Welcome fellow Bazerfans!

Here i'm reserving my little space for my to-do, wishlist and progress on my old-but-new Opel Blazer that at time of writing i bought cheap to be my first in Indonesia owned 4 wheeled vehicle.
I doubt this is going to be a place where the readers will find some ground breaking mods with cutting edge technology but this will be a place where you can follow up on this big Dutch white guy living in somewhat rural Indonesia struggling along to fix up his car and make it into something both reliable and presentable.

I will add some pictures once i get a chance to make them, stay tuned!


The backstory:

After a total of 8 years of driving motorcycles and the occasional rental car, and after receiving my permanent stay papers i thought it was time to look for something to drive around with my familiy and the occasional visitors i receive from the Netherlands.
I'm not a big fan of most modern cars and i had a few demand that my new vehicle should comply to:

-Something i can fit in. Seriously almost every car aimed for selling in Asian markets have tiny spaces for the driver.
Sure probably i could do some mods to put the seat more to the rear, but this would compromise the passenger area a lot.
Almost everything i've driven here has my knees squashed against the dash and lacks any resting spot for my left foot.

-Something that doesn't hug the road since roads here can be in very bad shape including many and deep potholes, killer speedbumps (called police tidur or roughly translated sleeping police here)
Many roads often in hills or mountainous areas are completely stripped bare of the asphalt while what remains is a congregation of boulder,rocks and pebbles, so something a little raised with some decent tires was a must.

-Something that doesn't has to be fast, but has a little bit power.
Besides the new Trans-Java tollways there are very few places where any car can hit maximum speed, and like said before i want to be able to go up a mountain in relative comfort.
Also Java being an island makes it that is has very strict vehicle import restrictions. There is little variety and most cars have models aimed specifically for sale here with fairly light engines.
Pulling a trailer or a caravan is something you basically will never see here.

-Something that has some space.
Buying specific goods here often means you'll have to travel some, so being able to stock up in one trip is a very good thing to have.
Occasionally we'd like to bring some camping/beachgear too, and plan to make roadtrips to Bali.

-Something not too overly complicated to work on and that has parts available.
So many newer cars now seem to need a rocket engineer to replace a lightbulb with a specialized thingymabob imported from God-knows-where.
I would like to learn and maintain my car myself with commonly available tools.

I had seen many Blazers already here both modified to oblivion and standard and i always liked that car for it's size and it's robust looks so the choice was quickly made and i turned to the local internet.
Over here we have a half-assed lockdown which basically means i couldn't leave the region, but i found one for cheap, just one block away.
Called if it was available, made an appointment the next saturday and basically bought it on the spot after a quick test drive, and not regretted it so far.

What did i observe so far:

-Tires although in good shape are 13 years old.
And of course i already had a flat two days ago. Turned out the spare had no air in it too. Long story short, the old one couldn't be saved and the spare is now mounted under the car.
Will replace all tires ASAP.


-Paint and clearcoat is fading, and gone in some places. Sun can be brutal here and that part has seen little love from previous owners.

Also the original color is what i like to call "Grandpa-Red" (no offense to those liking this color), a color that has been haunting me for years.
I have had many Honda Civics, an Opel Astra Stationwagon and a Deawoo Leganza in similar color, heck even my current motorcycle is red!
I'm done with red, it HAS to go!
Here i'm a bit lucky because my neighbour two doors down has a spraypaint garage and we already talked about him doing the job for me.
I'm thinking about pulling off all the trims and side-molding and go for Black.
Not sure yet if it's going to be Matte or Shiny black though. (i am open for suggestions here!)


-Some obvious user marks, small scratches, a small dent in the back corner, some damage on the trim above front fender and a tiny speck of rust next to the passenger window.

Nothing my neighbour cannot fix easily prior to the paintjob.


-Oil, Temp and Fuel gauges not working.

