Hello all, long time no post!

BEen super busy with life in general as well as working on the Blazer and a few other projects.

Since our last update:

New hinge pins and bushings on both front doors. Only had to torch one of them!

New rear brake dust shields and brake pads. My stepson has officially been introduced to the wonderful smell of used gear oil!

We still have not gotten around to mounting the spare tire carrier, but we did make some headway on prep. When I took it off at the junk yard, the bushing had a decent amount of play in them. So much so that ou had to lift it slightly to get it to latch. I tried ordering the new bushings from one of the suppliers, but was informed that they were no longer available. Off to plan B, which probably should have been plan A since I like it way better.

I disassembled the hinges and extracted the bushings. They did not seem too bad to look at, but were not performing up to snuff. I took some measurements and got on McMAster Carrs website looking for replacements. Nothing was exact, but several were pretty darn close. I ordered a selection in both bronze and UHMW and figured I could make something work.

All of my choices were just a touch too losse with the excepton of one of the bronze units. It measured for a 16mm shaft, 20mm OD and 20mm length. Snug, but I wanted snug. The length was a too long, but that is easily remedied. I used a pipe cutter to trim them down to the .5" length of the originals and pressed them in place. The collar width is considerably less than the originals, hopefully, this will not affect anything.

After greasing the inside and the pins with waterproof grease, reassembly went smooth as could be, with minimal persuasion from the dead blow. The hinges move smoothly with just a touch of resistance. Better than stock for sure. We will know for certain once it is mounted on the truck.

Pics:

 

FINALLY got around to mounting this damn tire carrier!

I took the same path as rexmburns and while time consuming, got it done this afternoon.

The bushings we used above seem to be working well, but it has only been an hour

 

Looks good! You will be happy you took the extra time just for piece of mind knowing that you won't have to worry about bending your quarter panel. Mine holds my 37 and me and still no sign of fatigue

 

Thanks! Though I might have bent the quarter panel slightly on the first tightening of the top outside bolts. I did not have the plate formed just right.

 

Thanks! Though I might have bent the quarter panel slightly on the first tightening of the top outside bolts. I did not have the plate formed just right.

 

This does make the rear sag a bit more than it did before. Any recommendations on replacement rear leafs (preferred) or an add a leaf?