Four Wheel Blazer Pop-up, Finally found one

[Zoomad]

Got the doors hung today. Another step closer. I'm going to add a shelf in each of the two larger cabinets. I'll add tubs inside to allow for easy access without having to reach albl the way to the back.

Cabinet work. by Rob Zulian, on Flickr

Pay no attention to the upper cubby door. We ended up swapping it out for another piece where the grain is going in the same direction as the other door.
Cabinet work. by Rob Zulian, on Flickr


All the hinges are self closing and we've added roller latches to hold the door shut when it closes. They shut nice and tight.

 

[Zoomad]

The day has come to load the camper onto the K5. I started out this morning getting ready by starting to pull the tailgate. John and his two boys came over to help take the top off. As things normally go there is always one friggen thing to disrupt plans. The torsion springs for the gate were a little of a pain, but what turned into a problem was that the head of one of the bolts to the right hinge had broken off a long time ago. It would not allow the hinge to pull out of the pocket on the body. Taking too long we unbolted the hinge from the gate and moved on so John's oldest could go back home to meet a buddy to go skiing. So with the top off that left John and his youngest to ride back to his house in the topless K5. With no rear seat or gate. We got some looks from other vehicles to say the least.

I don't have any pics putting the camper on as I've taken enough on the last couple of go rounds. Plus John, Tony and I were constantly moving to prep the truck for the camper. The heavy bed mat was pulled out, to be put back in later. I had fresh weatherstripping for the cab and the top so they got glued in with 3m weatherstrip adhesive. Camper tape was used on the top of the bed rails and the gate opening. We yanked the carpet off of the camper floor and pulled all the staples and put it in the truck. The bed mat went back in and the camper was lifted up. We dropped it onto the truck without much fuss. We did have to open up some holes to line up better on both sides but it didn't take much.

On to the installed pics...

Pardon the duct tape. I had the lock for the propane compartment at home. Still need to install it.

Inside, plus the stuff I needed to take home from John's house like the camper jacks and other stuff.

Now it's onto fitting it out. Wiring, lower bench, ceiling.....

 

[CougarCouple]

Congrats Zoomad
Looking good and I saw some where spring is around the corner. Yea!

Russ

 

[Zoomad]

Congrats Zoomad
Looking good and I saw some where spring is around the corner. Yea!

Russ

Thanks! I've got bit to do left, but it's a definite milestone passed for sure. An extra hour of daylight in the afternoon is going to extend my working window.

 

[Living The Dream]

Looks great!! Really nice!! Sure must be motivating to keep going.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Pretty cool looking rig.
Frank

 

[k5nutt]

Looks amazing mr. I am jealous. Stopped by the fiberglass shop today to see the new rear door on the chalet and discovered that someone flubbed the measurements on the door. Told the girl in the office it was unacceptable. Not sure what they are going to do. At this point i am getting no where and i wish i had never given my 4wd pop top away years back.

Found a 4wd pop top on a 79 K5 in vegas for sale. 8500. Way to much. Didn't ask if he would part with said camper.

DW

 

[CougarCouple]

Evening ZM

I thought you could use some more daylight for camper remodeling.
The cabinets look real nice, and camper looks sweet on the K5 Blazer.

Russ

 

[Zoomad]

Looks great!! Really nice!! Sure must be motivating to keep going.

Thanks. It is really a big motivator to have it in my driveway. Just a little more light after work and I'll really be going after it.

Pretty cool looking rig.
Frank

Thank you sir! It's been a long time coming for sure.

Looks amazing mr. I am jealous. Stopped by the fiberglass shop today to see the new rear door on the chalet and discovered that someone flubbed the measurements on the door. Told the girl in the office it was unacceptable. Not sure what they are going to do. At this point i am getting no where and i wish i had never given my 4wd pop top away years back.

Found a 4wd pop top on a 79 K5 in vegas for sale. 8500. Way to much. Didn't ask if he would part with said camper.

DW

Hopefully they sort it out for you. Going through your pics on CK5 and other forums has been extremely helpful. Many thanks for that dude!

