Missy and that last crusade (Sure)

[just a number]

X3 here

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Im back :thumbsup:

Got to work in ernest this morning. Moved the Blazer ocer in front of the house so I could get at it.

Got the radiator out as well as a lot of other stuff.

The front clip is all loose now and ready to come off.

All the bolts and screws came out with relative ease.

A total lack of Salt in its diet made things real easy.

The little 6.2 is tied up tighter than a Bulls A$$ in fly time.

Had a 6 foot bar on the crank and it wont budge, not even

Going to get the clip off, remove the doors and then lift the body off.

I can then get the engine and tranny out as a unit and separate them.

I dont want to try and rattle tranny out with the converter still bolted to the flex plate.

Once the powertrain is out, I can clean everything up, replace any bad fuel hoses and such and then install the Rough Country 6 inch lift kit.

Doing the lift wioth the body off will make it a snap.

Here are some piccy's I snapped this afternoon.

OH BTW, the pix of the rear wheelhouse area is showing a little dirt on an otherwise factory painted frame from 1984.

Not bad for all those years.

Well if all goes well the little critter will look like a Calico cat here in a few weeks. Waht with a Gray and White front clip, Dark blue doors, Gray and Black body, White top and a Blue and white Tailgate.

What a MUTT.

Gonna get a Blue interior this trip around. Will probably order some new carpet eventually. Maybe Black just to be different.

Missy has had a big day, No blood let today though :smile5:

Hopefully in the next day or so I can get the clip off.


Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

UPDATE

Well got going on the Blazer over the weekend and this morning, took the front clip off.

Next comes the rear bumper, tailgate, the top and then the body.

Yup going to do a Body off restore on this POS.:thumbsup:

Here is a few piccys.

Later troops

Missy

 

[davo727]

Excellent! You are an energetic little lady

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Took me most of the day Sunday to get the clip ready to come off. :sad:

Thankfully, the bolts all came off with ease and it was just a matter of taking the thing apart.

Energetic ??????? Persistent possibly.

Bought some new 6.2 pistons off Ebay today and some new lifters too.

Lots of HMMWV military stuff out for sale these days.

I decided to just go head and build a nice fresh engine and tranny for this project.

Once the truck is all back together I will know what I have.

I hope that I can get the body off soon and get things cleaned up and ready to go back together.


Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

UPDATE

Not much going on during the week now. Got a can of the PB Blaster SKUNK PISS and sprayed the back bumper bolts.

The bumper has got to come off to allow getting the tail gate off as well as unbolting the body and getting it off.

The rear bolts are a tad rusty compared to the front ones. I would like to avoid having to use the hot wrench on those bolts.

The threads dont look bad, just a little rusty after 26 years out in the world.

Keep ya posted troops.


Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Well now
The skunk piss did nothing for the bumper bolts.
Tried this morning to remove one of the easier bolts to get to and just twisted it off.

Soooooooo, I pryed the rubber strips off the bumper and will drill the heads of the bolts and take them out the hard way.

The trailer hitch and other stuff in that area makes getting to the bumper bolts tough at best. Need to use a wiggler socket and the dangle angle is enough to make putting enough pressure on the nuts a real PITA.

Sooo the bolts will be sacrificed. AHRRRRRRGGGG

 

[3500GMC]

Hell, just eat some Wheaties and twist the rest of 'em off..

I love the smell of rust in the morning.

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Update

The bumper is off all nice and sweet.

I hated the very real prospect of a real blood letting, considering the force I needed to use to snap them bolts off.

Tonight I drilled the center of the bolt heads (right through the stainless caps) and within 30 minutes the sucker was all off and on the dirt.

The upper bolts that are under the plastic rub strip required a long extension and a wiggler to get on the nuts. Bad angle for the amount of torque needed.

My Plan at present is to replace the bumpers with some heavy Class 8 truck frame.

Weld on some cool Kick butt D rings for tow hooks on the front and back.

Spoke with a Big truck wrecking yard earlier about a couple 7 foot long pieces of heavy aluminum truck frame.

That stuff is fairly light but very strong.

I hate the stock flimsy chrome bumpers. Little parking lot nudge and they bend.

Maybe some 110# railroad iron would be cool. Little heavy though at 110# per 3 foot.

Might snoop around and see if I can find some 70# rail. Definately will keep the riff raff from getting into the sheet metal.

