Then one day on my way to work I blew th ereturn line from the oil cooler. Thinking it was just a leak and I could top it off and make it to work I was quickly proven wrong. Ended up heat seizing the motor. So in the middle of winter with no room in my garage my friend and I yanked the blown 4.3 and swaped in one from a '03 Sierra with just over 14,000 miles on it.

Worst part is, when I mounted the transmission I heard it clicked and continued to tighten the bolts. Even though it was seated I made the mistake of not turning it back to click again. I ended up crushing the pump on the tranny. Since I know nothing about trannys I sent it out for a nice rebuild for some heavy duty internals and a Corvette servo. Didn't want a shift kit, but the new servo does firm up the shifts a bit.

So nearly two grand behind my other mods would have to wait. But alteast I haqve a fresh new motor.

 

Nicer weather was in the air so I started my tail light swap. I really like caddy tails on dimes but wanted something different. Looking at modern Caddy lights none of them had close enough fit for me but I like the taller lights. So I ordered up a pair of TYC LED tails for a Colorado and started cutting.

Please bear with me, this is the first time I've cut anything up like this.

Once they were mounted I welded in a filler plate to size up the corners and see how I will need to weld in small panels to make it fit better. BTW, it's welded from the inside that is why you don't see much weld on the filler panel. lol

Here shows how much I need to compensate on the corners.

 

Just looked at those photos, the tail lights don't hang out that far, that was before I notched the tabs on them.

Here they are installed and unfinished.

And a little video of how they look at night.

 

nice job what else you 2 do to this?

 

Well I haven't finished the tails yet but it's next on my list.

After I repaired a busted heater core (what a PITA), I started on my bumper.

Was originally going to go with a smooth roll pan, but needed a opening fo rmy trailer hitch (it's behind the plate in the bumper). SO I decided instead of just a roll pan, why not chop up the bumper?

I started by removing the plastic from it. I then marked my lines and handed the reciprocating saw over to my 11 yearold daughter.

Then I made filler plates for all the holes including the license plate lights.

Smoothed out before filler. The two areas left will have carrage bolts welded into place to mount the bumper brackets. They will be notched to slide into place and then tightened down.

 

Ok I gotta see this bumper mounted because that seems to me like its gonna look really cool. Oh and on the plastic cover that goes on top of the bumper is it smooth on the bottom side or what? I was thinking about smoothing out the caps on mine and having them painted but I havent taken the time to pull mine off to look. I would think that you could see the "treads" on the bottom side but it would be nice if I could just sand them down. I have an '03 S-10 that I was thinking of ways to change the back of.

 

I'm not sure, I think you can see the treads but I will have to take a closer look at them.

 

Since I remove 3"s from the bumper I wanted it tucked closer to the truck so I cut 3.25"s from the bracket.

I then welded a peice of 1" flat stock to the back upper lip for a more finished look and a place to mount the plate.

With the empty space on the sides of the plate I decided to try something to see how it would come out. In a bench vise I bent some round stock I had layng around, cut it up and welded it into place.

I went and purchsed some small spikes, drilled 9 holes and ran them across the top of the flat stock.

Here is the bumper so far.

I'm going to go back and raise it up 1" to eliminate the gap.

 

Wow, that's some really impressive work. Looks great! It's good to see folks doing something besides the "cookie cutter" mods every once in a while.

 

Thanks. Never was a huge fanof roll pans on Xtremes cause you can see the side panels from the rear and they look out of place without a bumper. But I do love the side view. I don't have a stock to a finished photo but I do have stock vs freshly cut.

Stock

Test fit after cutting off 3"s.

 

i really like what you did with the rear bumper. and where abouts in new york are you? im outside of lockport here in niagara county....

 

Near Albany in Schenectady County.

looks pretty good but i don't like the tail lights upside down at all.

Thanks, everyone is entitled to ther opinion.
I appreciate the honest and and mature comments.

I have alot more planned, keep an eye on the thread, maybe I can make up for it with other modifications.

 

looks pretty good but i don't like the tail lights upside down at all.

 

damn im in love with that rear bumper! i might have to do one like that one day and get that shit chromed haha great job so far, awesome work!

