The 30ish day build, Project F**k Katrina

I know this wont hit the standards of what some of you do here and it wont tickle your funny bone or whatever, but I did it, all by myself over the course of about 30-35 days or so, its kind of a blur. When I started this my wife and I were planning to go to Summer Slam in Arlington WA a few days after my B-day. She had gotten tired of my Blazer sitting in the garage after towing it from Louisiana to Washington, back to LA and back to WA again over the course of 5 years since Katrina. She saw me tinkering with it here and there, always talking about it and us going to car shows and not having a ride there, so she pre-registered me with around 30 days left. Now at this time I had the engine and transmission out, the hood, fenders, core support, grill, bumper, basically the whole front end scattered around the garage leaning against the walls and in the corners. I had a headliner, but it was cut down the middle for the ragtop. I had seats, but they were kinda crunchy from sitting forever and maybe from a little water damage from Katrina. I had a speaker box chilling, but no amps in it or radio or alarm. There was a big hole in the floor from me cutting it for doing and finishing 4-link and even a cut gas line from it. The gas tank was out as well, sitting in the back of the house with the pump and all in it. The wires were there for the front end, but no headlights or parking lights, horn, or even those front corner LEDs I had drilled were in. I had no tail lights or 3rd brake light yet and the body line going down the right side looked like hell and was only 3/4 done. I had still had hardened stuck on sun blistered 3M double stick from vent visors and a sunroof visor that were long ago ripped off. My front suspension was basically done, but the rear was a mess after somebody (who knew what they were doing) screwed it up long ago. So with 30 days (or so) till the show, I started some long nights and long days. I'll make the list short and sweet (ok it didnt end up that way), but this is what I did and some videos to prove it1. Underneath: pulled out the rear suspension, put the leaf springs and 4" blocks back in, decided it wasnt low enough and got it back in the air, ripped out the center leaf, set it back on the ground, realized my shocks were toast, one was frozen the other was loosey goosey so I added airshocks the day before the show and called it a day. Through in the rear floor that I had cut out to work on the 4-link. This also had to be fixed as I cut a gas line doing it! Fixed the gas leak with a compression union, put the gas tank back in, cleaned it out (old leaves and such soaked in gas, it was all bad), got the pump and sender all back in, got the tank in and wired up to the system. A few days later we awoke to a gas smell all over the house, I realized that I had a leak in the tank. I tightened a fitting thought I fixed it, wife bans the truck from the garage, a week later it started leaking from a hole in the tank under one of the mounting straps, I added a patch and temp fixed it.2. Engine and trans: I got the trans rebuilt from a buddy. I had bought another 4L60E months ago and had it sitting next to the Katrina flooded one that came out the truck. Problem was, I had purchased a 4x4 trans without noticing it, and my truck is a 2x! So I brought them both up, paid the guy, bought a rebuild kit, and a week later I had a working trans to put in with all the new tranny servos I had bought already so it should be pretty bulletproof now. Mated them up, threw them back in, three times. First time I realized that the tranny mount was in the wrong spot, pulled the whole thing out and moved it. Got it in again and realized that the tranny cooler lines werent installed, pulled it, installed and dropped it back in, much easier this time. It was around this time that I realized that there must be a God, and he was guiding me to not screw this up, and laughing at the same time. As I searched for parts around the garage I finally found my headers, but couldnt find the gaskets for them. 4 times I went to the auto parts store to buy them and some other stuff and 4 times I returned without gaskets, wtf? After the 4th time I found the gaskets, they were where I had already looked, thanks God! Got the engine harness back through the hole, made me a gasket, taped and loomed it all up, dropped in some fluids and a fresh oil change, made a power steering res. bracket, and got everything buttoned up under the hood. She fired up with little effort, after I let the system build pressure and all, open headers are so cool!3. Body: finished welding the rear tail light fillers and caddy buckets. slung some mud on it and did some grinding of the weld marks and bondo. Do lots more sanding and such to get the thing looking as decent as I could with all the work done to it. Welded up most of the firewall, making provisions for the wiper arms as I had placed the wiper motor in the cowl. I added a hood popper and drilled and grommeted a 1/0 to the alt. The night before the show I decided to finish the body line and weld in a steel rod to finish it and sling some more mud and paint on it, Im a glutten for punishment! After the engine was in and wired done I bolted the fenders back on, the core, bumper, grill, etc and wired the lights, horn, siren, etc. I painted almost all of it in some Walmart brand cheapo crappy flat black that will come off later. You gotta love buying 10 cans of the stuff at once at $.96 a can! The day before the show the wife said I had a light out so I put it on the list to get at the store, I forgot 2x, found it later in the back of the truck, I didnt know I had them, thanks again God! 4. Stereo and alarm: Threw in the basic box I had built months ago with some spare wood that Mattmanurus gave me as he was moving and didnt have the room. It was just 4 12s, 2 of which were flooded in Katrina along with the amps, but they still work, go Rockford! When I measured the 2 big pieces they were 38.5, the same width as my wheel wells, so I thought it was fate. I also cut out the glovebox for a 9.4" monitor I took out of my old overhead and added a 7" monitor to the back of the new console of which I was going to play videos off the iPod for show. I was using an ancient old DEH-P85 double din, of which