Hey all! I'm new to the Blazer/Jimmy scene but built a '98 regular cab short bed S-10 with my oldest son 4 years ago. I decided recently that I needed a project so I located and bought an '03 2 door 4WD Blazer that was sold as non-running due to critters chewing up part of the engine harness. First order of business was making it run and it turned out that in addition to wiring under the hood, ALL of the wiring to the fuel pump harness had been consumed! A new pump assembly and filter for good measure, repair the engine harness with a junkyard donor and we have a runner! Unfortunately the seller failed to mention that the 4l60e only has 2 working forward gears...hopefully a fluid and filter change will help but I'm doubtful. I'm still on the fence about replacing the auto or swapping in a manual, but that'll come in due time.

For now it's mobile enough and I've turned my attention to the all-too-common rust that GM was so kind to build in as a guaranteed feature with the sound/insulating foam in the body panels behind the doors. The driver's side is manageable with just a front lower quarter panel and rocker, although the front body mount under the foot well is basically GONE. The passenger side, however, is another story. The more I cut out, the more I find. A sawzall and angle grinder at the junkyard produced a nearly rust free section from a Jimmy that I've almost finished pulling apart to begin reconstruction! Gotta love spot weld cutters!

The interior of the Blazer is shockingly MINT, even the dash and bezel are completely uncracked.

I want to do a mild lift and tires, so suggestions are appreciated on the best way to go about it. I'm not a body guy, but I'm going to give it a go and paint the thing myself. Factory is the Pewter Metallic but I have a gallon of black urethane that we didn't use on the S-10, so that's the plan...

Anyway, hopefully the pictures will give an idea of the work done and left to do.


Passenger Inside.

Passenger Outside.

Passenger Rocker.

Pre-Surgery.

Replacement Panels.

Donor. Would love to have bought the whole thing. Very clean

 

Nice work. They are notorious for rust in these places.

 

I've been busy working away on the Blazer. After fixing ALL of the chewed up harnesses and getting it running, I learned that it has the typical 3/4 clutch pack issue, which is probably why it was parked to begin with. I was going to rebuild the 4l60e but decided to go with a manual swap instead using the posts on here as guidance.

Well, that part has been pretty straight forward so far, pulled the old trans and sourced donor parts from the local LKQ yard - pedal box, trans, both drive shafts and transfer case, but only used the transmission and pedal box.

Work still continues on the rust, but it's coming along well. I have all of the metal work done on the passenger side and the first few passes with filler. The driver's side turned out to have some rot at the front of the rocker and the body mount is mostly trashed, in addition to the rot in front of the rear wheel, but it'll get taken care of as well...