Adam's "might as well" 70K5 build

[4X4HIGH]

Moving along nicely.

 

[bp71k5]

Yea, nice work. It's odd that the bolt is welded in. Mine wasn't and popped right out. Although you're looks like it's missing the washer mine has.

 

[Greg72]

Yea, nice work. It's odd that the bolt is welded in. Mine wasn't and popped right out. Although you're looks like it's missing the washer mine has.

Of course it's been so long since any of us have seen a factory body-mount bolt, we sometimes forget that they were round-headed carriage bolts on a washer.....and the factory bolts were nowhere near as large diameter as the one's we typically stuff in there ourselves. (especially when you get a factory one out that's been rusting for 35 years and it's thinner than a pencil in spots! )

I know that the rearmost body mount bolts were welded at the factory, but I've never seen a "survivor" in the front cab support to know what the original setup was.

 

[Yukon Jack]

My 70 K5's bolts in the floor in front of the front seats was spot welded in place - was a bear to get out - I think I used an air hammer with a chisel bit finally.

 

[norcal70blazer]

Yea, nice work. It's odd that the bolt is welded in. Mine wasn't and popped right out. Although you're looks like it's missing the washer mine has.

My driver side has the washer, however the passenger side did not at the time of removal...Not sure if it was by design or someone at some point removed or lost it...I did notice some body work on the inside of the front passenger fender and may have been removed at some point...

 

[70gmcjimmy]

My 70 K5's bolts in the floor in front of the front seats was spot welded in place - was a bear to get out - I think I used an air hammer with a chisel bit finally.

Hello all,

I am no expert on what the factory did on these trucks for sure but I know how mine is since my Mom bought it less than a year old in the spring of '71. All of the tub bolts were tack-welded to the tub, but for some reason the 2 rearmost bolts have a light gauge plate that is welded on one end into the bed then the mount bolts were tacked to that.

The pics are the tools I used to cut the welds. A Harbor Freight el-cheapo 1/4" die grinder with a carbide bit. The pic is the same bit I used and as you can see it looks to be able to grind many more. It was about $15 at a local welding supply store. The bigger bolt is one of the front floorboard bolts after cutting the head off, and the other is one of the carriage bolts that after cutting the weld just popped out thru the top instead of having to be driven out the bottom.

There was virtually no damage done to the tub using this cutter to break those welds or grind heads completely off when needed.

Later---DAC

 

[norcal70blazer]

3/30/2009 Update!!!!!

UPDATE: 3/30/09



The cab floors are finally finished…It certainly took a whole lot longer than I thought it would, it was both challenging and rewarding to get it completed. The biggest challenge was to get the replacement pillars fitted and installed, I should have paid more attention to how some of you guys did the work before I chopped the pillars off completely and saved some of the material in place as a template. Live and learn! The inter cowl panels were a bit of challenge as well. The passenger side was not even remotely close and I ended up basically cutting off the radius portion that the weather strip overlaps and fabricating the rest of the panel to match the floors and the firewall angle. The driver side was actually pretty close and only took some small modifications to work.


I removed all the chassis bolts that were welded in place by using a dremel using a small cut off wheel…not that big of a deal and actually not even worth mentioning. However I was able to remove the bolts without damaging the floors, so that’s good…


At some point the blazer was rear ended or after a long night of drinking someone backed into a tree or a pole doing at least 30 mph. The damage to the rear bed support is extinctive and after ½ hour of trying to bent it back to its original shape with very little movement I decided to cut it out and replace it. The tailgate is also past the point of repair and I will be replacing with a new used one.

The plan for this week is to get the bed support and bed floor section replaced, weld up the holes for the body trim and the CB antenna, fix the dents under the tail lights (need to buy a stud welder), DIY4X shackle flip, install new DIY4X engine cross member 1” foreword in the frame and relocate trans mount as well. I’m hoping to have the frame at the sandblast/powder coat shop by next Monday so we’ll see.


The Goal is to get this truck done by July and I think it’s certainly a possibility…Even though it’s a one-man show…

 

[norcal70blazer]

more pictures

 

[norcal70blazer]

more pic's

 

[norcal70blazer]

a few more pic's

 

[norcal70blazer]

How would you guys address the rust issue on the windshield frame, I was planning to cut out the rusted area's and weld in new sheet metal without using the original 3 screws that came from the factory and basically just fully cap the entire area.

So how would some of you more experienced guys handle this problem?

