Panel Tear Down Outline

[Red-Hawk]

Hello All!

I am seeking a short but solid reference outline for the best methods or "Order of Things" for panel tear down and prep for purposes of doing body work and finally paint. Except for media blasting I plan on doing all work in my home garage. Huge Thanks in advance!

Below is my current status and desired level of restoration:

• 72 Blazer
  New:
• 6 inch skyjacker lift
• 35 big country and pro comp wheels
• warn hubs
• All new brakes, painted drums and calipers
• Rebuilt np205
• leaks fixed all around
• Most of visable rust already cut out.
• Frame is solid.
• Front panels already removed. See picture. Please forgive quality I'm not very good at resizing

Identified repairs:

• Need left and right inner and outer rockers installed
• Left and right front floor patch repair
• Need left and right patch on lower rear quarter panels
• Upper windshield repair- won't be using hard top, only soft top.
• Minor rear floor bed repair.
• Left door skin patch

Specific questions:

• Make repairs while truck panels are still intact or disassemble for blast then body repairs then paint?
• Tricks for panel and door alignment before disassembly?
• Media blast or soda blast or elbow grease method in garage.?
• When unbolting all accessible panels for stripping. Recommend chasis bracing method?
• Should I also disassemble spot welded panels for blasting too?
• Best method for cleaning up hardware (bolts nuts) etc...?

I love this forum and I know this may be a lot but been working on this a few hours a day and I'm at a sticking point for fear of making a huge time wasting mistake at this stage.

Best,
Scotty

[Blazerowner]

Nice project. I haven't gone quite as far as you but I do believe soda blasting won't remove rust, only paint. You may need something tougher. I have seen dustless blasting on YouTube and it looks like it does a good job without heating the surface like media blasting can. As far as bracing the best place is in the door area. The windshield tends to want to lean back when there is no support. This can be a pain to get the doors to realign. I would consider removing the panels to get to hidden rust if possible. It seems to hide just about everywhere. You could use a tumbler for the bolts although just about every bolt can be had in the aftermarket.

[Red-Hawk]

Thanks blazerowner! Sorry for the late reply.

Yeah I've been looking into dustless but Iive in an HOA run by Nazis and if I had a mobile unit show up they would release the hounds. I also asked about cleaning up hardware because, call me crazy but i want to keep as much of the original metal as i can. I'm only 2 years older than this truck. Ive decided to completely dissemble everything so bracing isnt needed. I have a media (glass) blaster that is on a 3 week lead time after drop off which works out perfectly allowing me time to remove engine for a custom built 383 stroker and all new engine accouterments. I also plan on cleaning up frame myself and treating with por 15 including differential and suspension before dropping in. Ordered painless harness too.

Once I get back metal I am going to do metal work without bondo or filler. First im going to weld patches then start metal reconditioning. I saw a thread of a member showing how to it.
I'm intrigued by this because one, my father is a metal sculptor for more than 48 years and myself being 44 years young, lol, have grown up with metal working since I was 5 years old.
I'm not looking for perfection, i just want to be able to say i did it all except build the engine.

Other build items highlights:
already purchased but not installed, painless harness, all new poly body mounts by energy suspension.

On proposed purchase list

383 using exsting th350
new instrument cluster
grant steering wheel
basebal glovel leather custom front seats with recovered back seat.
Refabbed existing roll bar anchoring back seat and being terminated into frame
not sure about interior, linex, carpet with sound dampening or ?
LED lights all.
5 point seatbelts
MAC truck horn, lol
rear tire braket and bumper combo
Bestop. I live in Colorado right down the street from them and they said they are about to come out with a soft top just for blazer.

Thoughts?

[Blazerowner]

Bestop is planning to make a soft top again hu? Wonder how close it will be to the one they made before... The one thing I ran into the last blazer I restored was lousy fitting aftermarket sheetmetal and rocker boxes that didn't fair well to age. However, I do know they have come a long way in the last 10 years since I finished that build. The blazer I have now is all original and rust free so I don't have too much other than the fun upgrades. One suggestion use gloves when painting with por15. Once that crap dries it takes weeks to come off your skin. Ask me how I know. The baseball glove seats is really cool. I saw a guy local who did that with the tan leather and it was something I've considered ever since. I have the softopper soft top in mine. I fabbed up an aluminum bracket to not drill the header with snaps. It's a good top but cost me over 1k with the upgrades.

[Red-Hawk]

good to know, thanks,.

I checked out your ride, nice!

Exhaust?

[Blazerowner]

Thanks I looked for a while to find a clean truck.
Right now im thinking I'll go with some 3 chamber flow masters and get a universal pipe kit. I'll have to research it but I'm unsure if they make a kit for our trucks. I have dual exhaust that exit behind the rear wheels right now but the pipes are 2 inch. I want 2 1/2 to replace it.

[Blazerowner]

Here's the bracket I made.

[Blazerowner]

And the top.

[Red-Hawk]

Nice work. Check out this link. My set up will hopefully sound like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SVJdNfIp1c