New Blazer - 1971 CST

[DeadheadNM]

Enjoy it as for a while - looks great! Easy enough and enjoyable to replace trim, etc while maintaining a running rig.

As an aside, is it easy to get ethanol-free gas locally? There's a single gas station here in ABQ that offers 88 octane ethanol-free. In MT nearly every station had 91 octane ethanol-free gas.

[71swb4x4]

There is a gas station 2.5 blocks from my house that sells ethanol free gas.

The tank looks good inside. I am going to do the POR 15 fuel tank sealer and I think we will be good to go.

Tonight we went to the work shop where I have a parts Blazer hiding and tried to find some seatbelts. Out of 3 Blazers I might have one decent set of belts, I will have to unbolt them all and see how they look.

[68C15]

have you changed the oil yet?

Sam looks pretty darn happy

let's see now. Sam gets the green one. Alex gets the orange one. Dad gets the blue one. You're gonna need a bigger driveway. May I suggest a GM crate motor for blue?

[mx289]

Great find.
Looks to be in good shape.

[71swb4x4]

Have not changed the oil yet. Samson is working on lights, I am working on the gas tank/lines, and we are working on seatbelts too. Then we plan to change all fluids.
Today's find was that a door latch screw backed out of the driver's side door and is preventing it from opening. The door didn't open when I bought it. I think this is going to be a challenging one to figure out.

[Dieselwrencher]

Man, what a nice score you brought home! It really cleaned up nice. I'd leave it alone and fix it and drive it too.

[71swb4x4]

THE DOOR IS OPEN! My fingers hurt! I was able to get about 1/2" of a hack saw blade on it. So I taped up the blade, and taped up the door and bed side, and spent an hour cutting one screw.
The latch was super loose. So I think the screw was backing out, or someone backed it out, and the latch was sagging into the door so it wasn't apparent that the screw was loose. The last time the door was shut the latching action sucked the latch back out and pushed the head of the screw out so it was catching.

[jaros44sr]

I can't believe that screw backed out on it's own, I usually have to use an impact hammer on them, anyway nice fix, and truck looks really nice all cleaned up

Btw, there is a handle for saw blades in that application, not trying to be a smarta$$, just trying to save your hands, tape was a good start. Do the threads turn

[71swb4x4]

Handle can barely be seen in the blade picture. The tape was to protect the Blazer.
I pulled the latch tight with the bottom screws and what was left of the top one turned out by hand. I need to steal a screw from the parts Blazer now.

[simplepeddler]

Nice find for sure................one day...........I'll run across one that is worth having!

[jaros44sr]

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

Handle can barely be seen in the blade picture. The tape was to protect the Blazer.
I pulled the latch tight with the bottom screws and what was left of the top one turned out by hand. I need to steal a screw from the parts Blazer now.

Ok , now I see it, sorry I thought tape was to protect your hand, glad it worked out

[68C15]

"parts blazer"
which one? LOL

[71swb4x4]

I put the license plates on today. 1971 NOS plates for my county. My brother-in-law gave me these 8 or 9 years ago. He found them in Chicago.

[Chulisohombre]

Nice plate. I'd like to have a period correct for mine too.

[abebummy26]

Looks, a lot nicer than your parts on from Iowa lol

[Sacramento70]

i love the blazer, love the story, and im jealous you have 2 sons interested in your truck. i have no kids but i have a dad and brother who have 72's, i have a 70 and it seems their interest is lacking . i miss the excitement i felt the day i bought my blazer in 2009 when i was 18 and they were egg-static for me and hopeful of my restoration. I didnt go frame off but rather fix as need and restore as i like and i think its the best way to go. A down truck IMHO tends to stay a down truck.....So drive the hell out of it and enjoy the passion we all share

[chastain90]

Buy some of that POR 15 gas tank sealer. I used it and its great. really helps keep rust out. Just gotta make sure the tank is empty first.

[71swb4x4]

Made some great progress this weekend.
Yesterday we took it on it's longest journey, took the boys to 4-H archery about 8.5 miles round trip. I was a little worried that the temporary 2 gallon fuel tank wouldn't make it!
The gas tank is finally back in. My boys helped a ton, it was SO much fun. My youngest ran the new fuel sending unit wire from the fuse box to the back. He helped me hook up some of the gas tank hoses too. My oldest helped me run through some gauge tests, hook up some hoses, and hardest of all helped hold the tank up while I was running straps. They helped in other ways too, it was just a great time. We still have to put the rubber fuel fill lines in once they get here but we got most of the hard stuff done.
We have a laundry list of little things to do, but now that the tank is in we can drive it while doing the little things. Change all fluids, check brakes, install different seats, get seat belts in, new tires, etc. Just a lot of little stuff that we can do in evenings or on weekends without taking the Blazer out of commission.
At some point we will move the engine from the orange 71 over to this one but it runs OK for now, and we have plenty of other things to do, so we will leave it for now.

[71swb4x4]

More progress the last couple of weeks. We took the best seats we had and put them in and came up with 4 sets of seat belts. I have more belts coming, but these will get us by for now. The new wheels and tires are on. I need to paint the hubcaps but I put them on for now. The fuel tank is in and working as intended. The brakes look good, work good, are bled, and that pesky brake light is finally off.
Tomorrow we are going to do a few odds and ends. The steering is sloppy, so we are going to check that out. Who knows what will happen after that, that is one of those projects that might take 30 minutes, or might take the whole day, depending on what we find.

[drillrod]

Update us on what you find out about your steering! Mine is also kind of sloppy. When driving it wants to wonder back and fourth across the road a little!

[71swb4x4]

More progress this summer. For starters, we are driving it almost weekly. I should be driving irt more, but life seems to get in the way. I am sure you all know how that goes.

Temp gauge is hooked up and working.
Ammeter is hooked up and working.
Tach is hooked up and working.
All that leaves in the vacuum gauge to hook up. That's not very high on the priority list.

We installed some sport mirrors, the holes were already there, so that's why we went with those. The sport mirrors aren't great, as far as functionality is concerned, but after driving around with no mirrors they are a huge improvement.

I bought a AM/FM van radio and installed that. The original speaker doesn't sound very good, its very crackly, so I will probably order a reproduction speaker.

Today I got the horn working. It was missing the spring and plunger, everything else was there and working. So I stole the spring and plunger from the orange blazer and it's working great now.

Today we pulled the diff covers, each boy painted and reinstalled one. Tomorrow we will put the fluid back in.

Here are a couple pictures of some work being done.

[Chulisohombre]

Some good progress. I still need to figure out how to hook up
My ammeter since I deleted the regulator. More than likely any power wire will work I'm guessing. I haven't had that ever working and I've had my blazer 16 years. Lol