The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Well, I figure it is time for me to put this in some sort of build thread, even though at the moment it is made up more of destruction than building.

A little history…I had been looking for a 1st gen Blazer off and on starting around 2001. I got serious a couple years ago and picked this one up in August of 2006. I knew it had some issues but I also knew it had a lot of the options I wanted. I.E. tilt, A/C, 350/TH350, etc. After I bought it I realized it was a Highlander package as well. For the last couple of years I have been gathering parts, casually fixing things, and getting it road worthy. Tuned up the engine, rebuilt the tranny, rebuilt the front axle/spring bushings, new rear suspension. Blah, Blah, Blah. This winter it finally became fully street legal…just in time for me to get serious about restoring it. I have most of the big parts gathered up like a full set of virtually spotless OEM sheet metal to bolt on (except for a driver door that I am currently looking for), along with a new rear axle and some newer style GM seats from a 2001 truck. The rest of the parts like, grill parts, pretty much all of the interior pieces, and all the seals/gaskets and so on will be purchased as I go.

The first pic is where she was sitting back in 2006. The others were taken after I had done some work.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

As far as my goals for this thing, I plan on taking the resto-mod approach. I want the body to look basically stock as far as trim, bumpers, and a solid color paint scheme (still haven’t figured out which color that will be), the interior will be stockish with modern updates here and there. Under the hood things such as wiring and plumbing will be cleaned up and improved as needed and the original 350 will be rebuilt and mildly upgraded. I would like for it to eventually be nice enough for me to take to local car shows and club gatherings, along with weekend drives to the river, beach, etc. I don’t plan to run it up and down the rocks or anything but at the same time I’m going to drive it where I want and ENJOY it.

I also think I need to add that I have owned and worked on a number of old Chevy trucks, but this is my first attempt at a “frame off” rebuild, so I’m sure it will be slow and painful for everyone. :lol:

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Gotta love Texas. In Nebraska it is extremely difficult to find something in that good of shape. Everything has been rotting forever here. Good find, I really like the wheels.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

I started pulling the front clip off a few weeks ago and then the doors. This week I got going on the rockers. Here are a few pics of you typical rust. I had a fairly decent idea of how bad it was being that I could see most of it through the holes. Time to order some patch panels…site venders here I come. I plan to totally fix the drivers side before I move to the passenger. Plus I got a couple little spots to fix on the firewall, but they are on flat surfaces and should be fairly easy to patch.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Finally got the drivers rocker off. YEAH! As I figured, I will need inner and outer rockers, the outer floor strip, kick panel, front cab corner, and lower front bedside area.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

...and a couple more for the heck of it.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

here they are

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

The PO had done some previous body work and a respectable looking paint job, probably around 15 years ago. Of course he had to use the stereotypical slab of bondo in at least one place. The part of the tub between the drivers door and rear wheel is by far the worst part. I couldn’t resist taking out some frustration on this slab of bondo. I was curious if it was hiding a huge dent or Swiss cheese rust, or both.

Turns out there were a couple of rust pin holes but mostly it was a huge dent. At one point there was probably 3/8 inches of bondo. The bondo finally tapered off around the top of the wheel arch like I thought it would (I had the magnet over it quite a bit)

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

The race is on, my passenger rocker came off tonight too. :burnout:

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

What's it called when you use your own name in the title for your build thread?

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Technically speaking, Critter is the name of his blazer, he's a wierdo.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

If you don't mind me going off topic and asking, what is the highlander option?

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

For your inner rocker replacement, look into the part Tri-Pro sells for trucks, you get alot more to work with than the blazer version.
The full length truck part includes the lower 'A' pillar holes and a fair amount of floor area too, it'll give you more option's to work with.

Pic of the part I'm talking about:
http://www.tri-proautomotive.com/catalog/0849-227.jpg


Here's a decent thread to look over, it addresses where your heading...;)
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=249323

Enjoy...

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Watching this one...I will have a comparable fix on a 72 4x4 Blazer when it shows up in a few weeks from Columbus, Ohio after a trade for my 72 C/20...

Good Luck with your build - as overwhelming as it will be - the end result will justify the stress of doing it...

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Nice link, lots of good pics.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Looks about the same as my project50th, I am going to keep an eye on this one. Good luck with your plans, it sounds pretty good!


Drew

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Will be a fun project to watch - sounds like you have a good plan. The color looks alot like the color on my K5.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Cool rig!

I love those wheels....anyone know where you could get them in 8 on 6.5?

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

I too will be watching closely as I will be doing the same to mine this spring and summer. I will have to replace bottom boxes also. nice project truck keep at it you'll get it done. at least that is what i will be telling myself during mine to try to keep a little sanity.

Are you supporting the pillars with anything while you do the work or is the boxes doing their job still?

