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Stretching Blazer top?

Vombrown

Vombrown

Mountain Man
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Has anyone stretched a blazer top to say the length of a long or short wheel base pickup? Friend and I were having a hypothetical discussion after seeing a stack of fiberglass blazer tops at the local salvage yard. His idea was to essentially graft two together for the length. Use a blazer tailgate with an electric rear window. Get a boot as a pass through from the rear window of the cab into the "Camper". Other than it looking sort of odd, I don't know why it wouldn't work. I figured if anyone had seen anything like that they would be here....

Side note: My buddy is a very experienced fiberglass guy. Serious skills, I couldn't think of a reason that it wouldn't work. he was calling it the SUPER BLAZER. Which I thought was kind of cool. We didn't discuss it much further than that.
 
It definitely would be possible. I haven't ever seen it though.
 
To get it to seal you would have to modify the front of the topper of modify the back of the cab to match a blazer top. I have never measured the bed rails but they are likely close enough. Biggest problem I see is the amount of flex in between the front and back of the truck in a long bed. It's bad enough in a blazer to ruin the metal top eventually and if flexed hard. That problem would be that much more considering the frame flex of a long bed truck.

The one thing I think you would absolutely have to do is join the cab and bed.
 
blazinzuk said:
To get it to seal you would have to modify the front of the topper of modify the back of the cab to match a blazer top. I have never measured the bed rails but they are likely close enough. Biggest problem I see is the amount of flex in between the front and back of the truck in a long bed. It's bad enough in a blazer to ruin the metal top eventually and if flexed hard. That problem would be that much more considering the frame flex of a long bed truck.

The one thing I think you would absolutely have to do is join the cab and bed.
Click to expand...
In the discussion we were thinking of using the rubber boot to connect the blazer top to the back of the truck cab to give it some flex. There shouldn't be a terrible amount of flex in the bed/top mating surface. Essentially grafting something into the blazer top in the front that would accept the rear window boot used to pass through into a traditional camper shell.
 
How many beers were involved during this discussion? Lol, just giving you a hard time. I moved a blazer top with my 88 R30 crew cab long bed (I have a picture somewhere) The width was the same from what I remember. I've seen some pretty significant flexing of a longbed frame. You would have a real hard time sealing up the area between the cab and front of the topper. You need to take a look at what chevy did when they built the M1010 ambulances. The back of the cab is cut out for a pass through to the rear box. Those ambulances have a cab over section though which I'm sure helps. A friend of mine has one but I never looked that close at how the cab was joined to the rear box
 
Yah flex is gonna be the biggest issue. I have seen a long bed truck with new body mounts the truck in really good shape move the front corners of the bed 3 inches total. Thats alot of flex to deal with
 
didn't read replies, but wasn't Kert just doing this with a SB?
 
Here is a shot of short bed frame flex.

The only "crossmember" not on the truck was the rear bumper... if you wanna call that a crossmember.

20160910_113142.jpg

Brand new poly body mounts here too.
 
I've got a hard top I thought about shortening to fit just over the cage on my blazer. Leave the spare and little bed space open. But then again it would be cost efficient.

What's the cost of one of those rv gaskets?
 
If It helps, my little honey hole salvage yard has about 5 blazer tops with various little issues. Missing Windows, cracked fiberglass....we could get several for free or nearly free. Just to haul them off.
 
Vombrown said:
If It helps, my little honey hole salvage yard has about 5 blazer tops with various little issues. Missing Windows, cracked fiberglass....we could get several for free or nearly free. Just to haul them off.
Click to expand...
When you merge the 2 pieces make sure you reinforce with steel the tops have steel reinforcement in them.
And as you have seen in the responses you need to reinforce the frame probably with some kind of cage while tying the cab to the bed. Doable but worth it?
 
imiceman44 said:
When you merge the 2 pieces make sure you reinforce with steel the tops have steel reinforcement in them.
And as you have seen in the responses you need to reinforce the frame probably with some kind of cage while tying the cab to the bed. Doable but worth it?
Click to expand...

I don't have much interest in doing it myself. I might help my buddy with it if he wants to try. I hate fiberglass work.
 
Only reason I see for this idea is to actually stretch a K5 tub like some of the go-fast bronco guys do. Add 10-15" of wheelbase for desert use and still keep the hard top for security. Not sure what to do with the windows either way. They would look a little goofy being really long but it would look goofy with a foot of extra top in front of or behind the window also.
 
Does anyone have a picture of a top cut in half to see the inside structure? Cross section
 
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