Don't get around to taking many build pics or writing anything up, but here the latest major modification of my Blazer.
Brief history:
'90 Blazer I bought in 1994 with 49k on the clock. All stock Silverado that was very nicely maintained. It's gone from a stock daily driver, to mall cruiser, to moderate trail rig, to pretty much a dedicated trail rig since around 2000.
The factory body was getting pretty beat. The rear fenders were rusting and the bondo from a previous accident on one side was coming out. Not sure why I went through the trouble, but decide it was time for new body panels.
Here is probably the best "before" picture of how it looked....and keep in mind that pictures make it look better than in person. It actually received a lot more damage after a trip to Slade, Ky a few months later as the B-pillar got pushed back around 4" at the door striker.
So since December '08 I've been in the process of installing new body panels on the Blazer. Still working on it as time allows (work + 2 young kids + pitiful garage at home = slow progress). Fortunately over the winter a friend let me park it in a corner of his very large, and heated, shop to work on for a month. Unfortunately the shop is also 1.5 hours away but I had quite a bit of vacation time to use.
I was really planning on taking some pictures when it was still clean but decided at the last minute to run it in the Mud Run Obstacle Course at the county fair on Wednesday and was rushing around buttoning a few things up instead. In any case, the mud hides any mediocre fab work!
Complete rear 1/4 panels replaced with parts cut off a junkyard Blazer. Also dovetained (tapered) the rear about 6" on each side. This was a lot of work (much more than I expected...replacing them in general, the dovetail part only added a couple more hours). Also sectioned in a new piece on the B-pillar where the door latch was that got creamed last fall while in Slade. Cost = $100 for the parts and at least 40 hours of my labor (I'm sure if I did it again it would take less than 1/2 the amount of time).
Front fenders replaced. These cost me $40 to pull off an old Suburban in the junkyard and didn't take more than a couple hours start to finish including cutting them to fit.
As a side note, all of the body panels were OEM GM parts vs. the cheaper foreign crap. Both trucks the parts were pulled off of had been Ziebarted at some point in their life and thus they were relatively rust free considering they were 20 years old and sitting in a junkyard in Ohio.
Here is the overview. It went from completely clean to this in 31 seconds.
Here is the dovetail/taper of the rear body. There is a flange where the 1/4's bolt to the floor and along the wheel tubs. I cut the flange off, cut a wedge out of the floor/tubs, then grafted the flange back on. The 1/4's are welded along the B-pillar and at the rear, then bolted all along the floors. Again, about 6" was cut out right at the rear of the floor. I probably would of gone a little further but that would have required completely cutting out the rear cage and redoing it. The top of the bed rails sit right against the down bars on the cage.
Kinda' hard to notice it from this picture. For reference the rear bumper was cut down about 4.5" on each side (intintially wanted it to stick out further from the body then before).
These give a better idea. For reference the outside of the bumper used to stick out just a slight amout more than the outside of the tire, and the bumper was pretty tight to the fender.
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Nothing real extreme but it should protect the 1/4's at least from the tires back fairly good. I do plan on adding more body armor to this area. Likely a bar that welds to the rockers close to the b-pillar and bends up and over the wheelwell.
Brief history:
'90 Blazer I bought in 1994 with 49k on the clock. All stock Silverado that was very nicely maintained. It's gone from a stock daily driver, to mall cruiser, to moderate trail rig, to pretty much a dedicated trail rig since around 2000.
The factory body was getting pretty beat. The rear fenders were rusting and the bondo from a previous accident on one side was coming out. Not sure why I went through the trouble, but decide it was time for new body panels.
Here is probably the best "before" picture of how it looked....and keep in mind that pictures make it look better than in person. It actually received a lot more damage after a trip to Slade, Ky a few months later as the B-pillar got pushed back around 4" at the door striker.
So since December '08 I've been in the process of installing new body panels on the Blazer. Still working on it as time allows (work + 2 young kids + pitiful garage at home = slow progress). Fortunately over the winter a friend let me park it in a corner of his very large, and heated, shop to work on for a month. Unfortunately the shop is also 1.5 hours away but I had quite a bit of vacation time to use.
I was really planning on taking some pictures when it was still clean but decided at the last minute to run it in the Mud Run Obstacle Course at the county fair on Wednesday and was rushing around buttoning a few things up instead. In any case, the mud hides any mediocre fab work!
Complete rear 1/4 panels replaced with parts cut off a junkyard Blazer. Also dovetained (tapered) the rear about 6" on each side. This was a lot of work (much more than I expected...replacing them in general, the dovetail part only added a couple more hours). Also sectioned in a new piece on the B-pillar where the door latch was that got creamed last fall while in Slade. Cost = $100 for the parts and at least 40 hours of my labor (I'm sure if I did it again it would take less than 1/2 the amount of time).
Front fenders replaced. These cost me $40 to pull off an old Suburban in the junkyard and didn't take more than a couple hours start to finish including cutting them to fit.
As a side note, all of the body panels were OEM GM parts vs. the cheaper foreign crap. Both trucks the parts were pulled off of had been Ziebarted at some point in their life and thus they were relatively rust free considering they were 20 years old and sitting in a junkyard in Ohio.
Here is the overview. It went from completely clean to this in 31 seconds.
Here is the dovetail/taper of the rear body. There is a flange where the 1/4's bolt to the floor and along the wheel tubs. I cut the flange off, cut a wedge out of the floor/tubs, then grafted the flange back on. The 1/4's are welded along the B-pillar and at the rear, then bolted all along the floors. Again, about 6" was cut out right at the rear of the floor. I probably would of gone a little further but that would have required completely cutting out the rear cage and redoing it. The top of the bed rails sit right against the down bars on the cage.
Kinda' hard to notice it from this picture. For reference the rear bumper was cut down about 4.5" on each side (intintially wanted it to stick out further from the body then before).
These give a better idea. For reference the outside of the bumper used to stick out just a slight amout more than the outside of the tire, and the bumper was pretty tight to the fender.
__________________
Nothing real extreme but it should protect the 1/4's at least from the tires back fairly good. I do plan on adding more body armor to this area. Likely a bar that welds to the rockers close to the b-pillar and bends up and over the wheelwell.
