Green 2000 ZR2 Build
 

Hey guys! Just got my second blazer: a green 2000 ZR2 two door with 119k on it, and the G80 rear end. PO was a mechanic, who replaced just about everything I can think of: ball joints, tie rod ends, intake manifold gasket, radiator, new tires, and tons more. As far as mods, it look like he had some of the exterior trim places painted black instead of the dark grey you normally see, it looks really clean. He also replaced the cd lights with blue ones. Not a big fan of that. But he did add the aux input to the faceplate, that works by having a cd playing for the data, and pulls the actual audio from the aux. this Im a huge fan of, works awesome. I have a huge envelope of receipts from him. That said, there's a few things I'm ready to change and work on:

Just had a check engine light come on, took it to autozone and it's a o2 sensor code. Forgot which one, need to go back, write it down, and fiddle with it to see what's up.

Dash Bezel Gap: there's about a half inch gap between the bottom of the stereo/top of HVAC control and the Dash Bezel. Seems to me like the CD player is facing down a little bit. Not sure. My last blazer had the same thing going on. Has anybody else had this issue? What fixes did you guys find? Maybe the Bezel is just warped? Maybe the stereo is installed wrong?

CD Player: Im really torn on this. The PO added an aux input to the faceplate that we works great. On the other hand, he replaced the lights with blue ones that a re super intense and don't match the rest of the the interior. I like the way the stock stereo looks, but maybe if I switch the Bezel and everything, I should just go with a double din touchscreen. Input appreciated.

Grey Interior: my last blazer had black interior, this one has grey. I hate it. To make it better, I thought maybe I could put in a black bezel, black floormats, a black dash mat, maybe even change the upper door panel cloth inserts with Black. In the back seats I could replace the grey cupholders with black ones as an accent back there. Down the road I'd like to go to recover the seats in two tone black and grey. There's actually a trailblazer trimmed one parting out here, with the black two tone interior, but idk if the lighter color is grey, or a more cream color, and the back seats of course won't fit. Would be a good grab for somebody here at least. Anyways, where have you guys found leather seat covers for your two doors? Or maybe I'd consider a different material even.

Wheels: I have the most basic blazer wheels you can get. Would like to find some nicer own ones, like this: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...act=mrc&uact=8

Anyways, really excited about this car. If anybody else has some advice for my afore mention issues, or ideas for modification, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks for looking!

Didn't have the chance to get that code read again yet, but I crawled underneath to check to make sure all the o2 sensors were at least connected. They were. The kid that read my code the first time said the code just meant it wasn't getting a signal from the o2 sensor, not that the sensor read anything bad. So I'm going to have to run and get the code read again. Regardless, I imagine the best place is to start with replacing the $20 sensor? As I recall, it was the bank 1, sensor 1 code, before that Cat.

While I was under there, I found a few interesting things:

1) It has a FlowMaster 2220125 49 state generic cat. Maybe something with that could be throwing the code? A bad weld perhaps?

2) The pictured wiring bracket was just hanging there, any body know how it should go? Its right by the Bank 1, Sensor 1 o2 sensor.

On a separate note, I've decide screw it, I'll start looking for some black interior accent pieces. I've been going through the Craigslist parts section, and haven't found much. My best bet is probably to head down to the Pull and Pay in Aurora, I've been told it's the best in the Denver area, but it's a good ways away, and I'm not sure when I'll make it. I've been wondering how black leather seats would look if I found them, in my grey interior, with some black accent pieces. Maybe I need to head into the Chop Shop section...

As for the radio, I'm starting to really think about a touch screen double din unit, and getting everything straightened out as I switch the bezel and stereo over. The passenger door speaker is blown too, so I might as well throw in a few new speakers up there while I'm at it if I go through with it. Would anybody be interested in a stock stereo, blue lights, and aux input??

Off to O'reilly's or something to have that code read again! Will report back soon.

What a clean looking blazer. Can't wait to see what is in store for her!!

First off, nice blazer, it looks really straight and clean. The wheels you are looking for should be really easy to come by on Craigslist. If you want to add a double din head unit you will need a dash bezel from a 2003 - 2005 model. The 1998 - 2002s have 1.5 din bezel. If you have a bad bank1 1 sensor 1 code, that is the sensor in the driver's side front pipe. Make sure there are no air leaks from your air intake tube and no vacuum leaks. I had the same CEL code a few weeks ago and a torn air filter seal was the culprit.

Well I haven't had much time to do stuff. Replaced that O2 Sensor and I was able to clear the codes. I've been driving a good bit, and went on a labor day camping trip. I've been very pleased with my highway gas mileage, I've averaged a bit above 18 I think. Had a half tank that I got 21MPG before fillup. Maybe my perspective is skewed as my last truck was a 97 half ton, but I digress.

On the way back from my camp trip it seemed like I could smell coolant, and sure enough it started to film up the windows, so it looks like I'll have to pay to have the heater core replaced. Wish I could save all that money and do it myself, I just don't have anybody that could help me if things go awry, and I don't want my car just all torn apart. :icon_bricks:

I have a pretty good guy in town I think, he used to work at one of the big name dealers here in the Denver area. Now he just has a shop at his house. Charges $70 by the hours in the book, as I recall. As I've read I think it says this a 9.2 hour job, so that would come out to like $644 on labor. I've seen the Delco Heater core goes for around $85 shipped. I figure if I'm spending that much on labor I might as well not cheap out on the part.

