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Where did that name come from, you may ask? Well, no matter how much time and effort I put into this truck, it's gonna last me one night. Our time together is short, but we make the best of it. It's been like this every since I bought the truck.
The truck is a 1983 Chevrolet K5 Blazer. It has a 383 Stroker with new hypereutectic pistons, an Edelbrock intake, Holley 850 carb, and some chrome trinkets. The lift is 6" BDS springs, and RS5000 Rancho shocks. We'd like to move to the new RS9000x 9 way remote adjustable shocks soon, but for now, we'll focus on the bodywork. The tires are 35x15x15 SuperSwamper TSL's.
This project consists of several stages. Some of them are complete, while others haven't even been fully planned out. What it consists of is this:
| Project One Night Stand Outline |
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Rebuild 383 Stroker |
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- This has been completed |
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Paint it Metallic Silver |
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- This has been completed |
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Build a set of Abused Bumpers |
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- This should be underway soon. |
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Build an insane rollcage |
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- This has not yet begun. I am still considering different designs. |
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This was never a pretty truck, and still maybe is not. But we'd like to think that we helped it to be a little more presentable at minimum. We've still got some work to do on it, but the paint is laid down, now we just have to start adding the rest of the accessories as we decide what they'll be.
Here are some 'before' pictures of Abused II. In these pictures, it was still blue, and the body was in so-so condition. It was good enough to take places and not have to be too ashamed, but definitetly ugly enough to beat on and not worry about taking body damage.
One thing we decided needed to go was the trim and the emblems. Yeah, they may add some touch to the truck, but for our project, they serve no function, and they're just extra weight. So they went. These are some pictures of the first night of working on it. Basically, we had just removed the trim, emblems, mirrors, grille, and bumpers.
These are pictures at our first attempt at paint. As usual, Pauls ego is bigger than his appetite and had to try to take it on alone. It was a good vehicle to test with. But it didn't look good enough, so it was sanded down and brought back into the shop.
With the help of a couple of good friends, the truck was retaped, sanded, and was underway for new paint. Determined to get this done, we started on it at about 8pm, and worked all through the night to complete it. It was driven home 70 miles at 7am the next morning.
Now that it's all taped off, and the rest of the body work has been finished, we shot it with some primer sealer. The dark grey actually looks kind of nice in the pictures, and will be considered for the next color once this body is trashed.
Less the trim and bumpers, this is the final product. The paint turned out really nice, it shines, and there are hardly any bugs in it :-) As you can see, we did not do this in a nice climate controlled, surgery-room-clean paint booth. It's an off-road rig, so it's treated accordingly.
This is far from the end of Project One Night Stand. We've got some bumpers to build, a roll cage to design, some gears and lockers to install, and a long list of other things to still do. We'll keep you posted on where we're at.
Special thanks goes out to:
- Sid from SidCo 4x4 for some of the body parts, even though I ruined them before the truck was ever even driven.
- Patrick Lund from Critical Habit for his capable hands behind a paint gun.
- and Mark Daluge from T&M Towing (763-682-6823) for letting us bother him in the middle of the night and use his shop.
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