New Member! Old Blazer... lotsa questions!

[roOstersan]

Hey All,

I been poking around on your wonderful sight on and off for a couple years. I'm getting serious about getting my k5 together and so thought I'd join in. I bought the jimmy from the original owner's daughter with about 70k original miles around 1999. It was so clean and in such a good place to start a restoration. No rust and super clean.






So I just bought a 72 Chevy pickup. I want the Chevy front end on the blazer and to turn the bed into a trailer. So my question:

1. when I change over from the gmc to chevy grill, what can I do with the headlight wiring when going from the 4 lights to the 2 lights? i have zero experience with wiring..

[71swb4x4]

When you change from the GMC grille to the Chevy grille keep in mind that you have to change the fenders too. You can't just swap the grille out, the fenders are different. On a Chevy they are indented and the grille fits into them.

Here is how fenders work, without respect to the 67 marker issue:
Style 1) 67-68 Chevy and 67-72 GMC the same
Style 2) 69-72 Chevy the same

[71swb4x4]

If I was swapping the front on those two trucks I would swap the whole front clip.

At the very least I would do the fenders, core support, light wiring harness, grille and bumper. The minimum list here will solve pretty much all of the problems you could run into going from GMC to Chevy.

Edit: I am pretty sure the headlight wiring harness will simply plug in from one truck to the other.

[hilljob26]

good thing is at least they look to be the same color

[Big Block]

Swap the whole front clip. You can unplug the wiring harness at the firewall. It really is not that difficult to do. Take you time. You can pull the whole clip in one piece. Remove the front bumper. Remove windshield wipers. Remove the cowl panel. Unbolt finders in the door jams. Unbolt bottom of the front fenders at the firewall. Locate the two bolts that have large washers in the inner fenders, remove them. Drivers side inner fender has bracket around steering column shaft, remove it. Remove the two large nuts on core support under radiator. You will need some one to help you lift the front clip off. Like I said take your time and you should be able to figure out all of the bolt that will be needed removed to get the job done. You may miss a couple of bolts the first time you try to lift the front end off but I'm sure you can do it. You should be able to do this in an hour or less. I have done this on GM cars and trucks many times. It will be a lot easer than changing the fenders, core support, grill and wiring harness.

[Big Block]

Make sure you save the body shims that are used on the fenders, firewall and core suport. You will need them to align the front sheet metal when you do the swap.