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A '69 Blazer and a '70 Jimmy


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Quite a few years back I purchased a parts lot that had two Blazers and a Jimmy; the Jimmy was built and the two Blazers were partially assembled. I also managed to snag, in another parts lot, a '69 Blazer grille. The Jimmy's body was severely warped and I decided to instead find a donor kit and use the GMC-specific parts to build a Jimmy. Years passed, plans came and went, and eventually Round 2 saw fit to re-issue the Blazer kit. I purchased a kit early this year with the intent of building a Jimmy. Again, plans came and went up until about a week ago when I woke up one morning and lost interest in all the kits I had on my workbench (don't you love it when that happens?). So, I packed everything up and dug out my Jimmy project. While I was rooting around for parts, waiting for some glued components to set, I found my '69 grille and decided to do a dual build of the '70 Jimmy and '69 Blazer.

Here are the chassis (chassises?):

The Jimmy (white frame) is getting a SBC. When starting to assemble the kit unit, the block and transmission appear much larger than 1:25 scale, probably closer to 1:24 or larger, so I sourced a block/transmission, oil pan, timing chain cover, and water pump from the parts bin. The heads, valve covers, intake manifold, transfer case, and rear transmission support are all kit items. The Blazer (orange frame) is getting a six cylinder from the AMT '60 C10. Transfer case and transmission tail shaft/mount are kit items.

Body shots:





Now, because of the way that the kit is molded with the separate roof and tailgate, the body ends up being quite wobbly and weak. Since I'll be displaying both of these trucks with the roofs on I decided to glue them, the tailgates, and the rear hatches on for stability. I ended up using the reissued kit's hood and tailgate on the Blazer as they were in much better shape than parts I had available. Also, the roof on the Blazer is from another of the kits in the parts lot as the orange roof had sink marks where cab lights were glued on.

Moving on to the grilles, I sanded down the back of the Blazer grille to open it up to match the Jimmy. The hood bowtie is from the same C10 that coughed up the six cylinder. I've also opened and enlarged the radiator openings on both bodies in order to fit better radiators.



The Jimmy grilles I have are both old with faded chrome. I stripped this one and painted it with Krylon Matte Aluminium. It looks decent, but I may play around a bit to get a better finish. The Blazer grille will get the same treatment.

While the firewall opening is mostly correct in the kit, V8 trucks had a panel slightly recessed. I haven't been able to find reference pictures of an I6-powered Blazer or Jimmy, but in order to get everything to line up correctly the engine is just about touching the interior tub. I may fill in the gap between the firewall and tub, or not...

Both trucks also received missing panel lines between the fender/cowl and fender/rocker panel:

Finally, the wheels. The Blazer is getting the deep dish chrome steelies in the kit but with corrected rears while the Jimmy is getting a set of chrome spoked wheels from the MPC squarebody kits. Both are using Formula Desert Dog PCV tires.

Thanks for looking! B)

 

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Not to nitpick, but the engine you have in the Blazer frame is not correct for a '69. The correct engine, or at least the most recent source for one, is the engine from the Trumpeter Nova. I believe it's also being offered in resin, but I do not recall who is making it.

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Not to nitpick, but the engine you have in the Blazer frame is not correct for a '69. The correct engine, or at least the most recent source for one, is the engine from the Trumpeter Nova. I believe it's also being offered in resin, but I do not recall who is making it.

MCW has a resin copy of the engine that is found in the Trumpter Nova.

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Not to nitpick, but the engine you have in the Blazer frame is not correct for a '69. The correct engine, or at least the most recent source for one, is the engine from the Trumpeter Nova. I believe it's also being offered in resin, but I do not recall who is making it.

If you have a problem with the engine I'm using you're really not going to like what colour I painted it...! ;)

But, seriously, though, I do know the engine isn't entirely correct. I'm also using another one of these engines in a '75 K10 I'm building. I'm using them because I have them on hand and 1) couldn't get a Trumpeter Nova or two and 2) was unaware there was a resin source for the engine. I am doing a bit of tweaking with a different carb and air cleaner and adding an oil filter to the block in the appropriate location. It'll pass muster for my standards. :)

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Hey Chris , you missed an epic estate sale this weekend. Mostly sports cars though, no trucks that I seen. ;)

 

Anyway, in that engine, you might also want to move the distributor closer to the front. Most people miss this detail.

Edited by Can-Con
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great work... wish I could have scooped up a few of those blazer kits when they were issued but missed em' you can still find em at a pretty penny though :(

Those Blazers are still available at Hobby Lobby. This week they have kits for 25% off, otherwise if you wait you can use their 40% off coupon next week.

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  • 1 month later...

These hoods...were almost the death of these projects. 
20151218_071552.jpg
For whatever reason I couldn't get the cut-out lines to get flush. I got them as close as I could and what I could live with (better than this)

Engine painted up and on the chassis for the Blazer. Painted it GM Alpine Green. 
20151129_224140.jpg

These two projects are my first time painting with my airbrush. The Blazer here is painted with Testors Aztek Blue and the roof is Vallejo Model Air white.
20151223_182907.jpg

Another reason for the delay in updates is a failed paint job on the Jimmy. I tried painting it IJN Chrome Jellow but it failed horribly and had to be stripped. Since I had such good luck with the Aztek line on the Blazer I picked the basic green for the Jimmy since my local Michael's didn't have the Aztek yellow in stock.
20160111_180548.jpg

The pair together.
IMG_20160111_192828.jpg

It was very tedious masking off everything to get just the radiator support and inner fenders sprayed black, but it looks a lot better than either brush painting or painting the whole engine compartment black.
IMG_20160113_194251.jpg

Now, for the Blazer, I had another idea for the wheels. Should I stick with the chrome steelies or painted white with centre caps?
20160113_203443.jpg

Edited by kataranga
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White with center caps looks great, a classic look on these. On the hoods, fill the scoop cut lines from the back with a mixture of super glue and micro-baloons - if you can't find that at the LHS, use a bit of baby powder, the kind with no fragrance. The mixture sands and shapes easily, and then you can work the top side of the hood as usual without the lines showing back up.

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Here are the Blazer's wheels and center caps painted:

Here's the Blazer's interior tub:

You can see my attempt at flocking that failed horribly. Decided to give it and the Jimmy both a black vinyl floor, which seems better suited to a convertible truck anyway. The Blazer has a three-speed column shift, had to add the shifter and turn signal lever to the steering column.

And here's a somewhat successful experiment for underhood insulation. Painted some masking tape and cut to fit. Should've cleared the tape and the underside of the hood as I had to touch up the paint.

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