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colbystephens' '73 blazer build!

Ok, here's the pictures. I absolutely suck at welding thing material to thin material. I can do a killer job of thick to thin - but if I have to weld a butt joint w/ thin to thin.... suck! That's why I'm disappointed in this center console - the welding looks like crap, and when I tried to grind flat, I'd end up going through the main material.

Oh well, it works great, doesn't look too bad and will do for quite a while till I've got some time to build a different one. This was good practice at figuring out what I'd really like to build.

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The next one will drop down between the tubes that it mounts to so that it really increases the amount of space I have available. Someday. :D
 
idea

I had almost the same idea. I'am going to upholster the tops of mine.
 
i was thinking about that too because my wifey doesn't like getting into super hot/cold plastic seats... i can't imagine how she'll feel about extremely hot/cold arm rest burning bare arms.
 
colbystephens said:
i was thinking about that too because my wifey doesn't like getting into super hot/cold plastic seats... i can't imagine how she'll feel about extremely hot/cold arm rest burning bare arms.
Click to expand...

Just an idea I had but I am going to do the top edge and corners. It seems like you always hit your elbows/arms on them. I also was going to design a lock for one because I have a soft top.
 
I started my fuel tank modifications today. I'm raising it up part way into the bed so that it sits flush with the bottom of the frame. You can see in the following picture that the 31 gallon tank hangs as low as the rear shackle hangar - putting it right in harms way and significantly hindering my departure angle.

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So I got it all marked out on the floor of the bed. It starts 5.25" in from the edge of the back of the bed and extends 26" forward. It's something like 30" wide. Basically, I used the body mount bolts as reference points as to where i needed to do the cutting. The cutting was VERY easy, but I did have to cut through a couple of supports which slowed things down a bit.

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With the floor cut out and removed I can see that the tank will have to be moved forward a few inches, but should still fit very nicely in its new home.

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Here I've got the hoist into place so that I can take the load off of the straps and get it lowered safely to the floor.

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After I do that, I'll get it put in from the top side and get final measurements made. I think I'll have to build the tunnel 6" above the bed. Then I'll move the fuel tank far far away while I do the welding of the frame work. Don't know if I'll get it done this weekend, but I should have her all buttoned up by next weekend for sure...

Anyone have ideas on things that should be done to the tank while it's out? I'm building the tunnel so that the top will come off so I can access it later - kind of like the tranny tunnel.
 
Thanks. I'm really excited to get it up out of sight too... I hate how they hang down like that. Part of the issue as to how ugly the fuel tank is happens to be related to how I cut the fenders tho. The rear fenders hide the tank from sight real well, but not when you hack them off level with the bottom of the tailgate.

The plan is to finish this mod, then rebuild my cage mounts, and then do my rear bumper/tire carrier and tie it into the cage mounts, and finally do the front bumper and incorporate the sliders all the way over the wheel wells (front and rear) to tie into the bumpers as well. Should be REALLY stout then - no frame flex for me! :D

Somewhere in that list of "to-do's" I'll add the York I've got laying around and I'd like to pick up an 8274...
 
Agreed cool mod!

Is there room to incorperate a tool drawer on either side of the new "tunnel"? I figure if you had 2 small drawers on either side and then bins with lids outside of that where the cage is you would have a lot of storage for stuff.

just thinking out loud as I cant really tell if it would work from the pics.
 
i like the idea, but probably won't go with it. the drawers would be less than 5" wide on each side - which would be fine, really. however, i'm thinking to incorporate a high-lift mount on the rear-facing wall of the tunnel, and that would restrict the sliding of drawers - and i definitely don't want top-opening storage because i still want to be able to put stuff back there. great idea tho.
 
got some more work done today. I removed the tank and cut out the forward tank-mounting cross member.

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the rivits on the drivers side were a b!tch.

So, I mis-measured and cut the hole for the tank too small. Major suckage. Now I'm trying to decide if I should go forward or backward with my cut. If I go forward, I have to remove the body mounts infront of the tank. If I move backward, I have to remove the rear most body mounts and the cross member there.

I'm leaning toward removing the rearmost mounts and cross member because of a few reasons:
1. It will be easier.
2. The frame continues to be flat there, versus the frame having an upward bend at the forward mount points. The bend might cause problems with getting the tank to sit flat.

Either way, I'm going to have to build some cross members. Body mounts aren't important because my roll cage is my body mount. I am a bit dissapointed that this wasn't a project that simply meant cut out the floor, re-install tank, build hump... it's getting a bit more involved. Oh well... It'll be kick ass when I'm done.

The other bummer is my guestimates on dimensions of the hump were wrong too. Looks like the tunnel will be about 9 to 10 inches tall, which is a bit higher than I'd like. Additionally, at the tank's lowest point it will sill hang down a couple inches below the frame. Fortunately this low point is at the rear spring hangar so it will be protected, and this will still be 4 or 5" above where it currently would hang. Since the bottom of the tank has an upward slant, it should be very well out of the way.
 
Good progress today - but slow. I was running out of cut off wheels so I only scored most of the metal I needed to cut and then broke it off with adjustable crescent wrenches... one wrench got sacrificed to the 4x4 gods tho. A moment of silence.

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Ok, so things ended up way better than I'd expected when I finished up yesterday. I'm really stoked. I was able to retain most of the rear cross member just had to trim about an inch off of it so that the tank would fit. I only had to trim the body mounts slightly too - which saved alot of frustration with rivits and such.

The tank ended up flat with the frame rails and sticking 6" up into the bed, which is EXACTLY how I'd hoped. I think I'll build the tunnel so that it's 7" tall tho, so that there's some clearance. The tank can't move around hardly at all - it's a nice snug fit. I am going to get some rachet straps and go around the frame to fix it in place tho. I figure I'll use 4 - two parallel to the width of the truck and 2 running parallel to the length of the truck. Should be overkill. :D

OK, onto the pictures:

Here's how the back of the truck looks now, the tank completely hidden. The roll cage looks kinda funny from this angle. :dunno:
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This shows how high into the bed the tank sticks up. Alot of the height is due to the filler neck.

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Top View:

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Flat with the frame:

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Tomorrow I will start on the tunnel frame work. It's going to bolt to the floor for easy access to the tank for later... :D
 
So two batteries, no battery box right next to a factory fuel tank through the floor? If you get rear ended hard it should make the news for sure!! The floor cutout at the front will act like a knife and open that tin tank right up.

If those are the batt holddowns I think they are they won't be strong enough to keep the batt's in place...so now we get spark and of course ignition.

I like the idea, and I'm not trying to be a dick, but a fuel cell would be so much safer, as would some beefier batt holddowns (better yet, sealed boxes.)

Rene
 
good call, rene. I was going to take some of the left over angle iron that I have and build some better battery hold downs this week because I agree that those ones really suck. I think you're right that I should look at sealed battery boxes - got any recommendations as to where to look?
 
i did the same thing that you did with the tank on my blazer when i bobbed it but i moved it as far forward as possible but with the use of the seat wasn't comprimised. I ended up cutting the rivets out of the stock mounts and just switched the mount sides so they mounted to the body to the outside instead of the inside and i have my batteries in the back and i use the marine battery holder things. fully enclosed so you really don't have to worry about them being close to gas. how you gonna run your filler neck. when i did mine i ran it into the inner fenderwell so i fill up in the fender well now
 
what exactly do you want pictures of i have a few pictures of when i did my bob. not the best but i have a few i can try to take some of the battery tank set up with the filler neck tomorrow if i get off early enough. gotta clean some stuff out of it.
 
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