Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Cool pic's. Any of those Audi's wrecked? ($$$$ for me)

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Hahaha. They were just stuck but you know how that goes... Lots of orders for $300 plastic under body trays! :haha:

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Looking Good! My Jimmy will never see snow:lol: drag radials and HP arent a good snow combination.
Im coming up there for Christmas... my son lives in Syracuse.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

LOL Sounds like you've owned one.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Here is a pic of my GMC with the 67-68 hood and grill on it just to give you an idea of what it look like. Kind of a bad pic the hood wasn't closed all the way.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

That is pretty clean... I'm trying to decide if it's easier to swap the grill that I have or the hood.

Thanks a lot for the bumper lights. I'll be putting them in this weekend.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Nice build thread matt your doing a great job..

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

No problem, If you want I have a 67-68 hood you can have I wouldn't mind freeing up the space its taking up.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

I took the last few weeks off from working on the Jimmy. I was out of town, then it was REALLY cold, then Christmas crazyness, etc, etc. It's still pretty cold here now but if I let the cold stop me I'll never get anything done.

This weekend I put in the Chevy bumper lights I got from NTR72GMC, installed a new dash pad, installed a new passenger door switch for the interior lights, plugged up a bunch of firewall holes, connected the wiring harness for the Pioneer head unit I got for Christmas. I also set up a little block of wires behind the glovebox with "12v constant", "ignition hot" and "interior light hot" for use when wiring my power/heated seats. The dash pad was BY FAR the biggest pain in the @$$ and took probably 4 hours. :cuss::cuss::cuss:

This coming week I'll finish of the wiring/installing the door speakers, put some patches over the fuel filler holes in my rear quarters and hopefully get the new passenger seat mounted.

Here are some current photos. I took the fender trim off last month to put fresh paint on the grill and I haven't put it back on yet. I'm toying with the idea of going with a 67-68 hood and going trimless...

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/dec2010_quarter.jpg

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/dec2010_front.jpg

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/dec2010_back.jpg

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/dec2010_side.jpg

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

What color is your hood?

I'm not sure on what I want to do. From the photos I've seen I can't decide if I like the look of the early or the late hood better. I also kind of like the fender trim... I probably need to come out to your place one day and see the hood in the flesh.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

I have a white one and a green one, the green one is the one on my truck right now.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

The white one might work... paint my cowl and windshield white and it would be like one big racing stripe. :-) I have too many things on my plate right now but give me a few weeks and I might take it off your hands.

Here's a photo of my new head unit. It's a Pioneer DEH-P510UB. In addition to all the other usual stuff it features front and rear USB connections to play music from ipods or thumb drives. There is a very real chance that this stereo will NEVER have a CD inserted...

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/pioneer.jpg

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

If you use the green one it will look like a pumpkin! That's cool with me these next few weeks are going to be crazy for me as well. Cool radio by the way.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

We had about 4-6" of snow in the last 24 hours. I continue to be impressed with the transfer case and 4wd capabilities of this old rig. :metal:

The ski resorts are expecting upwards of 20" by tomorrow morning. I'll be heading up to shoot photos but I have no idea what time I'll have to make the drive. The road is regularly closed for avalanche danger. I will get advanced notice of the closure but it may have me driving up at 11:30 at night... or 6 a.m.

Here's a photo from Christmas Eve.

http://celadonstudios.com/blog/wp-co...12/MG_6509.jpg

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

I would love to be able to drive mine up into some snow like that someday, looks fun. I've only seen light snow in all my years (all 25 of them that is).

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

I would love to be somewhere warm enough to work on my truck!!! :lol:

I went up at about 7am. The storm blew out earlier than expected so the plows had been busy and I didn't even lock the hubs until the mouth of the canyon road. Then I didn't shift into 4wd until the mid-point of the 6 mile canyon.

The mountain got a lot of snow though and is was super sunny and clear. Mornings like this in the mountains are just incredible. Achingly beautiful is the only way I can describe them.

On a sadder note... on Saturday night I went to a funeral service for a long time ski patrol member. It was on top of the mountain and they did a service and then lit off a "21 bomb salute" with avalanche hand charges. Frozen tears at 11,000 feet.

Here's one of many photos from the morning.

http://celadonstudios.com/blog/wp-co...12_30_2009.jpg

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

The Jimmy died on the road Monday night. Pulled away from a stop and sputter, sputter, dead. Cranked but wouldn't start.

It was dark and cold and I have road side assistance through my insurance so I had it towed home. Yesterday I checked it out and found power to the HEI but no spark. Searching the forums and getting feedback from members it's probably a dead module or coil in the HEI.

