95 to 98 headlight conversion
 

Last week I was pulled over for a burned out headlight on my 1995 blazer. Thankfully I was given a warning and sent on my way. This got the ball rolling for doing the headlight conversion that I have wanted to do for a while now. I went to the junkyard and got a chrome bumper, valence, grille, and headlights off of a 1999 blazer all for $140. Sorry if the pictures aren't the best quality, I was too lazy to get my DSLR camera out so I just took the pictures with my phone.

This is what it looked like when I started:
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...-41-43_280.jpg

Once I removed the grille and bumper:
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...-57-37_623.jpg

Hood and lights removed:
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...5-39-33_82.jpg

I loosened both fenders and removed the radiator support
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...-39-25_496.jpg

Out with old:
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...-49-28_799.jpg

In with the new:
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...-49-23_201.jpg

I removed my air bag sensors and bolted them to the newer support:
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...4-56-36_15.jpg

Before I put the newer radiator support back in I gave it a quick coat of paint:
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...-20-43_828.jpg

New rad support installed:
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...4-17-49_75.jpg

Chrome bumper installed and headlight wiring with 10ga wire and relays
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...-20-14_298.jpg

And finally everything mocked up
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...-13-52_621.jpg

Things left to do:
New headlights (the ones from the junkyard are broken beyond repair)
Fabricate/ bend bumper support brackets
Get new bulbs (hopefully LED)

I like !

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I'm going to be doing the same thing with my '96 soon. How long has everything taken you so far? How bad was it to switch out the headlight wiring to a thicker gauge with the front end apart?

I'm going to have to do the same thing to my Jimmy here eventually.

If you don't mind: how easy was it to loosen those fenders? What more would you have had to do to remove one completely? I'm not asking for a procedure, just a general impression. Is the whole job the piece of cake it looks like? How long did it take to complete (minus paint-drying time)?

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This: Click on the brackets ----> []

I have spread out the work over 4 days working around 2 hours a day; so a combined 8 hours. Within the first two days I had the old radiator support out and the newer one in. The other two days were spent fumbling with the wiring and final touches. I used two threads from S10 Forum to help me figure out the wiring. Once I figured out what I was doing, the wiring was fairly simple.

Headlight Rewire (Sealed Beam)

Headlight Rewire (98 and newer)

Loosening the fenders is very straight forward. I removed around 10 bolts (don't remember how many exactly) that surrounded the fender. Then removed all the bolts that held the inner fender/splash guard to fender. If you still have questions let me know and I can do a write up with pictures on how to remove a fender.

Back to a little progress, I got new headlights
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...-21-47_436.jpg

And if someone is interested in converting sealed beam lights to composite this is a How-To I found on S10 Forum
How-To Convert Sealed Beam To Composite Headlights

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Okay, hopefully my install will be a little quicker because I'm already running composites and the new front end have composites.

Excellent! Ta muchly.

Nice freaken job man!! looks way better!