Bama's 1973 Blazer restoration

[Bama67]

Hello everyone, I don't post much, and have been slacking lately from my resto on my full-vert 73 Blazer. I thought if I finally made a build thread, which I have been meaning to do for months, it would help keep me motivated. I only got to work on it for a couple weeks, and since then, have kind of been at a stand still because of so much other things going on. But I fixing to get back at it. So I will fill you in on what has went on so far.

Here is the old girl as I brought her home back in November, it didn't run, and looked pretty solid. It had a 350, SM 465 and, np205 transfer case.
Bought it for $500.

Soon found the not running problem was cause the distributor was shot, but I had an electronic one on a 283 I had, so I robbed that and the carb and intake, and threw it one. It fired right up!

She is alot more fun topless! How much you like the paint job? lol

 

[stoney126]

Dang for 500 bucks that aint bad at all. Looks like a good base to start with.

 

[Bama67]

I drove it around like it was for a couple months, then in Feburary, started piddling with it. I was finally able to find a tail gate for it, the original was rusted out, and I had looked for one forever *thanks t89blazer!* But while putting it on, found out that the bed sides were spread apart, it wasn't even close to shutting correctly. Ughh, tried and tried to bring it in closer with rachet straps, no luck.

not even close on either side.

 

[Bama67]

Dang for 500 bucks that aint bad at all. Looks like a good base to start with.

Thanks! Thats what I thought as well. It gets better! Stay tuned. lol

 

[Bama67]

After the aggrivation of the tail gate, I said "Hell with it, today is a good a day as any to start restoring it." Which is what I had planned all along. But I had been waiting for my house to sell, still hasn't, so I would have a shop to work in at our new place when we get it. So I pulled it into the 2 car garage, and started to strip it down.

In a couple hours I had made good progress.

the interior, now I knew already the floor pans had rust in them, because they had riveted some sheet metal over them, but they didn't seem to bad. I was also aware of rust behind the rear tires, but other than that, the tub looked reall solid.

You can see the previous owner was kind enough to spray some bedliner crap all over everything. He even sprayed the dash, door panels, handles, etc.

Oh oh, here is a little rust, no big deal.

 

[Bama67]

I worked all day the next day to get the body ready to be pulled off. This was made more difficult in that every bolt was rusted solid, resulting in many broken ones and busted knuckles, or quality time with the Sawzall.

Pulling the body off. I don't know what I would do with my tractor loader. And man, this thing is tricky to balance.

We then had this

And this laying in the yard. Moving right along. The only problem is that while lowering it down, I was pulling it away from the tractor hood as the wife lowered it down, then she went a little to far down and bent the windshield frame with the loader. Luckily it didn't break the windshield.

 

[Bama67]

The 350 had been supposedly rebuilt a few years earlier, but wanted to pull it apart and check it out, and also new seals and stuff in the tranny and transfer case.

Did I mention I love my tractor?

Thats the old 350, and that hunk of grease and mud behind it is a SM 465 4 speed, and NP 205 transfer case.

The tranny and trans case rebuild it the only part I didn't tackle, I don't have a press or even a bench vise for that matter, so I figured it as best to farm that one out to the experts.
But I tore my engine down the next day, all looked great there, and was even suprised to find the true high-po camelhump heads.

I did a quick, mild rebuild and had it ready in a day or two. Nothing fancy, I plan at some point int he future to do an LS fuelie engine swap.

 

[Bama67]

Next, I blasted the frame using my very crappy HF sandblaster. Then painted with a couple coats of Rustoleum primer and then a couple coats of paint. Nothing fancy here, but seems very durable. This won't be a show truck, nor a rock crawler.

My lovely wife posing with the completed frame. Notice I didn't do the axles. I will do them when I pull them when the suspension lift goes on. While prepping the frame, I found where the sway bar bushing mounts were both cracked. I welded them up, and while I was at it, I added the reinforcement plate for the steering gearbox area.

But before I could put anything else in the garage, I had to make some space, so I had to haul out the junk I stripped off so they could wait patiently in the bushes til I was ready for it.

 

[sponsoredbydad]

Very nice . Boy I remember when mine was at that stage. You got lots of good times ahead.

 

[Bama67]

Well, I rolled the frame out of the way, and got the body back in the garage. Time to see what kinda work I had ahead of me. I knew the truck had a few rusty spots already.

