Inspired Blazer
 

So i've always loved the GMC Typhoons. They are one of the most bad ass stock SUV's of all time IMHO. That being said, I know they can never be truely recreated, but i've decided to be inspired by them.

So these pictures are already Step 2. Step 1 was to get rid of all the rust that was on the bottom of the doors. I stripped everything below the trim on the doors down to bare metal and repainted them in a weekend in these pics.

Simple things to start this project out with. After body corrections, next came front-end corrections. Repainted the grill, it was really faded, replaced the turn signals with clears, and rebadged the chevy logo in white.

Next came some other random mechanic stuff; I replaced all the oil lines under the hood, replaced both front end hubs (4x4), did the ABS module solder job, replaced the radiator, and did some other tune ups under the hood.

Picked up a set of 96 Firebird rims today for $150 bucks. They are in amazing condition. Some minor scratches, but nothing to crazy. The guy that owned them took them off the car in 98 with only 25k miles on them. They've been in his garage attic ever since. Plan on running 235 65r 16's on them. Found a couple of different styles of street tires for the rims. Those will be coming next week.

Also next week, i'm dropping the front 3 and the rear 4. (I know dropping is tantamount to blasphemy around here, but hey, not everyone off roads) The GMC Typhoon is my inspiration, so i'm feeling good about this.

Future mods coming are exhaust, a ton of engine work, and the Mitsi TD06 turbo that the Typhoons ran. But those are going to be up to a year out.

This is just the beginning.

:icon_woot:

Looks like you got a good start keep up with the pics and updates. You may look at finding some ground effect off the xtreme blazers and put them on, but I believe they will require some work to make it work on a 4dr.
https://blazerforum.com/forum/attach...ine=1379160450

nice work so far.
there is someone around here doing extreme 4 door body mod. cant remember who.
i know it was completed over at s10forum.com...again cant remember who.

Looking forward to seeing your progress. Nothing wrong with dropping your ride if that's your thing. While I like lifted trucks I can still appreciate a dropped truck if it's done clean and nice.

So spent 4 hours yesterday trying to hammer the torsion bars out with no luck. Sprayed half a can of BP Blaster on them and am giving them 24 hours to soak. Hope that helps get them out so I can get my new keys on.

So, i'm making another attempt at the keys and the TB's starting Thursday, and I have a full week to attempt them. Yay, vacation! So the plan is 3/4 lower this weekend, and my new F-body rims the following weekend. Thinking 235/60R/16s for them. Anyone else run this size on their truck?

In the meantime, I felt weird not doing something to the truck today. So, I pulled the headlight trim, sanded all the chrome paint off with a dremel tool, primed, and repainted them black. It amazes me how something so simple silly can change the look of a vehicle.

That thing is clean, and I hate white! Looks real nice.

Thanks Rich! White is my favorite color for vehicles for some reason. Yeah, I'm all about clean looking rides. I'm actually debating on shaving off the black and chrome body trim, but I haven't decided yet. Also been thinking of pulling the front tow hooks off and putting in LED driving lights in the slots.

That would look good, if you go with LED driving lights, get good ones, dont cheap out. Look at Philips Daylight 4's
Super nice, great quality, will last an incredible amount of time, great light output as well. You can get them on sonicelectronic for like 80 bucks

Yup, those are almost exactly what I was thinking of. Just gotta do some measurements and such to make sure everything would line up and fit correctly.

Looking at the dimensions, they should almost fit perfectly in the cutout for the tow hooks.
I cant say this enough (I have built a lot of LED things in my time) You get what you pay for when it comes to LED's. Philips is at the top when it comes to LED manufacturers.

So once again, can't wait for the next couple of days where I can work on the TB's and hopefully get the keys off. I've been soaking everything in PB Blaster every night for the last 5 days. Hopefully that will be enough to let me break them loose so I can get the new lowering keys on.

Here's a pic of the kit I bought, ready to go. Not going to install the blocks though until the fronts get done...

Once again, I found myself wanting to do something to the truck while I wait for my lowering install... So, I decided to de-badge the rear end. Left side was "Blazer" and the auto dealers decal, right side was "Chevrolet."

