When
"Beastly" developed the need for a drive shaft, pinion and ring gear, it
was the perfect time to hunt for a parts truck to upgrade the 1/2 ton
running gear.
In
search of a parts truck we found this...... "Beauty"
Originally rebuilt locally in the late 90's with a most
of the work documented on Off-Road.com as
Project Blazin. Since, Beauty went through two other owners after
its build. The first neglectful, and the second with good intentions but
never got around to cleaning it up.
And now, at its final home......
I had my eye
on this truck for almost four years prior to this point, knowing if we
left a note we would pay top dollar.
Then is disappears for about 6 months, only to reappear posted for sale
minutes before I logged on late one night, priced within my "parts
truck" budget. So I was up bright and early the next morning, knowing a
deal like this would not last. Not quite the parts truck we were looking
for, but a sweet deal with a ton of desirable extra parts.
June 2009
The 454 Before Clean-up
Cap Rotor Plugs and Wires, this did wonders considering the mismatched
set that dissolved as I pulled them off. The exhaust manifold gaskets,
which were blown out from being horribly loose.
Scrapped the 10 year old rubber
fuel line and rusty filter and bent up a new steel line. A new water
pump with a full 1 ton cooling system conversion. Degreased and
repainted the engine and accessory brackets.
While doing a brake inspection and flush I broke the bleeder screw in
the left caliper, so it got new calipers up front and finish flushing
the brake fluid.
July 2009
Threw in a new 100 amp
alternator with a single wire conversion to replace the old three wire
alternator with a bad bearing. Which lead me to, rewiring the engine
harness, and relocated MSD ignition module from the fender next to the
battery to the factory speaker location inside the dash. We rewired the
rats nest of speaker wire, and hid rear wires. A few other cosmetic
interior items like painting the beige door panels black. The frame was
starting to crack around the steering box, so I had the pleasure of
repairing the frame and slapping on the Offroad Design's weld on
steering box brace.
The 454 Before Clean-up
The
454, starting to clean it up
August 2009
One of the
many parts we received when we bought
the Blazer, was a new tailgate complete with a power rear window
assembly and a factory wiring harness, already painted to match. It
spent the summer stored safely in the living room prior to being
installed.
The valve
covers were installed backwards hiding the oil fill cap behind the PCV
valve under the master cylinder. This was the perfect chance for an
internal inspection and to get the casting numbers from the heads. I
remove the factory tabs before stripping, repainting, and reinstalling
them on the correct side.
November 2009
The
454, clean up continued
Continuing
with rewiring of the engine harness, rerouting the harness away from the
intake manifold.
At this point there are not any wires on top of the engine.
Beauty was
voted "Truck of the Month" for December 2009 by our fellow members of
the
ChevyK5Blazer.com
forum.
February 2010
old dry rotted donor
almost new Grant GT
donor replacement
I traded the
old dry rotted steering wheel as a donor to a parts truck that only need
the function of steering . In return I received an almost brand new base
Model Grant GT steering wheel, complete with the mounting adapter.
The
Grant GT was installed in Beauty solving the space issues between the
aftermarket seats, roll bar and steering wheel. While its good factory
steering wheel complete with a functional horn button and all contacts
were installed in the
Bastard, upgrading the old wheel and replacing the missing horn
button and contacts.
March 2010
A little more play
time at Hollister Hills Voted "Truck
of the Month" for April 2010 by our fellow members of the
ChevyK5Blazer.com
forum.
May 2010
The brake
pedal was getting soft over time. With a closer look at the brake
system, I discovered evidence of a slow leak from the base of the master
cylinder on the vacuum booster. Fortunately the master cylinder had the
original GM part number on it "29895-C", identifying it as one from an
80 3/4 ton Suburban or 1 ton truck with 13 inch rear brakes. After
picking up the master I gave it a quick bench bleeding, and swapped it
into Beauty followed by a full hydraulic flush. The pedal is solid now.
Utilizing my
license plate frame idea from the
Bastard,
I made a few more for Beauty and
Beastly.
While
servicing Beauty, I decided it was running hotter than it should be
running. Not overheating, just hot. It was time to do some basic
maintenance anyways, and a good time to dig a little deeper into the
engine.
Little did I know how much I would be doing...
July 2010
Took the top off and went
wheeling with the Nor Cal OffRoad club at
Blazer Fest 11 in Hollister Hills.
I had a blast,
and took a lot of
Pictures. Can't wait until next year...
August 2010
I found a
rather large puddle under Beauty one morning. I followed the leak up to
the water pump, grabbed a rag and wiped the water pump to dry it off a
bit and to get a better look at where the leak was coming from. Then a
drip turned into a stream as I exposed a hole.
Apparently
during the machining process they cut a little too close to the water
jacket leaving a very thin wall.
Fortunately it failed at the house rather than out on the road.
