91' Blazer 6.0 LS, 4l80e, Nose swap, Full Top Conversion, and Restoration

[Coontail]

Still plucking away at this, I'll let the pictures do some of the talking








Waiting on my father currently to finish Tig welding the caps for the b pillars in, then we'll start getting the windshield frame finished

After the fabrication I'm gonna pull the body back off and put it on a dolly for sandblasting and it'll go straight to the body shop from there! Really hoping to be able to drive it around for this summer

Also finally found the unicorn 73' upper tie panel so I was able to motivate myself a bit



Can't wait

 

[nvrenuf]

Bump for updates

 

[Coontail]

So I ended up taking a break from working on it for a few months to re-inspire myself, also partly because our shop turned into an oven for the summer but enough excuses

The reinforcements are welded in, no pictures at the moment unfortunately

The bedside caps are welded in, I only have the one picture



Last night we got one side of the windshield frame tacked on



Tonight I started work on the passengers door



Welded in! Now for the top section...

More pictures tomorrow

 

[Coontail]

A couple pictures of the passenger side reinforcement



I finished the lower cap on the driver's door



Drivers side




I also worked on the window track for both doors. I didn't realise I needed the spot welded piece of the older doors so I decided to make due with what I had.

The later style ones are slightly offset and it just so happens if you were to use the one from the right side on the left side it's offset just about the right amount. You do have to slice them on the radius' to adjust the angle a bit but with some adjustment they will work.

They're not pretty but they'll work




If anyone has some measurements of the angles and what not of the top section of the doors that would help me quite a bit

 

[Coontail]

One door down, one more to go







I started on the other side but I'm having trouble getting the door to close without hitting the hard top

 

[Coontail]

So I got the passengers door to close, it was for some stupid reason that I can't remember. I tacked the windshield frame in so I can test the weatherstripping and everything looks good

But... I've been fighting a mystery door gap issue on the passengers side that's been holding this thing back for quite a while now. It measures 7/16" all the way up the a pillar until it hits the radius which at it's widest is about 5/8". Everything measures just about the same on either side of the truck and I've tried every which way to position the door so I've narrowed it down to the QC of the 70's...

Any suggestions before I make it permanent?






Also a little sneak peak of the eventual color

 

[imiceman44]

So I got the passengers door to close, it was for some stupid reason that I can't remember. I tacked the windshield frame in so I can test the weatherstripping and everything looks good

But... I've been fighting a mystery door gap issue on the passengers side that's been holding this thing back for quite a while now. It measures 7/16" all the way up the a pillar until it hits the radius which at it's widest is about 5/8". Everything measures just about the same on either side of the truck and I've tried every which way to position the door so I've narrowed it down to the QC of the 70's...

Any suggestions before I make it permanent?
View attachment 317684
View attachment 317683
View attachment 317682



Also a little sneak peak of the eventual color
View attachment 317685

What is your gap on the bottom?
Lifting the door up will narrow the gap

 

[Coontail]

Unfortunately I don't think it's that simple

I had a friend of my father take a look and we narrowed it down to some flex in the body. So now it's looking like I'll be ratcheting the cowl back to close the gap and caging the front a bit to help it keep shape and reduce flex in the body

 

[Coontail]

I ratcheted it from front to back and it's definitely helping close the door gaps up. Its official that the radius is either stamped incorrectly or the whole panel is layed wrong so there's no helping that, oh well.

Next steps are finishing up welding the windshield frame, ordering tube from ruff stuff, and beginning to cage it

 

[imiceman44]

I ratcheted it from front to back and it's definitely helping close the door gaps up. Its official that the radius is either stamped incorrectly or the whole panel is layed wrong so there's no helping that, oh well.

Next steps are finishing up welding the windshield frame, ordering tube from ruff stuff, and beginning to cage it

View attachment 318580 View attachment 318581 View attachment 318582

I tried to help.
The picture here proves I am on the right track and yes there's flex.
The front of the door at the hinges should go up about a 1/4" and then the bedsides should be a hair down to correct the gap.
That probably will be done by having good body mounts all around.
If it's already the case, you might need a washer or 2.
But I will leave it to you and the body man you're working with.

 

[Coontail]

I tried to help.
The picture here proves I am on the right track and yes there's flex.
The front of the door at the hinges should go up about a 1/4" and then the bedsides should be a hair down to correct the gap.
That probably will be done by having good body mounts all around.
If it's already the case, you might need a washer or 2.
But I will leave it to you and the body man you're working with.

