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'85 K5 "Denali" Blazer: Front 4-link
- Thread starter Conner
- Start date
The goal is to restore and upgrade this truck for mixed use on/off road (ex: drive across the country to a national park to 4x4 camp).
Thanks! Learning as I go!
Glad to hear it! I've been keeping up with your pics on the roof repair as well. I will definitely be referencing them when I get to that area on my truck.
I have many pictures of the work I have done so far that I haven't posted (just for the sake of not spamming LOL), so if anything would be helpful let me know and I will provide more pics. Also having struggled through the areas I have done, if I can provide any info, let me know!
The tail panel area was a lot more challenging and time consuming than I expected. Not to be discouraging, but brace yourself for that. LOL. The difficult parts were the corners where it attaches to the tailgate posts (all the seams in there were rusted too). Repairing those and keeping everything aligned so the tail panel would end up in the right spot was a challenge. I also had to cut my new tail panel in half to fit it in, and then weld it back together once in place. I don't think you could fanangle it in place in one piece without having the body off the frame and/or having some of the bottom back corners of the bedsides cut out.
Anyways, it's totally doable, just took me like 10x as long as I expected (literally). If I can help at all, I am happy to! You may think it's easy after you have the roof repair under your belt, though LOL.
Ill keep that in mind, thank you. Unfortunately I fear the roof work I have done so far is the easy stuff. Extracting donor parts without destroying them and then re-installing parts from different trucks will be incredibly challenging. As far as the tail area I have what appears to be minimal rust in the corners. Looking from underneath the square brace looks solid and intact, but who knows what's going on between the panels. Seems like every time I walk into my shop I end up peeling more away! Keep on keeping on!
Did another bed floor patch, this time on the passenger side where the rear seat clips into. Wasn’t as bad as the driver side but I wanted to separate those pieces and clean/paint between them. I also fixed some pinholes in the floor. Getting close to the bed being done…
Powered through another several hours on the truck and got the bed floor finished. Patched the edge of the wheel opening in the floor on the driver side. Thankfully the passenger side was in good shape. Cleaned up all the edges where the wheel houses will sandwich in and sprayed them with epoxy primer. Gonna hit those spots with a coat of spray paint tomorrow and then the wheel houses are going back in finally.
Wheel houses are back in. Had to manhandle them into place a lot more than expected, but happy with the result.
The bed is rust free and all back together now, which is a big milestone (to me at least, LOL).
The bed is rust free and all back together now, which is a big milestone (to me at least, LOL).
After a several month long break, I am back to working on the truck.
Patched the passenger bed side in front of the wheel opening.
And patched the driver bed side behind the wheel opening. This is kind of a double layer with a splash guard behind it, which I replaced as well.
Next up is the firewall. Few bad spots up there to patch.
Patched the passenger bed side in front of the wheel opening.
And patched the driver bed side behind the wheel opening. This is kind of a double layer with a splash guard behind it, which I replaced as well.
Next up is the firewall. Few bad spots up there to patch.
Finished up the firewall last night. I had 2 patches to do, one was easy and one needed multiple bends on different angles, which took forever. That piece was also spot welded to the front of the floor pan, which also needed to be patched and also had multiple bends at different angles… Very glad to be done with that.
Today I bought a good running/driving 2007 GMC Yukon Denali as an engine/transmission donor for the Blazer. The plan is to pull what I need and part out the rest, to hopefully offset a lot of the cost. I will eventually freshen up the engine and transmission (not sure to what extent yet), but to begin with, they are at least working seemingly properly now.
The engine is a 6.2 liter L92 and the transmission is a 6L80E, as best I understand it. It’s AWD so it already has a transfer case which will hopefully make it simpler to put the NP208 on it.
The engine appears to be original and unmolested, and even still has the original engine cover. I’m going to try to make the install into the Blazer look as OE as possible, so I’m happy it doesn’t look like anything has been monkeyed with too much.
The engine is a 6.2 liter L92 and the transmission is a 6L80E, as best I understand it. It’s AWD so it already has a transfer case which will hopefully make it simpler to put the NP208 on it.
The engine appears to be original and unmolested, and even still has the original engine cover. I’m going to try to make the install into the Blazer look as OE as possible, so I’m happy it doesn’t look like anything has been monkeyed with too much.
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Pulled the top off the truck, which is necessary for the last few areas of rust repair that need to be done.
Next up is to repair inside the cavity where the passenger tail light mounts. I think this area got water in it from the body-mounted tire carrier, which I won’t be reinstalling.
Next up is to repair inside the cavity where the passenger tail light mounts. I think this area got water in it from the body-mounted tire carrier, which I won’t be reinstalling.
Finished up repairing the tail light cavity. I had to patch a small section of what I think is called the “tail light backing plate”.
To get to this area, it seemed like the least awful way was to cut a section out of the quarter panel. When I did this, I found some old damage above where the tail light sits. Lots of body filler. I used a hammer and dolly to get it as good as I could. It will need more attention and a hopefully small amount of filler later. In the pictures you can see a big vertical ridge next to where I cut. That’s where I stopped grinding out the filler (for now). It’s relatively thick. I also took this opportunity to weld up the body-mounted tire carrier holes.
