New grocery getter

[skchevota]

Well I am sure everyone can relate to the slow economic times. My wife and I decided a couple of months ago that two car payments just dont make sense the way that it used to. So in an efort so save on what goes out every month, not to mention the overall cost in the grand sceem of things that one of the vehicals had to go. I use my 06 cummins every day and it is so far upside down that her xterra was the logical choise. fast forward a few months and sharing car sucks! I guess it is not so bad, but my 70 is in pieces and my only back up (which is awsome) is a 68 rs camaro. Trouble is that the camaro is not much good in the winter so I had to look at plan "B" .
It is a 1996 s10 blazer 4x4. Not all that exciting on the surface, but i am never one to leave any thing stock. I picke it up cheep with a bad 4.3 and onlt 73k on the clock. It came with a replacement 4.3 from a 2001 that was in a wreck with 40k on it. the guy I bougt it from said that it was just to big of a project for him so he wanted to sell it. I did not look at it as close as i should because the suposed rebuilt tranny should have been needs a rebuild. and the fuel sending unit and pump were missing out of the tank, but it will work for what I have planned. Engine, tranny, fuel tank, SAS with a sprin over in the rear, a minimal amout of body work, a front bumper and 33" tires.
Did I mention that this is on the cheep, so I will be using a lot of what i have just laing around colecting dust. Below is a pic of what it started as.The rust did not show its face untill after some agresive power washing.

[skchevota]

Step one was to dropin the engine so it was not just taking up space in the garage. I would of removed the front suspention first for the added room of the engine not being in the way, but at the time I did not plan on keeping the Blazer for any length of time so It was just going to be drop in an engine, fix the lower Quarter panels and sell it. I did not take any pics of the engine removal, but there is one of the engine bay after I power washed it.

[skchevota]

I picked up a tank with sender and pump for $100 from the local wrecking yard. The stock tank was rusted, and someont tryed to patch it at one piont. I figuerd out where all the rust came from. In the glove box was a parking pass sticker from Newyork state. I guess the blazer only was there for about a year, but i guess that is long enough. The next step was to get it up in the garage and remove the front suspention, torch off the brakets for the IFS and mock up the new front axle I scored off craigs list for $50. Its just a dana 30 from an XJ but i will only be running 33" and it had new ball joints and u joints. the gears are 3.55 so that will work for now. I had to remove all the coil brakets from the axle as well because i will be running leafs. I know that a coil suspension would ride better and be just plane cooler, but It would also cost more since I already have leafs.

[1966gmc]

More More More!!!!!

[skchevota]

Here is a few more pics. Keep in mind that I have not ground down anything yet, and the axle is only mocked up and is not attached to anything yet. I just wanted a better idea of where the springs were going to be located so I can build the spring brackets. the frame rust that you see is all surface rust that will be sanded off befor a rattle can finish is applied.

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Thats awesome keep up the good work. Should be a sweet little truck when you get it finished up!

[DirtyLarry]

Nice economy project. Those are the funest kind. I have been looking at those S10 SFA swaps using Jeep Dana 30’s. I wouldn’t mind building a square body S10 with that set up. That NY state sticker explains all the rust. I was thinking it was pretty rusty for a CO rig.

Nice project!

[scotto0609]

It was probably somebodys beach buggy.

[desertrat]

Cool project. I will be watching to see how it turns out.

[Yukon Jack]

That's going to be cool - the light weight will be a plus for mpg which is nice these days!

[skchevota]

Time for an update. I was able to get a couple of hours in this afternoon. I did not get as much done as I wanted but that seems to be the way it always works out. The bigest trouble today was the fact that it was cold, I mean bitter cold, it was -18 this morning, and I dont think it got much past 1or 2 all day. My poor propane heater that ussaly coosk me out the shop was struglleing to keep it about 40 in there.

Any way, I got the front crossmember built. I started with a piece of 2" x 3/16 square tube. Then I cut some 2' x 3/16 flat stock for the ends and the out side front spring mount. Next I decided to use angle on the inner side so I could have a lot more weld surface. I used 2 1/2 x 1/4 angle for this. i would of used 3/16 like the rest, but I was all out so I figured bigger is better and used the 1/4. Next I drilled all the holes on the drill press before welding it up. I will be adding gussets to the spring mounts be for it is done but i want to see how much room i have once the springs are installed.

[skchevota]

Next I ground off the botom of the frame and positioned the new cross member in place. Once i was sure it as in the correct location I welded it on as well. I will be adding some gussets from the crossmember to the frame as well. I located the axle about 1" further forward than it was originaly. The wheel wels on the s10s ar not real big, and the trailing edge of the front fender has almost nothing to trim befor you are in the floor board. So I figure with the 33" tires I might need a little mor room, and the front bumper and vallance in the front are a lot easier to trim. After the crossmember was in, I trimed the rear spring bushing down a bit so I can use full size chevy rear shackles on the rear of the spring. Then I mocked it back up again to see how it fits. Dont mind the bolt in the shackle, it is just what was lying around for a test fit. Next time I will be working on the rear shackle mount....

