Truck started life as a 2000 Jimmy SLS. Owned it for over 7 years and have been picking off projects one by one. Stock pic of what it looked like when bought.



Over the years, have rebuilt the engine, added ZR2 flares, removed body cladding, fixed rusty rockers and repainted, lifted (body 1.5 and RC 2.5), multiple sets of wheels and tires and on and on.

Couple years ago with ZQ8 S10 wheels.


Right now with Irocs and 265/70/16's



Have a couple oil leaks and hate laying cardboard under the truck every day so decided to pull the engine to fix the leaks. One day while walking the local wrecking yard, I noticed a ZR2 so I decided to pull the rear axle to get the extra width and 3.73's (had stock 3.42's). While doing that, another guy was pulling the fenders and mentioned that he had swapped his four door to a ZR2 front frame (he also pulled the front diff for me in about 10 minutes, thanks buddy!). That got me thinking... if the engine has to come out, it's really not much more work to pull the body off and do the frame swap ... so after a couple weeks of going back and forth, I decided to go for it. The funny thing is that it is actually quite a bit of work to remove the body but I was just trying to talk myself into it. Of course the truck is old and things need to be replaced anyways so might as well go for it. One thing leads to another and on and on...

So here's the front half of the frame from a 2005 Blazer ZR2 along with the torsion bars, lower control arms and steering center link (these parts are specific to the ZR2). The only thing missing was the trans crossmember which I'm trying to find. Or I'll make one...




The frame had a lot of surface rust so I got a quote from a sandblasting place that was actually very reasonable. The lower control arm mounts are known to crack on these but this one had no issues. Planning on building a brace anyways.

Got it back and under cover about 15 min before the rain started. Painted with rust paint followed by a coat of Raptor Liner. I used Raptor to coat my fender flares and it is very easy to use and you can get a variety of finish types depending on PSI and using reducers. I wanted a fine texture much like the stock GM plastic look.

Painted with something called Armor Coat rust paint. Was fairly thick so I reduced it a little with mineral spirits and sprayed with a HVLP gun. Worked OK as the paint was still pretty thick.


Sprayed with Raptor reduced 10% and sprayed at 60PSI.




Also had the lower control arms sandblasted with the frame. I have a fridge sized powder coat oven so coated them in Black Jack from Prismatic Powders. Wanted something fairly flat so it can easily be touched up with a rattle can if needed.



Also stripped and coated the torsion bar crossmember

 

With the front frame done for now, it was time to start pulling everything to split the frame and body.





If you have ever pulled one of these engines, you will know how much fun it is. It wasn't long before I decided to not pull the engine first but take it out with the frame.




Started splitting the body and frame. Definitely a little sketchy but had to use what was available. Had to pull off the wheels to get the frame low enough to clear the body.


After fighting with it for a while, finally out!

 

Spent a small fortune (considering this is a 2000 Jimmy which is basically worthless no matter the shape) at Rockauto. New CV axles, tie rods, ball joints, steering, bushings, hoses and on and on. Most of the body mount bushings are shot so will have the spend another fortune buying those from LMC.



Sandblasted and powder coated inner fenders.


Had add-a-leafs from when the truck was first lifted. Stripped down the leafs and rebuilt with new bushings and hardware.

 

Point of no return. Cut the existing frame before the factory splice.


Took the back half to get sandblasted as well. Rust was worse on this half particularly around the body mounts.


Painted with Armorcoat


A couple of the body mounts were shot from rust so made some patch pieces.


Raptor liner again


Factory weld that needs to be cut














All finished. Was not sure how the welding would go as I am very inexperienced but everything seemed to work well. We took measurements between the body mounts on each side of the cut. Also measured a few times for level.

 

Dude! This is so awesome!!!

You are creating a genuine 4dr ZR2! This is the dream of many of us!

Did you or are you going to install ZR2 axles too?

 

Rear end is from the wrecking yard Blazer that the frame came from. 8.5 inch with 3.73 gears. Front diff is also from the same vehicle but is the same as regular trucks just with the 3.73 to match. Still looking for an iron front but they are hard to find. CV axles were bought new from Rockauto as they are specific to ZR2's by being an inch or so longer.

 

For all the effort you are doing, I figured you were on top of this.

Have you seen that Outfitter Design has heavy duty ZR2 front axles? They are not cheap! https://www.outfitterdesign.com/s10-...ferential.html

 

Nice work! I'm really curious to see the rest of your build.

 

That price is nuts considering the whole truck cost $1,500 when I bought it.

 

Lower control arms with new balljoints and bushings. Bought a press pull kit from Amazon to install the bushings properly. The lower control arms are specific to the ZR2 but the balljoints and bushings are the same for all.



New torsion bar crossmember mounts.









These are the markings on the ends of the torsion bars. I believe that I read somewhere that the ZR2 torsion bars are heavier duty than regular S-series but don't quote me on that. These are the ones that came with the front frame.



Torsion bars installed. Pretty easy process when everything is loose. I tightened up the adjusting bolts slightly but won't be able to figure it out until the motor is back in. The keys are the Rough Country keys for the 2.5 lift.


Cleaned up the diff bracket and installed new bushings.


Front diff in. This is the front diff that was in the donor vehicle with 3.73 gears. I already had the RC 2.5 lift from years back and here you can see the angled diff block and the upper control arms. I'd like to put new upper ball joints in as well but need to determine if these control arms are the old style that use the Silverado ball joints or the new style that only use Rough Country ball joints. Anyone have any clues on this?