Ever wanted a two-door Trailblazer? Daniel Condre wanted the looks of Chevy's latest mid-sized SUV, but with a '95 S-10 already in his garage, he sought out a metal worker with the necessary skills to make his dream of owning a one-of-a-kind custom come to life.
After a little searching, Daniel found Shawn Ray of Shawn Ray Designs in Pekin, Illinois, who proved to be more than capable of the task. Shawn prepped the rear of the Blazer by installing a roll pan, shaving the tailgate latch and taillights, and fitting LED taillights into the corner of the D-pillar. Shaving the antenna, roof rack, windshield squirters, and door handles smoothed the remainder of the body. Stillen side skirts finish off the mods-oh yeah, except for the front clip.
Even after taking a close look at the Blazer, it's hard to determine what exactly was done to make the Trailblazer front clip fit. Two Trailblazer hoods were experimented on before Shawn found the best approach to reshape it for the S-10. After all was said and done, the front clip is so well integrated that the Blazer could easily be mistaken for a factory test mule; even the underhood bracing is flawless. With all of the fabrication required to fit the Trailblazer front clip onto the S-10, it would be easy to overlook the bumper, but it was no small feat getting a full-size SS piece to the right size. After a bit of trial and error, Shawn narrowed and sectioned the full-size bumper to bring it to S-10 proportions.
With the bodywork completed, Shawn sprayed the truck with Dupont Radar Blue, Charcoal, and Orion Silver, and capped it all off with House of Kolor's Tangerine pinstriping. The interior features more of Shawn's work, with smoothed and painted interior panels and a Billet Specialties steering wheel that continue the exterior paint scheme right down to the pinstriping. 1998 S-10 buckets, stock rear seats, and door panels were all wrapped in purple and charcoal vinyl by A1 Auto Upholstery in Bartonville, Illinois. Finishing off the interior are a few billet pieces in the form of a rearview mirror and dash inserts.
Daniel utilized the talents of 309 Customs in Washington, Illinois, to build the custom sub enclosure and install the two 12-inch Alumapro Alchemy subs and requisite Precision Power PC2150 amps; one powers the subs, and another powers the McIntosh separates scattered throughout the interior. 309 Customs also handled the video, with a 7-inch monitor in each front visor and a JVC 7-inch touch screen in the sub enclosure. The audio and visual entertainment is managed with a little help from the JVC KD-AB7010 head unit mounted in the factory location.
To introduce the Blazer to the pavement, Daniel installed Belltech spindles up front, and Midwest Chassis & Performance in Pekin, Illinois, C-notched the rear and installed all the necessary hardware to make things run smoothly, including Contitech 'bags all around. An Airlift engine-driven compressor is one of the few mods under the hood, but it provides all the air necessary to fill the Contitech 2600-lb bags at the flip of a switch and solves the problem of finding space to mount an electric compressor. The air is routed through braided, stainless steel 1/2-inch lines to SMC switches. With that much drop, the Blazer manages to tuck just the slightest bit of the 20x9-inch Jesse James .38s behind the fender, but with wheels this nice, you might as well show them off.