Adam's "might as well" 70K5 build

[norcal70blazer]

Well, guess I’m another victim of the “Might as well syndrome”

My original plan was to just pull the motor to fix a leaking rear main seal which didn’t get set correctly on the fairly fresh rebuilt 350. Replace the 3-speed on the tree transmission and Dana 20 transfer case with an Sm465 4 speed and 205-transfer case.

Then I thought while everything is apart I might as well address the rust issues on the rocker panels and floors…The truck has been in Nor Cal its whole life so the rust is bad, but not that bad, seen worse. So now I’m at the point of no return!!!

Thanks to Greg for creating a great” might as well” thread. It certainly gave me some insight to what I was getting into and what to expect once I got the rockers off…

So the plan is to build a very capable Tahoe Queen trail rig…


Short list of changes/repairs to come

1) Replace floor and fire wall sections, pliers, rocker boxes
2) Remove tub from frame once floors are done, build rotisserie for tub (sand blast the undercoating)
3) Shackle flip rear (thinking about going 52” front springs, haven’t decided yet), sandblast and powder coat frame (or just paint)
4) 1-ton running gear with full disc brakes (4-wheel drum ½ ton as it sits)
5) Sell the 350 SB and go BB502 (well if the economy gets better soon) My 401K is now a 101K..
6) Build roll cage….
7) 200+ hours of paint prep and blocking…and paint…All in my own garage…
8) Then put it all back together with 26” chrome spinners on 35’s….JK

 

[norcal70blazer]

More pictures!!!!

 

[NorCalKid]

Looks like you are off to a good start. Where are you at in norcal?

 

[norcal70blazer]

Sup NorcalKid...I'm actually in Milpitas...Between San Jose and Fremont...Off 680 near Golf Land...


Had some good shop time today and a delivery from UPS with my new rockers, patch panels, outer floor and pliers.... So after I get my kids off to school tomorrow morning, I'll have a good 10 hours or more to get things done...

Today, I cut the floors out above the rocker panels to address the mostly surface rust inside the rocker boxes. My original plan was to use RUST MORT to kill the rust, prime and paint and replace the floors. However I'm now leaning towards using POR15 to encapsulate the rust then move forward. I need to do some more research in the morning to figure out the best coarse of action.

My wife actually wants me to get this truck completed by this summer for our camping trips with our 3-kids. I think she feels remorseful about nagging me to death about the large payments for my new crew cab diesel 4 x 4 truck and weekend warrior, which I sold due to our nest egg disappearing. Well that’s a story for later date when I become able to speak about it without tears!

So this a very rare moment for me…I actually have time, money and the wife’s blessing to get this done….I honestly cant believe IT…..


Have lots of new pictures and I’ll post them up tomorrow
.

 

[NorCalKid]

Sup NorcalKid...I'm actually in Milpitas...Between San Jose and Fremont...Off 680 near Golf Land...
.

Alright, I know where that is. We are planing on running the rubicon with a group of people from the site in July, not sure I would want to take a clean 1st gen over it though but your welcome to join. There is a thread in the pacific region with dates

I wish I had a 10 hr day to work on my truck, damn school...

 

[Greg72]

Sup NorcalKid...I'm actually in Milpitas...Between San Jose and Fremont...Off 680 near Golf Land..

That's funny, you are probably only 2 blocks away from my old house (and workshop!) Weird coincidence.

I've made plenty of trips to Bonfare market for beer, PizzaBox for my dinner and Burrito Express just down Jacklin Rd for one of their killer burritos!

Lucky for you, that also means that you're only about 15 minutes away from 4X4HIGH and his machine shop in Fremont... he'll be a good person to introduce yourself to if you haven't already.

 

[norcal70blazer]

That's funny, you are probably only 2 blocks away from my old house (and workshop!) Weird coincidence.

I've made plenty of trips to Bonfare market for beer, PizzaBox for my dinner and Burrito Express just down Jacklin Rd for one of their killer burritos!

Lucky for you, that also means that you're only about 15 minutes away from 4X4HIGH and his machine shop in Fremont... he'll be a good person to introduce yourself to if you haven't already.

Thats funny. I actually bought a 6-pack from Bonfare last night after I finished up with the power tools...We bought our home here in Milpitas 8 years ago so I'm sure we've crossed paths at some point....Its a small world....

 

[bp71k5]

Nice. Good to see someone else tackling this stuff.

 

[ChefBear]

Jeezy Creezy

I'm I the only guy that didn't fix the rusty floorpans first? I look at all of these threads and I'm like i KNOW i GOTTA BUT i REALLY WANNA DRIVE IT A LITTLE FIRST

Nice Work!

 

[Greg72]

I'm I the only guy that didn't fix the rusty floorpans first? I look at all of these threads and I'm like i KNOW i GOTTA BUT i REALLY WANNA DRIVE IT A LITTLE FIRST

Nice Work!

I drove mine for 6 years before I decided to fix the floors....

