[Harley]

I've been posting around here sporadically for many years, but haven't posted much of my own projects as I always had a project thread going elsewhere. But this truck has been my major project for the last 10 years or so and it was in pieces for the last 6. Just got it together again with a 5.3, T56, and many other parts I've dreamed about over the years. Hit the road back in December and put about 11,000 miles on the truck over 6 weeks. Still lots I'd love to do, but it was great to have it on the road again.

Sitting in the PO's driveway in all her dealer pinstriped stock height glory



Fast forward to Carlisle All Trucks many years ago



And just before I tore her down for this latest round



A year ago I was staring at this





And boom this happened







By boom I mean nearly 12 months of wrestling those last details together

Stopped by the National Corvette Museum on my drive out of Michigan for a quick picture.



I was working at the GM Bowling Green Assembly Plant when I bought the truck back in 2006 and coincidentally 3 parts of my Blazer ended up coming from 2006 Corvettes, so it was surreal to just happen to be driving by on the maiden voyage.

Here's the Blazer in my Bowling Green apartment parking lot not long after I bought her.



Now for the gratuitous scenery



























I don't have any great pictures of the finished interior or underhood, but these will give you an idea. They both look really clean in person, so I feel like these pictures don't do the truck justice.

 

[Harley]

Very nice!

Not too often we see one completed to be actually capable of comfortably traveling cross county. Good job.

Any plans for the battery?

I had to keep reminding myself of how well and how far it was driving whenever I'd start griping about the little things wrong with it. Plenty of things to improve, but the only complete casualties in those 11k miles were the battery and 2 headlamp bulbs. All of those probably being 10 years old, now. The alternator is showing signs of being weak, which I'm assuming was the reason for the batteries demise, but it worked well enough to get me around and back.

Battery is mounted in a tray that holds it in at the base. It's designed specifically for Optimas, which kind of sucks when it unexpectedly dies. It was over $200 and that's for the baby Honda size I'm running. I like the 25lb weight, though.



Please disregard the stained nasty original carpet I've replaced already.

I made up an aluminum bracket under the carpet to take the weight and the clamping force of the bolts instead of deforming the floor between the ribs. I did it without before and not a huge fan of deforming sheet metal like that. Oddly enough I have no pictures of that bracket and I take pictures of everything.

I also made a bracket for the main fuse and remote starter solenoid that bolts under the battery tray. Don't want all that length of wiring without some safety measures.







A battery box of some sort should be in the future and an external shut off switch would be nice too, but not sure how I'll implement either yet.

Nice work. Obviously there are a lot of hours of engineering and fabrication for which the photos do little justice in the eyes of the casual observer.

Incidentally, do I see a notchback Trans Am there in the background?

I think you're looking at the Fiero. Not mine, but quite the piece of engineering itself. It has the same powertrain under the hood as the electric S10 behind it :haha:

You can read through about the last 10 years of progress in a 20 page thread over on Pro-TouringS10, but if there are any pictures anyone would like to see or some part of the truck you want me to go into detail on let me know. The more I talk about it the more I think about how I can do it better next time. I also keep meaning to do a picture or video tour underhood, but the lighting in the shop isn't great with the barn doors closed. I still haven't gotten a picture that shows how clean it is underhood.

http://www.pro-tourings10.com/index.php?topic=87.0

Good to see you psting again, Harley.

Thanks Mo. After I left my job at the end of September to focus on the Blazer as much as possible, I didn't really make time to hop on the forum. I'm finally collecting myself after that adventure and beyond haha

 

[Harley]

I was out at the shop yesterday with the warm weather we had. I grabbed some underhood pictures and shot a quick video tour while I was at it. The barn door was frozen shut, so the lighting still isn't the best, but I think they're better than what I had before.

 

[Harley]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who runs into this problem. the door on my barn also warps so badly on sunny cold days that it can't open - I need to make sure I get the truck out early on those days.

And it's the best source of light around haha but I shouldn't complain too much. The Blazer wouldn't be what it is without that barn.

It looks like a factory install but better.....if that makes sense. lol

You going to Autorama, Harley?

Makes perfect sense. It was what I was going for.

My friend, Al, has been trying to convince me to enter the Blazer, but I don't know if I'll be in the country or not. If I do end up being here I'd like to go.

What size rubber do you have the wheels wrapped in?

Nice video, kind of freaky sounds like I am listening to myself on someone's voicemail... we talk very similar.

Doesn't surprise me, actually. From what I can tell we're both very detailed people.