With the bumper off now I can get back to work on getting the body off the frame..

Missy

 

[dangerousdave]

At your planned altitude, maybe most riff raff should snag their hoods on the underside of the bumpers?

Thanx for the update. Your fans are appreciative. :bow:

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Dave
For sure. A 6 inch lift with 33 inch tires will put this little critter up in the air a tad for sure.

I have thought about 35 or 36 inch tires but even with the 6 inch lift, fender clearance on the front gets to be a tad dicey.

When its all said and done, I want to get a winch on the front of this rig, sooooooooooo
We shall see what shakes out as far as bumpers go.

Looking for function, reliability, durability on this truck.

Been a long time since I had a mechanically injected diesel YESSSSSSSSSSSS

Sure wish I had a shop that I could close and lock at night. Be great to be able to just drop what I am doing and leave everything right where it lays until I can or feel like coming back to it.

Ahhh well, such is life.

Hope to get farther along this weekend on the removal of the body.

Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Out early this morning, looking over the project.

Trying to formulate a decent plan of action.

There is absolutely no way that I can get this thing done this summer, so I need to bag up and box up all the Nuts bolts and screws as well as the small parts so they can be lept contained until things are ready to go bacl together.

Once the body is off the frame, I can fetch the engine and tranny out easily and break them apart for easy handling.

After that is done, I can clean the frame and make any little repairs to whatever needs doing.

I figure that I may be able to get the body cleaned up some and back on the frame by fall with the newer tailgate, doors, top and such. With this done I will at least have the thing such that I can close it up for the winter.

My shop is not heated and we store hay for the horses on one end. The large doors are usually left open year round to keep good airflow for the hay.

My "work area" is on one end, has a concrete slab, power and good lighting, just no heat.

Once the chassis stuff (other than paint) is done, I can then worry about building an engine and tranny for the critter.

Be nice to drop the powertrain back in while the body is off but, that will delay getting things back together far too long me thinks.

WE shall see.

Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Sunday morning 7/18/2010

Well I got back at the little beats again. Tailgate window was not working at I am told (Front nor back) I unplugged the power cables at the rear and they were bady corroded.

Cleaned and jumped 12V off the Bobcat. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSs JOY the window rolled right down.

Tailgate is off now and resting comfortably on the spare tire alongside the truck.

Got the rear section inner upholstery panels all of YUUUUUUUUUUUCK very nasty smellling but the body is great under them.

Tore out the carpet and pad and promptly toosed on the burn pile.

Hard top bolts all removed with only two balking a bit. (had to wedge a screw driver alongside the floating nuts in the bed rails as they would turn inside the clip)

Drilled the heads off the read most two body mount bolts and they are out.
Will drill the other two up in the middle of the bed area.

The RH side front body bolt came out ( hard but it came) Will run a tap through the threads before things go back ( Never seaze on the threads OH YEAH BUDDY)

Middle body bolt was stuborn and the nut plate broke loose inside the beam area under the floor. (Will cut a small access hole and remove the nut plate with a die grinder and then add a new plate later during reassembly)

Reasonably happy at how things are progressing.

I can only imagine what this would be like on a SALT wagon. OMG

Well back to it, just took a break.

Later troops. Will snap a few piccy's today and post them.

Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Back again after a fun packed day ):h

Well a new twist has come about. I got the interior gutted pretty much and discovered some cancer in the inner rocker panel areas.

The roof had been damaged back years before I originally owned the truck and the reapirs were crappy at best. Water had been leaking into the interior and soaking up the carpet pad.

Bottom line is that the roof is pretty crappy and the floor area and the rocker panels need some serious loving.

I got all the body bolts out but, not without some serious surgery.

The only one that came out easily was the RH front one under the passenger foot area.

The LH front broke off, the middle ones required me to cut a hole in the floor over the nut plates and then cut off the plate retainer and weld on a bar to hold the nut plate and allow removing the bolts.

The 4 rear bolts were stuck too and I drilled the centers of the carriage bolt head out and then snapped the heads off.

OK Body is ready to lift off now.

I decided to put an ad on craigs and see if I might scrounge up a better body and just a few minutes ago a local fellow called me with an 85 K5 that is really lovely other than it had seen a carb fire that got to the wiring and the plastic stuff under the hood.

$300 takes it home. The word is that the interior and everything else is SWEET, including the upholtery, carpet and such.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOK sooooooooo now the wrom hasd turned.

