VTBLAZER's Driver Build

[vtblazer]

Hitting the 'GO' button on this build finally.

It's a bastard truck in a lot of ways, made up of at least five different blazers.

*Rust free tub from Texas, was rolled in 1973 (it's a 70 tub) passenger side quarter panel was smashed, firewall was tweaked but otherwise totally rust free, still has the factory paint.
*Firewall is from a truck out of NH, was a service truck that had an oil leak for years and kept the firewall rust free all the way to the seam.
*Quarter and windshield frame are from Mich.
*Doors and frame are from the very first blazer I ever bought.
*Axles and drive train stolen from some donor truck along the way...

Being built as a driver, safe and dependable.
Drive-train specs to be used:
TBI'd 355 crate motor with serp belt set up for simplicity.
700r / 241 for the gear reduction and over-drive.
D60 / 14BFF with 4:56's for the 'bruteness'
H2 wheels wrapped up by a set of 37" MT/R's.

Suspension the way I see it:
52's up front and 56's in the rear, should net out a pretty decent ride.

Pics from the beginning...
Really old frame pic, same frame with all the drive-train/suspension mods.

 

[vtblazer]

More 'along the way' pics.

Quarter panel & grafting on the blazer windshiled frame.

 

[vtblazer]

Windshield frame continued and some tub aligning.

 

[Yukon Jack]

Going to be a fun project to follow. I had a set of MTR's on my 95 Yukon back when I had it and really like them. Pretty quiet tire on the road and in the mud and what little snow we get here they seemed to do a nice job.

What kind of time line to you envision for this project?

 

[AJs72K5]

What kind of time line to you envision for this project?

*clears throat, speaking in my best Contractor voice from The Money Pit* "Two weeks!"

Great start. Will be cool to follow.

 

[thealien]

You do nice work. I'll be watching this one for sure!!

 

[bp71k5]

Yea, that deserves a ...

 

[swyfor5]

VT, another awesome thread to watch! Great pic's too! Thank's.

 

[supersize75k5]

jealous!

 

[gaspass]

You make it look so easy to replace a windshield frame. I need to replace mine and I have the replacement frame, but I don't have a welder, and the cheapest I've found a body shop to do it for is $680. Is this reasonable for that kind of work? Or should I buy a welder and give it a go?
BTW lookin good.

 

[supersize75k5]

ill let vtblazer chime in on how he did his,


for mine I measured, and remeasured and left a little extra.

then I installed the windshield with the gasket already on it "pain in the butt to get the gasket on"

then I slid the windshield and glass in putting it in place.

Then take the cap/top piece that has a good bit of extra just in case, and place it on, slowly trim till you get to your measurement and it gets tighter and tighter.

take a couple measurements off of your current one before you cut, and another non messed up one if you can for reference.

once you have the measurement, slide in some 3/4 inch or 1 inch tube, I used dom 120 wall, I then drilled a couple small 3/8 holes in the windshield frame to add some plug welds.


weld the outer half and plug welds a little at a time to minimize warping, then pull the glass and molding and and weld the inside and areas were the gasket was.

 

[vtblazer]

You make it look so easy to replace a windshield frame. I need to replace mine and I have the replacement frame, but I don't have a welder, and the cheapest I've found a body shop to do it for is $680. Is this reasonable for that kind of work? Or should I buy a welder and give it a go?
BTW lookin good.

$680.00 sounds like a lot.
I had mine done in somewhere around 4/6 hours.

ill let vtblazer chime in on how he did his,

You did an excellent job on yours, I remember seeing the pics you posted.

I had another intact/complete truck windshield frame to measure from during the whole process and kept checking between what I had and what was factory but cutting long and trimming down slowly is definitely the way to go.

I did come up with a handy clamp set up that might help out others though, use some of the cut off frame parts and separate them by removing the spot welds, they work great as a way to safely clamp and align the windshield post for welding.

 

[vtblazer]

Brought these home the other day.

MT/R's got put off till this coming weekend, the guy is from NY and was willing to meet me half way.

 

[Yukon Jack]

So what rehab will you be doing to the axles and what did they come out of? Disk brakes for the rear?

 

[vtblazer]

So what rehab will you be doing to the axles and what did they come out of? Disk brakes for the rear?

Clean up for sure, don't think I'm going disc's yet due to time constraints.

I'll pull em down and check bearings, R&P gears etc...
May do a D60 rebuild depending on how the bearing/spring looks.

They came out of a 1986 CUCV truck, supposed to have a Detroit in the rear and could have a limited in the front.
Running 4:56 gears.

 

[jonrpick]

Subscribed.

 

[supersize75k5]

those heavy things.. suck!

 

[Yukon Jack]

Sounds like a good plan for the axles. I'm sure you will keep us posted on what you have to do to them.

 

[79BRUISER]

I love these kind of threads. Nice work.

Bruiser

 

[vtblazer]

Had a sit down with the wife today and asked for some help from her...

We talked color this and matching that for the interior and paint, stuff like that.

She gave her input on seat fabric color vs carpet, crazy like a fox aren't I?