2wd 1977 Blazer LS swap, mild drop….escalating

[Advanced Design]

I’ve been looking for dry ice blasting alternative for the bottom and am thinking I am going to have to buckle down and clean this the old fashioned way with tons of elbow grease….not looking forward to that.

[Advanced Design]

Ordering another part tomorrow from a local business……

[Advanced Design]

Made some stud mounts to weld to the firewall for HVAC mounting and drilled the holes large enough for decent surface area for plug welding.

[Advanced Design]

And we had fun today, bolting parts back on the engine! Good times….

The ps return tube contacted the frame and a little downward bending resolved the interference.

Mrs A.D. handled the coil and bracket refurbishment. She remounted those and the intake, torquing the bolts to spec.

The AC bracket came with the VA Sure Fit….not a fan of the looks of either, so we will be going a different route on both of those components….. The sure fit items on the firewall and the ac bracket.

Replacement throttle body is on the “gotta order” list too.

[Ad Cam]

Awesome build! Cool to see another truck from the Land of Lincoln.

[oldman3]

Doug, looking good and moving along...Jim

[youngrodder]

Hey a complete roller...Wont be long know..

Looks good.

Marc

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by Ad Cam

Awesome build! Cool to see another truck from the Land of Lincoln.

Thank you! My office was in Naperville, so I’ve spent a lot of time in your neck of Illinois over the years.

Originally Posted by oldman3

Doug, looking good and moving along...Jim

Thanks Jim! We are trying, though the trip to FL a couple weeks ago slowed us down a bit.

Originally Posted by youngrodder

Hey a complete roller...Wont be long know..

Looks good.

Marc

Thanks Marc, we hope so.

The new drive shaft is in. From Inland Empire in CA.

[Advanced Design]

Seat belts were restored by TKCR, and they worked some magic on them.

Here is a before and several after pictures. The belts came out extremely nice!

[Advanced Design]

Ran into a young man who started a pressure washing business, and he thought he could clean the floor bottoms to my liking.

He used hot high pressure water, cleansing agents and even steam to get them clean. I am thrilled with the results!

Included a couple before and after pics too.

[lower50's]

That's crazy, the seat belts turned out so good. That pressure was guy did a great job.

[youngrodder]

Looking good Doug...So nice when they can come to the house. I did something similar to the bottom and interior of the suburban but with a sandblaster.

Marc

[OutlawDrifter]

Very cool, my favorite color combo! And the hood stripes to boot!

Just got caught up, very cool project

[87chevy.com]

Pretty lucky with the high hump transmission tunnel. With the 6l80e, it wouldn't have unless its tilted down pretty far.

I wonder what the offset on those rotors is. When I did my Wilwood c-10 pro spindle with the same style caliper, I wound up using 12.915"x 30mm thick rotors from a 2006 jeep Cherokee. It does require taking it to the machine shop and having the center hub bored to fit. It was the same thickness as the NNBS brakes so it matched.

clint

[LT7A]

What's the latest? Guessing there might be some updates. What a cool rig you found. I want to do whatever I had to do to buy a rig like that if I found it. That color combo with the '77 ochre trim? Dude! I hope you guys are having fun with it.

[evan]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

While I should have stayed with the factory ac system, I do like the clean look you can have with Vintage Air so we ordered the sure fit system. They make a great product, though I didn’t like the look of the plate that goes over the existing holes.

To avoid using the plate, I filled the holes with 19 gauge by butt weld and metal finishing the shrink as best as possible. It probably would have been cleaner to replace the firewall on that side and maybe less work.

I still need to drill for the ac and heater connections, fill small bolt holes and support the evap case under the dash by welding elevator bolts to the firewall.

Yeah, I should have stayed with the perfectly good factory system.

Hi Doug,

Any chance you'd like to sell the firewall cover plate that came with the Vintage Air kit? I'm doing the same thing with welded studs inside for a smooth firewall. I'm doing the bodywork now and they're estimating January delivery for the kit. I called them direct but they don't offer a digital or paper template, the firewall cover it's self is the only method they have for locating the 1/4-20 mounting bolts.

[SCOTI]

Just read through this build thread. Nice stuff going on here. Looks like this will be a great cruiser based on that very solid starting point.

[TotallyHucked]

Man, that was a really cool truck you guys scooped up! Hope all is well and the build is still progressing

[LT7A]

It appears that Elvis has exited the building. I don't know Mr. AD personally and so I don't know the circumstances but it appears he hasn't been on here since last April. It's too bad, I would like to be seeing what's happening with this rig. I hope all is well.

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by evan

Hi Doug,

Any chance you'd like to sell the firewall cover plate that came with the Vintage Air kit? I'm doing the same thing with welded studs inside for a smooth firewall. I'm doing the bodywork now and they're estimating January delivery for the kit. I called them direct but they don't offer a digital or paper template, the firewall cover it's self is the only method they have for locating the 1/4-20 mounting bolts.

Evan, I am so sorry I hadn’t responded! That is how I located the mounting location on the firewall for the HVAC case as well. If you still need it let me know. Thank you!

And guys thanks for checking on me. I’ve been on other car and property projects…plus did some traveling and vacationing. Took too much time off from Blazer build. Helped my Grandson on rear diff for his 1998 Camaro.

Enjoying life and pursuing vehicles.

[SCOTI]

That's Life. Good to see you're still kickin'.

[mongocanfly]

X2..!!!!!

[Advanced Design]

Thanks guys! After a fling messing with a 1970 Cadillac and a 1996 Caprice, we sold those and picked up a clean 1996 Tahoe. Struggled with wheel stud replacement for the new wheels for the 56 with a couple days before leaving on Hot Rod Power Tour, and moved the 1949 Chevy truck my Grandpa bought new from my late Uncles barn to our shop. He used it for farming up until 1997 and it was parked. Finally we were able to get back on Garth.

Guess I kinda took a year sabbatical from trucks and I missed them!

[Advanced Design]

We had a friend handle the seat restoration as he and his wife are wanting to do interiors as a side business. They did really well! Here are some before and after.

[Advanced Design]

Wife handled the console refurbishment. She did really well too.