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:( Rust issues...

swettysblazer

swettysblazer

Swetty The Yeti
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:( Just realizing that the rust is worse than I realized. Usual rocker rust, usual tailpan rust, and some rust over the wheel wells. I already did the floor and up the sides near the rear seat. How hard is this stuff to repair? I know I am most likely gonna have to cut and re-weld in new panels, but can it be done easily? Just kinda bummed out.

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LMC Truck offers replacement panels that you can weld in, I have no clue on how well they fit, I suppose for the floor pans you can fab up your own panels out of 10ga or 16ga sheet metal, another option would be to chop up a rust free blazer but that would be an unforgivable sin:shame:
 
Oops, forgot to note, I've done a little rust repair on my tailpan, and I sectioned in a shy 8" of tailpan and floor from another blazer when I was having my entire rear quarter replaced, I torched welded it in (oxy-acetylene) I would suppose a small MIG 110v squirt welder running .030 solid wire will be a lot faster and easier to work with.
 
Sure ain't for the faint of heart is it?

I think the first step is to ask yourself a series of questions.

1) How much extra time do i really have?
2) Am I OK with committing to spending all of that extra time on this?
3) Do I have all the tools to fix this the way I want to see it fixed?
4) Do I really know how much all the panels, tools and supplies are going to cost?
5) How is my beer supply?

Seriously, rust repair is a big job. It's not 'fun' work, and it will look far worse before the first new panel gets tacked in. it's the kind of project that often kills, or at least severely mutes your love of your K5.

I see a tailpan, back half of the rear floor at the least, rockers, quarters, bedside supports at rear, probably the fuel filler cover, tailgate...I can pretty safely assume body mount structures, seat belt anchor points, plus a ton of small structural areas.

You could sink a couple hundred hours into fixing all that, and as I mentioned it's not 'fun' work.

Hopefully now your eyes are wide open. I personally would shop for a more solid K5, unless this one has tremendous sentimental value to you. I took on yet another rusty Blazer 18 months ago. I went over it pretty good before buying it cheap. Rockers and floor I saw, some exterior stuff...but the tailpan and rear floor was/is solid. i still have 10-20 hours to finish up what I started, and am probably over 100 hours on what is done so far. That's no finish body work or anything yet either.

It is rewarding to bring em back from the brink of being sent to K5 heaven, but it's a seriously big job compared to almost anything else you do to it.

Rene
 
I did a quickie with just about the same issues, maybe not quite as bad in the tailpan area in a couple weekends worth of work on Wraenking's rig..... keep in mind, that's my tools and experience.. and certainly not doing it balls on correct...

a tailpan, outer rockers, that's about all you'll be buying.. all that stuff around the rear footwell is custom patchwork....

and as mentioned... thats what you see.. when you start opening things up, it's always way more pervasive than you imagined.... rust in sheetmetal seams is bad news.....
 
Rust Sucks. Beer is great. Depending on the kind of beer your drinking, you just might break even after 20 hours or so.
 
Rust is the main reason mine has been sitting for so long. It started by wanting to add a 2" body lift and when I pulled up the rear carpet I found a lot of rust alongthe rear tailpan. tore all that out and put in a complete GM rear florr and tailpan but now I'm trying to fix some in the front floor board area as well as the rear passenger foot area in the corners. It's been way too long and now it's either time to sell it or fix it and I choose fix it. I'm hoping with the help of a guy that lives by me I will have it driving this Summer. Good luck to you. I decided that I loved the K5 way too much to let it go.

RIZ
 
I've owned at least half a dozen trucks that were rotted as badly as yours or worse,and I'm tired of welding & brazing rust repair panels in them and doing ground up restorations...the trucks will never be the same once patched up,and good luck finding someone who'll buy it later on,even if the work was done right,few folks want a patched up rotbox..you'll get less than half its resale value if your lucky...most ptach panels rust fast after being installed,and are thin gauge ,fit poorly,and aren't worth the effort and expense to install...

I would take a trip to AZ and look for a rust free tub if your frame is in excellent shape--or a whole truck,and use yours for parts...be sure the frame is good where the body mounts sat,often they look perfect till the body is off,then you find the top of the rail crumbles to dust where the mounts were...

I have "restored" way to many rusted trucks,too old for that crap now--when the 2 trucks I have rust a bit more,I'm going to ditch them and find something worth fixing up,and I'd prefer it to need an engine ,trans or driveline work--body work sucks,to be blunt,its hard work,very time consuming,and the rust always returns,usualy quickly no matter how anal you were about repairing it--and often appears somwhere "critical" like in body mount areas that didn't look "bad" when you did the sheet metal work!..

Its much easier and probably cheaper in the end to buy a rust free truck or tub....
I wasted a month patching up a rotted cab on one of my old trucks ,then saw a perfect cab in a junkyard on a truck someone scrapped that moved here from Oregon,it was mint,and I could have owned it for 400 bucks--I blew 300 just for a set of tanks and torches to weld my truck back together!..but its extremely rare to find a decent cab or tub here in New England,unless you buy one from one of those places that haul rust free vehicle back here to cut up for parts ,that get a fortune for them...
 
swettysblazer said:
:( Just realizing that the rust is worse than I realized. Usual rocker rust, usual tailpan rust, and some rust over the wheel wells. I already did the floor and up the sides near the rear seat. How hard is this stuff to repair? I know I am most likely gonna have to cut and re-weld in new panels, but can it be done easily? Just kinda bummed out.
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I don't know if this blazer is your baby or what but when I was in the middle east and supply of clean bodies was not abundant like here I spent 3k doing body work on it which I believe you will too if you start.
Now I just find a clean body for under $500 and swap everything.
I just chopped up a perfectly rust free body a few weeks ago to give parts for east coast guys to fix their trucks.
I still have the whole bed section from the middle of the door to the rear tail pan.
I wanted it for a project but might never get to it so if it helps you I could unbolt it into flat sections and could ship it if it helps you out.
Let me know if you wanna tackle a repair, but I would strongly suggest you switch body, lots of K5's around here and shipping included you'd still be ahead not to mention the heartache everytime you find more rust.
:dunno:
 
Thanks for all the answers guys. Thing is, this is my first truck. I bought it when I was 17 and I have had it for almost 4 years now and I brought it to the point that it is today. Thing is, the truck looks great on the outside, it just is starting to go on the inside.

I don't have the time to do the repairs because I am in college and working a job and getting another for the summer. I don't have the skill to do this, and I don't have the tools. If I wanted to, I think I could, but I would need to get a welder and all the tools to do it properly. I'm just pretty bummed about it. I don't wanna start getting into the project and then abandoning it because I get burnt out on it.

I don't want to get rid of the truck either because it is my DD right now and I don't think that that would be the right thing to do at the moment. It all started when I opened the tailgate and it dropped 3 inches. THe tailgate is not that bad, i think someone put a new one on at one point because it is clean inside and outside. We did the front half of the floor, to just behind the driver seat. I think I need to think about this a lot before I make any decisions.
 
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