1994 full-size blazer full-convertible
 

So I hope this upload worked. Basically, I bought a 1994 Blazer 4wd w Red and Charcoal Gray paint. It had a brand new 350 tbi crate motor installed in 09; it's got about 17,000 miles on it now. I put an edelbrock performer manifold, tb spacer, CA intake, headers, ported the heads, and installed a hypertech piggy-back chip. The clearcoat was oxidizing and coming off badly on the hood and the roof, so I camo-wrapped it using 3M vinyl wrap from Camo4u.com. The previous owner was also a painter, so the carpet inside was stained with blue paint and looked terrible, so I pulled it out. Then I painted the bottom half, wheels, and brush guard with single-stage, gloss-black caliper paint. FYI, that paint is awesome. It has some ceramic in it and is super tough so it's like a cheap version of powder coating. Then I decided to chop the top off with a high-speed grinder and weld in a partial roll-cage for stuctural rigidity. I've already ordered Marathon seat covers, used dupont bed liner in the entire bed, and painted the diamond-plated aluminum sheets to match. I'm planning to cover all the holes in interior of the bed with black diamond plate as well as completing the bedrails with diamond plate. It's hard to see above, but I cut diamond plate around the fender wells in the bed, and then bent them over to form bedrails. This is a work in progress, and I realize some people won't like me chopping on a perfectly good vehicle, but whatever. I wanted a convertible, and couldn't find one in decent shape for a decent price, so I made one. My brother uploaded these pics to facebook before I orginally intended, so tell me what you think. I'm planning on either trying to get a soft top from softtopper.com or having a cusom convertible shop make a soft top for it. I'd also like to get a 3-4" Rough Country suspension lift, cowl hood, and maybe bushwhacker flares. There will definitely be more pics to come if you want to see them. Here is a hyperlink to the original blazer. Facebook. Also, if you do think it's pretty cool, you should google "Starowesky yukon". I would have never had the balls to do this without seeing his pics.

all i can say is awesome...it looks great.
i cant wait till you have it finished up.

great job...love the chop top look.

now if i could muster the guts to chop my top.....someday....maybe

Looks really good! Got any more pics?

Here are pretty much all of my pics. I forgot to mention my center console mounting bolts were broken, so I replaced the console with a big ammo can. I don't know the caliber, but it's the biggest one I've seen at gun show. Also, the seat covers are RealTree Max Advantage 4 to match the rest of the camo. I think I might wrap the dash in camo too, but I'm not sure if that'd be too much. I'm hoping to finish the panel/bedrails this weekend and get the back seat back in. We'll see. I'll have more pics as I get closer. I was planning on waiting until it was done and putting them all up at once, but this will work too. I'm glad y'all don't think I'm a retard for chopping up a mostly good vehicle.

pretty good looking stuff there ol' buddy... the beast has come a long way.

just out of curiosity, what did you use for the roll bar? i want to do something similar and a shop over here quoted me at 400 for all the pipe and to weld it up. i would much rather do it by myself if possible. and your setup is kind of how i want mine to look.

:icon_qtank:I like it

Damn. Not really something I'd have had the nuts to do... but holy crap does it look sweet!

Sweet ride man!!! i want a convertible so bad!! Really want to find a good k5 someday.

Litterbug,
I got the cage off ebay. Here's the link of one like it from the same seller. Roll Bars and Cages, 8 Point, 73-87 CHEVY PICK-UP BLAZ | eBay

It's just the pre-notched tubes and the base plates. You weld it in yourself. 400 doesn't sound bad to me, but at the same time, I'd like to do as much of it myself as possible so 319 shipped to my house didn't seem bad to me.

Also, I finished all the black diamond plate bed caps and interior panels, got the camo marathon seat covers, and ordered a soft top from softopper.com on the 19th. I'll be sure to update with more pics this weekend.

yes please!@

Softopper 73-75 (genII) soft top
 

Sorry it took so long, I took the soft top on it's first test drive for a 500 mi. trip to TN. The good news is, the top fits AMAZINGLY well in the rear. It's not quite as tight on my vehicle in the front due to a difference in the width of the windshields between mine (94) and theirs (74). No biggie, I think I can fabricate something. The quality of softopper.com's product is awesome. It took about an hour to install, comes with all rails, brackets, and hardware...super easy. Unfortunately, the glass windows don't seal with the soft top completely. there is about a 1/2 in. gap along where the b-pillar was. My plan is to get some lexan and make windows of my own, and also see if I can get some canvas from softopper and try to create some patches using that and some industrial strength velcro and see which one I like better. Also, there is a ton of wind noise coming along the top of the windshield between the snaps. I'm going to fabricate a wind deflector out of 2 '99 grand prix sun roof wind deflectors, also put in the provided weather stripping, and silicone in-between the buttons along the windshield. Sorry for the poor quality and low number of pics, but y'all get the idea I'm sure. Overall, the top turned out better than I could have ever imagined it. More pics are sure to come if y'all are interested in seeing them.

Booooo, I can't see any of the pics!

broken pics
 

The uploads didn't appear to work for some reason. Here's the album in facebook if y'all wanna see:

blazer convertible | Facebook

Damn, that looks pretty sweet!

