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Blazer's 85 Suburban "Twinkie"

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Did some work on Twinkie tonight.
Got a tranny cooler line leak at BB12 so had to pull the grill and stuff off to fix the line. Pulled the rest of the two birds nest out that the birds tried to build behind the grill.

Got looking at the radiator support and spent about an hour figuring out how to narrow it and save the head lights.

Not going to work effectively so........ I think I am going to build a new radiator support. Or at least do some serious mods to the stock one. I have a spare one so if I screw it up too bad I can just use the other one.

I almost want to build a square box the attach the ends of the support to it to keep the headlight mountings. I could cut the top and front off to keep the grill mounts, but not totally sure how its going to work quite yet.

I just really like them narrowed with all the factory stuff still there.

rad sup2.jpg

rad sup1.jpg

birds nest.jpg
 
Some more work tonight, took about an hour or so. Very relaxing too.

Going to have to do some cleaning

Need to do some rerouting too. Going to move the manifold for the on-board air.
Going to re-route the hydro assist lines a bit. Need to move the steering cooler to the front also.

Also the tranny cooler lines and the temp sender need to get moved, not sure where yet but they are in the way. The oil cooler lines are a bit long now going to see if I can take up the slack next to the motor

twinkie nose.jpg

twinkie nose 2.jpg
 
Oh and have to decide if I want to narrow a steel hood, have three. Or narrow a glass hood with a cowl induction.
 
steel would be easier IMHO. and you could MAKE it have cowl induction if ya want...

:grind::weld::hack::saweet:
 
I would probably do a fiberglass hood

It would be much more rigid and easier to finish of nicely, not to mention wouldn't warp and get dents

I wanted to get one, but couldn't see spending 400 dollars and then cutting it up
 
they are FAR from more rigid. the one I had on my CCSB was all flimsy and was cracking at the cowl part from bouncing. I'd go steel anyday after having a glass one. Plus steel uses factory hinges.... I know my glass one didn't = hood prop rod :doah: not sure if there all that way. but that's my experience with them
 
My fiberglass one is rather ridged not sure how it would be after it was cut.

Going to have to look at it some more today after I get the bars and stuff put in.
 
So spent the better part of most of the day working on Twinkie.

Got the radiator out the bottom of the radiator support cut out and welded to the frame. Had to cut it like four different times trying to get the oil cooler to fit. It now does and hopefully I will be able to put factory lights on the front if not then I will have to use so after market ones but I know where to get them pretty cheap.

Went over to Scott's Friday night got some tube bent for the front. Got one tacked in. Going to be Wednesday or maybe Tuesday night before I get back to it but pleasantly happy with it right now.

Need to figure out if I am going to cut the end of the cowl off or just beat it with a sledge. If I beat it don't have to worry about putting anything back. :dunno:

nose.jpg
 
So got the other bar in.

Not sure I like the way it looks. It is actually going to put the fender higher then it was originally. At least that is how it looks right now. More then likely its only how it looks since the radiator is about two inches lower right now.

Made a cross brace for it, have to make tabs to bolt the radiator to. Then I have to trim the fenders and hang them.

It is going to be tons narrower though.

Factory lights are not looking like they will fit, but haven't given up hope quite yet.
 
So broke my welder, got some welding done but still have some more to do.

Going to go tomorrow early and get a new end for it.

nose3.jpg
 
Welder is fixed finished welding in the cross bar.

Tried to make some tabs to attach the radiator hold down to, did not want to work.

So went back to my first idea of putting in the top of the radiator support. Got that in, have to get the fenders on and hood on before I cut the end of it off to see how much needs to come off.

Who knows maybe I wont have to trim much and then I will have tons of space for my lights. More then likely it will be a lot of cutting off.

nose4.jpg

nose5.jpg

twinkie side.jpg
 
Just read this whole thread, pretty entertaining. Keeping the windshield?

Martin
 
Oh and the oil cooler is on and got the trans cooler all ready to go in.

Have to decide if I am using the original fenders or if I am going to use the other ones I have.

Most likely going to use the original ones then keep the others as spares.

Have to make the tabs to bolt the fenders to also.

Need to do some figuring about how to attach the hood in the back, try and use the hinges or something else.

Those secondary hinge things wont work now because the front tubes go through the firewall and the tubes are in the way.
 
So got the radiator in, got the trans cooler in, got the fans back in also.

Radiator did not end up quite wear it needs to be its about 1/4 of an inch to far forward. Basically it is hitting the bar in the drivers side.

I can either slot the mounting holes, not sure if that is going to work or make the mount a little longer so it moves it away from the tube.

Have to make a mounting surface for the starter solenoids, and the fan relays.

I also need to figure out if the on board air manifold can stay where it is at.

Then start mounting fenders and the hood.

1.jpg

2.jpg
 
Got to do some more work on Twinkie this evening.

Got the steering cooler in place, that was a pain in the butt.

Took the wipers and wiper motor out.

Got all three of the starter solenoids mounted. Two are used to start the truck the other is used as buss terminal. Cant figure out what else to use at this point.

Have the two days off next week so going to get a bunch of work done on it.
 
Day one of my two day get to work on the truck days.

Got the wires ran for the fans and the starter solenoids.

Got the overflow mounted.

Got the drivers side fender mounted. Welded it on which probably wasn't the best idea but it works rather well.

Have to buy same tan paint and then do some touching up but it will look good from about 10 feet away :rolleyes:

passenger.jpg

pass.jpg
 
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