[skchevota]

Originally Posted by scotto0609

It was probably somebodys beach buggy.

yea, no kidding, the further I have gotten into this blazer the more I am convinced that some one changed out the dash cluster to say it had lower miles. I just dont think that some of the stuff that is wornout would be like that if it was true miles. But since I am going through everything any way I guess it dosnt matter.

[skchevota]

time for an update. I got to spend most of the day on the blazer yesterday.
I started by drilling a hole on each side of thr frame where the upper shackle will bolt. Ten I made a couple of brackets to suport the oppisite side of the shackle . The little squar piece with the hole is to reinforce the frame where the bolt goes through. the frame is boxed in this area , but there is a hole in the bottom of thr rail on each side big enough to fish the nut and lock washer up through. I had to wals washers on the shackle to down sige the hole to 7/16 for thr spring bolts.

[skchevota]

Next I reinforced theront crossmember by gusetting it front and back, and boxing in the hanger tabs. If it looks like a few of the welds on the cross member to the frame are a bit buggery, it is because when i added the gussets I carried the weld back over the previous ones again. It makes for a lot of weld in a few spots, but I know it wont go anywhere. I am not going for a show truck so I did not spend two much time on the grinding before I painted the frame.the front ubolt plates I am using are from the rear of a cj7, and have shock mounts on them. For the upper shock mount I just drilled a hole in the top of the original shock mount on the frame to take a stem top shock. The shocks are some left over ranchos from a previous job. They were not real pretty so i gave them a fresh coat of white paint. I forgot to take a picture of the front spring pads after I welded them up, If I thnk about it, I will add one later. The last pic with the shock is at ride height.

[skchevota]

I had to buy a couple of tires or the front, I had two 33" tires in the basment, but needed two more. I found these mickey tompson atx tires n e bay for $110 each. they retail for around $200 so it was a good deal. I wish I could of bought all four, but I need other stuff first. I couldnt wait to see what it looked like with one mounted up so I broke out a couple of bars and mounted one up on some rockcrawler rims I had .I am stoked on how it looks!
I worked on the steering linkage tonight, I will give you a teaser pic and do the update on that next time....

[chevy71super]

Coming along nicely and looks great!
Doug

[Dieselwrencher]

Cool project! Also I like the budget builds. It's nice to see guys using what they have and their fabrication ideas!

[skchevota]

Well Time for another update. I was able to build the sterring linkage. since this is a custom application,and the axle did not come with the center link I decided to start from scrach. I had some heim joints left over from a mustang build so I used them. I also had some 1 1/2" .250 all DOM tubing, so I orderd some threaded ends from M.O.R.E. offroad.
I next had to drill out the knuckles to accept 5/8" bolts and also the upper link. I am useing the original centerlink to mount the draglink to insted of the pitman arm. I did this for three reasons. It allows the draglink to be a little longer, I did not have to buy a drop pitman arm, and it mounts the bolt going through the heim joint horizontal so it has free movement up and down with know chance of binding. I did ths set up on a 98 c1500 that I converted to 4x4 and it worked awsome. The original idler will stay to guid the upper center link, but it wont have much load on it .

To mount the lower end of the drag link to the axle I had to mount it to the center link and not the knuckle. I usally prefer to nount to the knuckle but the leaf spring was right in its path. I wuld of had to space it abut 1 1/2 to 2" above the knuckle. This would put a lot of load on the bolt. With kow cheep way to go high steer I went to plan "B".
I drilled the center link to 5/8", then I weled a high mis alighment washer to the centerlink to give a nice reinforced flat surface to mout the hiem to, then I rolled the link over and drilled the othe side to 7/8". I inserted a sleave all the way to the first side and then welded that in. This will keep the tube from crushing and makes it vey strong.
It turned out well other than the linckage has a lot role in it when you steer, I will adress this before i am done, I also wll add a track bar to keep it from having bump steer.

[skchevota]

Here are a few more pictures and one of the new brakes.

[desertrat]

Nice work!

That is looking good!

[cochino12]

updates?

[skchevota]

Originally Posted by cochino12

updates?

Yes, I have been meaning to update this. I did a bit last week and then had a slow day today so I was able to get some work in on the blazer. I did some adjustment onthe steering linkage and was able to get it to stop "rolling" as i would turn. Then I went to the rear. I emoved the rearend, and ground the tops of the tubes ti prep for the new springpads needed for the spring over.
After I had positioned the rear back under the blazer and centered the rearend, I welded up the perches. Next I had to address the shock mounts. I was hoping to use the stock mounts on the spring plates, but after moking it up I found the mont was to high and would shorten the shock needed. Not a good thing when you want to go offroad. So I welded on some newmounts.
I decided to keep the rear swaybar so that the blazer would not be wallowing down the road. I had to extend the endlinks 6" to make u the differance of the spring over.

[skchevota]

Here is another pic of the rear and also of the wheel adapters I an using. The front dana 30 has a 5 on 4.5 bolt circle and the s10 had a 5 on 4.75. so I wanted to runn the same bolt patern all the way around, and I already had a set of rims that were5 on 4.5 so the wheel addapet was the way to go. I could of had the ale and drum redrilled, but I plan on upgrading the rear to an 8.8 out of a newer explorer with the diskbrake rear later, so why waist the money on this one.

[1966gmc]

Looks like it is coming long quite nicely. Good work