Midway through and ending.

Nothing says sexy like a smooth ass-end.... : P

Yeah going to be a great truck. Donate the tow hooks to the mud guys. tint your windows and youll have a totally different truck

Ok so I got the Blazer lowered today... Well kinda...

I went to make another attempt at the keys today using a 2 jaw puller... I started cranking the puller up to relieve pressure on the key bolts and I noticed that the edges of the TB Xmember were starting to uncurl and bulge where the jaws were holding on... Since the xmember was really rusty and it was making me nervous, I decided to wait on the keys until I can borrow a buddies GM Torsion Bar C-Clamp... I ended up backing the bolts out just about all the way, and it dropped the front 2 inches.

After that, I installed the 4 inch blocks in the rear with only minor problems. The problem being that the factory U-bolts were so rusted that I couldn't get them off... Yay for a stupid powerful impact gun, I just busted them off. Got the new blocks and bolts on and torqued down.

So it sits 2/4 right now, and it ends up my rear is .5" lower then the front. So I either have to get the keys in so I can lower the front more, or change out the rear blocks for 3" blocks. Test drive went pretty good, 4x4 still works fine with no binding or anything. However, I've noticed that around 2500 rpm's there is a slight vibration in the truck. Gunna double check the pinion angle Saturday.

I'll get pictures posted up Saturday afternoon when I have time. It was raining out today, and I had to do a brake job and power steering pump install for some friends, so I wasn't able to take pics yet.

Ok so here she is lowered 2/4. She sits .5" lower in the rear then the front at the moment. Since I like where the front is sitting, I think i'm going to swap to 3" blocks in the rear to raise it up some. She's parked on my sloped driveway in these pictures, so it's not like the angle is off THAT much lol.

Also, debating on what size tires to stick on her.

235/65R16 - Same size as my tires now but in a 16" rim.
235/60R16 - Little bit smaller sidewall.
245/55R16 - Typhoon tire size, would lower my truck another inch.

What you guys think?

what if you plastidipped the mirrors white?
How did you remove the trim from the headlights, did you just pop it out?

Hmm might have to mess around in Photoshop and see what that would look like. And yes, remove the headlight, and carefully pop the 4 tabs that hold the bezels on. They just pop right off.

Also, did some researching and thinking about my keys for the TB's... I'm going to try a ball joint press to get the keys unloaded. It's almost the exact same tool as the GM Torsion Bar Unloader... My local auto mechanic tells me that's what he uses to unload TB's when he's working on 4x4s. So I think i'm going to make another attempt at my keys here and see if I can't get the front to match the rear in height.

So I bought 235/60R16s for the Firebird rims. They are on the truck now and damn they look good. I'll post pics tomorrow since its dark out now.

Pic of the truck with the Firebird rims before going back on the lift for more work.

Decided since I have this week off from work and school to do some more stuff to the truck. I spent spent Monday and Tuesday stripping down to bare metal, fixing rust spots, bondoing, priming, painting, and clear coating. I plan to wet sand the final clear coat and hit it with Meguiars Ultimate Compound on Friday after everything has cured and dried more.

Spent today replacing the plugs, wires, cap, and rotor... Also got my drop shocks for the front end, so put those in.

Changed plans and ordered 3 inch drop blocks for the rear, which should be here tomorrow. Also going to install new powder coated black rear brake dust shields (the ones behind the caliper and hub) since they rusted off and also installing a CAI.

Here's a couple of pics showing the last couple days progress.

Been so busy with my school starting back up that I haven't gotten to update this properly.

So, I got the new 3 inch drop blocks in and now the Blazer now sits nice and level instead of running Cali style like the 4's did. Finished the paint job, but still haven't had time to wetsand it down nice and smooth; i'll probably do that this Friday since I don't have classes.

In the mean time, I was itching to do something quick and simple to the truck again, so I bought a can of white Plasti-Dip and coated the rear black vent cover things. First time ever using this stuff, and I must say, it's pretty impressive.

I'll post some pics hopefully tomorrow, it's been pouring rain out the last couple of days and haven't been able to get any good shots of it.