I pulled up the riveted metal on the floor. Drivers side. Turned out the rocker panel as all bondo as well.

It was in the process of working on pulling off the riveted piece that I stuck a peice of metal in my hand between my knuckles, and it went all most all the way thru. That isn't good! It didn't really bleed though, but anyway, off to the ER to get 7 stiches. My wife is a RN and needed a ride to work anyways. lol

 

[KansasTwister]

if you were closer my dad designed a tool to pull the bedsides together, works really well. Good progress thus far.

 

[xCaliK5x]

looks like the truck has declared war on you! You got some work cut out for you, but its going to be really nice when its done. What direction are you going? Full 100% show room floor original?

 

[rdn2blazer]

OUCH!!!!! That looks like it HURT! The most irritating thing about getting hurt is the time away from the project it takes getting bandagged up. I usually just keep working after a good weld burn or laceration. But that one most certainly requires some medical aid. Infection can put you in a world of hurt. Hope you heal up quick. Be careful man!

 

[gmac95]

Making some good progress!

 

[Bama67]

if you were closer my dad designed a tool to pull the bedsides together, works really well. Good progress thus far.

That sounds interesting, how did he build it?

looks like the truck has declared war on you! You got some work cut out for you, but its going to be really nice when its done. What direction are you going? Full 100% show room floor original?

haha, not fully stock, just kinda mild build, going for good looks, mosty original except small lift and tires and wheels. I don't offroad too much, but will be doing that a little too.

OUCH!!!!! That looks like it HURT! The most irritating thing about getting hurt is the time away from the project it takes getting bandagged up. I usually just keep working after a good weld burn or laceration. But that one most certainly requires some medical aid. Infection can put you in a world of hurt. Hope you heal up quick. Be careful man!

yeah, this was a couple of months ago, back in March when I was working on it. It healed up fine, but did put me out of work for a week, because where i work, drilling rig, you can't come to work with stiches. I am a little more careful now.

Making some good progress!

Thanks, I made alot that first couple weeks, not much has changed lately.

 

[Bama67]

More rust, this is on the fire wall, it will be difficult to patch due to the complex bends in it.

I found a some bubbles of rust all around the bed rails where the top normally sits, it was at this time that I broke the sand blaster out again and was soon horrified at what I found.

SEVERAL different places like this, giant holes stuffed with filler. This is just a few of them.

 

[tRustyK5]

A lot of why the bedsides lean out is at the tailpan itself. Put a 4 foot level across the back and see if the tailpan has sagged at all...I'm gonna bet that's where the problem is.

You're in the perfect situation to replace the tailpan, it'll never be easier than it would be right now. Or...you could find a way to pull it back up to straight, which will also pull your bedsides in, and then weld a reinforcing tube in front of and attached to the tailpan. A couple of burly eye bolts through the top of the tailpan at each corner, a chain between the eye bolts and a bottle jack under the center of the chain would probably get most of it...

Normally having the tailgate in place is what helps hold everything together. If you wheel or drive without the tailgate for any length of time the tailpan will sag. If you intend to wheel or drive without a tailgate I'd consider a bolt in brace between the bedsides to help.

Rene

 

[Bama67]

At this point I am really depressed. What I thought was solid tub, was rusty as hell. Who ever did the bondo work did a good job of making it hard to see. But honestly for $500, I just hadn't looked the truck over like I would had I been buying a $10,000 truck or something.

Did I mention that is is my first time doing anything like this and was learning most of it as I go. I had done a little body work here and there, never fabricated my own patches; or cut out and welded in new steel before. So that is why I wanted to learn it on this Blazer before i restore my 1967 Chevelle.

So with the Hobart 187 Mig welder I just bought, I started off small, welding in the smaller stuff like this.

to this.

 

[KansasTwister]

ill get pics of the tool after my family reunion today. Its neat because he can use the innter tailgate holes or use the stake holes on a normal truck bed.

 

[Bama67]

So after my first body weld job(without burning though) I was feeling good. So I just started cutting out the nearest rusty place, and traced out a patch from 18 ga steel I bought at Lowes.

You can see here, that all these rusty holes are on the bend that the bedsides make. That makes it alot more difficult, so I just went to town hammering it out on my 15 dollar Harbor Frieght body dolly set.

Welded in it doesn't look to bad for my first patch, nor for not having really used a welder since highschool ag class about 9 years ago. I don't think so anyways.