tomsheehy Posted April 12, 2020 Posted April 12, 2020 1985 Chevy Blazer, Arizona Highway Patrol replica. This project started with a full resin kit from an eBay seller, that only need a few donor parts from the AMT GMC pickup kit of the same vintage. The kit looked pretty good online, but was very disappointing when I got it. I started it anyway, and found it to be pretty much unbuildable as is. The chassis was not workable and the body was not a good fit with any of the AMT donor parts. So on to plan B... I kept the resin rear quarters cut from the body, the interior and the rear roof section, and went to work on the AMT kit. I chopped the back off the plastic cab and mated it to the resin rear quarters. I assembled the AMT chassis and shortened it by the needed wheelbase difference. But even then, this one fought me every step of the way. The roof was very 'awkward' and was real tough to get a good fit. The kit taillights did not fit the body correctly, and they still don't because there was not much I could do at this point to fix it. On the plus side, I discovered an aftermarket seller who produces the correct Chevy truck grilles for the 1980s, he has an 81/82, an 83/84 and an 85-87. The company is Z Force Modelworx. They are nicely done. He has informed me that he is working on the correct bumpers (without the turn signals in them) so I'll change that over when they're available. The wheels and caps are from Scenes Unlimited, tires are AMT from their old Tahoe kit. Decals are Chimneyville. The light bar is an old recycled Yodel kit part with rear flashers and a 3-D printed Federal Signal speaker. I added a bodyside molding using chrome mylar tape with black crepe tape layered over the chrome.
Spex84 Posted April 12, 2020 Posted April 12, 2020 Nicely done! Thanks for the parts breakdown. I've been thinking of doing my own '85 Blazer build for a while now (it's not priority yet) and it's great to know there's a source for the grille. Despite the struggle you may have had with the resin components, this project has turned out well. The AMT Tahoe tires are proportionally just what I'd be looking for.
stavanzer Posted April 13, 2020 Posted April 13, 2020 Boy what a great result from your struggles. Kit is great! (Hint, Round2, an 8 pack of those tires would sell Really, Really well.)
DZ7581 Posted April 14, 2020 Posted April 14, 2020 This is a nice blazer. I started building a replica of my 86 the same way, even building my own grill till I came across the grills your talking about. I agree getting the metal cab and the fiberglass top to fit and match is a challenge and yours looks great.
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