Hello All! I'm fairly new to the forums and I'm finding all the info here really useful. I've had a 04 XBlazer, original owner, for years now and I'm finally getting her cleaned back up and in good running order. Now that I've got a garage at the new house, I can finally start this project over this summer. She's seen better days (pictures below) and I'll finally be giving her the TLC she's been missing over the years. It's now my daily driver and just rolled over 100k. I'll list some of the things done so far and whats to come. Pictures coming soon and updates as I move along with it. Any support or questions feel free to ask! Thanks.

Done
Fiberglass Hood from Cervinis
Belltech Front Spindles
Belltech Coils
Belltech Nitro Drop Shocks
4" Rear Blocks
Rollpan / side flares
Flowmaster 40 series (with turndown)
K&N CAI

Coming Soon...
Full Flush/Filter changes (Oil,Trans,Fuel,Rear Diff,Radiator)
New Rims/Center Caps/Tires (ZQ8s) 235/55-16
Front End Bushings/End Links (Sway Bar)
Tie Rods (Inner/Outer)
Control Arm Bushings
New Nitro Drop Shock 2's
Front Hub Assembalys
Body/Paint work
New Interior (Most of its gone from long time ago...long story)
Shaved (Door Handles, Tailights, Rear Wiper, Antenna)
New Interior speaker wiring and Speakers (once again...long story lol)

And I'll be going thorugh and checking all other electrical wiring and doing some engine dress up and/or performance mods later on as well.

I plan to take pictures and post up any troubles or accomplishments as I go. So there'll be before/after pics. Hopefully all can appreciate or help out if I hit any snags.

Here's what she used to look like...








I'll get some today pictures of her up once I start fixing things on it. I have other pictures as well I can post of her "glory days" like above. There's about $2000 worth of parts right now in the garage so all that's left to do now that the weather is getting warmer is start the weekends in the garage!

Stay Tuned...

 

nice and clean

 

Update (Done):

New Belltech Nitro Drop 2 shocks (front/back)
New Rotors / Pads (front/back)
New Rear Calipers (bleeder valve broke off in one when trying to bleed brakes, was rust welded in)
New Street Scene Cal-Vu mirrors (glass fell out of old ones on drivers side)
Sanded / Primed hood (old paint had gotten screwed over years and bubbled/roughed up)
Repainted Calipers / Brackets & did the new rotor hats
Replaced all the hydralic shocks on the back glass/hatch - were blown out pretty much
New Rims/Tires (235/60-16s) - Pics of old rims below
Replaced ALL fluids/filters (except rear diff, plug is rusted in pretty good, gotta take to shop and have done)
Replaced Interior - Dash speaker grills, dash bezel cover, front defroster vent, cig lighter/tray panel. Smoothed/repainted door control pieces, glove box, center console/shifter piece.

Suspension wise I think just new sway bar bushings/end links I am going to get and put in then call it done for it, everything else looks to be in good condition.









New windshield has to go in, old one is now cracked. Hood slipped of the car when I was reattaching it (probably should have asked for help doing it) and put a good chip in it, split a few days later.

Interior is gutted, a layer of dynamat is going in for the entire floor, roof, and side panels/doors. I'm going to run all new wiring for all spakers, put a new indash in/speakers, and 2 small subs in the back. Then new carpet is going in and I'm custom fabricating some side panels and a headliner. The old interior was pulled from this truck about 6 years ago because I had sponsorships going to do a 50/50 deal with on costs, got back from a deployment, got divorced, and never finished the truck. Old interior sat in a shed and got ruined. Don't want to source out new interior and will just be doing sheet metal sides/headliner and wrapping it in vinyl to match the charcoal color already in it.

More to come in a week or two. Work isn't hard to do, just money holds me up after I spend my paychecks, wait two weeks, repeat lol.

 

Still To Come:

New Windshield
Dynamat
Entire rewire of stereo system
New indash / speakers / subs
Fabbed side panels / headliner
Body work - dents dings, might need new core support and/or fender due to old accident
Shaved - antenna, rear tails, rear wiper (maybe door handles haven't decided)
Paint (after body work) - matte black

I'm not doing anything to the engine at all. I have put in a K&N CAI already and there is a flowmaster 40 (we cut the entire rear pipe off and dumped it with a turndown, old exhaust used to stick out way past the rollpan after it was put on). I cleaned everything under the hood last week, I'm going to inspect the wiring and rewrap it up front, replace anything that looks worn out. Just rolled over 100k on this truck, once the motor or trans has a major issue I'm just going to replace them both at the same time with a 350 and a turbo trans. Probably do a new driveshaft and some rear end work as well when that happens, but I'm sure I can get another 100k out of this one without any problems.



All the old dynamat is getting pulled. Front carpet is getting tossed. New layer of dynamat all around (top, floor, sides) done correctly. New carpet going in, sound system, and custom panels for sides/headliner. Front doors and seats will get a rewrap as well in same vinyl. Since no back seats are going back in ever, will be "extending" the floor in the back to keep it level up to rear of the front seats with a false floor using MDF after I get the side panels in. It'll all get carpeted over. Side rear speakers will be in this angled towards the front and taken off the sides of the truck. Subs might or might not go here as well. Kinda hard to explain, will have to see when finished. Should be done with this in a 1/1.5 months (just money is the hold up now).

Next post I'll have a before / after pic of the interior after the carpet is out and the entire dynamat is done with the new sound system wiring.

 

- Update -
Replaced front/door/side panel speakers - Kenwood 2 way KFC sport series
Installed Sound Ordinance 8" sub/amp (enclosed)
Installed new in-dash (Pioneer MVH-AV290BT)
Linex missing interior
Misc little cleanup junk (lots of prepwork in back before linexed)

So I started adding up how much it would be to buy and replace the interior myself. After it started tipping past the $1k mark (and the difficulty finding the pieces/correct color and year) I decided to just fill any small void/gaps in the interior shell and linex it. This only ended up costing me somewhere in the $100 range and 2 days in the garage (1 day prep, 1 day for linex). The front of the truck interior where driver/passenger sit is still intact (and I painted the black replacement parts back to charcoal), just anything behind that is gone and linexed. This is just a daily driver now and I'm trying to get it back to being usable and decent again without spending an arm and leg.

Sound system went in fairly easy. There was already crossovers with tweeters installed so I left those in and connected the new speakers. The only problem I had was with the remote turn-on for the sub/amp staying on after the truck was turned off, so I wired a switch in the middle console I can just turn off/on whenever I want the sub on. I didn't go as crazy as planned with the sound system because my significant other said "How much are you spending at Crutchfield?!"....so I kept it simple. Sounds clear and loud (was really surprised the small "all-in-one" amp/sub sounds as good as it does) after adjusting the EQ and gains on the amp.

I will be putting in new carpet for the front and then that should about do it for the interior. Since I can't find affordable (or correct year/size) factory molded carpet, I'm just going to get some black carpet and back matting and cut it to fit. That should about do it for the interior. I am buying new tail lights, headlights, front corner lenses, and smoked fog lights tomorrow. Will update again once I get those installed. Still have to get the front shocks put in (I didn't have a pair of vice grips when I had the suspension apart the first time to get the top nuts off the shocks, they just spun the rod around running through the shock when I tried to loosen the nuts) and the passenger rotor is stuck on. I'm going to either have to heat it up and take a small hand sledge to it, or run some bolts through the caliper mount and see if I can apply pressure from behind to pop it free. That'll be pretty much it until I get a few $k saved up to get it into a body shop and have all the dents/dings fixed and body lines ensured they are straight. Then it's off to be painted. More to come...