Me thinks that the best plan is to take the shell off the 85 and drop it on my 84 diesel frame (I have a diesel frame with a diesel title)

I can swap the ID plate so everthing matches again and Pooooof I will have a sweeeet little diesel Blazer.

I can salvage the wiring from the 84 and install it in the 85 shell. The wiring harness on the 84 diesel is in great shape.

Now I can install the 90 front clip and the sucker will look like the late model
K5



Wow what a way to get a diesel Blazer Eh :smile5:

Here are some pix shot today.

Will keep you updated as thing go along.

Need to run over town and take a peek at the 85 and see just waaaasssssup before we get too carried away.

Hell for $300 might be a real deal.


Missy

 

[Missy Good Wench]

UPDATE

Monday was a great day. Good weather and as luck would have it, got to go look a the 85 Blazer after work.

Well it had suffered an underhood fire but the damage was confined to the wiring under the hood, hoses, fan shroud and got the paint on the firewall pretty toasty back by the distributor. SNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFFFFF

The truck overall is great. One dent in the LH fender but OH well, I want to install the later clip anyway.

The interior is well used but by all indications dry and no rust that I could find.

For the $300 asking price its a bargain.

Here are a few piccy's of the little Jewel :thumbsup:

The plan is to go get it Saturday some time. (30 miles away)

Have the use of a flat bed car hauler lined up so were set.

Now I really need to get the 84 totally apart and moved out of the way so I can rip the 85 apart. :thumbsup:

Missy

 

[3500GMC]

You'll never find those in that shape around my neck of the woods...:nonod:

 

[Missy Good Wench]

10-4 on that statement for sure for sure there good buddy C'Mon

My Craigslist ad was only up for about 2 hours and this fellow Bit on it.

Heading out early Saturday morning to go get the little beast.

Already got some of the goodies sold off it. One local fellow wants the accessory brackets and such.

I will sell everything except the body.

Now I need to find a set of the DARK slider side windows for the TOP. They look soooooooooo cooooooooooooool.

Got a set of 15X10 alloy wheels left from another deal that will look great. Scarfed up a set of nice Warn hubs new in the box at a Garage sale for it too.

Its amazing how much of this stuff is laying around in folk's back yards.

Diesels, now thats another story. I have been searching for a decent diesel Jimmy/Blazer for about 3 years and they just dont come up often.

This is the reason I grabbed the old 84 when it came back around.

I am glad I asked about it, they were gonna send it to the crusher..

Later

Missy

 

[68post]

Veerry good deal ! They think rust-buckets are worth more here. If ya think I'm jealous now... just wait...

 

[Missy Good Wench]

A few years ago, we had a 95 Burb that lost a tie rod end and bit the ditch.

Did not want to spend the $$$ to repair the sheetmetal (Not bad damage but more than we wanted to spend)

Sold the thing on Ebay to a fellow from Kansas City Mo

He flew in and spent 3 days getting it ready to drive home.

Picked him up at the airport and all the way back to Newberg, he was just going nuts with all the older rigs going down the highway here.

Constant OMG Look at that 70 Blazer, OMG look a that Ford Fairlane wagon.
You should have heard him when a 56 chevy passed us on the Freeway.

Guy about gave me a heart attack with all his screaming and gasping at all the older rigs.

Yess its a different world out here in the land that does not use salt.

The only thing is that if you leave it parked more than a short time, the north side turns GREEN with moss.

I was quite delighted to get that 85 for $300. Even here they normally bring more $$$$

Two things are working on this now. The fellow who owns it needs it gone due to neighbors complaining about too many rigs parked around, and lot of folks are bailing out and buying the idea that they need to spend the mega $$$$ to get a rig that gets 30 MPG.

They never stop to figure the cost of the new rig plus the bank interest on the note.

Hell I can afford to drive an old clunker that only gets 13 MPG or so and am still far ahead of the game.

Normally my daily driving is less than 20 miles in the car/pickup and I dont have a payment every month on the beasts either.

Likely on average I drive less than 100 miles a week in the car/pickup

Will be nice to get the Blazer up and going at 20+ MPG "Just to do my part ya know" ):h

 

[Missy Good Wench]

Left the ranch this morning with the Big truck and a borrowed trailer 9 am and got back with the little prize in tow.

All went real well.

Will post some more piccy's of the new little prize a little later.

Missy