My '72 Blazer project.
 

well this is my first build thread. i guess ill just start out from when i bought it. We were looking some vehicles on ebay, then came across this 1972 chevy blazer in Cheyenne, wy. Me and my dad went and picked it up a day before my birthday. what a great birthday present! drove it around for a year or so then we decided to restore it.

So the destruction begins.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

so it was in rougher shape then we thought it was. the floor on the driver side was nearly rusted out, the passenger side wasnt much better. had to replace the doors, both front fenders, and we replaced the whole passenger side using a short bed pickup side from lmc, had to do a little customizing but it works.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

we ended up ditching the 350 that was in it. one of the cylinders was going bad and got horrible mpg. so we ended up going to a junk yard and getting a 5.3 fuel injected engine from a 2001 chevy pickup with 40000 miles if i remember right. sent up the computer to some guy in south dakota and had them make a custom wiring harness and had them do a performance upgrade. had to get rid of the manifolds of the pickup and found a guy in my town doing a 5.3 swap into his older ride and he had the manifolds that were out of a camaro. so we traded now the manifolds fit between the frame. pulled the body off to paint the frame.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

took the body off and had the frame painted.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

we started on the rust spots, then planting season came around for the farm. instead of letting it sit for a couple months, we decided to just take it in to get the rest of the rust spots taken care of. my best friends uncle has a business in central nebraska called Car Doctor in North Platte, great people, great work. while it was there we just had them prime it and block it. heres me coming home with it after it was done.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

heres the pics

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

i decided i wanted a more "custom" look on the inside. ive seen all these guys with the double din stereos in their rides, so i thought i would go down the same path. We cut out the old spot of dash we were taking out, then we bent a piece metal to the shap and got it to the right size and welded it in. reprimed it and sanded it. turned out to look alright.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

we went with the vintage air to make it look clean, and it sure does. i love it. we went down and spent hours at looking at paint samples. we couldn't decide whether to go with the blue on a bud light can or an orange.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

we ended up going with a burnt metallic orange. looks awesome in the light.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

then for the top part we went with a pearl white.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

got different tires and wheels. went with toyo open country m/ts with an 18 inch wheel. looks pretty good to me. added a cold air intake.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

the front seats came out of an audi. i had the Car Doctor in North platte do my interior as well. Had them make side panels for the back, had a panal made for the tailgate, back seat recovered, my sub box covered to match the seats, custom kick panels made, and the door panels were covered as well.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Looks great!
How long did it take? From the date on the pic's >2yrs?
What engine/trans/transfer case combo is that?

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

well thats where i am so far. should be picking up my baby from the muffler shop sometime tomorrow. cant wait. need to do some final adjustments to the 2 amps for my 2 L7 subs (kicker all the way :metal:) and one for my 4 speakers. had to order the back bumper, visors, other little things. hopefully be done in a couple weeks! two years of work put into this thing.. its been a great experience. lots of memories. thanks for looking.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

i got it july 3 2009. so a little over 2 years. the engine is a chevy fuel injected 5.3L and a 4l60e transmission all from a 2001 chevy pickup. the transer case was out of a 1990 suburban, dont remember what the model was.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Great job! It came out really nice.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Excellent job! Very nice build

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Looks great. The color is very close to mine.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

ive already posted a few updated pictures on different threads but heres some more pics to add to my build thread.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Sweet blazer man!!

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

how did you get the front seats mounted to the floor?

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

custom made them from scratch.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

the brackets i mean.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Nice Truck

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

WOW, I like your rig.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

thanks. its been quite the project.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Awesome K5, man. I really like all your custom paneling, and I really like that radio setup. I would love to do something like that with mine some day.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

the radio wasnt all that hard. running the 1/0 wire for the amps in the back took a little effort routing it under and up into the back, and money lol.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

heres an update on the rollbar build. I used the rollbar i had in my 82 i sold a few months ago and cut it down to fit inside the blazer. we cut a few inches off each leg and narrowed it to 60 1/2 inches. in the back legs i decided to do a little "custom" look and welded a plate with a nut on the back side so it can be bolted down from the bottom up. then when it gets back from media blasting then ill prime it and bed liner it.

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...105_202616.jpg

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...105_202531.jpg

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...105_202511.jpg

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...105_202548.jpg

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...105_202735.jpg

cut the corners off with the torch and ground the edges smooth all the way around.

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...105_205028.jpg

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

heres what it came from...

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/..._6993959_n.jpg

and heres what it looks like as of today!:clap::two:

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...109_181448.jpg
http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...109_181513.jpg

more pics to come once its installed

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

and here's what it looks like as of yesterday. I still need to put the remaining bolts in and tighten them up but it looks pretty good in my opinion. It looks a little bit narrower than i'd like but with the panels i made are an inch wider than the cst panels so i had to make it so i can still remove them for the hard top.

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...118_161837.jpg

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...118_161622.jpg

Update pics
 

just an update on it. roll bar is finished and buttoned down. just a couple pics after i got it all washed for my pictures with it. found the radio antenna on the bright side! onto the top now.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

A little photoshoot last week :metal:

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...14-48-51-1.png

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...14-48-46-1.png

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...14-48-57-1.png

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...14-49-17-1.png

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Your Blazer is sweet! I love the stance. I am doing a similar build on a 72 Jimmy with a 5.3 and 4l60e. What brand of 4" lift do you have? I also want to put either 17" or 18" wheels with 33x12.5 tires. What is the width and the backspacing on the wheels. Thanks for the help. Josh

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

the lift was already on there when i bought it so I can't help you there. But i will let you know on the other details when I get back to the house.

-Sam

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Hey, gosh I feel like an idiot. It's been about a year and for some reason I can't remember the backspacing. I went through a guy that I know pretty well to get the tires and wheels and he did all the figuring for me for the backspacing. But I know for a fact that they are 9 1/2 wide wheels and 33x12.50x18 tires. Sorry for the lack of info.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Well it's time for the top. My original double wall hard top is trashed and it'll cost just as much for a soft top to fix it

http://www.softopper.com/chevy-blaze...p-details.aspx

what do you guys think on a softtopper soft top? I think it would be nice during the summer driving around. It wont be a DD anymore, just a weekend and summer rig.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

Very nice ride...I really like your gauge setup!

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

I've been strongly considering the same thing actually. My hard top is junk and the amount of repair needed would be costly. My rig is already a weekend warrior too and I live in AZ so the top is almost always off anyway. My only hesitation is the rivets in the windshield. I've been considering other alternatives like wrapping the softtop over a mold that uses the factory bolts or something of the like.

Re: My '72 Blazer project.
 

I think it would be nice to have the soft top if a sudden rain shower came up or just using it for shade. But I've read that there were problems with the softopper, but those were old threads, and the design changed I think and the quality is better now.

Im not thrilled about having to drill holes, but I think it would be a good investment since the hard top is a pain to get on and off and wont get used much and is going to be a costly repair.

Does anyone have any input on the softtoper tops?