I appreciate it! Sorry if my last reply came across the wrong way

Before I was mostly concerned about the much larger gap on the radius and moving the door up would close the gap as a whole but the radius section would still be larger than the rest of the door gap

Now that I know of the real problem I'll end up moving the front of the door up to close the gap as a whole

 

[imiceman44]

I appreciate it! Sorry if my last reply came across the wrong way

Before I was mostly concerned about the much larger gap on the radius and moving the door up would close the gap as a whole but the radius section would still be larger than the rest of the door gap

Now that I know of the real problem I'll end up moving the front of the door up to close the gap as a whole

If you trace the curve on the a pillar and move it down to a 1/8" gap, you'll see it matches the door curve.
I had a 73 and a 74 and I did a frame off restoration and I can tell you that the tub is very flimsy and it needs to be supported and shimmed to get everything right.
It took us a few tries to get everything done and mostly because we didn't put the top on at first so once we got everything lined up nice the top didn't fit right and we had to do it all over again.

 

[jimmyleetn]

I love this build!!! You're doing almost exactly what I am hoping to embark on next summer. I was even looking at similar paint colors along with white and Cheyenne trim and the early 70's front clip too. There's a 73-74' down the street I'm eyeing pretty hard that's been sitting for a couple of years now. I'm not planning on doing the LS or the roll cage however.

Quick questions:
1.) Do you think if you had completely welded the support bar underneath before you started cutting the top off you would have saved some headaches with your door alignment?
2.) Why does it look like your 73-75 windshield frame and your original window pillar have a gap after you tacked them together? Did you remove some spot welds?

 

[Coontail]

I love this build!!! You're doing almost exactly what I am hoping to embark on next summer. I was even looking at similar paint colors along with white and Cheyenne trim and the early 70's front clip too. There's a 73-74' down the street I'm eyeing pretty hard that's been sitting for a couple of years now. I'm not planning on doing the LS or the roll cage however.

Quick questions:
1.) Do you think if you had completely welded the support bar underneath before you started cutting the top off you would have saved some headaches with your door alignment?
2.) Why does it look like you 73-75 windshield frame and you original window pillar have a gap. Did you remove some spot welds?

1.) Maybe, the driver's side I had actually only tacked in and I had no issues with alignment whatsoever. The passengers side I had fully welded in and I had problems with alignment, the welding could've warped the panels a bit and threw some stuff off though I doubt it.

2.) Yes before cutting the frame I removed a section of the "decorative" part of the frame so I had a cap to weld back on after welding the structural part of the windshield frame back together... If that makes any sense lol

If you were to weld the frame back on without welding the inner section all the way around, you would have lots of flex and cracking

 

[jimmyleetn]

When you welded in those long beads I could see those floor pans having some flex, I bet that could affect your door alignment. A lot of body men will take their time tacking in the big panels for that reason but who knows? Having not done it I am no authority on it. It would not surprise if it was a combination of things, some of which you couldn't control.

As for the window frame. I had thought about doing this method in the photo below with some good pipe. Had never thought about welding the inside of the frame but you could put several holes in the frame and tack it to the pipe within although I don't know that that would be any easier or stronger. The picture is a screenshot I took from the gmsquarebody forum I believe.

 

[imiceman44]

When you welded in those long beads I could see those floor pans having some flex, I bet that could affect your door alignment. A lot of body men will take their time tacking in the big panels for that reason but who knows? Having not done it I am no authority on it. It would not surprise if it was a combination of things, some of which you couldn't control.

As for the window frame. I had thought about doing this method in the photo below with some good pipe. Had never thought about welding the inside of the frame but you could put several holes in the frame and tack it to the pipe within although I don't know that that would be any easier or stronger. The picture is a screenshot I took from the gmsquarebody forum I believe.

View attachment 319081

That's what Aaron aka @dremu did

 

[Coontail]

That tube in there would help for sure but I would still think about welding all the way around, it's only a few spot welds on each side to take the outer section off

 

[imiceman44]

That tube in there would help for sure but I would still think about welding all the way around, it's only a few spot welds on each side to take the outer section off

Agree

 

[Coontail]

I took a bit of a left turn...


I finally decide to cut the and pull the mystery cam out and it's finally revealed to be a comp cam XR269HR-14. It's more of a top end cam so it's not really what I'm looking for, I think I'll be swapping it out for a BTR stage 3 truck cam instead with a higher stall converter. I also have a set of 706 heads from my old pickup that I'm 90% sure I'll be slapping on there to bump compression up by a whole point.

In other news I ended up going through Team Tube for the material for the cage, great company beat out other prices by a mile and the material came in less than a week after ordering!

The bending die took forever to come in from JD2 but I finally have everything to start on the cage

When will it end???

 

[76zimmer]

It says 1300-6300rpm, and the lift and duration numbers look good too for a LS engine especially a 6.0. LS engines like rpm, I think I’d run it!