 

Yes chromed would be hot. Wouldn't be able to do it with mine cause of the body filler but instead of small filler panels for each hole I guess if one large sheet were welded over the steps it would make it much easier.

Damn, now I'm curious what it would look like with a little bling...

In teh end the truck will be Metallic Charcole Gray and black wth red pinstripes, maybe I'll cut the webs off and have just those chromed.

 

Looks aweome man. the webbing came out great. lastime i saw it it was just the bumper cut down. i cant wait to see it next month.

 

Well got started on the next thing. Shaving the handle from the tailgate.

But instead of just boltig on the relocator I figured I'd go the extra mile.

Only thing I worried about was if the handle breaks, I'd have no way to replace it if the box were welded in. So I thought about it and came up with a solution.

I tack welded the washers on the bolts to the relocator.

Then I notched the ends of the bolts so a screw driver can be used to turn them from the backside if needed. Now looking behind the handle you can see the ends of the bolts notched for a screw driver. Hopefully I will never need to replace it, but I figured 'just in case'.

 

Then I tacked in the relocator and filler panel.

These were taken before I finished. I was taken a break to cool off the welds and figured I'd snap a shot.

 

Now is it me or does my handle sit up a bit high?? It's not flush like it was on the outside of the gate. Does anyone else's handle do the same thing? I purchased my relocator from SuicideDoors.com.

 

I love the mods you've done so far...

What's planned/already done?

 

Well after the tailgate is complete I'm going to finally finish my tail lights.

From there I have a 14" LED bar with 50 red LEDS I plan on using for a third brake light. Going to shave and fill the stock light in and flush mount the LED bar below the rear window flush with the top of the bedrail.

I alread made the bucket for it, but after looking at the back of the cab and realizing it's not flat I'll have to make another bucket.

Here is what I have so far for that...

LED

testing LED at night with flash.

testing LED at night without the flash.

The old bucket, and bucket with the light.

Like I said, I'll need to make a new bucket. No big deal just about a 15 minute job.

 

I think they all sit up high like that when you re-locate them inside, I have the old school bell-tech relocated handle with the sir michael's skin on the outside and mine sits up a little high as well (I'm a 1st gen owner though) looks really good man, and I would have never thought of cutting up the rear bumper like that, I used to have an 03 xtreme ext cab, and I went with that gm roll pan and boy was I disappointed, as you said earlier looked funny being able to see the ground fx like that, awesome truck man, keep it up

 

looking good ... if you need any pointers or advice on the Col. tails I've done them twice now ..lol...

O ... and you may want to raise the colorado tail up a little bit to have more room to flare out the bottom

 

lol, I think I read your thread about ten times before I purchased my tails. I thank you for posting your steps involved in doing it. Mine so far is done a bit differently. I have no buckets. Instead I cut a peice out of the inside jam by the tailgate and welded in a new tab to mount them to. Right now it's just cut sheet metal on the sides but I plan on welding in flat stock so it makes a flange almost and then two or three peices of round stock to help brace the fender.

As for the bottom I know it wont be easy, but I'm more worried on having room for the top. I'm going to put a cut in the corner and pull the metal out to meet the light. I will do the same with the side and whatever space is left between I will weld in a peice of metal.

The bottoms I think I'll just weld in a flat peice to seal tem up and shape the corner into the body line.

 

wow, some cool stuff here, i like what your doing man

 

Well hurry up on postin' up this 3rd brake light LED mod...

I can't wait to see how its gonna look..

 

For now the tailgate is finished...

Filler, not completely sanded.

Still needs final sanding and all that, some minor sanding scratches here and there but other than that it's pretty much done.

 

hmm... i like the tails... i think... i donno there definitely different... nice truck...

 

looks great. i cant wait to see the rest if the filler plates done for the tails. well ill see it in 3 weeks.

 

i'm impressed by the work on the bumper...but the tails seem to take away from the truck to me...i think if they were the stock colorados right side up, it would look better...but as you said...everyone is entitled to their opinions...but again..i really like the work on the bumper..that was definately sweet.

 

I compleatly agree, i am 50/50 over the tails but man I love the bumper! that turned out really well! mad props to you