l2649

I used Keyparts brand aluminum grille and insert that I got from Wes at Classic Heartbeat.

I had to loosen all front fender screws on the core support and still wedge, pull, stretch, tug, push and persuade, but we got it on with only one tiny scratch that you can never see. Took about 2 hours.

The bumper was straightforward and did that (as I do with 95% of this) by myself after my buddy left.

[UGAK5]

Last big update for today - Exhaust system.

I went with Flowmaster mufflers and 3" Stainless pipe. A great guy here that owns a Meineke LOVES to do custom exhaust work and has done 100s of older cars and hot rods. He spent about 6 hours on it 2 weeks ago. The sound is AMAZING. Pretty loud, like I wanted. I also used 18 " double walled stainless tips.

While there, he had an old school headlight aiming machine, so we did that and a front end alignment. I was 1/2 a degree off from when I did the alignment by hand in my garage. Rather proud of that.

So, 2 weeks ago was its inaugural drive - after I had exhaust and mufflers.

To get it to the exhaust shop, I had to load it on a trailer - at 545 am on a Saturday. So, imagine 450 HP, open headers, a wet trailer ramp, me doing this alone and having to back it onto a uhaul car hauler in the dark. It took 5 attempts and I woke ALL the neighbors.

Oh, but that tested the 4 wheel low range!

[jeffg1010]

Man, it looks great

[lks dcvn]

Nice job on the rear mat - pretty easy to replicate and does the job!

All of my current projects need windshields replaced so good to hear about the Steele Rubber - always heard Precision was the way to go. Have a link for where you got the gasket and the Pilkington glass or did you work through your local glass rep?

Truck looks amazing by the way!

[aotte1]

Thank you for all your great descriptions, along with photos.

[D.PASSMORE]

Looks great - got any newer pictures?