I modified the dash for. Come to find out, the radio portion's volume wont turn up and the tape player wont work (dammit, Ive wanted to play that "Born in East LA" song forever! its the last tape I own) and the AUX-in wont work, so no playing iPod like I wanted and I cant RF mod it as the dam radio doesnt work. I borrowed a radio from Don Owen, but its even older, but at least it works. It was a DEH-P88 (1996!) that still works, but once again I cant get the AUX-in to work, so I did a RF modulator that I had lying around. I built some door panels up front and put in some spacers for the rears for some 5 1/4 Rockfords Ive had for awhile, minitruckin on a budget! I wired in an old Viper 5900 Ive had sitting forever. I did my usual "Spiehler Magic" to it and wired it to pop open the drivers door off the 2nd unlock output, once I get a popper, added outputs for windows, up and down, horn and a 2nd siren output for the extra sirens, but only when the alarm is going full tilt, my usual. 4 days or so before the show I screwed up and programed the wrong output of the alarm. Instead of turning on the radio I rolled up the windows and called it a night, not realizing that the windows never stopped rolling up. The next morning I went to work on it and nothing worked. I popped the rear hatch only to smell electronics. I soon realized the that 451M's fuses were popped and what happened with the alarm. I replaced the fuses and still nothing, then I figured out that the 451Ms were popped and somehow they fried inside, killing the ground pass through. I replaced them as well, wondering why they didnt smell like burnt electronics. After replacing them, I realized that the windows motors were what I was smelling, oh great, cant fix that on a budget 4 days before the show! Where is this God fellow?5. Interior: Made a center console out of some 3/4 and 1/2 MDF with a little wavey piece up front. I cut some paths under the main body part of it so I could run some LED lighting in there that I wired up, just gotta finish it with a pinswitch or reed switch to make it turn on. I bolted in the headrest trim piece for the 7" monitor and drilled some holes to access it. I wrapped it in a single piece of black carpet, tucking it tight and pulling it hard and cut the seems so it would be where the seats would hide them, adding some holes in the bottom to bolt to the stock brackets. I got a stock cupholder from the Pick and Pull, cleaned it up and painted it back with some SEM trim black paint (I love that stuff). I also made a carpeted piece that could slide into an opening at the front under the cupholder to hide the brackets and the bottom of the console after it was mounted. Also made a lid out of 2 pieces of 3/4" sandwiched together, but I cut an angle into both the front and back of the top piece and the front of the bottom one to give it some contours and to give me a handle up front to open it. Then I sanded it on the belt sander to round the edges and make it all seemless, added some padding to the top and vinyl wrapped it. Then I snagged a black hinge from ACE and bolted it in, called that a day. I figured that if the SEM worked so well on the cupholder, I might as well try it elsewhere. So I painted the rear doors and it looked good. I did some lower rear panels for them with some focal speaker grills behind the carpet so theres sort of a hump there, I think it looks cool. I also had to mask off the upper part and I glued in some carpet there then I painted the stock door handles, I love SEM! The stock front door panels I tried to wrap in vinyl. Well the glue sucked and I didnt have a heat gun yet, didnt I saw I was a glutten? So I ripped off the glue and rolled my bones with some lacquer thinner to take the glue off. I figured that if the door panels were F-ed, I couldnt hurt em! The thinner actually worked and I was able to strip them and paint them with the SEM as well. I added a lower carpeted panel and carpeted over the upper part as well, and painted the handles. I wanted to trick out the upper part some. I had taken the stock window switches out and the truck has shaved handles, so what do I need manual locks and lock switches for, so I shaved them as well. The A and B pillars were wrapped in the same vinyl as the front doors, but held up much better, so I left them as they were, for now. I didnt want another failed vinyl job, so I painted the rear panels around the windows, dam that was easier! For the tailgate cover I went with........painted plastic and a carpeted wooden piece, your getting the hang of it now! Added a little Chevy emblem to it while I was there, why not. The replacement black carpet I had in there I spruced up, cleaned out and fluffed a bit with a vacuum, called it good. I carpeted the stock kicks, called them good while there as well. Ordered some cheapo seat covers from Amazon, $40 well spent no matter how many of the clips and straps broke while putting them on. For a dash I went to the Pick and Pull and made a solid working dash out of about 4 trucks and nabbed some stock black seatbelts while there, America, what a country! I used the SEM on it as well and made a cover panel for where the long pocket runs under the radio and glovebox. I cut the original plastic of the cluster. I used a marker and made a line close to the dash and put my airsaw to work. Then I added a piece of 1/4" mdf to the inside with some CA glue, fleece, resin, cut the holes, added some padding and vinyl, wired it up and dropped it in the stock location. I bolted up the original steering wheel column and billet wheel I got many years ago, yes it needs a polishing. I had already started to mod the original radio opening for a double din and just had to finish it up, but I suck with body work so its in there, but it aint perfect. I brought the headliner to work and ripped off the old material and realized that I had to grind the old stuff off. After 45 minutes of getting that fiberglass like material all over you, you start to wonder where God is at during this while your itching like your in Debo's chicken coop! I used the good glue there on the newly ground down top with some new headliner material cuz God knows I didnt want it to sag like my vinyl job! Got it home, put it up, cut out for the ragtop, tucked it in, cut the excess, called that one done.

