THague90's Build - 2003 Chevy Trailblazer

[THague90]

Vehicle: 2003 Chevrolet TrailBlazer LS



Drivetrain Specs:

143,XXX miles
4.2L I6 - 270hp (replaced at 105,000 miles)
Gearing:?
Selectable 4WD
No Locker


Suspension Modifications:

Front:
88 Springs
Bilstein HD struts
MarkMC 3" lift
Total front suspension lift - 3"


Rear:
Z71 Springs
16"-26.5" Monroe Sensatrac Shocks
3" Machined aluminium spacer
Total rear suspension lift - 3"


Exterior Modifications:

Bed-liner paint job
LED roof running lights
LED tail lights
Front receiver bumper
Oil skid
Tires: 265x75-16 winterforce snow tires


Engine Modifications:

K&N air filter
Resonator Delete


Interior Modifications:

Mag Light mount
White Led interior lights


Electrical Modifications:

Selectable 4 button on/off 4 12v outlet splitter
4 gauge pos wire to front & rear for winch w Warn Connectors & relay shutoff at source
Viper-rattler remote start



Recovery Equipment:

Champion PE 8000# winch w 95' 3/8" aircraft cable/receiver mount
Old Faithful (80,000#x30' strap)
4' Chain
Shackles


Current Projects:

285-75-16 Guard Dog Tires on stock rims w Full Size Spare
FRONT BUMPER (done...ish)
RAD SKID
OIL SKID PLATES (done)
Z71 Tahoe springs (done)
"89" front springs (done)
new rear shocks, 16"-26.5" (done)
massive control arms (Done)
massive panhard bar (done)
Blisten HD's (Done)

Future Projects:

REAR BUMPER
Front push/brush guard addition to front bumper
3" BODY LIFT


Current Pic:



Highest Trail Difficulty Completed: White Rd. Trails (ORTB Trail Rating Guide: 3.5)

[THague90]

Build posts are gonna have to wait till tonight.

[THague90]

I bought my TB from my mom when my Subaru of 5 years finally kicked the bucket at 278,000 miles. This was in november so I desperately needed to get a pair of snow tires on it. My friend totaled out his 4runner and had a set of Winterforce 265-75-16 tires to replace the stock 245-??-16's. SO... I needed the lift and spacers to make them fit.

First project: Truck Bed Liner, Tail lights & Wheel Spacers
I ground off all of the paint chips and associated rust. This was more function that fashion. All of the doors were rusting out and had to be ground down.





The tail lights were off of eBay and bolted right in no problems

1.5" wheel spacers were from eBay. American company I actually did a lot of "out of ebay" communicating with them. Ended up getting hub and wheel centric for a lot less than was priced anywhere else.

[THague90]

Still not enough clearance for the new snow tires.

Project 2: MarkMC 3" Lift

This is where it got tricky. Nothing wanted to come apart since there was no undercoating to speak of and 9 Northern Michigan Winters under her belt. The nuts holding the strut assembly together were just rusty little nubs. It took a grinder to get them off. Truck sat in my garage for the night while I waited to get new parts in the morning.

Thought I would share a picture of a grenade.

After the lift w stock tires

w 267/70-16 snow tires. No trimming required.

[THague90]

Now with all of this new found height I was getting stuck in places that I was never able to get stuck in before... and no one I knew could get to me. I did a few nights in my car waiting for friends to call other friends to come get me out...

Dumb yes I know, but it was still fun. So, to solve the problem I rigged this number up.



Project 4: Recovery

Threaded studs up front mean I can use 3/8-24 wing nuts (still in the mail) to attach to the battery when hooked up on my future bumper. Deadline for that project has not been set... or even considered...

#4 wire to rear through a relay controlled from the cab.



And the pos and neg wires store away neatly, dead, and with contacts away from each other.


The tray was the hardest part to rig up. I used 3 grade 8 bolts to hold it to a piece of 2"od square tube. Same thickness wall as a class 3. Dont remember off the top of my head what thickness that is though .

Tested it by pulling TB in N 100' ish uphill toward a tree. Winch didn't break a sweat (not that it was that hard of a task), no heat whatsoever.



