Well Im at it again..............

[bigbadchev72]

I have been slacking with taking pictures and starting a build thread. So better late than never I guess.



This all started off with me fixing my leaky transfercase, Which by the way is still leaking. I got the transfercase all sealed back up and while it was sitting in the garage I noticed a spot of oil under the bellhousing, So what better time to re-gasket/clean up the motor while I got the rollers on it and its in the garage!



I got the motor out, all cleaned up and painted, and new gaskets. Re-installed the motor and found out my cheap chrome valve covers were leaking. After being pissed off that all this work was done and it was still leaking, my poor wife walked out to see how it was going. I told her i was about ready to burn the thing to the ground, She said to buy some new valve covers . I picked up some polished fabricated aluminum ones for it, Got them installed and a small stream of oil started from the back corner. Well a quick trip to the parts store and $30 later I had the best set of re-usable gaskets they had, problem solved.



At this point it was in the garage for about a month with my schedule of getting around to work on it when I could. It was heading into fall, And i realized after finishing up my 67' I was gonna need a winter project.



So what better time to cut out all of the rot in the floorboards, and to finally fix the bedsides. I wanted to ditch all the factory CST trim and make it a little cleaner to look at.



When I first bought the Blazer the previous owner had done numerous "upgrades" that I was not fond of. He had cut out the factory rocker boxes in favor of some hickey saddle tanks and cut some fuel doors in the bedside for them. I welded in some patches and threw some filler over it, That had started to crack after I started to wheel it. He also cut a hole under the tailgate band in the VRO area, I never messed with it because I was going for a quick and dirty paint job to get the thing on the road.



I ended up grafting a new VRO into the tailgate, I still had the bedsides from my 67' and replaced a large portion of each bedside, new floorpans, kick panels, and rockers.



At this point I Picked up a 2006 cummins megacab. Now that i have a tow rig I can get a little more into wheeling with the Blazer now that I can tow it there and bring it home broke without worrying how Im gonna drive it home. I ordered up some PRP suspension seats and am going to do a full family cage for it. I ended up giving my hardtop away and ordered a softtopper for it as well. I got a 14bolt ff that I am getting the 4.56s and Detroit installed into and picked up a DIY disc kit for it as well.



I ended up settling on painting it a medium charcoal metallic paint and Picked up some ALs liner and tinted it body color as well. I just pulled it out of the garage and hopefully I will be taking it over to a buddys house so we can start on the cage.



I am wanting a rig that can do a little of everything. I am not a cut it till it clears kind of guy, I am going to have one of my buddys that has been doing bodywork for close to 20 years come by and help me open up the wheel wells, So I can drop it down. It was always a daily driver before so the height never bothered me. As soon as I find me a dana60 that isnt made of gold, I am wanting to do a 52" spring in the front and some longer ones in the rear. Then do crossover and maybe hydro assist. We dont have a whole lot of rocks nearby, but as soon as I get it dialed in, our group is willing to travel.

Heres when I picked it up







After I finished it the first time







And now.

























Here is the inspiration

[matthew79]

Wow! Your blazer was one of the best looking rigs on the board. I have one of the pics saved on my phone. I can't wait to see it when its finished. I really liked the side molding though.
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[swyfor5]

Yes, glad to see your still at it. I still really like that rear bumper you made for it, and have a friend lined up to fab one like it this spring. Keep us posted, It gives me incentive to get going on mine!

[bigbadchev72]

Originally Posted by matthew79

Wow! Your blazer was one of the best looking rigs on the board. I have one of the pics saved on my phone. I can't wait to see it when its finished. I really liked the side molding though.
Posted via Mobile Device

The side moulding was not that nice in person, good for a daily driver, but was fairly abused.

You guys are really making me second guess myself about the color change, I really fought with myself on the grey, I guess it still isnt too late to have red outside with charcoal grey bedliner

[Dirt1972]

Its yours but mho is red and charcoal would look good!!!
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[bigbadchev72]

Well I better let the cat out of the bag. I really do love this Jimmy, but am sad that I ended up with it. I am going to be taking alot of the offroad geared stuff off of the Jimmy, and putting it on my 72, I will repaint the Jimmy, new seats and bedliner, rust repair, then resale.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Looks like that jimmy has a few good parts on it..

