1972 Jimmy Restore

[zachjans]

Hey Guys, new to the forum but I thought I'd share a project I started with my dad in April. We purchased a 1972 GMC Jimmy 4x4 and have begun a full restoration/restomod on it since then. Our Progress has been pretty puny due to school and work taking up most of our time but as the holiday nears I hope some good progress will be made. Since April, we've begun tearing down the truck removing the front clip, fenders doors, and everything in the engine bay but the engine itself (though I hope we will get it out either this weekend or next)

Now, about the truck itself. The truck is in pretty decent condition besides the rockers and floor pans. The body work had been begun on the rear passenger fender and the paint had been stripped. I believe the truck was originally orange.The truck has a stock chevy 350 and auto trans and my dad and I are looking at possible swaps for the engine, we are even considering diesel. (cummins or maybe a duramax) but this is a very expensive deal from what I understand. I will definitely be putting a manual trans in it. I think we are going to paint the truck white, and the top black. The truck is pretty rough now, but follow for a little while and you'll hopefully see this thing get transformed into a beast.

Zach

[1rippen6]

Before you throw your doors out there are a few things specific to the jimmys and blazers. There is a reinforcement plate in the door latch area and a SS piece in the door jam near the top.

[zachjans]

So far I've just taken the doors of the hinges, what do I need to do now?

[1rippen6]

You will have to drill the spot welds out to remove the reinforcement plates but the SS plates just screw on.

[zachjans]

alright sweet thanks

[zachjans]

UPDATE : last night we removed some more parts on the jimmy prepping to yank the motor. We disconnected both drive shafts and the transfer case from the transmission so we can yank the motor, hopefully tonight. Disconnecting the transfer case from the tranny took longer than expected, we ended up taking off the transmission cover to get to the bolts. The combination of mud and grease under this truck made for an extremely messy job. Ih8mud just got a new member for sure.

[zachjans]

Heres some more pictures of the amount of rust on this thing.

Surprisingly (and thankfully) the bed is relatively rust free

[hemi43]

That rust is very typical and fairly easy to repair. What kind of shape is the windshield header? When they rot it's a PITA !!

[zachjans]

Originally Posted by hemi43

That rust is very typical and fairly easy to repair. What kind of shape is the windshield header? When they rot it's a PITA !!

windshield header is thankfully in perfect shape ! glad the rust is easy to repair, were hoping to get it to the shop asap to get it sandblasted then begin our body work.

[87Skier]

Originally Posted by zachjans

UPDATE : last night we removed some more parts on the jimmy prepping to yank the motor. We disconnected both drive shafts and the transfer case from the transmission so we can yank the motor, hopefully tonight. Disconnecting the transfer case from the tranny took longer than expected, we ended up taking off the transmission cover to get to the bolts. The combination of mud and grease under this truck made for an extremely messy job. Ih8mud just got a new member for sure.

I think this is probably the easiest engine/trans combo to pull. Not the transfer case though, but there is nothing like sitting in the seat taking the trans cover off and taking out the four bolts in 15 minutes and not having to lay on your back to do it. And trust me when I say it could be worse.

[zachjans]

Hey Guys, haven't updated in a while. Since my last post we pulled the engine on the Jimmy and it went smooth as butter. Have a guy coming on Friday to look at it to see if he'll do our rust repair on it since we don't have the experience. Here's some pics from the engine pull...350 looks small out of the truck!

[zachjans]

Also, does anybody know of a nice front coil over kit for 1st gen blazers/jimmys

[ClassicStyle]

Off road design

http://offroaddesign.com/catalog/Fro...Conversion.htm