Nice work - am I happy that my resto is a non-metallic dark blue color. The flake stuff is a nightmare to fix. My paintshop hates these cars.

 

Very nice work! It looks like it's coming together nicely! We are all our own worst critics aren't we?

Did you stay with the original rocker boxes under the front floorboards or did you reinforce it differently? I have to redo that whole area in mine eventually.

Was there a reason why you went with the 79-80 hood as opposed to keeping the 73-78?

 

That and when your wife walks by and says "Those dimples in the metal really stand out when its shiny". Thanks babe.

Rockers are just tack on skins ... riveted on ... but if you notice on the bottom lip I drove some hefty hex head sheet metal screws (left over from my shop construction) into some angle bar attached under the floor pan. Its an industrial 'Mod' look haha. But the hack really is strong.

Well, I thought I had a '74 hood. Sure looks like the original to me ... do I need to get my eyewear Rx updated?
As far as mods go I did like this one, but chickened out and stuck with stock look ...
73-80 Chevrolet Truck Super Sport Hood

 

What I meant by rocker boxes are the reinforcements that are inside the inner rocker panel between the rocker & the frame (although they don't physically touch the frame). They are there to add rigidity to the full convertible bodies by tying together the A-pillar & B-pillar areas down to the depth of the rocker over the full width of the area between the rocker & the frame. I was just curious if you had to dig into this area and, if so, what modifications you might have done, if any.

As far as the hood goes, the earlier ones were flat across the front/center bump out until it came to the center ridgeline. The later ones added a further bump out area that blended into the center ridge line of the hood. The image below from the '74 sales brochure available at The Old Car Manuals Project (TOCMP.com) shows what I'm talking about:


The hoods physically fit the same from '73 to '80.

*EDIT* - I just noticed that you updated to the later model passenger rear quarter panel with the hidden fuel fill which is something I'm planning on doing with my '74 as well. I picked up a clean set of factory rear quarters cut off of a rust free truck a number of years ago that are just sitting in my barn waiting for the tear-down of my truck. For now I'm using it as a hunting truck...

 

That's funny. I had completely forgotten about the hood.
Good eye, I had to stare at the pictures a bit. Ok quite a bit.
Price at LMC for the 73-78 was $439, 79-80 was $159.
I guess we both know how I ended up with this one.

Oh yeah, Blazer Version 2.0 was in the 80's and lipstick on the rusty bondoed pig, and the soft top added.
Blazer Version 2.5 was after a fender bender in the 90's and I couldn't find 74 rear quarters, so had to trim the cab post off of later model panels.
Actually the doors were replaced then too and had to be chopped later models as well.

Ok gotcha on the rocker boxes ... just lucky on that count, they were solid.

Appreciate your observations, didn't realize you had a '74 as well.

 

Well that was a strange afternoon spent on hacking up the passenger door.
I bought the dang thing back in the 90's ... no telling where it came from .. aftermarket of course.
I could not get the sucker lined back up after messing with it several times over the last few weeks.
After installing new hinge pins and removing the slop, it just got worse.
Out of desperation I started measuring the latch opening and bolt hole locations and comparing to the driver door .... it wasn't even close.
Holes for the hinge bolts were off just enough that it just couldn't be hung high enough.
(I guess with the old sloppy hinge pins I was able to just slam it shut ....)
So I bored out the bolt holes on the hinges so I could slide 'em up higher, and expanded the latch opening and drilled out some new holes for the latch.
I have to clean it up but it sure works well now.
F&@%$$*!)&**#^@*#

 

Really sucks that you had to hack it up after paint... but glad it worked out...

 

Well after a lot of stupidness like letting the metal flake plug up my paint gun and grabbing some mineral spirits instead of laquer thinner I think I finally have a good enough coat on this thing to buff it out and call done.
I ended up just shooting the whole thing to get the color consistent. Man.

 

Well any tips on what to do with this thing would be appreciated.
It was a simple but nice looking drop bumper I picked up 25 years ago, no telling where.
Right side is bent rearwards a bit, some surface rust.
Having trouble getting quotes on getting it rechromed ... and I can't find any suitable repacement for it.
I suppose there are stock bumpers available, they just look a bit tiny on the lifted trucks .....
And just at the moment I posted this I got a ballpark for around $1000.

 

30 years of dents, bends, gauges, and scratches filed, sanded and buffed out of the Aussie Bull Bar .... well a lot of them anyway.
Now that I'm trying to get everything perfect I may have to drill out the bolt holes on the mounting brackets because I'm drooping about 1/4" on the right side.
Just enought to drive me crazy. Dang.