I might have missed some stuff, but I did it and did it all in around 30 days by myself in my single car garage on my weekends and after work, the only thing extra that I did was take a vacation for 3 days before the show to finish. At times I hated my wife for it, but I love her and always will. Nobody that I talked to thought I could do it but my wife, so that feels good. People who have been watching the build kept asking how I kept the motivation going, I dont know really, just knew that I had a deadline to meet and us southern folk are good at that kinda stuff. A few people even thanked me, hell one guy (the guy who filmed this stuff below) looked at it and said he had to leave and go work on his he was so awe struck and motivated by me. I packed it away after getting home. Im taking some time away from it and focusing on me and my gut for a bit. sorry about the poor audio, it was all cell phone from a member of Blazin Low, I was too tired to video or take pics or anything I did take some pics after once I got it home and all so its kinda dirty with the chairs and getting in and out of it. clifs:30ish day buildstarted with no interior, no alarm, no radio, crappy seats and carpet, a tan interior, no dash, no frontend, a non-running vehicle, a broken trans, wanna know the rest? buy the rights

this is where I started btw

thats pretty slick. i saw it at summer slam and took a couple of pics. i was in the same boat as you, but didnt get around to putting mine together.

great work for such a short amount of time! hats off to you bro!

same boat as in how? Flooded in Katrina? Wife prepregistered you? whats the story?

LOL well not nearly as drastic as yours, but i did plan on getting my project to the show and life got in the way, long story short it didnt happen.

I tried to give up a few times over, but thought that whatever I brought to the show was whatever made it to the show.

I'm glad you made it out to the show. That is a lot of work for a month. Hopefully by next year you will be able to drive it up here.

thats a long drive bro, Vancouver to there with no ac, no heat and a bunch of untested parts

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94flamds10blazr said:

thats a long drive bro, Vancouver to there with no ac, no heat and a bunch of untested parts

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Wuss...lol

The maiden voyage for my blazer after the body drop was DropZone, 250 miles each way. You'll be fine Scott...and if anything happens, we have like 4 trailers, one of us can come get you.... :)