Just some really big fender washers. Read a bunch of others did it that way and it seems pretty solid. It's latched 99.99% of the time so the weight sits on the tailgate the majority of the time. I did make a plate for inside the tailgate to make that plenty strong.

 

Had a couple free hours this weekend so continued on fabricating a crossmember between the lower control arm mounts along with a skid plate to cover the front diff. This will tie into the front skid plate in the future when I build a new bumper.





One project from last winter was trying to modify a front grill. The general idea is that headlight options for the Blazer seem better than the Jimmy (which has literally none) so I wanted to use the Blazer grill but integrate the GMC logo so cut up a donor grill to remove/clean up the Chevy logo and then used the logo from a 1997 style Jimmy grill and sanded out the profile of the Chevy chrome center section. Then had someone CNC some GMC logo/letters and welded on some mounting tabs. The fit wasn't perfect as I had to make a GMC logo in Sketchup to send to the CNC guys but it's pretty close. Had three set of letters made so they could be powdercoated different colors. Finished it off by Raptor lining the entire grill and adding black turn signals.

 

Dude! The GMC emblem is great!

 

I agree with Christine. I love the GMC logo. Looks so good!

 

Heres a couple other projects from last winter...

I've always wanted a cowl hood but haven't been able to find one at a decent price. Also always wanted to learn how to weld sheetmetal so decided to make my own hood. Found a partially wrecked Tacoma hood at a wrecker and bought it to cut out the scoop and weld it to the Jimmy/Sonoma hood. What a learning experience! Went through four GM hoods and two Tacoma hoods before getting it partially right. Each attempt got better with less warping and tighter fitment. Used a small 110 mig that I found for cheap and followed this video (this guy is great) Turns out butt welding is pretty hard so I ending up crimping the edges after cutting the main hole and welded it that way. Still had some oil canning but found some automotive expanding foam that goes between the skin and the bracing and it ended up with minimal flex. Also had to use minimal filler so it shouldn't have any cracking issues from closing the hood. At one point, I thought about trying to make the scoop functional seeing as the air intake is right underneath it but that would have been a little too advanced for this project.



















The other project was to strip down some old Iroc wheels and refinish them. Irocs are 16x8 and have different offsets front (0 offset) and rear (+16) so I figured that would be a good way to not have to use rear wheel spacers. The fronts from the Iroc go on the truck rear and Iroc rears go on the truck front. The only requirement is a tiny bit of grinding on the caliper bracket and on the wheel around the mounting hub. Anyways, stripped and sandblasted and then powdercoated with Prismatic Kingsport Grey and matte black for the insets. Then found some correct size GMC center cap decals to finish it off. Hope they still fit after doing the ZR2 swap, poke might be too much now, we'll see when everything is done. Tires are 265/75/16 Eliminator X-trail made by Cooper for Canadian Tire. These have been waiting to go on for months but wondering now if 285/75/16's will fit.

 

That is some nice work! I really appreciate work that looks stock and so clean.

 

Back in action finally. Ended up finding a little bit of rust under the truck so I decided to find another body to swap on eventually. Enter this 2001 Blazer with a bad transmission. Going to sell as much as I can from it so hopefully the body ends up free.

 

Here's a few random pictures. Just focused now on getting the truck running again so putting everything back in. New battery tray and radiator.






Some of the brake line fittings were a different size so ended up making new lines. I've done this before by using the clamp style flare tool and the end result was always frustration so this time I purchased this tool from Amazon which had pretty good reviews. The difference between the tools was night and day and I highly recommend this if you make your own lines. Perfect flares every time.


Went on holidays last week and ended up in a wrecking yard as they had two Envoys. Managed to snag a set of chrome interior handles and a rear glass spoiler. Not sure if they will be used on this build or the next.




Difference in size between the 265/70/16 and 265/75/16's that will be going on. Now that I can see how much room I have, 285/75/16 may be an option.

 

Very cool to see your progress. Nice work!

 

I had been wondering how your build was going. Thanks for the update!