UPDATE: sank her in the same snowy, icy mud pit featured in the first pic here. Winch moaned and groaned but didn't slow down much at all (not that it went very fast anyway), and it stayed relatively cool. About 10 min to pull completely out of the pit.

UPDATE: I actually put some real electrical connecters on it.

[THague90]

Project 5: Roof top / Cab top marker lights

Concept using photoshop (copied and pasteded the top of another white truck onto mine)

Reality= lots of silicone



wired off of my driver side corner lamp

[THague90]

Project 6...ish: Oil Skid

I've started working on a few things all at once (oil skid, rad skid, bumper, blah blah blah) and am just posting them in the order I get to them. I know this design is a lot like the MDB oil skids. Im not claiming originality here just trying to save some money for those pricier mods (dreaming of new tires). It is just something I wanted to try my hand at. I work at a saw mill where I have access to an arc welder and all the welding rod I want, so the economical benefits were just too great to pass up. I cut it it from a 1/4 sheet of "scrap" steel at the shop. It provides about an inch to 3/4 inch of clearance from any part of the oil pan or drain plug. I am confident that it will stop most impacts from hitting the oil pan.

A quick shot of the shop and my teach


my first ever attempt at welding. Please do laugh, I did.



Needless to say I ground it down and hit it again after a bit more practice.



Rustoleum brand bedliner all mounted up. Not pretty, but effective.

[THague90]

First posted trip

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=4384

[THague90]

Project 7: Front bumper

Started at the same time as the oil skid. The bumper took a little more fabricating and practice welding before I could finish it. It starts with a 5 foot section of 1/4" 6x6 square tube and a receiver tube from a Carquest on sale for $10. I cut the back out to fit right over the front of the frame, A slot off of the top for the receiver, and 20 decree wedged out of the top and bottom to match the angle of the headlights.





I ground maybe 1/32", if that, off of the bolt tubes.








Heated and bent the ends to close the 20 degree wedges. Then welded both sides of each joint.


This was my second welding attempt... Ever. Not structurally significant so it was good practice.

[THague90]

Project 7.5: Front Bumper Shackles

Something was missing from the overall look of the bumper.... Or I tried to do a double line winch pull and there was nothing to attach to on my bumper! So away I went with the sawzall. I ground a bevel in the shackle mount bars (not pictured) so that I could grind the top weld down flat... I was told to do this by a coworker so I can't take credit for the thought. Like I said I am not a welder, I just like to weld. I took two passes on the inside and outside of the bumper tube and the welds are right next to the mount to the frame so the forces are as direct as I can get them to be. Smittybilt Shackles and a set of isolators and here I am.

[THague90]

Project 9: Massive control arm kit

With the prospect of larger tires comes the concept of rubbing. I had measured only about an inch or so to the front of the rear wheel wells. I really would like to move the rear wheels back before I put on 285/75-16 on all 4 corners. So I ordered the full set of Massive products for my truck.

Red
I have decided that after the shackle bumpers on the front that red will be my go to color. Plus, it just adds sooooo much horsepower!!!
The good...


I didn't even realize that I had an issue... Ops. Must have been from all the mall cruzin'



So it is no secret that the full kit is an upwards of $500. I felt it a necessary sacrifice to get a product from a proven company and a vendor on this site. However... Nothing fit. NOTHING. I even tried fitting it in there without the rubber boots on the ends (no photos due to the frustration).I wound up cutting 1/8" to 3/16" off of every single setup. That would be 1/16" off of each of the 2 purple spacers to get my required 1/8".

I am in contact with Massive about this, so I may change my opinion and edit this post later... But as of right now I am livid with the poor comparability of this product.





Due to my frustration, there are not any during build pictures, but I'm not very good at that any way. Here's after though.





The bad and the ugly...



Much better!!!





And then I saw this

[THague90]

Repairs: front shocks


Not really a full write up, but I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out. One thing I will say is I wish that I had strapped the broken shock and spring to the frame somehow because when I unbolted it the whole thing exploded. Pieces went everywhere. It was a miracle I didn't get hurt.


These went everywhere...




AAAAAAND... After




I found a stock one!