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1990 K5 Build ( Ol' Blue ) : Rocker rust...

Where abouts are you located? I'm assuming close to Utah?
 
Yeah I used to spend a lot of money to live in Moab when I was there but to me that scenery you have is way better. I would love to come visit BC someday on a vacation.
 
Where abouts are you located? I'm assuming close to Utah?
I'm in eastern Utah only 2.5 hrs from Moab. Great area but it's high desert and really dry and brown. The mtns here have trees and are beautiful but not nearly as green as your area.
 
Yeah I used to spend a lot of money to live in Moab when I was there but to me that scenery you have is way better. I would love to come visit BC someday on a vacation.

It's definitely like no other place in Canada that's for sure. I'm living off the coast on Vancouver island and spending quite a bit of time on the way smaller gulf islands. This is my lady's dad's place he built in the 70s when these gulf islands we're quite bare. Now they have a few thousand people living on them I'd imagine. If you ever come up to visit let me know! I may be going down to AZ for a month or two, wishing I could bring the blazer and head to Moab. Maybe I'll make BB this year if I land this union job.
 
The fork pads should be here by Monday and I'll confirm that the truck can stay imobilozed in the driveway in front of my roommates boat for awhile, as it may be more than the pads once I drop this thing out.

For now I got the Spicer hubs installed, I couldn't wrap my head around how these are installed, as I never had the locking tab in the correct position . Thanks to @obijuank5 I got it figured and now have them both installed. Might paint the yellow parts again but who knows. One of them clearly took some damage from the PO as I got these out of a junkyard. 30 bucks for the pair ain't too bad of a deal!
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So today i was out in the driveway just doing some odds and ends to the blazer, my rockers have always been a bondo/rotting mess, i kinda tapped it pretty hard with a wrench and with no suprise put a hole through it.
The part of the rocker that the door sits ontop of is fine. Its just from the exterior door line down thats rotten.
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Im sititng there humming and hawing at where id have to cut to repair and all that... I was thinking of ordering some rocker repair pannels since i do have a spot that is rotting out within the replacement pannel location, and they are cheap. But also 2x4 box tubing would be probably a better fix. Trying to find some detailed info about building them around the sub frame, and what to do for the cab supports that come down from the body mount, and what not, but i cant find much info on the process.

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Does anyone know of a build i can search through for help? I figure i could weld up to 1/4 inch thick material with my 110v flux welder inside, thatd be thick enough right? Also wondering if welding them to the frame is a must or drilling holes to bolt on? ( i could pay someone to weld them to the frame or borrow a better welder if needed) Any other bracing needed on the frame since these would tweak the frame if hit? ( i dont think theyd ever be hit anytime soon as i never wheel this thing anymore, and dont plan too, unless i make bb19) And id wheel it lightly there also.

I dont have the means to do the tailpan or rear quarters right now but i feel like i could tackle this and itd make the truck pretty rust free up to the end of the doors...

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Today was sunny so i tinkered on the blazer a bit, wanted to pick up some 2x4 steel to start messing around with the rocker/slider ideas but metal supermarkets was closed today. I want to just get some steel annd start marking it out in real life to figure them out. Im not so much of a paper person, more of a seeing it person. I also need to order some inner and outter rocker pannels from somewhere.



So I stared at some rust, did some fluid top ups, and tried to find one of the many wet spots on the belly of this 350 with no real luck. I threw in the drivers side battery tray i had. Rene was nice enough to move my evap canister over for me when i was staying at his place the other summer, so it was a very easy install.. ( i was so pumped to get out there n work on it and then 10 minutes later i didnt know what to do next...:doah:hahah)
I figured with this 60mA draw, it wouldnt hurt to have another one in the truck as it did leave me stranded in a no cell service forest, when i went camping the other month ( when i first noticed it had a draw and a shitty worn out red top ). Finding a boost was fun to say the least.. anyway not much to report but ill post pics to make it worth it? Also noticed atf leaking out of the tail shaft are of the t-case more than usual. Its been coating the bottom of the bedpan with oil and keeping it rust free for 15 years probably so thats a bonus ? I guess ill order up a seal kit for the 241 when i take it apart to change the range fork pads.

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I used 3x3x.188 on my k5 I had. Welded it to the cab mounts if memory serves me right. Maybe even added a tube to that inner structure on the floor in Center.

I wasn’t to concerned about mounting it to the frame , just rust removal :haha:

I left the top of the rocker intact like how you were talking and just removed the rest from the door line down.

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I used 3x3x.188 on my k5 I had. Welded it to the cab mounts if memory serves me right. Maybe even added a tube to that inner structure on the floor in Center.

I wasn’t to concerned about mounting it to the frame , just rust removal :haha:

I left the top of the rocker intact like how you were talking and just removed the rest from the door line down.

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Thanks !

When i was doing lots of research i saw most of them were mounted to the cab supports, either by bolt or by weld. My cab supports are pretty shot but they are cheap to order, hopefully i can get them out without taking out the floor again.. should have replaced them when i had the floor out but they werent so bad then. Now the things had years of sitting in the rain throughout winters and they are pretty toast. My plan is to cut back maybe half way , and weld in new ones i can cut to length. I do have some suspect spots id like to get rid of with patches of the replacement panels. I did a full inventory and its only about 225 bucks to get the panels sent from LMC. Still doing research to see if theres better panels out there from goodmark or whatnot, but i assume its all sorta the same. Did you weld the top of the outter rocker panel to the 3x3 insert?
 
im assuming you also cut the bottom of the bedside and front fender to match also? yay more rusty spots i can cut out haha!
 
im assuming you also cut the bottom of the bedside and front fender to match also? yay more rusty spots i can cut out haha!

Yeah I did cut those off. They were rotted. Had to patch the cab corner er whatever you wanna call the back of the door Jam. It was rotted just like yours if not worse.


When I put sliders on my 97 k1500. I stitched them to the rocker panels as well as the cab mounts. FWIW.
 
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Yeah I did cut those off. They were rotted. Had to patch the cab corner er whatever you wanna call the back of the door Jam. It was rotted just like yours if not worse.


When I put sliders on my 97 k1500. I stitched them to the rocker panels as well as the cab mounts. FWIW.

yea thats the section i was wanting to patch for sure. Cant just cut that part out so easily without replacing it . And yea i was thinking id weld them to the top of the outer rocker.

Fugging weld it will'ya?
 
I priced out that part of the cab corner er whatever and it was worth more than the truck Prit near. So I bent my own piece up and called it a day. That just came to mind as well.
 
Yeah not s Terible idea. I think the piece was about 45 bucks or so from lmc. Maybe I'm mistaken though I haven't looked at the Christmas list since I made it. Making my own pieces did work for the cab floors, especially because 16g is better than 22g ( or whatever stock is )
 
I don't have a garage anymore so I was thinking the patch piece would save me time since I'll be welding this in a driveway during the winter :doah:scared to start cutting because the crust will probably be worse than expected. Gonna pick up some flat stock sheet metal to be prepared
 

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