Fixed the Oilgauge myself after some serious youtubing, turn out if was a faulty Oil pressure switch.
Temperature is most likely just a sensor, but previous owner just bypassed it and runs the radiator fan constantly, ill replace the sensor and see what i can do to restore everything to original situation.
I've been told that trying to fix the fuelgauge involves dropping the tank and when doing so i'll be better of buying and installing a complete fuelpump assembly, i'll make this priority once i have the space to do so.


-Back wiper didn't work (the switch for it on the dash is one of the broken ones too) and it turn out it had a short somewhere too, resulting it to go on and off at random times even without key and engine off.

Turned out to be s short in the wiper module hidden in the back door.
I don't care for the wiper though, so for now i disconnected the cables but will probably eventually replace the thing and make it working.
It DID create enough shorting so a cable ton my battery got VERY hot which bring me to the next issue:


-Coolant tank got melted by shorting wire, up to the point of leaking.(upgrade planned)

Bodge fixed for now with some 2-component plastic putty that can resist some heat, easy and cheap part anyway, so will order and replace soon


-A complete mess at the battery, half broken barely fitting terminals, loose wires twisted on here and there. (upgrades planned)

I don't know why Indonesian like to botch and abuse they electrical systems so much, i've seen it many times
It appears that replacing your headbeams with constantly flashing blue leds (among many other silly things) quick and dirty has priority over you know, actually having a reliable electrical system that will charge and keep alive your battery while not leaving you stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Badly crimped connectors on half exposed wires connected to broken and not fitting terminals on a what today turned out to be an underpowered cheap battery.
Already did i replace the terminals but noticed that the battery wouldn't hold the charge.
Today just before writing this i went out and bought a new battery which is actually for a diesel and 65Ah compared to the 50Ah that was dying a slow and painful death under the hood.
Also bought a bunch of new cable connectors, cut off the old, crimped on the new.
Yes i realize soldering is much better, but for now it is a quick but HUGE improvement over the sad situation it was this morning.
I do plan on getting/making new and better cables and completely replace "The Big 3" as it seems to be called here.


-Radio and ceiling console seem to have no power for reading lamps, digital compass and thermometer, although the interior light dimmer switch seems to control the 1 bigger light on the ceiling console

I feared the worst, having to dig through someone's 24 year old electrical spaghetti but sometimes life smiles on you.
Opened up the fusebox and to my surprise the fuse for radio and interiors was missing.
I didn't have the right fuse on hand, but luck striked again and i noticed the rear window wiper used the exact fuse i needed.
Since that was nonfunctional now at the moment, i just switched them over and suddenly everything worked, radio, readlamps and digital Thermometer/Compass all function properly, as do all my door mounted speakers, and the 2 small tweeters on the dash
I suspect at a point the backwiper fuse blew out, and they changed it with the radio one, why else would that one be missing, while still having a faulty wiper?


-Central locking tries, but seems to lack the power to actually turn the *****.

No biggie and doesn't have my priority, will eventually get to it though.
Turns out no issues here after replacing the bad and underpowered battery and fixing up the terminal connections.


-Dashboard is old and dry, and starts to crack and split a bit right under the windshield.
This i guess will just be a replacement job, it's not totally horrible yet.
If there is any different/newer model dash that would fit, please let me know, would be fun to change it to something not standard.


-All switches on the dash are there but some are obvious not functional anymore (no more click to them either).

Also not a priority, things like a back window defogger is not something i lay awake over at night.
Will eventually get a replacement button cluster, and move on from there to see what other issues lay behind it.


-Amateur grille/headlight swap.

The standard headlights and grille have been replaced with slightly newer Chevrolet versions, but the guy who did it did a poor job.
There is no way to align the headlights and even 1 plastic mounting spot on the left headlamp is broken and attached with a zip-tie.
I already have seen a very nice grille (will post some pics later) that would be a great replacement.


-Park/headlight switch,AC/Blowercontrols and doorcontrols for power windows are working as intended.

But the AC system is been messed with or amateurisly repaired.
I wouldn't mind to cross path with a complete new system for a good deal though.


