The Blazer Train

[wannabefastcrf]

On a snowy weekend last winter my brother and I set off 800 miles to pick up a craigslist purchase I made



It was mostly complete, and appeared to be mostly rust free. I was


After some google internet searches I actually found a previous "for sale" add that answered the most obvious question about the paint job. The add was actually on this forum, and claimed the original owner painted his blazer to match the train he drove for work.

[71swb4x4]

I saw that Blazer too, it was only an hour from me. From the craigslist ad it appeared to be a good deal. Is it as rust free as it looked? I wasn't shopping at the time, so I didn't go look at it.

[wannabefastcrf]

over the summer I added some bars to the roll cage, and a Tahoe rear seat (per the wife for the seatbelts). besides that we just enjoyed it, and took it to t-ball games, ice cream runs, and the dunes

[wannabefastcrf]

the "plan" for the blazer is to make it some thing I can take to the dunes, run around town in, and something the cleans up well if I want to show it off a bit. Ultimately I would like to have a 5.3 and over drive trans. But I DONT want a project that is always a project. I want something I can drive.

So once the snow started falling I started the process of painting the blazer. The train paint job was fun for the first year but now it was time to give it my personal touch. The funny part is during the first year of driving it you wouldn't believe how many people told me they actually love the look of it. thought it fell right out of the 70s.

[wannabefastcrf]

it wasn't long until it was a frame off

[wannabefastcrf]

I was pretty happy at this point because everything was looking pretty good

[wannabefastcrf]

the frame got a POR15 treatment

[wannabefastcrf]

next it was onto the body, the rockers had very light rust bubble starting to pop so the plan is to replace the rockers before they get to bad. Otherwise the body looks to be in good shape!

These photos are after I blasted the area to see what is under the paint.

[wannabefastcrf]

I must have lost the pictures of it, but when I went to replace the outer rockers I quickly learned someone at one time had capped the rockers with new ones. The original rockers were filled with expanding foam too, and soon I figured out the b pillars were too.

so I cut out the inner and outer rockers first

but before I closed it up I POR15 the inside of everything

[wannabefastcrf]

and soon after I moved back to the b pillars

you can see the foam in this picture

[wannabefastcrf]

and after a few patch panels from hell



I took a stab at making some of my own ( oh yeah I picked the really expensive ones to make)

[wannabefastcrf]

I just patched and POR 15 the reinforcement plates

[wannabefastcrf]

another patch panel down and more POR15. At this point people I work with have just excepted that I permanently have black paint adhered to my skin. No matter what I wear or how careful I am I cant keep a few drops of that stuff off of me.

[wannabefastcrf]

once both sides had all of the rust fixed it was on to the body work. I cant take credit for a lot of the body work because my dad helped me on the majority of it.









at this point I HATE the train paint. That stuff was thick on there.

[Willowrun]

NW Ohio....close to Defiance? Are you going back to ochre? Looking forward to progress and seeing it back at SL dunes!

[wannabefastcrf]

Originally Posted by Willowrun

NW Ohio....close to Defiance? Are you going back to ochre? Looking forward to progress and seeing it back at SL dunes!

I'm about 30 min from defiance. It is not going back orche. It's goidng to be tangier and white two tone with upper and lower trim.

[wannabefastcrf]

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

I saw that Blazer too, it was only an hour from me. From the craigslist ad it appeared to be a good deal. Is it as rust free as it looked? I wasn't shopping at the time, so I didn't go look at it.

I think I did ok. i looked it over pretty close when I was there and it wasn't until I tire it down before I realized what was done to it and after finding an old add I knew he bought it that way. Here are pictures I found of it.

[wannabefastcrf]

Sure looks different one in primer and all one color.

[wannabefastcrf]

Bottom of the door was starting to bubble so it was removed por15 the insides and patched back together

[wannabefastcrf]

Also while the rustolum was flying I cleaned up the booster

[wannabefastcrf]

here are a few pictures once the jams were painted. its been a big motivator seeing some color on it

[jaros44sr]

Very nice, not to say the old train theme looked bad, but getting rid of rust is a great step forward. Speedy as well

[wannabefastcrf]

I laugh because i think the paint job it had got a lot of looks and waves. however up close it was ugly. it was just so flat it looked good from 10 ft back. Hopefully its new skin will be able to turn heads as well.

I was apprehensive to start one of these build threads until I had made some significant progress so it gives the illusion of crazy speed!

[wannabefastcrf]

I'm really happy with the way the paint has turned out. It's a big motivator to push forward

[Justin@EntropyRad]

looking sweet!