 

[Zoomad]

Evening ZM

I thought you could use some more daylight for camper remodeling.
The cabinets look real nice, and camper looks sweet on the K5 Blazer.

Russ

Thanks Russ. Time is counting down for sure, so some after work sessions are going to be needed to make it liveable in time for this year's desert trip.

 

[Zoomad]

Had the day off and planned on making full use of it. So bright and early I popped the top on the camper and got to work sanding the cabinet.

80 grit made quick work of the old stain/poly. Followed up with 120 to smooth it out. Had all of the sanding done before lunch.

It made a flipping mess for sure. I wish we could have done this before we mounted it, but that's why shop vacs came to be. Sand for a few minutes, vac it up for a few. Repeat.

Pulled the doors back off to be able to sand around the hinges and sand down the backsides.

I will say this, with the front windows open, back door open and the windows open in the sideliner I had pretty good airflow.

After a final vacuum I fired up the truck and the OBA in order to give it a final blow out to get the last of the dust off of the surface I was going to work with.

Taking a break in the action I ran to Lowes to get the supplies needed to complete the next phase. I chose a little darker color than before. It's not a perfect match to the FWC paneling, but I liked it.

I'm not planning on going nuts and staining the inside right now. Later maybe, but right now it's getting the outside done.

I plan on covering the plywood seen here with a grey carpet like what's used on sub and speaker boxes. Way better than the shag that was on here before.

American Chestnut is the color. I like it.

While I was waiting for stuff to dry I fixed something that was bugging me from our initial assembly. The aluminum angle stock was used originally to support the joint between the cab wall and cabover floor. Bugle head wood screws were used and they just sat on top of the aluminum. It just didn't look finished. So I took the screws out and followed up with a countersink bit to make the screws fit flush to the aluminum. Now they won't catch something as I climb into bed in the dark.

[SIZE=12pt]

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Stuff is pretty dry now but I want to give it all another coat so I'll go back through the process again tomorrow. [/SIZE]

 

[CougarCouple]

Looking good zoomad, moving right along ! What's next to get done? If you keep the inside a lighter color, it won't be so dark inside when you open the doors.

Russ

 

[Zoomad]

Looking good zoomad, moving right along ! What's next to get done? If you keep the inside a lighter color, it won't be so dark inside when you open the doors.

Russ

Funny you should say something about that. I've kicked around the idea to paint what remaining paneling that FWC installed. The back wall and upper cubby and wall on the passenger side. Just a light color, off white or cream to brighten it up.

After giving everything another coat tomorrow, I'm either going into the roof or getting started wiring things up. I need to get a hold of one of my carpenter buddies for the side bench. The rear bumper is in need of doing too. But I need help in the fab dept on that. Good thing one of my other buddies is a kick ass fabricator. So the goal is to get done what I can on my own so I don't need to take all my buddies time up.

 

[jmodge]

Cool rig, I've had mine since 2010, we have a blast in it. Gets looks up here in the north, not many trucks around like it and few FWC's.

 

[Zoomad]

Cool rig, I've had mine since 2010, we have a blast in it. Gets looks up here in the north, not many trucks around like it and few FWC's.

Thanks! Glad to see another FWC Blazer camper getting used too! I'm sure once I get out in mine it's going to turn some heads. Even more so where I plan on taking it and using it.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Looks nice,thanks for keeping us updated on the project.
Frank

 

[jmodge]

Loading ours up now and heading north Sunday. Easter Dinner in the woods over a fire. I have a thin wool fire blanket I use for between the cab and camper in cold weather. Lots of heat will go out that glass. It tucks under the mattress and goes to the floor, makes a big difference if out in the cold

 

[Zoomad]

Looks nice,thanks for keeping us updated on the project.
Frank

Thanks! Will be back at it tomorrow.