While he's got it, I'm just going to see if I can have him try to straighten up my dash bezel/CD player. I've been keeping my eye out for wheels. I think a salvage yard trip is in my near future. There's a guy on CL with a set of really clean oem wheels and new Michelins for $450, but I already have new tires and don't wanna drop that right now. Maybe if I can get a decent deal I'll go for it, we'll see what I hear back. But if I can just find a set of nice wheels, I'll go for em and swap my tires on as an early birthday present to myself.

Also this week, I found myself buying an older used kayak. just stuck it out my rear window to drive it home, but I bought some $25 J hooks to throw it on the roof from amazon. They look easy enough to take off when I'm not using them. Down the road I'd like to get a nicer kayak, and give this one to my girlfriend, and we can put both of them up top.

So far my blazer has been great. Bought it for a little less than I sold my truck for, it had 170k on the clock and had seen much better days. I've already put 1500 miles on the blazer in the few weeks I've had it, and I forgot how much more manageable they are in the city, not to mention efficient. It's pretty much perfect for my uses too. While I can't tow my dads boat anymore, I'm considering getting a pretty light little fishing boat I can tow with the blazer. Might even paint it to match :icon_steer:

Well I was quoted $915 on the heater core with parts. Seems a bit steep, I might try to look around a little, but I'm not too sure where, will probably just bite it.

I have another question: how close is the grey is on the black two tone trailblazer edition seats to the normal grey interior? I'd have to get custom rear seat covers, and it'd be a bitch to get into the back, but it'd be pretty nice. I usually just leave them down anyways...

Well I'm having him do my heater core. I wish I could find somebody I could pay to teach me, but I gotta do what I gotta do. In the meantime, I've been shopping for some bells and whistles to add. Trying to make it the ultimate weekend camping rig, but still be able to take everything off for my daily driving Mon-Fri. I just got a kayak mount, still haven't put it on though. Planning to tomorrow, will snap some pics.

First things first: I need some better floor mats. Mine came with some poorly fitting universals. Does anybody have the OEM Vinyl, all weather floor mats, part number 12495146? How do you like them? Are they the same shape as the carpet ones? I can get some grey ones with a bow tie on them for around $45 plus shipping after looking around. For $55, I can get Carpet Replicas. For $90, I can get OEM carpet ones from Rock Auto. At that price, I might as well get weathertechs, but I don't wanna spend that much lol. If I don't hear anything I'm just going to pull the trigger on the oem vinyl and return them if I don't like them.

Still looking for wheels. There's two sets on craigslist, both with brand new tires, pushing them out of my price range... One guy said he'd let me know if anybody is just interested in the tires at least, hoping to get a set soon though.

I've been looking for an OEM cargo organizer, and see it's still pretty easy to get one for a 4 door for around fifty bucks, but it doesn't seem like one was ever made for the two doors :( In lieu of that, I'm going to try to find a set of the big Tupperware containers that are the right dimensions to fit perfectly in the back. I can organize my usual camping set up in them, so it's easy to load up. My cargo area is about 37" wide by 30" long. If I can get 4 bins that are 18" by 15" and decently deep, I think I can fit most of my stuff in them for short car camping trips, which is usually all I have time for. Will still have room to squeeze in other stuff.

In one bin, I can fit my 2 burner stove, Pots, Pans, Plates, and other "Kitchen" Stuff. Need a good, easy coffee solution. French Press?
In the second, I can fit a queen sized air mattress.
In the third, I can hopefully squeeze in a two person sleeping bag.
In the fourth, I can put my tent and folding chairs.
I have a 5' long Lifetime plastic table that folds in half and should fit comfortably on top, might have to tie it down so it doesn't slide all over.
I don't have a very big cooler, it fits behind my driver seat, just won't open with my seat moved back where I like it. Seems to work for most little trips.
The rest of my back seat is reserved for my girlfriend's dog. Might make sense to lay the seat down to give him more room, and fit a bigger cooler.
I'll have to fit in other food and fishing rods somewhere, I'm thinking about making a homemade rooftop rod locker to solve that.... Food I guess can go in the spare room in back.

Any ideas are welcome! I'm going to really start building it out these next couple weeks! Will take lots of pics!

Scheduled to get my heater core replaced Tuesday, got the new delco part sitting here. Not excited for the bill, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Found a black leather rear seat for it, so I think I'm gunna swap to black leather seats, and a black dash bezel, with dark charcoal floor mats. I'm also going to try to find a matching grey door panel from a leather car, and die the leather part surrounding the handle dark charcoal/black to match. I also posted a thread in the interior section, but I've found a set of two tone black/greyish s10 trailblazer seats. Seems doable to make them tilt forward. My only question then is what color exactly is the insert on these seats? it looks like it will match my interior quite well, but I'm hesitant that once in my car, you will be able to tell a difference. Would I be better off just scavenging salvage yards for all black seats? Regardless, If I find some nice 4 door front seats I'll make a how to for tilting them forward. I'll plan a salvage yard trip monday. Super excited!!!