Did I Buy The Right Truck?

[Moreyel]

I'm getting ready to replace the front portion of my floorboards (72Blazer) and rockers. Reading so many posts on how poor many of the aftermarket patch panels fit, I went & found this 1969 P/U with good floorboards & rockers. I'm assuming that metal should be close to the same.

Anyone know if they are or did I piss away my money?

Will the doors swap also?

[mcmlxix]

The doors can be used. You have to cut down the window frame and transfer a plate by the door latch... 72 doors are one year only. The have different window crank and interior door handle differences. The major difference it the screw under the vent window.

The floors should be the same but may have different bracing underneath. Also, the transition behind the seats may be a little different. someone with more experience should chime in soon...

[skorpioskorpio]

I wish you all the luck in the world, however, I personally have never seen ANY 67-72 truck in person with truely rust free original rockers and I haven't read a single build thread where rockers were used from a donor truck. Pretty much if there is even a slight bubble visible in the paint in the rocker it's probably a horror show on the other side.

...and this is coming from someone in SoCal who has seen quite a few of the "rust free" trucks, even ones that are show winners. Rockers are THE almost universal problem on these trucks, uncoated steel on the back side, no weep holes on the bottom, and plenty of places for water to leak into them. An almost unavoidable recipe for rust.

Other very very common rust areas are windshield frame under gasket, kicks, and floor ends. Oh and the panel between the floor end that goes straight down and supports the back of the rocker, well I've never even seen what one actually looks like because they are almost universally just gone and the replacement floor ends usually incorporate this panel instead of it being a seperate piece. These are things that are common to all '67-72s whether they are pickups, Suburbans or Blazer/Jimmys and I seriously doubt you'll find any of these pieces on an affordable donor truck.

[Moreyel]

Skorpio, thanks for the great advice. I didn't know the replacement floor ends come with the support. Where have you found these that you like? The main reason I bought this truck was for the floor which is in good shape and as I remember it, the supports are too. Now that you've said this, I'll look em and the backs of the rockers
over better when I get home tonight.

[DeadheadNM]

Originally Posted by skorpioskorpio

I wish you all the luck in the world, however, I personally have never seen ANY 67-72 truck in person with truely rust free original rockers....

Here's an example of one. This is the original cab for my K20. A NM truck with totally rust free rockers. Sorry to hijack Morey - good luck with the build. Pete

[Moreyel]

Pete, Are you using that cab to rebuild a Blazer with or rebuilding the Pickup? From what I'm reading, I think I'll cut the 69 cab up for the floor boards at least and then decide on the rockers and supports. I got it cheap enough to where I can recover my money selling the leftover, doors, frame, etc.

I'm hoping not to put it that far out of commission while doing this unless I'm forced to. Never done this before. Should be fun.

[68350]

The cab my brother used on his 70 shortbox was an original rust free one. Rockers and floors needed no patches.

[DeadheadNM]

Originally Posted by Moreyel

Pete, Are you using that cab to rebuild a Blazer with or rebuilding the Pickup? From what I'm reading, I think I'll cut the 69 cab up for the floor boards at least and then decide on the rockers and supports. I got it cheap enough to where I can recover my money selling the leftover, doors, frame, etc.

That's an old pic - the K20 is rebuilt and well on the road again now (build thread linked in my signature below). Just showed this pic as a FWIW to illustrate that rustless rocker cabs exist.

For your purposes, I suspect the rocker panels and floor patches ahead of the rear seat bolt will work fine and you should go with it. As for cutting the doors to fit, it's doable and there is in fact a step by step thread here on the forum that walks you though that process. You could also harvest a "collar" of sheet metal from the Blazer doors to include the vent window screws and graft these onto the pre-72 doors (grab any needed sheet metal on the backside so as to affix the screw on the inside).

[Moreyel]

Thanks Pete. All I was looking for is floor patch material. I should be able to sell the 3 doors the truck came with to make my money back. My Blazer doors are bad at the bottoms and I'll probably buy or make patch panels for those.

Nice K20!

[DeadheadNM]

You bet and thank you. If the cab corners are solid on the donor truck you might want to harvest those to sell or store for a future truck project. Last fall a guy in S Valley had some Blazer parts advertised - like an idiot I opted to pass on his doors. They were a bit beat up but no rust. Maybe posting a CL add may score you some doors and make your project a little easier. Best, Pete