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95Teal4X4's DD Build, Lots of Pics
47 Attachment(s)
Ok so I have been putting this off for a while. i have been a member of this forum for a few months now. My parents bought this Blazer back in 1995 right off the lot, brand new. My dad still has the factory window sticker, brochure and paperwork. My dad worked at an auto body shop for probably 15 years and since he could drive he was always buying cars fixing them, driving them and selling them. But he never bought a NEW car. Until this one and it remains the only New car he bought.
Being the only new car he has bought, he bought it Loaded with all the options. Full set of aluminum skid plates, Tow Package, Roof rack, 3.73 rear differential, 4WD, Premium Radio, Leather Steering Wheel, Full overhead Console, Keyless entry, both Conveneience Packages and the ZW7 Premium Ride Suspension Package. I have known this car my whole life. I was brought home as a baby from the hospital in this car. And now i drive it:icon_special: Right now i am 17 and i turn 18 in January. So right now i don't have a ton of cash flow but i am still doing mods. I don't plan on doing any serious trails but i take it offroading every once in a while but i don't do any massive mud spots. usually just sand and dirt. I have been cooking up some mods right now. I keep them in a notebook, i have notes, sketches and minor thoughts in it. I am going to school to be a mechanic and am currently in the Ford ASSET Program so i am pretty good with cars Alright enough said here it is before i did any mods to it: https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...8&d=1480645095 https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...9&d=1480645095 https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...0&d=1480645095 So there she is, those pictures were taken over the summer. It was after I put the new reap bumper caps on because the oem ones suck and were turning white and before i painted the frame. also removed the crappy oem chrome rubber strips because they were now white too :icon_doh. So here it is after i did one of the first current mods to it. For all you 98+ guys, i can tell you for a fact that the headlights in the 95-97's suck. In fact they are so bad i went out to autozone and bought brighter bulbs for it, took out the ones that were in there for years, stuck them in and they still weren't that bright. So as much as i loved the rugged look of the factory tow hooks in the front, i needed to see more. So i bought these two 5 inch led bars and stuck them in their place. I had a piece of stainless steel in the garage laying around so i took a few measurements and cut them out long enough to use the factory holes for the tow hooks and let them stick out a little bit. I drilled a hole by the end of it and Walaa! https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1480652107 https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...512_225934.jpg They look almost factory. I put the switch in the spot a security light would have been in a later year, and tapped the empty fuse spot in the fuse block for power. I fished the power wire from the switch through the hood grommet and through the rad support. You would never know it was there. https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...507_185824.jpg https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...7&d=1480639587 The day after i was done installing them, before i could even test them, i was driving home and i lost 3rd and 4th gear. So when it tried to upshift into 3rd gear all it did was slip :icon_fryingpan: I suspect the infamous 3-4 clutch pack was annihilated since the trans fluid that came out of it was dark brown. Not good. So it was off the road for about two weeks total. Long story short after my dad called two shops and a two trans shops we ended up getting a Re-manufactured trans from Jasper. The cheaper shop wanted like $1200 to install it, if you gave them the new trans after you bought it. Yeh......No Thanks. So we took about 4 days and put the blazer up on wheel stands and did the job ourselves for the second time for the cost of the trans. Around $1400. Yeh not fun, but worth it to keep my girl on the road. My dad says that is its fourth transmission. The car had about 226,000 miles on it when the third one died. That was in may. It now has 231,000 on it. So yeh, the usual 4L60E Lifetime Expectancy. Just about 80,000 miles each. New trans going in after the old one came out: https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...527_151742.jpg My next step was to paint the frame. On the inside of it there was still a lot of factory undercoating. So i did each side a different day with probably a week's time in between them to make sure i liked the look. I bought some 3M One-Step Rust Converter Primer (Excellent Stuff) and brushed on two coats of it to start. Then once that was dry i brushed on two coats of Rustoleum black paint. I took off the plastic side cover/shields in the rear wheels and taped the spot off. I scraped off the little of what was left of the factory undercoating on the frame. I found a really old spray can of Wesley's Rubberized Undercoating and sprayed it on the section of frame in the wheel well. i used blue tape to make a smooth line of transition between the paint and undercoating. Wheel well prepped: https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480652218 Wheel well painted: https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480652218 Frame painted: https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480652549 https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480652549 https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480652549 About a month later i got a half empty gallon can of Rustoleum roll on bedliner after he used it to do his jeep interior :icon_imnotworthy: Let me tell you, this stuff is fantastic. I got tired of seeing grey wheel wells. I mean can anyone confirm this? Were they ever black when they were new? Everyone i see is always grey. Most blazers get away with it and still look great but not mine. So i went to autozone and bought a can of Duplicolor Spray on Bedliner. It was pretty good when i used it the first time for the rear wheel wells. I went to use it again on something else and it was eh. I did my front wells with the roll on stuff since they are metal. They were all grey and faded looking. did the first coat, let it dry, then did another coat. I seriously would recommend doing this, it is so worth it. Rear Prepped For Spray on Bedliner: https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480642790 Rear Done: https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480642790 Front Wheel Wells with Brush on Bedliner: https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480652921 https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480652921 https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480652921 I think i'll top it off with a transformation pic. Before i did anything to it: https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480653653 As it sits currently. this was around 4 weeks ago when i got 2 new tires: https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...1&d=1480653771 P.S. I have done more to it, i will be posting. this is enough for one day :icon_lolsign: |
Looks like a great start!! The lights look good but you are going to kick yourself in the teeth the first time you get stuck and need something to attach a recovery strap to!! Keep up the good work and keep posting pics.
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Originally Posted by rexmburns
(Post 670808)
Looks like a great start!! The lights look good but you are going to kick yourself in the teeth the first time you get stuck and need something to attach a recovery strap to!! Keep up the good work and keep posting pics.
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Swap your headlight bulbs for LED bulbs. I had HID low beams and LED high beams. It is so much brighter and actually white light.
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Tajohns34 I have thought about it, but wouldn't it be blinding other drivers because it is the stock housing?I have been seriously considering trying the quad beam mod. I want to do it with a relay though. I cant find a good write up for a 95-97.
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I don't know much about the 95 - 97 housings. Does it use a separate bulb for high and low or a dual filament bulb? I have a 2000 so I have separate bulbs. So it doesn't blind other drivers when I have the high beams off.
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Yeh mine has 4 bulbs in it but I don't really want to change the bulbs because I would have to take the whole grill off to do it and I risk the chance of it breaking, or one of the stupid metal clips falling into the rad support. The last time I had it off, I painted the part of the rad support you see behind the grill because I never wanted to take it off. On the bright side, my rear door speakers just showed up at my door. They will match the fronts now, since I installed kicker 6.5"s in it. I will post a picture later
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You shouldn't need to remove the grill to change the bulbs. In the pic below notice the two rubber caps (one on the left and one on the right) remove them and you will be able to remove those retaining pins and your headlight should be easily removable without removing the grill.
https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1480704245 |
Hmmm, I always thought that those were how you adjusted it, but you could be right. I'll have to try it, thanks rex! I would really hope that you don't have to remove the grill because it makes no sense to me
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Nope adjustment is made with a phillips screwdriver through the hole in the center of my pic and also through the cutout in the grill just to the right of the left retaining bolt in the pic.
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