[bigbadchev72]

Well I got a new hood for it, new non-a/c dash, stock radio and stainless vent windows. I got the old dash cut out and replaced, started striping it down to get the body work done. Also got the cage swapped over to my blazer> I managed to ruin 2 windshields and 2 door windows while I was at it. I broke my recently replaced one I had for my blazer while trying to re-install it. Then got a little too excited to start welding and got slag burns in both door windows welding shut the mirror holes while the windows were Rolled down. Also got the windshield in the Jimmy while welding the replacement dash in. The wife is not impressed. This is my 4th windshield I have ruined.

[1949gmc]

So what are your plans for the Jimmy exactly?

[thor]

didn't want to just wheel the jimmy?

[jonesky2]

you should get some poser pics of your 67 and the k5's

[47thriftmaster]

Some very good projects you have there. Have fun with them

[bigbadchev72]

Thanks for all the compliments. I bought the Jimmy from a very good friend of mine going through some hard times. Believe it or not he had almost 18k in reciepts for this thing. There are alot of high dollar parts on this thing and all name brand stuff.

I am going to return the Jimmy to a really nice cruiser, new paint, radials, interior and then sell it. I am taking alot of the offroad geared stuff off of it and putting it on my Blazer. I am chasing my tail right now trying to find some decent stock seats to have recovered to put back into it.

The Jimmy is almost completely rust free, I have to replace a drivers floorboard. other than that it is way to nice to wheel it. the doors shut soooo nice on it, even with the top off.

I will update tomorrow with more pics. I got this thing TORE down right now.

[bigbadchev72]

Well i guess it is time for an update, i have been busy and have been bad about keeping progress pics. I do have some though, I have the cage and motor swapped over and have been working on sanding and blocking. I Just ordered up 17 gallons of AL's Liner and I am going to color match the whole tub and firewall to match the new paint. I have a couple other bedliner projects as well.

[matthew79]

Sweet! I agree with your color choice!

[bigbadchev72]

Originally Posted by matthew79

Sweet! I agree with your color choice!

Thnaks! Ive been telling the wife its "resale red"

[thor]

looks nice and smoove

[BuckLucky]

Updates?? I love the cage that was in that Jimmy!!

[bigbadchev72]

Ive been Really bad about taking pictures along the way, But I will post up what i got. The Blazer has been on hold for the most part, I did swap the Jimmys motor into the Blazer. I plan on swapping the 3/4ton running gear out of the Jimmy and into my 67' Longbox. I am in the homestrech and waitng for some more funds to come through so I can finish up the jimmy and stick a for sale sign in it and hopefully recoupe some money and I can get back to the Blazer.


I ended up buying some 16.5 BFGs off of craigslist to replace the boggers, then traded them for a set of 35s on a 16" rim that goes a little better with the body style.

[BuckLucky]

Thanks for the update!! Looks good!

[bigbadchev72]

Not a whole lot going on, I got a little side-tracked and have the 67' pulled in the garage now and was sanding and buffing the clearcoat. Well I got a little crazy and sanded though the clearcoat.



So i figured what better time than to fix a couple spots of bodywork that has been bugging me since I painted it a year ago. So I got the back of the cab all sanded down and started slinging some mud.



On a side not I did manage to get a rear bumper welded up for the Jimmy. Im into it $95 bucks for all the metal and D-rings. Looks like Im gonna need to give it another coat of paint, But I think it fits it nice.

[BuckLucky]

Sweet Bumper!

[bigbadchev72]

Got the new seats in today. Got them out of summit for about $450 to my door. 3 hours of measuring, grinding and welding and I got the factory seat brackets modified. These are really nice too since you can recline the seats too. Im gonna have the rear seat covered to match. Windshield,new exaust and a couple small things and I will be able to throw a for sale sign in it.

[matthew79]

Wow, those look nice!! I know it's very common to put late model seats in classics, but IMO they usually don't come out looking nearly as good as the originals but seriously these rock! Probably due to the low backs. They look almost like factory originals.

[bigbadchev72]

I really hate the look of Highbacks in these truck, just dosent look right.

I really like these ones since they look like they could have came with the truck. Plus my factory ones were trashed and i could come close to getting another set, plus upholstry done for what I am into these.