It's important to get a good amount of driving time to let the 1st Gen love affair take hold. Then, when you're sure that you can stand the thought of taking it off the road for an extended period of time.....do the rust repair.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Just as Greg said, i'm not far from you and my skills are....well i can do just about anything i put my mind to and if you ask Greg i have half as many hours into his rig as he did back when he was living here. He forgot to mention though that most of my help is payable by some good eating (El Torito, Tony Roma's, TGI Friday's).

 

[norcal70blazer]

Just as Greg said, i'm not far from you and my skills are....well i can do just about anything i put my mind to and if you ask Greg i have half as many hours into his rig as he did back when he was living here. He forgot to mention though that most of my help is payable by some good eating (El Torito, Tony Roma's, TGI Friday's).

The Fliet mignon and all the beer you can drink is waiting....I could use all the help I could get.....lol....

 

[4X4HIGH]

The Fliet mignon and all the beer you can drink is waiting....I could use all the help I could get.....lol....

I don't drink but i sure can eat.

My time is very limited at the moment since we just had a baby on the 6th of March but i'm willing to help when i can. Weekends are usually better for me and sunday being the best since i work half a day on saturdays.

Maybe you should drive out here so we can meet and then talk about what you're doing and need help with. I'm sure you could make it to my shop on a saturday? I work 9-3 on saturdays.

 

[norcal70blazer]

update!!!

3/16/09 Update….


I decided to buy a sand/media blaster to address the rocker box rust issues rather than ordering POR 15 and wait for the product to arrive. One thing I will say about blasting, it was a miserable, messy, unpleasant, time-consuming task, which I’m not looking forward to doing it again. However I was happy with the final result.

So basically I blasted the rockers with glass bead, treated the material with rust mort for 24 hours, washed and primed. The rocker boxes should be good for at least another 40 plus years.

I was able to get the outer floor, lower cowl kick panel and pillar installed. It was quite the challenge to get the aftermarket parts to fit correctly. It would be nice if the parts were actually made to gm specs.

Today I plan to get the driver side outer floor, inter cowl and pillar installed and patch in the rest of the floors. Tomorrow I plan to install the rockers and the remove the tub….Wooo Hooo

 

[norcal70blazer]

More pictures and my New Favorite BEER

 

[norcal70blazer]

I don't drink but i sure can eat.

My time is very limited at the moment since we just had a baby on the 6th of March but i'm willing to help when i can. Weekends are usually better for me and sunday being the best since i work half a day on saturdays.

Maybe you should drive out here so we can meet and then talk about what you're doing and need help with. I'm sure you could make it to my shop on a saturday? I work 9-3 on saturdays.

Congrats on the new baby.....Have 3 myself, 2 boys 10 & 5 and a 4 yr old daugher....So I've been there.... I'll come by your shop on Saturday to chat with ya....

 

[bp71k5]

Woah, that's a cool way to get out of using sandpaper! I like.

 

[Greg72]

That's an AWFUL lot of progress in a very short amount of time.....

Either you're sandbagging us with your photos (slowly sharing photos you've taken weeks ago), or you are working on this K5 about 16 hours a day every day!!

At this pace, you'll be painted and rolling down the road under it's own power in about 2 more weeks.

 

[4X4HIGH]

That's an AWFUL lot of progress in a very short amount of time.....

Either you're sandbagging us with your photos (slowly sharing photos you've taken weeks ago), or you are working on this K5 about 16 hours a day every day!!

At this pace, you'll be painted and rolling down the road under it's own power in about 2 more weeks.

He said sandbagging (glassbead = close enough)

No pun intended i'm sure.

 

[norcal70blazer]

That's an AWFUL lot of progress in a very short amount of time.....

Either you're sandbagging us with your photos (slowly sharing photos you've taken weeks ago), or you are working on this K5 about 16 hours a day every day!!

At this pace, you'll be painted and rolling down the road under it's own power in about 2 more weeks.

No sandbagging here!!!! I’ve been putting in some serious time in… Taking advantage of being between jobs at the moment. I’m on a mission to get the truck done for the summer, at least by mid to late July. …


Here’s a couple of pictures of the new pillar, inter cowl and floor patches. I’ve decided to keep as much of the original floor as possible. The remaining floor pan areas do have some pitting, however they are still solid. I used a pick hammer to see which holes were thin and replaced the areas that were questionable.

I was planning to have the tub off by today, however the wife had other plans for me…I won’t bore anyone with the details…New plan is the have the tub off this weekend…
I did notice that most of the body mount bolts are welded to the tub, which will be fun to remove.


While I’m in sheet metal mode, I need to start researching the big block clearance issues…


One piece of advise to you guys that plan to replace your floors, be sure to remove your tools before you close up the floor…In my shining moment of brilliance I failed to remove my wire brush that fell into the rocker box…I actually considered leaving it in there…Then I had a vision of driving the truck down the road and having to listen to the wire brush rattling around in the rocker box….So out came the cut off wheel tool….