Tires are 315/35R18 on 18x10 wheels. A bit of a squeeze for the 10" width, but my friend got them on there with all his tricks, he said.

 

[Harley]

I can't really comment on how much it changed the character of the truck. I hadn't driven it in 6 years and there wasn't much that hadn't been changed in it. It had the 4.3/5 speed manual before. I do love driving and shifting it though.

The fuse box was relocated from underhood to there. In my head I was thinking it would be more tucked up under the dash, but I also fit the PCM there too. Overall I don't mind it. I was more worried about having the underhood cleaned up than the interior look pristine and it really doesn't stick out too bad.

 

[Harley]

Guess it's a good enough of a reason for more pictures.

Here are the brackets spot welded to the body and painted body color afterward.





Here is the body harness laid out. You can see the engine harness grommet just to the right of the transmission tunnel. I pulled that out of a 2000ish Grand Am/Alero/Malibu. They have the PCM inside the dash on the driver side, so the connectors need a hole big enough to pass through. And well so did mine!



Cut the carpet to fold around the brackets and routed the engine harness along the passenger side of the PCM.



The dash can be R&R by removing the fuse block, but the BCM needs the PCM out. For all the times I've had either out I regret not welding nuts to the brackets. May have to get some riv-nuts the next time I have it out.







I tucked the TAC module up behind the passenger kick panel using the Transfer Case Control Module bracket. I'm actually using the original studs although not exactly how GM designed them. I guess the TCSCM doesn't share a bolt pattern with GM cruise control modules like the TAC module does.



And the driver seat perspective

 

[Harley]

I've had the Blazer insured for a couple weeks, now, and use it when the weather is dry. I really try to avoid the dirt road the shop is off of when it's wet out.



Took her for a short trip up to the Copper Peak Ski Jump for the Redbull 400 race.





Did some very brief sight seeing on the drive back, but can't pass up the opportunity for beauty shots.



Still some ice on Lake Superior in the distance.



Drove the Mackinac bridge both ways.





The heater core decided it wanted to be an early casualty too. Lasted longer than the steering box, but still not long for a new part.

 

[Harley]

Less than a month before I pick up the Blazer from Michigan and drive it out to Oregon...

Primer is going on soon!

 

[Harley]

Painting it the same color?
What did you end up using for a shifter gasket/boot for your T56?

Yeah. I'm a fan of the pewter after rocking it for 10 years. She's just lived a rough life and the paint was showing it.

I used the factory S10 foam gasket with a relocated hole to fit the T56. On top of that I have a 4th gen Camaro 5 speed rubber floor pan shifter boot. 6 speed is similar, but slightly different. I don't think it would make a huge difference in fit choosing one over the other. I found the 5 speed boot at the junkyard, so I used it.

I cut the floor to fit the S10 foam gasket like it was from the factory. If I were to do it again I might try mocking up a piece of sheet metal with the Camaro boot pattern to see if I liked that better or not. Right now I'm digging the flange of the Camaro into the floor to get a seal for that and the foam is doing most the sealing work. I think the flange going through the hole in the floor and digging into the foam would be more optimal, but this works.

 

[Harley]

this was a pleasant surprise to come upon. Super clean build man, bonus is that your from michigan (same here, just relocated when I was a kid many years ago to the Cincy area.

Thanks man. I wouldn't be surprised if we crossed paths at some point. I brought the Blazer to at least one of the Dropt Out shows and a few others in OHio.... 7 or 8 years ago? I hung out with the Oaktown guys and joined up with them not long before we dissolved too.

Just doing a quick browse through the forum tonight, but did get the Blazer out to Portland successfully and the paint job really adds that extra polish. I'll have to post up a trip recap with a few pictures soon.

 

[Harley]

I've been slacking on updating, but the Blazer is now in Oregon with fresh paint with only a fuel pump needing to be changed along the way. Yay side of the road repairs!

The main reason for the respray was rust at the back of the roof around the CHMSL. Getting rid of the 20 years of dings, scrapes, faded plastics, and paint imperfections was a huge bonus. Also got a color matched front bumper in the deal as well as the roof rack and CHMSL holes welded up.

My friend Scott did all the paint and body work for me. He put in a lot of time getting my Blazer looking this good and I'm immensely grateful for that.

The roof rust was far worse than it looked on the outside ?







The whole rear section got cut out and a roof out of the junkyard grafted in.
















