Proud new TB owner

[HawkTown28]

Hello everyone, my name is Mike, I'm 18, and I enjoy off roading. I recently bought a 2004 Trailblazer LS 4x4 with 84,000 miles in dark spiral gray. I'm not really new to the forum in the sense that I have been reading on it for about a year as well as trailvoy because my mom has owned a 2006 trailblazer LT 4x4 and now has a 2002 Trailblazer LT 4x4. Due to both of my mom's TB's being great vehicles and with much research on this sight, when I decided to sell my 02 Buick Century, I searched for a Trailblazer. I needed a vehicle that would be very reliable and get decent gas mileage to get me to and from college, be able to tow my fishing boat, and still retain off road ability, and the Trailblazer fit the bill for me. We do some light off roading when we go on vacation in up north Michigan. Nothing hard core, mostly trail riding and some decent hill climbs. Ive been doing a lot of work on my TB in the last couple weeks. Here's a list of what I have accomplished so far: 1. sanded entire frame, sprayed with rust reformer, then covered with truck bed liner 2. threw on 265/70/R16 Toyo Open Country AT2's (close to upper ball joint but fit no problem, my mom has the same size but has the original open country AT) 3. painted my rims dark grey due to the factory clear coat chipping off 4. new oil and front and rear diff fluid 5. Outfitted the storage compartment in the rear with jumper cables, a tow strap, flashlight, straps, drawbar, and of course duct tape. 6. Moog front lower ball joints 7. And fixed my center counsel lid that had the typical broken inner structure by fiber glassing it. My goal is to have a clean, reliable TB, that will stand out a bit from the typical TB and also be better off the beaten trail.
Future Mods:
1. Probably roof lights
2. Bilstein HD's
3. Remove my rattling resonator

[DirtyBacon04]

We demand pictures of a TB covered in bed liner!!!

Welcome! Looks like you got your act together!

[HawkTown28]

Thanks! I'm working on getting up some pictures right now. I'll be posting up some pics of the frame bed liner, rims, tires and my center console fix. I'll probably be putting them up in a different section though. I'll put up a couple here to show the truck and a couple details.

[mikekey]

Welcome to the site Mike! I'm personally fond of that color. Look forward to your pictures.

[DirtyBacon04]

Ah i see, I thought you meant that you covered ALL of the truck in bed liner. You're saying you just did the frame... i get it now. Still quite the arduous task, I imagine. I dont have the patience for that.

[HawkTown28]

Oh yeah no I can't imagine doing the whole truck in bed liner. I only did the frame and a couple suspension components. Somehow I found the patience to take all 4 tires off and the rear bumper to paint it. I just used rustoleum spray bed liner but I first sanded and coated any surface rust with rustoleum rust reformer.

[NC_IslandRunner]

Welcome!

[ErikSS]

Welcome

[SmokeyMcBlazer]

Welcome aboard

[HawkTown28]

Here are some pictures I have taken. Not sure if this will work but I will give it a try. I couldn't figure out how to upload the pictures right to the post because it said they were to large so I made a photobucket for now. I don't have any good pictures of the painted frame right now.









Frame painting....


Tire clearance...

Fixing the center console. I fiber glassed inside and used spray adhesive spray to put a leather drying towel
under the console skin to add a little cusion

[The Roadie]

Welcome! A couple of things stand out from your otherwise incredible and well-articulated intro:

1) There's none of us left on trailvoy anymore. Hundreds of us who built up the site and posted thousands of technical posts (like me) objected to the neglect and abuse we were getting at the hands of the absentee corporate new owners from Toronto, so in December, 2011 we started a new site gmtnation.com. If you have questions not specifically about offroading or functional lift mods, you might consider joining up over there.

2) You said you did the diffs, but you should know that the transfer case requires a fluid change twice as often as the diffs. Every 50K. Don't neglect the transfer case.

[HawkTown28]

The transfer case is the next thing on my list. When I took it to the shop to have the oil and diff fluid changed they wanted to do my transfer case as well but I asked them if they had the correct fluid because I had read stories of cases being destroyed due to the wrong fluid being put in. They didn't have the right fluid so I stopped them. I'm not sure if I should buy the fluid online and take it to the shop I go to or go to a dealer. Thanks for your help and consideration Roadie!

[The Roadie]

...When I took it to the shop ...

What is this "shop" of which you speak?

Actually, what was THAT shop going to put in if they didn't have Auto Trak II? That would tell me if I was going to EVERY let them touch my vehicle again.

Any shop or you can change the fluid - it's only $9 a liter (you need two) and all dealers should have it for the same price. Some parts stores have it, but it's rare. I wouldn't be paying to ship a hazmat fluid like that around, although Rockauto probably has it.

[HawkTown28]

It's an oil change place. Typical mom n' pop shop but we are good friends with the owners and they do good work. They were truthful when I asked if they had the correct fluid. I myself wasn't sure of the correct fluid so I wasn't gonna let them do it no mater what they said. But I asked him about it and he looked up the fluid type and honestly told me he couldn't do it because he didn't have the correct fluid. Been going there for many years, they know me and my dad by name and take good care of us and know not to screw us.

[v7guy]

welcome aboard, I think you'll find we're fairly anti shop work around here. We tend to advocate the owner learning about and doing their own work. I was just a bit younger than you when I first started workin on my vehicles.

[djthumper]

Welcome!

[JorDaneeKey]

Nice looking setup! Welcome to the site!

[jonbo2002]

Welcome, So you vacation in northern MI. do you live here too? The wife and I have property up north and love going up there for alot of our trail riding. Like Roadie said just go to a dealer for the fluid, I called every parts store around me and none of them had it.

[HARDTRAILZ]

Welcome

[HawkTown28]

For some reason oil changes are really the only thing I don't do myself. Believe me I'm also anti-shop work too because I'm very particular about my vehicles and I don't like others working on them. I have been watching and helping my dad work on cars all my life. Here is a list of work I have done my self:
1. Front & rear struts on my moms TB
2. Front sway bar links on my moms TB
3. 2.5 in lift kit on friends 2004 f150
4. I have done many sets of plugs
5. Rust repair on my old cars rocker panels which included body work and painting
6. rotors and pads on several cars
7. full brake line replacement
8. starter motor replacement
I do what work I can with our limited tools including an air compressor, impact gun, and you normal wrenches and sockets. Unfortunately I have to just take my vehicle in when a job gets to big. But I don't want to be known as the kid who does not know anything about working on cars or does not have the skill.
I am very knowledgable about cars and also enjoy working on them.

Not quite sure how to use the quote function but jonbo2002 asked about my place up north. We have about 15 acres of land just outside of rogers city in a town called Hawks. We do some trail riding at a place called the big cut. Maybe you've heard of it. We also do some fishing, atv riding, and a little hunting.