Napa wanted $55 just for the coil so I ordered whole new distributor for $50 from Skip White on ebay. I also ordered a "rebuild" kit with new cap, rotor, coil, module, etc. Hopefully I can get the stock HEI back up with the new parts and then put the new dizzy on when it gets a little warmer.

http://www.skipwhiteperformance.com/.../full_view.jpg

http://www.skipwhiteperformance.com/.../side_wire.jpg

Parts are scheduled to arrive on Friday. :burnout:

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Hey Matt,

Did you ever fix the problem of transmission fluid leaking into your transfer case? Mine's doing the same thing :(

Pete

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Sort of... :lol:

I topped it up and it leaked out the speedo for a while and then stopped leaking. I keep checking the fluid level and it's held steady just a little above the low mark on the dipstick. I'm not worried about the transfer running dex so I'll leave it alone unless the level drops.

My power steering pump has stopped leaking also. I think that's due to dirt build up and freezing temperatures. Everything will start leaking again when the temps warm up.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Yeah I did a search, and it appears to be a known/common problem. Seems like a tough thing to fix totally, so some suggest leaving it alone and checking tranny levels regularly, and do a yearly service or oil change on the transfer case. I dunno what I'm going to do yet :) My Blazer is parked for the winter, so I have a few months to think about it.

Pete

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

It took a while to get the new dizzy and get it in but it's in now and the old beast is running again. :metal::metal:

The problem turned out to be a broken wire inside the HEI distributor. My research indicates that this is a common failure point on these distributors. The replacement "Skip White" distributor is a nice unit with a slightly different top cap design and supposedly more power than the stock GM units.

The new dizzy went in fairly easily but when I went to put the top cap on I realized that there was no way it was going to fit. It's just too tall and bangs into the firewall. This is a HUGE problem because the top cap is secured by 4 screws that also secure the coil and the coil ground. On the stock cap the coil is held down by 4 separate screws and then the top cap has it's own 2 screws so it can run without the top cap. Not so with the Skip White.

I trimmed an inch or so off one side of the cap and got it to fit but it was still very hard to tighten the screws because of the curve of the firewall. In the end I just reused the stock coil mounting screws and top cap with the new distributor. All the screw holes and mounts in the aftermarket cap were the same as the GM unit.

The old cap and rotor looked pretty rough and they had 20K+ on them so it was time for a change. The truck revs a lot smoother now but I'm getting a little bit of detonation at full throttle so I'll need to back the timing off a bit and then maybe this summer I'll play with some springs and plug gap.

The point of failure:
http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/HEI_1.jpg

Skip White rebuild kit:
http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/HEI_2.jpg

Skip White top cap:
http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/HEI_3.jpg

GM top cap:
http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/HEI_4.jpg

Skip White complete distributor:
http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/HEI_5.jpg

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Been rolling along trying to not spend money for a bit. Trucks running well with the new distributor.

Here's a video that begins with shots from the driver's seat of my Jimmy!

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Awesome video, while I dig the people action footage, some of your ride throwin' snow would've been cool too:metal:
Looks like you had no problem navigating around in it.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

I would have loved to but there was nobody else around to hold the camera. :cuss:

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Aaaaaaaaaaaallright! :metal::metal::metal:

The Jimmy served faithfully for the remainder of the winter and we had a pretty cold/wet spring here this year. But the warm weather has finally returned and I've been busy.

Some of you might remember these 2002 Tahoe seats...

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/seat_driv.jpg

Last fall I pulled the bottoms of them and had mounting tabs welded to the seat rails. They sat in my garage for the winter but now they are in the truck! To bolt them in I used two of the stock front holes and then drilled new holes for everything else. I'm using steel plate to reinforce the holes floor right now but I think it needs more than that. I will be doing floor/rocker/torsion box repairs soon and I plan on making more secure mounts then.

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/seats_far.jpg

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/seats_side.jpg

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/seats_mount.jpg


Next up was a fan upgrade. I put a single 12" on last fall but with summer coming I needed to get the rest of the cooling package done. I ordered a dual 12" aluminum fan shroud from www.classicheartbeat.com. Wes had it made and shipped to me in four days so I could install it over the weekend. Thanks Wes!

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/shroud_far.jpg

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/shroud_near.jpg

I found some nice aluminum T-bolts and rubber washers at Ace.

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/shroud_inner_Tbolt.jpg

The fans and shroud are in and working but I don't have any photos yet.

Stay tuned for those photos and more. I'll be doing a bunch of stuff in the next few weeks including a new steering box, new leaf springs & shackles and new door panels!