Things i'd like to mod:

Beside the paintjob and removing the sidemolds i would like raise the body a bit, slap on those bolt-on fender flares.
With that probably come some wheel spacers and a set of new rims and bigger tires
Also looking around for some custom front and back bumperkit.
Top that off with some nice sidebars and bullbar and after that this thread will probably focus more on interior and the custom entertainment set i'm planning for.

There is one small mod i'd like to do that's probably something weird for most and something highly custom only to suit my silly wish, but i would love to move the turnsignal/indicator swicth to the right side of the steering column.

Wow, you made it all to the end even without pictures to keep you entertained?
Go grab a beer, you've earned one now!

 

This build thread will be an interesting one yo follow!

So is your Blazer 4wd?

 

It's a 2WD, like said in thread title, but that maybe is easily overlooked.

I did look for a 4WD, but those are a bit more rare on this island and especially this side of the island.
Regional lockdown prevented me for being able to go and look outside my area, and we did need a car because our work involves a lot of driving around and getting soaked on the motorcycle was getting tiresome.
Plus 4WD is a lot more expensive, just because it's 4WD(not because of mileage or any state it's in), and many often being abused by previous owners makes it likely that for me as beginner-hobbyist it would by a lot harder to learn to fix and maintain one myself.
Also honestly i do not really need a 4WD although it would be fun/needed maybe 1% of the time.

Only scouting out the cars say in Jakarta, would take me at least a day per car and would involve a lot of travel and lots of expenses(like hotels for overnight stays).
Pictures nowadays can hardly be trusted because of all the "beautification" options any recent phone camera app has that makes anything look shiny, colorful and without blemishes and also honesty of sellers here is an issue.
Then if i would go look i would need to rent a car (public transport is a nightmare and not available everywhere) or take the even longer and slower roads because motorcycles are not allowed on the tollways.

Even without the lockdown i did not fancy doing a 2 or 3 day trip just to find out that the car looked like a junker held together with tape, or there are engine issues that need to be sorted out before i can even attempt the trip back home with it.

Now we have our own car we have more freedom to do such trips, so maybe in the future we can(probably will) look for one.

Unrelated to this reply, yesterday i found out that fixing up the wiring and installing a new battery cleared up de weak central locking so i guess that's one scratched of my list as a bonus!

 

Look forward to seeing the progress pictures. Sounds like you have a good plan for your ride.
I will put it across also that if you ever consider possibly making some cash on shipping a set of those bolt on fenders from over there please let me know. I know numerous guys on here would also be very interested also.

 

I didn't get around to updating things yet.
Situation here was pretty bad the last couple of weeks, sister inlaw and her husband got tested positive at work for covid and were forcefully qarantained.
We had to take care of their 3 kids who were all allright.
Sister got off mildly but her husband got hit pretty hard, on the plus side they are both recovering and should be released either today or tomorrow.
Simply put it has been nothing less than a madhouse around here lately, but i'm hoping things are going to be back to normal in the coming weeks.

I'll look into those fenders, i'm not sure yet if if there is major variations in quality yet but prisewise they seem not to be expensive. (quick-look: rougly average 50 - 60 USD plus maybe local shipping)
I think most of the costs will involve shipping it overseas which depending on size, weight and service can be multiple times the product price, not sure if that's really viable.

 

Sorry to hear about the family and hope all gets better!

for the body parts, and this is myself, I would see about the cheaper part to save a little, as the metal for body parts(i dont think)doesnt vary much, you should be able to compensate on primer and paint.

the weight might not be as bad as the okward size of it

 

Sorry to hear about what you have been going through.Glad to hear that they are recovering well.
This covid-19 has hit the world pretty hard. A few friends of mine came down with it.Luckily they were sent home to recover. They all did after a few weeks. We were on a stay at home order where I am for almost 3 months..
Been off from work since mid March. Thank god for unemployment. But finally will be back to work in 2 weeks if all goes well.

Shipping I figure would be up there but if it is for the right fender flares it would be worth it.

For these fenders it would be worth paying the shipping price.