 

[4X4HIGH]

Damn Adam, you and Greg are becoming the masters of sheet metal repair. If you need a source for parts if you don't already know about Vintage Chevy Trucks here in Fremont you might want to call and talk with Bill, he is sometimes expensive on some stuff and real reasonable on other stuff. Also he can be a pretty sour guy to deal with so try to be as polite as possible to "get your foot in the door" with him. 510-651-5874

 

[norcal70blazer]

Damn Adam, you and Greg are becoming the masters of sheet metal repair. If you need a source for parts if you don't already know about Vintage Chevy Trucks here in Fremont you might want to call and talk with Bill, he is sometimes expensive on some stuff and real reasonable on other stuff. Also he can be a pretty sour guy to deal with so try to be as polite as possible to "get your foot in the door" with him. 510-651-5874

I was actually at Bill's place today looking for the rear bed support...I will agree with you that he seems to be a bit sour at times and he doesnt like his time being wasted with conversation...Other than that....He seems like a good guy....

 

[bp71k5]

The pick-n-pull up in Newark is also a decent place to find early 70's trucks. No other local yard ever seems to have anything. Scott and Harbor Freight are right next door so it's always a productive trip out there too.

I think LMC sells replacement bed floors as well if Bill doesn't want to let you cut anything up.

Nice work by the way. I think I have similar problems with my windshield frame. One option Ive considered in welding a flat plate over the whole opening and using three weldnuts underneath so the holes are the only place for water penetration. I'd be interested to see what you choose.

 

[Big Blzn]

Damn Adam, you and Greg are becoming the masters of sheet metal repair. If you need a source for parts if you don't already know about Vintage Chevy Trucks here in Fremont you might want to call and talk with Bill, he is sometimes expensive on some stuff and real reasonable on other stuff. Also he can be a pretty sour guy to deal with so try to be as polite as possible to "get your foot in the door" with him. 510-651-5874

Yikes!!! Sounds like great customer service. I suppose if you need parts and he has them, you do what you gotta do.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Yikes!!! Sounds like great customer service. I suppose if you need parts and he has them, you do what you gotta do.

Considering Bill has the largest inventory i know of and buys every truck he see's for sale on craigslist and other papers you kinda have to deal with him.

 

[BUDDY]

more pic's

You actually have a great opportunity here to do something VERY cool! I had the intention of this when I replaced the entire floor of my blazer a few years back, but never got the time/money to see it finished. I would recommend that you find a piece of box tubing, sleeve it where the body mounts go through, cap the ends underneath the tail lights and make it an air tank for your future upgrade to OBA. There is nothing keeping you from doing it that way & you can do the pressure testing on it before you mount it finally in your truck.

You could use a 3x6, (or 8 or 10!!) laid flat with small notches in it where the body mounts are or just trim the rearmost body mounts down enough to clear the 3" dimension of the tubing if needed. the taller you go with the tubing, the more you cover up the gas tank, so you would have to make sure to clear the sending unit in the top center of the tank, but, then you'd have at least a few gallons of air available in there.

I'd probably recommend at least a 3/16" wall thickness, because you will have to tack or stitch the new flooring to it, but then it would be well protected, & VERY trick.

If you wanted to get REALLY Crazy, you could set it up such that it would also be the backing area of your rear cage plate! Again with the sleeves so the bots have something to go through, but just think about how BAD ASS that would be.

Just a thought.

Later,
Buddy

 

[bp71k5]

I thought I'd look this thread up again. How was that media blaster to use and how much blast media did you need? Did it remove the paint easily?

I could do somthing close to your setup in my garage, but how much time did it take to clean up?

This fiber paint stripper discs for my angle grinder work well, but are kinda pricy and I'm wondering if blasting it would be easier\cheaper.

 

[4X4HIGH]

I sure wish he would respond to my PM about his heads he brought me. They've been sitting on my work bench at work taking up valuable space for 3 weeks now and no word from Adam. According to his profile he was on here 2 days ago.

 

[sponsoredbydad]

Are you gona want to mount your door rubbers with the three bolts (I just found out what those 3 holes were for) Just fab some flat plate tack new nuts cut out old and weld it on. after all that other stuff you did that should be easy and if you want it flush fab another flat plate drill holes and screw it on with some nice allen head cap screws. I'm no pro either just a learn as I go. I sure like that rolling rack you have your tub on. You made that ,NICE