Rear windows had the plastic fixed up and sprayed with a custom gold/silver metal/pearl mixture a friend of mine whipped up many years ago for my grille.

 

[Harley]

I got back to Michigan and jumped in a couple nights helping get her back together.





Windows in and ready to hit the road after an oil change







Made it to Chicago the first night



Did an overnight blast to Denver from there



Swung up through Wyoming where I picked up more bugs and lost a fuel pump





And finally introduced the Blazer to Portland

 

[Harley]

I did a couple things this weekend.

Saturday evening I swapped in the Red Head Steering box I picked up last weekend. They blueprint the whole box and make sure all the parts are sized correctly, which is a huge step up from the rebuilds and refurbs I spent way too much money on already. Just has to last more than 1000 miles and it will be in the lead over my last two steering boxes...

Also swapped in a factory fuel pump and sender instead of the parts store overpriced special I did the side of road repair with. Much quieter.

Today, I actually used my truck for what it was built for. One of my shopmates put on a track day for his 60th birthday and I was quite fortunate to be invited. The Blazer felt like a monster out there and I definitely scared myself, but had way too much fun anyway. Everything worked well, great power, handling, and braking. Blazer has more of all of that than I can handle at the moment, but that just means I will go back for more.

Photos were taken by 4theriders.com He got some great action shots.

 

[Harley]

Thanks everyone!

Too much fun indeed.

@Joe Cool I apparently did a lot of trail braking in that particular corner. Another guy followed me in and said one of the back tires was unloading and locking up another time. Blazer loved getting tossed into that one.

I missed another corner that no one got pictures of. Left the track going backwards that time.

 

[Harley]

Tires were pretty well at the end of life before I got there... Drove home on them in the rain and didn't die haha

One of the reasons I'm sure the truck was sketch is the tires were pretty well wrecked on the street their entire life. With a set of tires I hadn't ruined with heat cycling on the street I'm confident the sketch factor would have dropped from 7/10 to 3 or 4/10.

I should have another set of tires on the way if the company I ordered them from isn't jerking me around, But I will save up a bit more and do some searching for another set of wheels to keep a fresh set for future track excursions.

The Z06 brakes seemed to hold up great. They actually worked better once warmed up and I didn't see a ton of brake dust on my wheels, but I haven't looked closely after the event was over.

It was an open track event with less than 20 cars, so it was pretty much a come and go as you please situation. i didn't record or pay attention to my time out there. I was just out having fun tearing it up. Looking at my trip distances based on my fuel ups I put about 100 miles down on the track.

 

[Harley]

Speaking of the tires... sketchy online tire store came through

 

[Harley]

It's what I built the Blazer to do, so I'd be ok with that prognosis.

 

[Harley]

I reached out to the photographer for this. He was impressed with the Blazer and wanted to share a video with some of his friends. He really caught a great feel of how it looked and sounded out there. Gotta give Joe Salas @ 4theriders.com a big shout out for sharing this with me.

 

[Harley]

A small update: Pat had been helping me store a pair of microsuede door panels and with me shipping him out to storage I decided they'd be better off on the Blazer. Plus they match the Acura seats much better.

Spent far too long making inserts to "fix" the armrest attachment. Passenger side armrest was fine, but decided to reinforce it anyway.

It's ugly, but it works.

Sorry for the sunny comparison, but wasn't moving the truck just to get the perfect shot haha

 

[Harley]

any new updates?

I did this about a month back:

Putting the EVAP back on and taking care of a few other little nuisances I've had since getting it on the road.

Right now waiting on my Engine Mounts to come back from powdercoat. I've had my own design laid out for several years, but never got them on the truck. They add in an extra half inch or so of drop to take advantage of the extra height in the Blazer frame, but still don't drop the Hummer/Hot Rod pan below the crossmember.

Got the rotors turned, new pads on the shelf waiting, will probably try to track down some of the rattles underneath the truck.

Get it back together in time to park it in the garage for the winter unless I get brave and pull the trigger on some new wheels to put the new tires on. I really want to push out to 11" wide wheels from 10" to better fit the 315s, but to get what I want I'll have to go custom and that's a lot of money to go gambling with. I think I can do some more machine work to my heim joint tie rod setup to get the clearance I need to bring the wheels inboard an extra 1/2" but I'm also not sure I want to cut steering angle any more than I already have. Not sure if I have clearance on the fender side to push them out a full inch, but at the same time it might not be a full inch because I'm keeping the same tire and size, so it will likely change shape to my advantage - more stretch, less bulge.