I don't know how well plastidip will hold up on the door handles, but if it worked, it would be a cheap way to make it look like they're shaved.
Also, have you considered removing the mud guards?
Looks great with those rear trim pieces white though!

Hmm, never thought of doing the door handles, might have to look into that. And yeah, I hate the mud flaps, however, winter is coming and they help keep all the road salt and crap off the sides. I'll probably take them off in the spring.

Also, had a little hic-up with the truck this weekend. The 4wd quit working... When I put it into Auto 4wd or 4-Hi, the light would just blink at me and nothing would happen. Long story short, the 4wd Accuator Switch that's mounted on the firewall quit working. I went to the U-pick yard to find one, and oh, come to find out 01 was the first year they used this part, and all the Blazers and Jimmy's at the yard were pre-01s... So yay RockAuto...!! $46 from the autoparts stores, $28 from RockAuto...

Looks good! I think you should lose the black door trim, it'll give her a cleaner look!

Noticed my battery tray was toast the other day when I was diagnosing a 4-hi issue. Stopped by the U-pic in my area and found a tray. It was covered in surface rust, but after sand-blasting it, the metal was in really good shape. Primed and painted it, and now it's in the truck.

Ah the silly little things that nobody will ever notice... :icon_shrug:

So now that winter is just about over here in Minnesota, it's time to start working on the truck again. Over the last couple of months, I replaced upper and lower ball joints, idler arm, and inner and outer tie rods. Fun Fun!

I also picked up a 9006 12000k HID conversion kit and installed that last weekend. HOLY SMOKES what a difference driving at night now! It was really easy to install as everything was plug and play. I'll get pictures up later this week if the weather holds.

Oh and the plasti-dip held up AMAZING on the rear vents. Granted they don't really take road abuse, but between the freezing cold, road salt, and everything else, it still looks brand new.

Super score at the U-pick today...!

I was bored today so I went online and saw the U-pick had 20+ Blazers, Bravadas, and Envoys currently there; normally they only have like 4 or 5... Went there just to browse and found an unused cargo net hiding in a Bravada Onstar compartment! I also found 7 different pull covers for the cargo area, so I grabbed the best one; matching color for the win! $5.32 later, they are both mine!

Couple of quick pics of the H.I.D conversion kit. Super simple to install; plug and play.

Can't wait until the snow melts and it's semi-warm out. Picked up a Porter Cable DA polisher with plans on getting the paint in crazy good condition this spring. Also can't wait to get the Gen 4 rims back on...!

I have been thinking about doing an HID conversion. Where did you get yours?

I got a set off of ebay, came with bulbs, ballasts, and everything.

Well, with the weather finally clearing up here and spring starting to show up, I decided to get a few things done the last couple of days.

I replaced the steering gear box and pitman arm; I had a 6 inch dead zone in the steering wheel. OMG I forgot what having good steering felt like! After my alignment, I decided to drive to the U-Pull yard as a test drive and just do some browsing. I ended up finding a hood liner in really good shape and a pair of gloss black side tailgate covers.

I'm debating if I should keep the covers I have on there (white) or replace them with the gloss ones (kinda give the back of the truck a wrap around glass look). I'll put one on tomorrow and get pics, see what you guys think.

Also have plans for the hood liner, but you guys will have to wait a couple of days to see that one. : )

The tailgate cover things, before and after I buffed them up.

The cold weather has finally snapped! You know what that means right? Time to work on my.... neighbors Chevelle.... GDIT... Over the next couple of weeks, though, I'm gunna get my truck from "winter mode" to "summer mode." In the mean time, my truck has developed a noise in the lower control arms, (video of said noise), what do you guys think it is; control arm bushings, lower ball joint, an angry squirrel?

So started prepping the Blazer for my summer conversion and i'm stuck. Don't know which version of the side covers I like better, mat white plasti-dip or gloss envoy black. What you guys think?

that is a tough call, they both look good. I am leaning towards the black since the back windows are all dark tinted, but that is just my $.02.

defiantly black, white says soccer mom.. black says just to cool for a soccer mom ... lol