The first order of business with the ’79 Blazer I wrote about in last week’s episode was to start cleaning up everything, understanding what the issues were so I could get it running well, and making sure it was roadworthy. It added up to a fall’s worth of work and the depletion of my savings account:

The Radiator

The first order of business was that after the first time I drove it around the block, coolant was gushing out of the top of the radiator. The fins were like paper where they actually existed at all, and the core was compromised in several places.

I’m all for rebuilding radiators, rather than replacing them, but I also wanted to be mindful of my goal to have the Blazer running and driving at all times, instead of in pieces in my garage. I went over to ABC Radiator in Framingham, Massachusetts — one of just a handful of radiator shops left in the state, sadly — and got a quote for them to recore the original radiator.

It was going to be about $350, and take a few weeks, so I decided to put it off for a bit and pick up a cheap aluminum radiator to get myself through until next summer. I’ll be dropping off the original this week. The plastic/aluminum Chinese replacement was about $125 at my local CAP Auto Parts. I had it in that afternoon.

The Bodywork

After I got the radiator installed, I dug out my cheapo pressure washer and blasted every possible surface underneath to see what I was dealing with. It revealed quite a bit of rot in the rockers, the inner fenders and elsewhere, but nothing that scared me off too badly. The floors are in remarkably good condition, with one small spot that’ll have to be repaired up where the passenger footwell meets the door opening, but it shouldn’t be a big deal.

I bought new inner fenders from LMC Truck for $39.95 each, and also grabbed inner and outer rocker panels for $12.95 and $6.95 respectively, for each side.

The Engine

I ran a couple of cans of Seafoam through it and adjusted the idle to where I thought it should be, and instantly it was running a zillion times better than when I got it home. Dead cold, it fires up with two pumps of the accelerator. Warm, the key barely turns before it’s running.

The one thing that kept me up nights after buying it, though, was the spark plugs. The hex heads had completely eroded, and I was panic stricken that I wasn’t going to be able to get them out. For weeks, I basted the plugs in a mixture of acetone and transmission fluid, hoping that whomever had replaced them before had been liberal with the anti-seize compound.

I ended up buying a through-drive ratchet, similar to what you’d tighten up scaffolding with. I found a size that fit tight on the plugs, and managed to slowly back every one of them out. Victory.

The Starter

The thing I noticed immediately was that when it was warm, the starter did that GM thing where it cranked super-slow, if it cranked at all. I thought maybe it was a bad negative cable until I got a look at the starter. It looked like it had spent the last 35 years turning over a tuna boat. The entire housing was corroded to the point where it barely looked like a starter anymore.

So, another trip to the CAP and $82.50 later, I ended up with a new starter. The trouble was, the bolts holding it in weren’t all that interested in coming out. I bet I’ve changed 50 starters in my day, but I’ve never seen starter bolts this stubborn. The trouble with Chevy starter bolts, of course, is that they’re long, and they’re mounted upside-down, so no amount of penetrating oil is going to work its way to where you need it.

The heads stripped off almost immediately. I ended up working at it with a set of Irwin Bolt Grip extractors ($30) mounted on a long breaker bar. Finally, I got them to move and the new starter has been working great, as you can see from the video:

The Tires and Brakes

I put a new set of blackwall Mastercraft tires on it, in a size that roughly approximated the H78 x 15 original bias ply tire sitting in the spare tire rack. The truck came with a spare set of white steel wheels with bias plies that looked like they never touched the ground.

My four-year-0ld son Harry and I picked the truck up after work one day. The truck looked great and we headed off to grab the hot dog I promised him. As I went to stop before turning into the parking lot, my foot sank sickeningly to the floor. The master cylinder had stopped, well, “master-cylindering”.

Rock Auto sent me a replacement for $22.79, and I got to work replacing it. When I tried to loosen the brake lines from the master, though, the corroded lines gave up the ghost.

I ordered a new set of the stainless steel lines from LMC Truck, which set me back $219.95. Throw in another $45 for rubber lines front and rear, plus rear wheel cylinders ($50) and drums ($33.99), and I was left with a completely new brake system, with the exception of the pads and rotors up front, which had only been replaced last year.

Suspension

Dig these shocks. Think I can get another year out of them?

I threw on a full set of Monroe-Matic Plus shocks to the tune of about $80 from Rock Auto.

Incontinence

The last thing to take care of to make me a little more sane were the oil leaks. Every time I’d pull in the garage, it was like the Exxon Valdez just sidled up to the dock. I had a roasting pan under there to catch all the drips.

I tried tightening the bolts on the pan, but that didn’t seem to do anything. It didn’t appear to be leaking from the rear main, and every time I cleaned off the pan, I couldn’t figure out where the oil was coming from.

Finally, I gave up and called BDR Automotive in Holliston, Massachusetts. Brian’s a good dude and agreed to take a closer look. He ended up driving it for a couple of days before he figure d out that there was a tiny pinhole rusted in the oil pan. When the truck was running, under a little pressure oil would seep out, but once the truck was off, the hole was high enough that the leak would stop. He threw a new pan on it, and also fixed the leaky front diff pinion seal while he was at it.

I also stripped all the plow gear off of it for now, because I’m going to end up taking most of the nose off to replace inner and outer fenders.

What I’m left with is a truck that runs pretty well, rides as nicely as you’d expect a truck like this to drive, stops, and actually looks pretty decent.

Now I’ve got to start attacking the hard stuff like bodywork. More on that in the next update.

Costs:

Radiator – $125
Inner Fenders – $39.95 each x2
Inner Rockers – $6.95 each x2
Outer Rockers – $12.95 each x 2
Starter – $82.50
Bolt Extractors – $30
Tires – $350 (mounted and balanced)
Master Cylinder – $22.79
Brake Lines – $219.95
Brake Hoses – $45
Rear Wheel Cylinders – $50
Drums – $33.99
Shocks – $80
Oil Pan, gasket, pinion seal, labor – $325

Total Parts: $1483.93
1979 Blazer: $1800

Grand Total So Far: $3283.93