Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

The only other thing I have done on the truck is cut the backing plate brackets off the rear axle housing.
Attachment 1999148
It was a little time-consuming. It took a cut off wheel, hard disk, BIG hammer, and some large channel locks, but I got it!
Attachment 1999149

Then If anyone was curious, here is a better picture of the bracket we built to do the disc brake conversion up front originally. Welded it straight to the knuckle.
Attachment 1999150

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

beyond that, I have just been driving the truck every chance I get. Mostly to get different parts for my brother's blazer project

getting some remaining parts we got with a donor blazer for some parts
Attachment 1999152

Here I got some parts from the sandblaster. Blasted both of his doors, and his tailgate. Then while we were at it, I blasted the tailgate I got.
Attachment 1999153

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But The coolest thing I went to get was This rear seat. It is in VERY good shape. In fact, such good shape that the front seat brackets look like they were painted last week! And the foam is very savable. Plus we got a killer deal on it.
Attachment 1999156

Hopefully now that I have put a lot of time into the blazer project, my brother will let me work on my truck again :lol:
Hoping this Saturday to get the rear axle disc brake setup all mocked up. Hoping to that is.

Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

More progress has been made!! Got the backing plate brackets mocked up, and tacked to the housing.

Here is our initial mockup. Took a couple of times of mocking everything up, taking it off, and adjusting the bracket, before we finally got it where it needed to be.
Attachment 2004756

since the rotors were 6 lug and the axle is 5 lug, I had to drill holes to adapt it. To do so I took a pair of vise grips and clamped this rotor to another rotor for a Jeep JK I had laying around since the jks use the 5x5 lug pattern also. And if you are like me, this photo gives you a headache trying to figure out which holes are for the 5 lug, and which are for the 6 lug. But it definitely works good!
Attachment 2004757

These last 2 pictures are everything all mocked up.
Attachment 2004758

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Re: 1972 gmc 2wd highlander with original paint
 

After getting everything mocked up, we moved to the back of the shop and tacked the brackets to the housing and disassembled it to get it ready to be powder coated. All we have left before it goes out is to have my dad tig weld the brackets on (since I would rather wait for him to have a minute so we have very clean looking strong welds). And build the brackets to hold the brake hoses for the caliper.
Attachment 2004767

I did all the stuff to the housing last weekend. Yesterday I was hoping to get everything painted, and build the brackets to hold the brake hoses on, but did not quite get that far. I did get everything media blasted and painted, which took way longer then I hoped. I went to use my dad's media blasting cabinet but decided it was time to fix a few things on it, as it is almost as old as I am. I replaced the glass on it since it was super etched from the 500+ pounds of glass beads that have been shot in that cabinet (you only had one small corner you could see out of). And while I was at it, I decided it needed a lighting update. The light that came on the cabinet had died years ago, so my dad put in a drop light. Which worked, but you only had light on one side. So i bought a 24 inch LED light from Lowes and put it in. About $40 in supplies, that made a new cabinet out of it!! Worth the time, but slowed down the progress on the truck.
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This picture is just for fun. We had a full shop. Had my brother working on his blazer doing the rust repair on the windshield frame. My dad is working on modifying the wheel openings on his blazer to fit the bigger tires he got. And my axle to wrap it all up
Attachment 2004769