Missy and that last crusade (Sure)

[Missy Good Wench]

The trip to Washington was a real sweet trip.
Seller was ready when we arrived and getting the Blazer on the trailer was a snap.

Pulled it from its parking spot out onto the street with the 89 Blazer and with a 20 ft long strap just ponied it up onto the trailer.

Took all of maybe 10 minutes to get loaded and ready to head back.


UPDATE

Sunday was pretty laid back. Unloaded the Blazer and got it parked in a place that I can get at it.

Started ripping stuff off under the hood. What a mess.

Took a bit to get the melted fan shroud off and down to the engine.

Decided to use a pair of large garden pruners to chop off all the burnt and melted hoses, wires and other junk.

After about 30 minutes of chopping the worst of the mess is cleared away.

Engine turns over fine so I dont think its hurt at all.

The little mouse motor will make a good item to sell on Craigs list and get back part of the investment.

Will post some piccy's in a while.

Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Here are a few Pic's taken this morning.

Ripped the cheapy seat covers off and found that the seats were like factory new under the covers.

Not a real fan of the 80's light tan colors but, with the condition this good, they can stay :thumbsup:

The carpet in the rear cargo area and under the rear seat is perfect.

Will just replace the front carpet as it shows some wear and dirt.

The door panels are nice too.

And the project continues. :smile5:

Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Not much going on the last couple days.
Hot weather and busy at the shop so the rig is sitting quietly waiting for more attention.


Did stop off at the store and pick up some storage bins to keep all the bagged up parts and screws that I am removing from the trucks.

Having everything all "Tagged and bagged" really helps, come time to put it back together.

With the rigs coming right down to the bare bones, inside and under the dash, having all the small stuff all sorted out makes it real handy.

I have done many many engine and tranny overhauls along with other systems but, never have done a "Body Off" rebuild/swap.

Sure are a lot of things so tear apart of get the body off one of these little trucks.


Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Saturday 7/31/10

Getting things cleaned up and ready to lift the top off tomorrow. All loose and slid back from the cab now.

Gonna stop by the home depot and get a couple 2x4's and bolt to the lower rail on the top and let them stick out either side.

I can lift the whole top easily with the skid steer and not worry about dumping it.

Hopefully I can then get the body off the 84 and get rolling on getting the engine and tranny out of it.

All for now.

Missy

 

[3500GMC]

That interior is friggin' amazing. A survivor.

 

[Missy Good Wench]

I too was amazed when ripped the idian blanket seat covers off and found the beautiful seats greeting me.

The front carpet is pretty dirty but not ripped up. It might clean up with a good shampoo using a machine but ???? no biggy to order a new one.

Door panels are nice too.

The head liner over the cab is a crazy patchwork of thumbtacks holding the vinyl to the hardboard.

Rows and rows of neatly spaced thumbtacks all across the thing.

Definately gonna toss that mess out.

I am going to use the door panels from the 85 truck on the 91 doors and then just add the Burlwood section of trim and the electric mirror controls.

This will be an easy little ditty to perform. Just cut the silver trim close to the soft pull handle and then add the Burlwood piece and drill the needed extra holes in the door panel.

Sort of mix and match. I have the Burlwood dash bezel from the 91 truck, just need to dig up the matching trim for the dash pad.

Best part is that all this stuff is pretty much interchangable with minimal bother.

Yessss this truck is definately a survivor

I had never seen a Blazer with a 305 engine before. Around here they are usually found with the 350.

Truck has (listed on the build sticker) the high altitude emissions so ????????

My plan at this point is to paint the truck Sunburst Orange (2010 Jeep) and do the removable top in Black herculiner to give it a nice textured look.

I may add a wide 2 or 3 row pin stripe down the sides to cover the original split of the two tone paint. (has a 3 row stripe now)

Paint is good enough that I dont want to totally strip the truck, just sand, prime and shoot it.

Right now I am thinking about getting some of the Orange paint and shooting the inside of the 90 front clip that shows when the hood or doors are open.

I was going to leave that clip all assembled and place it on the truck as a unit but ???????????????/

Think I will yank it apart and clean and paint all the pieces then assemble it on the truck after the engine is back in.

I will paint the exterior after all the screwing around is done.

Going to build a lifting rig today to handle the hard top. This will make getting the tops off and then back on after paint work, without screwing anything up.


