71 AZ Rust Free CST Blazer Frame Off
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About a year or so ago, I was checking ebay to get an idea of what my “feathers” Blazer might be worth and I saw an ad with what seemed to be a really good deal on a very original 1971 CST Blazer in Kingman AZ. I contacted the seller and although I wasnt actually in the market at the time this one seemed to be to good to pass up. So I made a deal on the phone and headed out to AZ the next day. What I brought home was a pretty much unmolested rust free AZ original paint, original drive train highly optioned Blazer which I put in storage until a few months back when I was ready to restore it. So far I have completely disassembled it, have had the frame powder coated and am beginning to start reassembly. My plan is to do a mostly original restoration with a couple of liberties taken along the way. The original colors are white with blue interior and I'm going to change it up a bit and go with medium blue with blue houndstooth interior. (Interestingly the original glove box is already painted medium blue from the factory. Was that a common practice? ) Also, Im going to go with a small 2 inch lift. Lets start with some before pics....
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And some pics of it coming apart. I had the firewall painted before I took the body off, my thought being that I would finish up the frame including the entire drivetrain then remount the body and send it off for paint.
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Frame back from powdercoat. Not a whole lot more I can do right now because I have both axles out for rebuild. Originally the axles were 3.07 and I'm having them regeared to 3.73 as I plan to go with 33 inch tires.
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Looks solid!
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Looking really good. The blue glove box throws me off too.
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Any additional photos you can add of the tear down? It's so clean I'll bet the information in additional photos would be a big help to future builds. Pete
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Getting close to having the rear axle finished. Changing gears from 3.07 to 3.73
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Have I missed the color keyed glove box doors on Chevrolets? GMCs sure, but I would expect that glove box door to be white. I know they were all in the same line in St. Louis, so why not...but I guess one never jumped out at me that I took for original/correct. Does this fall into the same category as the A/C vent housing color? More knowledgeable members please advise....PS nice find, looking forward to the build....and as Pete politely suggests: DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT.
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Nice score!
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So about the glove box door..I first thought maybe it had been switched from another truck but thats not the case as the vin matches. Now I'm wondering if it might have something to do with the fact that this is a very early (8/70) 1971 build. I know from my previous work with Camaros that early builds sometimes used carry over parts/procedures from the previous model year. On that note when I installed my new brake line from inline tube(Brown rubber tip in pic) it was 2 inches too short to land in the bracket it needed to. Inline had to make me one that was shorter than their pattern which makes me think that Chevy changed the bracket location after the model run started
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Small progress to report..
Installed Springs, Gas tank and skid plate, Brake lines, Fuel and vapor lines, Red Head steering box, E Brake cables, speedometer cable, and transfer case. Still waiting on getting the axles rebuild, hopefully I will have them by the end of next week. In the mean time I'm going to start putting all the accessories on the engine which is back from being rebuilt (original 350 rebuilt stock) |
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Keep up the great work. More pics please. |
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Tell me about the frame clips used to run the fuel lines. OEM?
The blue gb door is very intriguing. I've not seen another example fwiw but it looks OEM. Some highlander 72 blazers had the face of the rear floor step and the rear wheel tubs painted white and the two I know of were St. Louis built like your truck. Maybe St. Louis had artistic license to experiment? |
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Engine painted today...
Engine is original to Blazer final assembled 7/30/1970. I toyed with the idea of going with a roller cam when I had it rebuilt but in the end decided to go original. Fingers crossed for cam break in. Engine was still standard bore so .30 over cleaned everything up. |
Re: 71 AZ Rust Free CST Blazer Frame Off
I have red head steering gears on both of my current project - only run is a driver so far - that thing is awesome!
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Looks great
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Curious what paint colors you went with for the frame clamps and the rubber hose clamps. I got mine back today and need to track down matching paint. Also, did you reuse the frame clips for the rear lamp harness - these have the rubberized coating. I'll recoat mine maybe, or go with repro if available.
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Not much to report the last few weeks. Got a few parts on the engine and got the rear end installed. One thing I ran across is the stock length ebrake cables are stretched to the max with the 2 inch lift springs. For the moment I'm proceeding with the assumption that the weight of the tub will give me enough slack. Does anyone know if this indeed the case? On another note, I guess I got lucky as all the rest of my inline tube stuff fit nicely.
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Looks great. Thanks for the update. I just had a hiccup with Inline where the wrong ebrake cables were sent.
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Working on small stuff this week. Rebuilt the brake pedal assembly and working on the parking brake. Tried rust removal by electrolysis for the first time, worked like a champ.
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You know I like that. Well done.
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Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'
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So I haven't posted for awhile, mainly because I haven't accomplished much the last few weeks. I was hoping by now to have the body back on the frame but removing the factory undercoat and painting the underside of the Blazer is turning into much more of a project than I had anticipated. The undercoat is tough stuff, I'm finding the most effective way to remove it is by first heating it with a torch and scrapping of as much as I can then following up with a wire wheel. Its a slow messy job and I'm only getting small sections done at a time. I'm all ears if someone knows a more effective way to remove this stuff.
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The Eagle has landed...Finally got all the old undercoating removed and got the body back on the frame. I've have a few more things I want to do and then its off to paint jail..
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Body came back from paint yesterday so Ill be back at it soon. I ended up taking the body back off the frame and put it back on the body cart at the painters request. If anyone has a need for a slightly used Blazer body cart hit me up. Im keeping the wheels but the rest I'll let go for free.
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Body back on the frame for good today.
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So the doors are back together but of course it had be two steps forward and one step back. What I'm learning is no matter how many pictures you take during disassembly its not going to be enough and its a really good idea to reference them before you start putting things back together. Case in point, when I took the doors apart I identified a potential issue and documented it. There is a uclip that must be put on the door before the rest gets put together. Seeing it could be an issue I labeled and photographed it when I took the doors apart. (1st pic) Well I didnt reference the photo before I assembled the door and I paid the price. Ended up having to take the vent wings back out again to install the clip (2nd pic) In the end I got it all back together and it all works great. Shout out to board member RogerKoop for the rebuilt vent wings.
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Wow..Is there ever a lot of stuff up under the dash. I'm really hoping I dont have to go back in there again.
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It's a nightmare trying to access anything up in there. Take your time so you don't have to go back in.
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Moving forward slowly. Want to take a minute to recognize the stellar work of several board members KEVSCLASSICS for rebuilding my tilt steering column, F.A.A.BENNY for the AC/heater parts and TBONE for the gauge cluster
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Nice, I am envious!
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Those look great!
Do you have the spring for the cowl flapper? |
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