Bracing door openings

[A1971Blazer]

Door opening measurements are only one minor part of a K5's geometry, what uber sweet braces are you making to address twist & body mount heights?

Taking frame measurements now for another trip to the steel yard. Gonna build a jig that emulates the frame/body mount locations as shown on the drawing, with some adjustablity there as well.

Level and shoot it all in with a laser.




I'm gonna mount some 2" channel to the top of the bed rails where the hardtop bolts on and brace from there up to the top of the windshield frame, gotta cut out and replace some metal there.
To those channel pieces, I will cross and lateral brace across at the tailgate opening and across the bed sides just behind the door openings and cross brace at the lower fender mount/front cab support/A pillar bottom to keep that dimension stable.
The main bottom brace/rails(s) will extend far enough forward and rearward to catch on the rotisserie.

At the Monday morning meeting, it was decided that my "business" is in dire need of a custom "fabricating" fixture to complete a very important "order".

Give me a little time.......I'm as busy as a one legged man in an azz kicking contest!

The business comes first........else I have no money for Blazer goodies!

Stand by.....it's coming.

 

[vtblazer]

NICE!

 

[A1971Blazer]

Thanks!
Found some more dimensions on this site......pics are a little washed out but you can zoom.
http://brochures.slosh.com/index.shtml?year.shtml

2 pages of blazer/jimmy info

 

[A1971Blazer]

OK finally got a little time to get going again.

Start of the body jig/rotisserie.
Still have to drill some holes in the upright before welding it on
tigged on the 8" pneumatic casters from surpluscenter dot com
fairly nice for 20 bucks each


Adjustable cross braces mounted at body mount locations.
front........center at the front of the bed......one at the rear.



Main rails(turned up on edge)...this will lay flat and weld to cross braces
on standoffs so I can level the body.
This will emulate the frame so's I can get it upside down
to fix the rocker structure and floor.

 

[A1971Blazer]

Rough design of body jig. Center section will adjust up and down to get CG for balance and entire jig will move up and down on the end base(s) to get height adjustment.

 

[A1971Blazer]

Been blessed with lots of business in the shop but managed to get a little time the last few days.
About ready to mount the body to the roto......

 

[ashman]

can't wait to see it on the rack!

 

[bigjbear]

That's pretty sweet. The one thing I didn't do on my '73 was separate the body and frame. With the front clip, doors, top, and tailgate off it was already very floppy once I cut the rockers out.

Your Dixie Run pics brought back good memories (and renewed my dislike for Trout Unlimited).

 

[A1971Blazer]

That's pretty sweet. The one thing I didn't do on my '73 was separate the body and frame. With the front clip, doors, top, and tailgate off it was already very floppy once I cut the rockers out.

That's why I put the long rails rather than just bolting at the front and rear. I'm mainly gonna use it to dismantle and sandblast. I'm making another adapter that will bolt to the frame for the same purpose. Just makes it much easier to get to everything.

My biggest issue....I'm too old to crawl around on the floor working on this thing, I gotta make it easier!

Your Dixie Run pics brought back good memories (and renewed my dislike for Trout Unlimited).

I get pisssed every time I think about it too......

 

[A1971Blazer]

Just a few more pics:








A few tweaks and it will be ready to go!

 

[ashman]

awesome!

 

[sponsoredbydad]

Nice Job.Boy that device sure would of made my life easier a few years ago. Careful of that windshield frame, looks like it is not going to clear that bottom bar.

 

[bp71k5]

Yea, nice work.

 

[A1971Blazer]

Nice Job.Boy that device sure would of made my life easier a few years ago. Careful of that windshield frame, looks like it is not going to clear that bottom bar.

Yea, nice work.

Thanks!
I got the rotisserie finished and finall started some blasting along with removal of some more of the rotten floor on the driver side.
I've decided to just adapt a truck floor rather than patching.
I found a high hump truck floor replacement that I'm gonna use.
There's just too much rust spread around too much to patch.

 

[NorCal69]

Well, that makes it nice.

 

[bp71k5]

This is starting to look like what they call in the rust-oration process as...


cheating!

 

[A1971Blazer]

This is starting to look like what they call in the rust-oration process as...


cheating!

I said it somewhere before........."I gotta make it easy or it'll kill me before I finish"!