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Texas is weird, East Texas trucks = RUST, but West Texas = SoCal/Arizona sheet metal. Here in Central Tex, it's 50/50. I guess mines about average condition for the area.


Basically it is a trim package, there were "A" "B" & "C" Highlander options. Usually they consist of A/C, ps, automatic, tinted windows, chrome, etc. The main difference is they had a special plaid seat covers. They weren't OVERLY rare or anything, just kinda a nice bonus for me to find after I bought the thing. If the search function was working, you could find info on it pretty easy.


THANK YOU! I am going to go this route...gonna make a parts order next week.


They are out there if you look, not sure if you can still buy them new or not; mine were put on back in the 70's according to the PO. They annoy me cause they are made from magnesium and need those special lugnuts, but they have kinda grown on me because of the "nostalgia" I guess. ;)


I don't THINK I need to do that, I have some floor jacks to put under things if I need to, but my torsion boxes appear to be in great shape (no rot what-so-ever, just surface rust), somehow, so I feel that everything will stay in place. Somebody tell me if I have lost my mind. :crazy:

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

This should be an interesting build to watch. I cant wait to see more.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Those rockers look similar to what I had to work with, hope you have better luck! I'll be watching

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

At a minimum, do something to maintain the door opening. :sumo:

Your going to be getting into the front pillar and once you break it loose, you'll be amazed at how much the firewall is going to move.

Fair warning though, build the brace so it's 'convenient' to work around. ;)

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Sorry, I must have misunderstood earlier. Yes, at the moment I have a square tube brace that goes from the cowl mount on the firewall to the upper door area on the bedside, so the top part of the opening can't "open" up any more. I also am waiting on my assistant to come over and help me put the top back on. Thats why I haven't moved any farther at this point. I am hoping that the fact my tortion boxes are in good shape and that I just replaced my body mounts, that everything will stay pretty much in place. I have been naive in the past though. :uhmk:

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

forgive me please, but, I too will be doing the same thing to mine.

I was going to plan on the top holding everything.

With top on and doors off

do you still need a brace while doing bodysupports coming to A pillar and B pillar

and while doing A pillars and boxes?

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

I am by no means an expert, but I believe if you are changing you torsion boxes then you FOR SURE need to support things as much as possible. They along with the floor pan itself keeps the middle of the tub (somewhat) stiff. The reason I am not doing more supporting that I am is because the Tboxes and 80% of the floor will remain untouched. Hopefully others will chime in for both our sakes. ;)

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

I started cutting a couple of spots out of the firewall today. I expected to find “trash” in there and of course I did. The vent door is toast…gonna have to do something about that.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

I have been thinking about areas like this in my Blazer. Has anyone ever sprayed a rust encapsulator in an area like this that likely won’t get any regular paint? The other area that crossed my mind was inside the rocker boxes before I welded the floor back up. Any thoughts?

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Keep at it, you can take care of that. I admire the heck out of you for bringing back your K5. I've always liked the dark green Blazers.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Shame it's that bad in the cowl area, but it's to be expected as all the crap falls into it. I would take more metal out back to the seams, then you can really get a handle on it. If you leave the forward edge, where the curve starts, you should be able to fix it with a flat sheet of metal. When mine go bad, I want to put in a piece of stainless and screw it in so I can check it from time to time. Also this will allow you to put a sealer between the seam and metal

Whats the inside area look like(kick panel)

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

That's what I plan to do this weekend. I was a little scared to it, but then I read this.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ad.php?t=72472

It gave me the false sense of confidence I need to start cutting ;)....pics to follow.

Oh, and my kick panel has some rot along the bottom 1 inch where it meets the floor board, no better or worse than most of the others you see around here.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Have fun this weekend and take lots of pics for us to look at, I'm a junkie for people's progress:lol:

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Day 12…
ordered drivers side patch panels from Tri-Pro yesterday…
found more rust around the firewall today…I’m scared…
starting to freak out…

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Dude, your knee deep in it now. A little more work and the Critter will be on the road in no time. Gimme a shout if you need a hand. Way to go so far though. Later.

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Well I really don’t have any good progress pics to post so I thought I would at least put up one of the parts I got from Tri-Pro (Thanks Jon!). They arrived Friday and haven’t made it out of my spare bed room since. So far I only purchased the driver's side stuff. Lower A pillar, lower B pillar, outer rocker, outer floor strip, outer floor brace, and lower kick panel.

Me and Jtrux spent the weekend getting the parts truck back to my place and tearing into it a little more so I guess technically I did make a little progress. :sexy:

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

awwwww...... what happened next?? I hate it when a good thread comes to an end.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Subscribed...what next?

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Yeah, I agree. What happened?

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

Dude you still working on it? Hopefully mine will be on the road soon. Post more pics of the critter soon. Later.

Re: The Great Critter Revival ‘09
 

It's probably rusted to pieces by now.