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Seats look good did you get the power hooked up to them?

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

i just used some flat iron drilled the holes so i could use the factory mounts.. then welded the seats to the flat iron and painted the metal black....done!! works great i can still pull them if i needed to. o they are 2006 chevy leathers.
.

Because every adjustment on these seats is power I can't even check seating position until I get them wired up. I'll put power to them tonight and try and move them into a position that will make the mounting easier.

I'm not sure how I'll mount the passenger seat. It doesn't look like it has any way to tilt forward so I may adapt it to work with some of the original forward tilt hardware. After I get the driver's mounted hopefully I'll have a clearer picture.


Matt[/quote]

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Hey man. Those bumper lights are going strong! Thanks again for those.

You gotta have the power to move anything on these bad boys. Installation is a pain because you're always powering up to move it a little to access a bolt.

For now it's just wire nuts and a fused wire from the battery that I switch back and forth when I need to move a seat. :lol: This weekend I plan to add a relay and make them ignition hot. I'm saving the heat/memory wiring for later when I have a center console.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

I wanted the seats as low to the floor as possible so I cut off the factory 02 brackets. Personally I don't feel comfortable with the factory mounts holding the seats + seatbelts + me in place during a wreck.

My passenger seat doesn't tilt but I welded the mounts as far backward as I could so it will move as far forward as possible. With the seat all the way forward there is enough room for kids and small people to squeeze though.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

i can see cutting them to make the seats lower.. but im sure the factory mounts are safe or why would gm make them like that?

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Cool glad that they are working for you. Are you going pull the top on that thing any time soon?

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

GM didn't make them like that.The factory mounts are only designed to hold down the stock seats. The stock seat belts bolt to the rear bulkhead and the seat belts are what hold you in place during a wreck.

Your new seats have integrated seat belts but you no longer have the bolts connecting them to the rear bulkhead. In doing this you have bypassed at least half of the original mounting strength.

Just to be clear - When I say "factory mounts" I'm talking about the holes in the floor that you screw the seat mounting bolts into for 1972 blazer/jimmy seats.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

I don't think so. :whine:

I'm missing the torsion boxes on my truck and there is a bunch of rust in the rockers from the aux fuel tanks. I don't want to pull the top until after I replace all that stuff so it probably won't happen this summer.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

sorry.. i was talking about the NEW seats mounts that you cut off. didnt realize you were talking about the floor mount. so how did you get the strenght back? did you some how bolt them to the bulkhead?

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

I think I have your setup pictured in my head... The 2002+ seat rails are riveted to mounts/brackets that line up with floor indentations in the modern trucks. You took these mounts/brackets and bolted them to metal that was welded over the old mounts of your truck. Am I correct? If you did it that way then it might even be a little weaker that using the stock bolt holes/bolting through the floor.

I'm not trying to bust your balls here. On my truck the torsion boxes are gone so I have a really good view of the underside of the floor. That sheet metal is thiiiiiiiiin. The stock seats have angle iron welded in to span the space between the mounts but even then my passenger busted a hole in the floor just from being set down over the years. My biggest worry is that in a wreck the rear seat mounts would just rip the floor up like a beer can.

I put some 1/4" steel plate on the underside of the floor under the rear mounts to spread the force out but it still worries me. For true piece of mind I want to reinforce my mounts with angle iron that spans from the trans tunnel to rocker and then ties back to the rear bulkhead. I don't think it needs to be super heavy duty if it spreads the load over a large enough area. I hope to replace my rockers and torsion boxes this summer. I'll be doing my reinforcements then.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Here's a few exterior photos.

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/june6_quarter.jpg

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/june6_front.jpg

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/june6_side.jpg


And the new shroud with dual 12" electric fans from www.classicheartbeat.com.

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/june6_cooling1.jpg

http://celadonstudios.com/jimmy/june6_cooling2.jpg

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

here is what i did (see pic) and i reinforced the underside. used the same bolt holes that the blazer floor has.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Nice build! I'm on the hunt for some seats for my blazer. I'm hoping to go the same route and reinforce things from underneath.

Truck looks like a lot of fun man! :metal:


Any pics of the reinforced underside.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

sorry no i dont have any pics.. just used flat iron.

Re: New Member - 72 Jimmy: Project Knuckledragger mountain commuter
 

Yep. That's pretty much how I pictured it.

My temporary set up is similar but I want the rear mounts to have a more secure mount than just the floor. It's the same deal as mounting a roll bar. Some people are OK just bolting it to the floor.