OMG what a fun job this is turning into.

My neighbor came over and I had to pick his jaw off the dirt. He can't believe that anyone would take a car all the way apart. Oh and then plan on putting it back together again.

Have not even formulated a real plan on the engine yet, other than its going to get my little fingers all the way through it, Oh and the tranny too.

Was thinking about maybe replacing the stock mufflers with some flow masters. This should give the little 6.2 a nice growl.

One step at a time.

Will post pics as they happen


Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE


Well today was a mixed bag of work around her.

Got off my butt around 9 and made myself presentable ):h

Tooled on down the mountain to Mic's (Mickey D's) and had breakfast, YUM YUM :smile5:

From there headed up the boulevard to Home depot. Got some cedar decking for the ongoing changing of the planks on the deck.

At near $18 for a 12 footer, I am not doing these too many at a time.

Looks like maybe 8-10 more pieces will be it for this year. Been 16 years up in the wind rain and snow and it has taken its toll on things.

Got a couple 8 foot 2x4's to help get the top off the Blazer. Worked just as planned.

I used some short lag bolts and fastened the 2x4 onto the top at the rail and then installed some eye bolts to lift with..

Lifted the little fellow right of quite nicely.

All ready for a new home now.

Here are a few piccy's of the PICK


Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Update

Not too much to report. Been busy this week with work and such.

Last eavening a fellow cam over and bought some of the extra stuff off the 85 that I dont need for the project.

Sold the Tube grille and the headlight bezels and a couple other little items off the front end of the truck (will not be used)

Hoping to get the body off the 84 on Sunday.

Still working on a lift rig for that purpose.

Later troops

Missy

 

[3500GMC]

I want this grille... (arms crossed, toe tapping on floor)

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Sorry to say that the grille in the 84 has a chunk busted out up near the top on the LH side.

I had several local calls off craigs list looking for the grille.

Sorry

 

[Missy Good Wench]

UPDATE

Sunday was a busy day with fam ily coming over late in the afternoon.

Managed to get a couple hours of time on the 84 stripping loose more wiring under the dash.
Carefully lableing all the plugs and long runs of wire as to where they go.

The under dash wiring is an absolute mess to navigate.
Several little "MODULES" that have the little "Barbed" plastic prongs that fasten them at various places were a real BEOTCH to get off intact..

Worrying out the rubber grommets in the firewall is another PITA.

Down now to just a few more little items and I should be ready to rig the body for a LIFT.

Safety brake cable, rear differential breather hose and probably a ground wire or two is all thats left me thinks.

Really being careful with the main wiring harness so I dont do any damage to it.

Should be a snap to lay it all back into the 85 body and plug things all right back in and hook it all up.

Some of the multi plug connectors will need a little contact cleaner sprayed on them but other than that, all looks good.

More coming soon.

Missy

 

[dangerousdave]

I've replaced some firewall grommets with a small piece of hose just big enough to hold the wire / cable / hose in place then coat the joint with permatex blue.

More fireproof, and colorful too.

Rigger; better than original.

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Trying hard to preserve the originality of things.

So far everything is coming out nicely and in usable condition.

The wiring and grommets on the 85 were toasted pretty good on the underhood side. (Body Donor)

What few things that may be in need of replacement are still in very good shape on the 87 Burb (DONOR)

So far the only grommet thats messed up is the one for the speedo cable. Somewhere along the last 20 Plus years someone cut a hole in it to feed in some extra wiring.

Nice thing here is that once the engine is out of the chassis and the firewall is exposed, I can clean and reinstall everything nice and neat back like it was from Ma general.

I may use some silicone sealer or ?? to make sure the grommets dont pop out once installed.

I am hoping that the heavy sound deadener pad on the firewall of the 87 Burb is in good useable shape as the one on the 84 Blazer is crumbling and falling off.

Good bet that this is going to be the last hoorah for this little rig..

Just loads of fun.

Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

UPDATE Monday August 16 2010

Hot yesterday, but I got busy on the project real early.

Body is completelt stripped out now.

I removed the complete HVAC system yesterday as well as gently lifting out the wiring harness from under the dash area.

Getting the HVAC system out is a snap once the dash area is stripped clean and tilted out at the bottom.

With the front clip off the AC stuff is just a walk in the park.

Definately going to replace the heater core while the thing is apart though.