Loading ours up now and heading north Sunday. Easter Dinner in the woods over a fire. I have a thin wool fire blanket I use for between the cab and camper in cold weather. Lots of heat will go out that glass. It tucks under the mattress and goes to the floor, makes a big difference if out in the cold

Sounds like a great way to spend Easter! Great idea on the blanket. I was wondering what I needed to do to deal with the heat loss through the cab area. I was thinking of going with reflectex (SP?) insulation for the glass. But the blanket is a nice simple solution. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[jmodge]

Glad to, our blanket is large, cut in half it tucks about 18” under the bed, hangs to the floor, and overlaps 2 1/2’ at the vertical opening. Works great

 

[Zoomad]

I had already installed the outside light on a previous weekend. It's really just one wire to hook up as the ground is tied right to the aluminum frame. I did add a jumper wire from the frame back to my ground junction block in the electrical hub back up front. But the light is crazy bright. Gotta love LED's

I wired in a main switch for the rear light (the light has one on the housing too) and installed it to the panel that covers the furnace. This way it's an easy reach with the door open.

While I was at it, I decided to add another light that can be used while cooking or working at the rear of the truck. I had an extra GM trouble light laying in the garage so I put it to use. I need to get an LED bulb for it and the one up front.

Climbing up into the catbird seat for the first time I looked back at the mess I've made with the lights on.

There's plenty of room up there as I can lay out and not touch at my feet or head. Needs more headroom through, I can't sit up. That space will close up when I put the mattress back up there. All the more reason to add height when I re-do the side liner later.

I added an 110v AC outlet too. This is just merely nothing more than a short extension cord that hooks up to the plug on the outside. I did use a GFCI outlet for circuit protection. This will only get used to run my CPAP or power my laptop if I have access to Shore power at organized campsites. I do need to shave about 1/4" off of the trim plate to allow it to fit.

I still have two 60" LED light strips to install (truck bed light kit), plus multiple 12v and USB charge ports. Once the rest of the items are installed and wiring routed I'll loom the wiring and tie it down nice and tidy.

One other thing to add that I need help with. I'm planning on keeping the original furnace and thermostat. The guy I bout it from said it worked when they last took it out but it had been parked for a while. (I know the old "worked before we parked it" deal) But all the parts are there. I pulled the wiring during the teardown phase but I neglected to document the wiring between the furnace and the thermostat and the power/ground locations. So here's what I got: The thermostat has two wires leading from the backside, one red, one blue. The thermostat looks to be original but does have an on/off switch. At the furnace, there are three wires, red, blue and black. Looking at the wires on the thermostat, they had blade style terminals installed for easy removal I assume. So the assumtion is I hook up, red to red and blue to blue but I'm not sure where the main positive power lead comes from my new fuse panel to the furnace. So is there anybody out there with a vintage wiring schematic? I already looked at the old camper manual on FWC's website but it doesn't go into detail on the wiring.

I had already installed the outside light on a previous weekend. It's really just one wire to hook up as the ground is tied right to the aluminum frame. I did add a jumper wire from the frame back to my ground junction block in the electrical hub back up front. But the light is crazy bright. Gotta love LED's

I wired in a main switch for the rear light (the light has one on the housing too) and installed it to the panel that covers the furnace. This way it's an easy reach with the door open.

While I was at it, I decided to add another light that can be used while cooking or working at the rear of the truck. I had an extra GM trouble light laying in the garage so I put it to use. I need to get an LED bulb for it and the one up front.

Climbing up into the catbird seat for the first time I looked back at the mess I've made with the lights on.

There's plenty of room up there as I can lay out and not touch at my feet or head. Needs more headroom through, I can't sit up. That space will close up when I put the mattress back up there. All the more reason to add height when I re-do the side liner later.

I added an 110v AC outlet too. This is just merely nothing more than a short extension cord that hooks up to the plug on the outside. I did use a GFCI outlet for circuit protection. This will only get used to run my CPAP or power my laptop if I have access to Shore power at organized campsites. I do need to shave about 1/4" off of the trim plate to allow it to fit.

I still have two 60" LED light strips to install (truck bed light kit), plus multiple 12v and USB charge ports. Once the rest of the items are installed and wiring routed I'll loom the wiring and tie it down nice and tidy.