Looks nice man:icon_toast:... Hopefully one day I will get the balls to do this to my 85...

very bad ars!

This really looks great!
Any chance of seeing more Pics?

Just saw the rest of these Pics.
Did you have to weld any extra support under the rockers or windshield frame?

I didn't weld in extra support under the windshield or dash because I honestly don't do much serious off-roading where there's a chance it would roll. I've thought about welding in a more complete cage welded to the windshild and going through the dash, but that'll prolly be a couple years from now. I'll show y'all my progress with the modular fiberglass hard top I'm working on for it.

modular fiberglass hard top project
 

Here are several pictures of my fiberglass hard top project. I wanted to make it look like a HMMWV slant back gun truck. I attached a pic for those who don't know what that looks like. I didn't want it to weigh 300lbs though because I couldn't take it on and off by myself. I also thought having a 4 ft truck bed cover would be sweet too like the other configuration of a HMMWV. So I went and bought 8 or 10 8'x4'x1" pieces of foam insulation, wood glue, razors and sand paper. I'd glue them together as needed, cut, sand, fill with foam gap sealer, and repeat. After I got the whole pink foam mold made, I covered the entire thing in aluminum foil because fiberglass resin eats foam like heat melts butter. Then I slowly glassed the pieces inside and out, layer after layer, until I made my own slant back, bed cover, cab, and extended cab. The cab and extended cab can be put on individually or together with or without the back glass part. Then you can add the bed cover or the slant back if you want. This whole thing took several thousand dollars and all available spare time from September to February. When I took a hiatus in Feb, it was all done except the sanding, bondo, paint, and weather stripping. Sorry there are only a few pics. Eventually I'll upload a video walk-around to youtube and vids driving. It took forever, but it looks really cool and will look even better. I plan to put this on and leave it on in cold weather. Unfortunately, it took me all winter to make this and I didn't get it done in time to use it. I'm not tired of the project. Just taking time to reflect, plan, and enjoy driving the vert as is right now. Let me know if y'all have questions or suggestions. Sorry these pics aren't the greatest, but my battery was dead for a long time on the blazer so I couldn't move it, not to mention I had the various stages of the top on it. It's hard to show the whole project in 13 pics, but it's what I got. This wasn't supposed to be a build thread; I was just doing it to see if I could and because I thought it'd be awesome. When I finish the top totally, I'll take better pics.

I like what you did. You got me to thinking about it I have a 94 stock but 230k . Maybe check out a 68-72 chevy blazer fiberglass Top ? Not familiar with them myself but might give ideas in regards to what the engineers at the factory engineered for "removable top"" .
When I think of a blazer for some reason I think removable top even though the removable top was very brief.
Same with the scout and the bronco all started with removable and changed to hardtops. Probably deadly if you roll and I have had unreal scares in my blazer. Short length makes a swerve dangerous. Big animals on highway at night cannot say never.
The wind and noise would be hard for me personally to to deal with but I am old.
I like what you did,

The full vert hardtop on my '74 was a beast to deal with, weighed megatons.
I think it was engineered to do double duty as a bass boat.
I just rigged a pully system to the garage ceiling to lift it and drive out from under it.
Once I switched to a soft top (Kayline) I never went back.

As this thread is from 2013, I'm wondering how the project ended up.....

edit:

also, he was last on 2 minutes after that last post of his.... so dont think we will get an update...

Update
 

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...53f448fd5f.jpg
It can haul 4 kayaks and 4 ppl.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...c50e0c8a7a.jpg
I have a hammock stand trailer hitch for camping.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...c73f58b1b0.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...038df78b0d.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...63cebda67d.jpg
​​​​​

I never finished the hard top project. It just didnt turn out as nice as I wanted. I haven't abandoned the idea, but as I'm sure you understand, life got in the way. My next iteration of the hard top, I think I am going to get a real Blazer hardtop and use it as a mold. I moved a couple times, had a couple kids, etc. In 2016, I removed the vinyl wrap and painted the whole thing with Raptor-liner. Put in LED tails, made a hammock stand for the trailer hitch, got some new wheels. I have an LS ready to go in this spring because I'm bored with the 350 TBI. I will probably leave it N/A and just do a cam, springs, intake, exhaust 4.8l. I've really just been driving it and enjoying it, but I still have it and am tinkering with it as I get time. It's one of those that will never be done. Thanks for asking about it.

I wasnt expecting this! Thanks for the update tho! Glad to hear shes still going strong either way. That hard top wouldve been a sight to see... I like the bedliner paint job too...

Couple more pics.
 

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...c28c1be85.jpeg
Here is a better side view. I have black wheels now, but I drive it all the time.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...f5227dd0c8.jpg
I put a ton of work and money into that hard top. In the end, I just roll with a soft top and some roll bar padding...aka pool noodles. I watch Full Custom Garage religiously and Ian Roussel gave me some ideas about how to use a Blazer hardtop as a mold one day.


I still get on this forum and look around, I guess I just haven't logged on in a long time. Forgive me for my perceived absence; I'm still around learning from you guys.