CK5
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What are the plans or are you figuring it out as you go?
this needs a bump
SB13
Registered Member
Finally getting going again on this build. Took a little time off but I ended up deciding to tear it down to the frame and start from scratch with some new panels and some repairs. I was able to acquire new bedsides, bed floor, tailgate and other Sheetmetal locally from Autobody Specialties in CT and The Body Shoppe in CT as well. The rest of the parts were mostly ordered through Brothers Trucks. I ended up renting and then buying a convertible type rotisserie and getting the body off of the frame and onto the rotisserie. The frame was in great shape and was sandblasted and painted by a local guy. All of the rest of the parts that I have taken off have been sandblasted and painted at my house, still more to go but a good start. I am now at the point of removing the bedsides, bed floor and tailgate. I am going to take it off of the rotisserie and temporarily put it back onto the frame to do the mockup of all of the parts and the new rocker panels and torque rocker pans with the new body mount bushing kit and bolts to check all gaps. With all of this in mind, am I skipping any steps here that should be thought of prior to starting this work?
SB13
Registered Member
I will post pics of where I am at on this shortly. Anybody need a decent tailgate, bedsides, wheel housings, and bed floor near CT at a fair price? I will be salvaging all of the parts as a whole. They are in pretty good shape but I decided for the money and the fact that I went with a frame off to buy new panels. I am not a body guy so it was much easier to pay a little more for the parts and less in bodywork as they are mostly bolt on for the entire rear on the 69-72 K5's.
1. Save the original panels until the restoration is complete. They will be an invaluable resource to compare your reproduction sheetmetal against when things dont fit.
2. Sounds like you are basicially building a new truck and re-using the original firewall & windshield frame.... nothing wrong with that. Ultimately that's what I did, but didn't realize it at the time... kept doing small rust repairs everywhere and eventually found myself hanging all new sheetmetal everywhere.
-G
SB13
Registered Member
Thanks Greg, that was the plan to keep most of the rear until I had everything at least test fitted on the new one. I didn't plan on doing this much new Sheetmetal but with no shipping cost and the prices being the same basically to repair the old and still not be perfect, it made no sense to me to pay for bodywork like that since I can't do that work myself. The rest needs a little work but I believe I can handle the front floor rocker corners, braces and bottom A-pillar repair with a local body guy giving me a hand at my house. The entire front clip except the hood were new as the previous owner had bought the inner/outer front fenders and radiator crossmember. Did you have any issues with gaps after using new bodymounts and putting together the rear bedsides and rockers? Mine had quite a few shims on the frame bodymount points and I am wondering how much of that would change or how much should I just use the new bodymounts and work the new gapping into the new rocker work and bedsides fitment?
19Tim69
1/2 ton status
Sounds like you have a solid plan...build it frame up in a year, I had that plan too.
I didn’t make it but I did change plans as I went along which always adds time.
Are you going with the original or near original drive train?
I didn’t make it but I did change plans as I went along which always adds time.
Are you going with the original or near original drive train?
SB13
Registered Member
crate engine 350 with th350, np205
19Tim69
1/2 ton status
Can’t go wrong with that combo.
It's kind of a puzzle, you test fit everything first, then refit everything again once together
Those factory body shims are going to get reused, so clean the rust off of them.
I would definitely use new body mount bushings, and new brackets if necessary. It will make it easier the set the body on a solid base
bp71k5
3/4 ton status
Shims came from factory so if they couldn’t get it perfect, probably no one can especially on an old frame.
ah a fellow CT blazer, pretty cool. Good luck with the build. I have done the rebuild of my 87 2x now and I will never again fight the rust. It was quite the battle. Mine is now a woods rig mostly tubing and a little bit of body panel.
SB13
Registered Member
Finally getting back around to this 70 Blazer CST build. Ended up getting the engine done over to a 383 Stroker with aluminum heads and new carb. I have all new bed floor, bedsides, tailgate, wheel housings and all new hardware mocked up and it went together pretty easily except where the cab floor/inner rocker meets the bedsides two welded nuts to match the two holes for the inner rocker. Pics attached. Looking to figure out my options to close the bedsides in and down so that the bolt holes match up. Any suggestions are appreciated.