Anyways, this area will need more work when I get to doing paint, but for now at least it’s rust free and coated in some cheap spray paint.
Next up is some minor patches on the bed rails, which thankfully should be small and rectangular.
To get to this area, it seemed like the least awful way was to cut a section out of the quarter panel. When I did this, I found some old damage above where the tail light sits. Lots of body filler. I used a hammer and dolly to get it as good as I could. It will need more attention and a hopefully small amount of filler later. In the pictures you can see a big vertical ridge next to where I cut. That’s where I stopped grinding out the filler (for now). It’s relatively thick. I also took this opportunity to weld up the body-mounted tire carrier holes.
Anyways, this area will need more work when I get to doing paint, but for now at least it’s rust free and coated in some cheap spray paint.
Next up is some minor patches on the bed rails, which thankfully should be small and rectangular.
Finished the few minor bed rail patches tonight. Didn’t get pictures, but it wasn’t anything interesting (which I guess is good…).
Next up is daunting and has had me worried about it ever since I realized how bad it was: the roof skin and specifically the cab-to-topper interface.
My plan is to start by drilling the spot welds along the back of the roof, on top of each drip rail, and along the top of the windshield pinch weld. I think by doing this the roof skin will be free to lift off. I plan to repair it, and also get everything underneath as perfectly clean as possible and then painted. I’ve read here that rust up high on these trucks has a tendency to come back after it’s been “fixed”, so I want to make sure there’s none left whatsoever.
Next up is daunting and has had me worried about it ever since I realized how bad it was: the roof skin and specifically the cab-to-topper interface.
My plan is to start by drilling the spot welds along the back of the roof, on top of each drip rail, and along the top of the windshield pinch weld. I think by doing this the roof skin will be free to lift off. I plan to repair it, and also get everything underneath as perfectly clean as possible and then painted. I’ve read here that rust up high on these trucks has a tendency to come back after it’s been “fixed”, so I want to make sure there’s none left whatsoever.
I recently picked up an ‘07 Denali as well to swap the drivetrain into a suburban. I’ve been driving it around for a couple months, they have plenty of power! With how fast you are moving, I would project that you get your swap completed years before I do!
Nice! I have only driven my Yukon a little bit to confirm everything works correctly (thankfully it seems to) since I didn't want to insure/register it, but I really enjoyed the engine and transmission and I think it will be even better in the Blazer.I recently picked up an ‘07 Denali as well to swap the drivetrain into a suburban. I’ve been driving it around for a couple months, they have plenty of power! With how fast you are moving, I would project that you get your swap completed years before I do!
I am hoping to have the sheet metal work done in the next few months (I don't think I can stand much longer LOL), and then the next step is getting the engine sitting in the Blazer. I am very excited for that!
Good luck with your Suburban, that's going to be killer!
After drilling out lots of spot welds, today I got the roof skin off.
There were these small sections of what I assume is some type of brazing? This is at the top of each A-pillar, to fill the seam between the roof skin and the windshield frame. When I put this back together I am tentatively planning on just MIG welding the seam up and grinding it smooth.
I cleaned up the inside of the roof skin as best I could using a quick strip disc on an angle grinder. Then I taped off the areas that will need repair and painted the rest with rust converter paint.
Next step is to repair the roof skin. Then I will clean up the inside section of the roof that’s still on the truck, and do any repairs needed there.
There were these small sections of what I assume is some type of brazing? This is at the top of each A-pillar, to fill the seam between the roof skin and the windshield frame. When I put this back together I am tentatively planning on just MIG welding the seam up and grinding it smooth.
I cleaned up the inside of the roof skin as best I could using a quick strip disc on an angle grinder. Then I taped off the areas that will need repair and painted the rest with rust converter paint.
Next step is to repair the roof skin. Then I will clean up the inside section of the roof that’s still on the truck, and do any repairs needed there.
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Spent a few hours getting the inner part of the roof (the top side of the inner roof panel) cleaned up with a quick strip disc. Got it as close to bare metal as possible and sprayed it with rust converter paint. I still have a few spots left that can be seen unpainted in the pics. I’ll clean those up and spray them too of course.
There were also 6 holes drilled into the inner roof panel for a gun rack by some previous owner. I welded those up while I was in there.
I still have to repair the outer roof panel. And there are a couple small spots that will need repair near the back of the roof (the part that’s still on the truck).
I’m super over it with the rust repair at this point, but forcing myself to power through since I’m pretty close to being done with it…
There were also 6 holes drilled into the inner roof panel for a gun rack by some previous owner. I welded those up while I was in there.
I still have to repair the outer roof panel. And there are a couple small spots that will need repair near the back of the roof (the part that’s still on the truck).
I’m super over it with the rust repair at this point, but forcing myself to power through since I’m pretty close to being done with it…
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Thank you! I'm trying to make sure I get every little speck of it so that I can confidently know it won't pop up again later and I don't have to worry about it anymore.
Almost to the fun stuff...
