Need a Donor

[DwarF]

Hola guys, I am back for another visit. This place always has such great information.

I have rebuilt my 83 Blazer mechanically, but the body still looks like hammered monkey $&*# . I am not crazy about getting a tremendous body put on this truck, but I would like it to look nicer than it does now. A body shop is going to charge me an arm and leg, so I wanted a donor body. Especially for the tub and rear quarter panels. I figure I could buy a donor truck for what a body shop is going to want to charge me. I would like the donor to come from a slightly earlier model, maybe I could get some good driveline parts out of it too. So, after a lot of rambling, the point is I can't seem to find one anywhere. Not one in good shape at least. So, if you know of a good resource that I haven't found yet, please share the wealth. =)
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http://www.o-s-c.com/MemberData/1/truck.jpg
<BR>I am working on a site for it now. I just replaced the stock engine with a GM Performance Parts 350 HO deluxe =)

[Garet]

Learn how to do body work. Bondo is cheap and so is weliding patch panels once you get the hang of it. That is if you have a welder and a place to do the work. JC Whitney sells a lot of different repair panels. Their fenders are especially cheap.

[DwarF]

The rust is all around the door well. Not just the rocker panel, the entire door well. You would have to rip the door well out, and about 3 inches in on the roof. The fenders and all are actually in really good shape. I didn't think it would be worth the effort to do the whole door well, rocker panels, sections of the floor connection the rocker panels and the sections of the roof connecting the door well.

[Garet]

I don't know how difficult it would be to replace the entire cab. I do know that roof repair is pretty difficult. How rusted is it? Is the metal totally shot or is there just heavy surface rust but a strong base? I have never seen a door well get rusted out before so this is new to me.

[DwarF]

It is rusted all the way through. I wish I had some good pictures to show, but alas I don't. The piece of metal the runs over the top of the windows, that keeps the water from running straight down on your window, I don't know what it is called. So I will just call it a rain guard. The rust has eaten all the way through above the rain guard, and under it, to the point of almost detaching it from the door well. You can see that this rain guard is just welded onto the door well itself, and it is pretty well rusted on the inside as well. This runs down the door well, and around the bottom to the rusted out rocker panels too.