Now
The 85 Body being from a gasser does not have the little pins that the sound pad on the firewall is fastened to.

Will just have to fasten the pad onto the new body with either pop rivets or sheet metal screws.

The other area is that the fuel filter mounting holes are absent too.

I carefully removed the filter bracket from inside the cowl air plenum and will locate and drill the three needed holes in the 85 body and then spot weld the bracket back in place.

The 85 has an extra hole in the firewall that was used for the wires from the computer.
Will see about getting a rubber plug for that.

I need to use the brake pedal frame from the 84 as the bolt arrangement is slightly different than on the gasser 85 with the vacuum booster..

All sorts of slight differences between the two trucks.

Down to the final countdown now.

Next stop is to lift the body off.

Will see what the weather brings this week and try to lift the thing ASAP.

Looking forward to getting the mess cleaned up and stuff packed away for the coming winter.

Dont know how much I will get done on the 85 at this point, but hope to at least get the clip off, the engine out and the firewall cleaned and painted. (Fire damage)

More piccy's soon

Missy

 

[dangerousdave]

Thanx for the update,

from your Adoring Fans
uttahere:

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Having fans is a nice things. :bow:

This has been a way kewl project so far.

Time will tell when things start going back together.


Missy

 

[83GMCK2500]

Sounds pretty sweet. The '76 in my signature was a project that my dad and I worked on a few years ago. It has 81+ doors with power everything and carpeted panels, and the interior trim pieces including headliner out of an '85, and it retains the '76 dash. It looks pretty nice, I like how it turned out.

 

[Missy Good Wench]

UPDATE UPDATE

Sunday 8/22/10
Got up this morning to a very cool (good working weather) day.

Got the tools out and went at it.
Completed the needed fabrication on the lifting rig to get the Blazer body off the frame.

Along about 1 in the afternoon, all was ready to try a lift.

I had sized up the weight/ballance on the thing over the last few weeks and built the rig accordingly.

Fabbed up two nice little brackets to bolt onto the cowl using an upper and lower door hing bolt and along with a 4x4 placed across the bed area, connected to the rear seat latch bars in the floor with two winch straps.

As it turned out I was just slightly ahead of the ballance point.]

After the inital pic I went ahead and attached another winch strap to the bucket of the skid steer and to the rear of the bed area. This evened things out quite nicely.

The skid steer was at the limit of its capacity, having the weight at the outer edge of the bucket though. (Tad tippy)

With the body off I went to work and removed the trailer hitch and then pumped out the fuel tank. (Was near full)

Now I can get at the rear body mount areas and clean everything up quite nicely.

Things look really good.

Once upon a time, this truck was rolled. This had happened back before I owned the truck the first time and the rig always drove fine.

Well with the body off and a good view of things possible, there were two spots on the frame that have been heated up.

Someone had this thing on a frame rack and did some tweeking.

All in all, if I had not owned and driven the rig before, I might be a tad nervous about it but, under the circumstances it should be fine.

With a good body (not tweeked) back on the frame it should be great.

The rear shock mounts had been damaged and crudely repaired. With the body off I can do a right nice job on these now.

The LH rear mount was bady torn up and a piece of 1/4" plate scabbed in. The stud on the RH side was welded into the frame

All easily fixed at this point.


Probably the next thing will be to take stock in the engine wiring, mark it all and remove for storage.

The engine and tranny need to come out.
With the engine stuck tight, I will remove the T case off the tranny, then the tranny off the egine.

I hope that the engine has something thats salvageable.

No biggy if it does not though.

Next will be a good steam clean with the hot washer at 2000PSI to get 26 years of crap off the thing.

A couple places have some light rust (very light) and need a little Rust Mort before it goes back together.

All for now

Here are some Piccys taken yesterday FOR THE FANS

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Got out early this morning and moved the new little prize over next to the 84 and started ripping on the dash and such stuff.

Sold the grilles a week or so ago and low and behold, I found a lovely set of air to oil coolers hiding in there.

Tranny cooler and engine oil cooler.

Will be great on the 6.2 YESSSSSSSSS

 

[3500GMC]

So now I find myself wanting a skid steer and a blazer.:love:

Thanks

I need to post pics of a fire engine red Blazoid I ran/run/runned/ran't accross here in the rusty weeds of Ohio.

..trying to avoid noticing it as I drive by. I need another project like I need another hole in the head.