New To Me 10 Chevy Colorado

[tweenerlj]

I just picked up this very clean low mileage truck. It should be a good base for mild backcountry trips. The 18" bling wheels, side steps, and chrome tailight guards will have to go though. It will be a while on the wheels since there is a lot of life on these tires. Thinking about building a custom front bumper for improved approach angle. This truck is primarily a daily driver, so build progress is expected to be very slow. When the tires get more worn, I might consider doing a Zone Offroad 2" lift and go down to a 17" wheel for better tire selections and prices.

Any Colorado/Canyon owners willing to share what you have done to your trucks here would be great. Thanks for looking. Here is a pic from when I took delivery yesterday.

 

[BPD53]

Welcome to the world of Chevy Colorados. I am still building mine and it has been a decent machine for the price. I highly suggest you become a member of 355nation. The guys over there really know their stuff when it comes to the Colorado. You will find everything you need to know over there. I will post some pics of mine as soon as I can. Don't hesitate to ask any questions. I have seen a few other Colorados on the Portal over the years. Good luck.

 

[ZMagic97]

Nice looking truck!

 

[4x4x4doors]

Nice looking truck. Good luck with it. I've been satisfied with mine (it ain't perfect but its solid and comfortable).

I'll second the recommendation on 355nation.

Research the lift carefully before pulling the trigger.

The front bumper skirt hurts approaches but I also found the bumper itself can be a limiter on going to larger tires if you head that way.

 

[Crazy Schooner]

Hey. For starters the Zone 2" lift is just torsion keys. You can simply raise the truck right now by cranking your stock torsion bars 2".

Lift options you pretty much have PA 3" Bodylift, Suspension Maxx 1.5" Body lift. Torsion bar crank (I would do maxium 2" crank due to suspension wear) and then 4" Rancho, Skyjacker and Tuff Country lifts. Rancho is the better sorted option of the 3 options. I'm running a 5" CST but they just build this kit per order now. Lifting the rear end you basically have the option of add a leafs, shackles or finding the necessary parts and doing a spring over axle conversion. 355nation has a list of the required parts on the forum. Skyjacker makes replacment leaf packs that are labled as 4/4.5" of lift, but in reality they make the truck 2" higher. However more then once some people had there Skyjacker leaf packs break on them.

Unless your 2WD, then you have more options for spindle drops, coil spacers etc and you can find that on 355nation as plenty of people have no problem lifting 2wd trucks for whatever reason.

Also Slick and Dirty Motorsports have various options for mid travel setups. 2wd/4wd. They are also working on a long travel kit. I'd like to run the mid travel kit but the heim setup wouldn't last very long after a salty winter where I live.

Bumper wise Iron Bull makes a bumper, but its rather ugly. ADD has a tube style bumper if you got money to burn. A company called TAG/Blue Line (or lake?) Offroad is the same company. Stay away from them. Their shoddy workmanship is well known if you google it.

Hope this helps. The aftermarket support for out trucks is... lacking. So good luck on your build!

 

[pappawheely]

I recommend 355Nation too. A lot of info there. That's my 2005 on the left.

 

[tweenerlj]

Awesome trucks! I registered at 355 nation. How long does it usually take to get confirmed by a moderator over there?

Here is another pic of mine:

 

[kojackJKU]

Nice truck. Get some rubber on it and your laughin.

 

[nmatcek]

Welcome from another satisfied Colorado owner. I bought mine new in 08 and she's taken me to some cool places. 355nation is a great resource.

Here is a link to my build thread. It may give you some ideas depending on which direction you want to go with your truck.
http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63879
2008 Chevrolet Colorado build

 

[tweenerlj]

Welcome from another satisfied Colorado owner. I bought mine new in 08 and she's taken me to some cool places. 355nation is a great resource.

Here is a link to my build thread. It may give you some ideas depending on which direction you want to go with your truck.
http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63879

Great looking truck nmatecek! I was already thinking about a similar rear bumper to the one you recently put on. I'm really interested in how you trimmed the front fascia:

That looks awesome! if you could share details on what you did here, I'd greatly appreciate it. Also, did you fabricate the shackle mount/pre-runner bar yourself or did you buy it?

 

[nmatcek]

Thanks for the kind words!

The front bar with shackle mounts was made by a member on 355nation. I don't believe he is making them anymore. However there is a very similar product available. Here's a thread on it http://www.355nation.net/forum/showthread.php?t=40164

As far as the front plastic goes, I just pulled out my trusty dremel tool. Basically I cut using the fog light mounting area as a guide. I've seen people remove both sides completely all the way up to the metal part of the bumper. I chose to leave the strip of plastic just below the metal part of the bumper.

 

[nmatcek]

Also wanted to mention that on the very bottom of the plastic part there is a piece that runs the width of the truck that is only connected by plastic tabs. You can just snap that piece off to raise the bottom of your front bumper an inch or 2. If you crawl under and look at the back side you can see how the clips go in.

 

[tweenerlj]

Thanks for the kind words!

The front bar with shackle mounts was made by a member on 355nation. I don't believe he is making them anymore. However there is a very similar product available. Here's a thread on it http://www.355nation.net/forum/showthread.php?t=40164

As far as the front plastic goes, I just pulled out my trusty dremel tool. Basically I cut using the fog light mounting area as a guide. I've seen people remove both sides completely all the way up to the metal part of the bumper. I chose to leave the strip of plastic just below the metal part of the bumper.

Thanks for the link and what you did looks great! Much more finished look. I have seen what you describe, removed all the way to the bumper, but I really like what you did. I'm still waiting for moderator confirmation at 355nation.net

Also wanted to mention that on the very bottom of the plastic part there is a piece that runs the width of the truck that is only connected by plastic tabs. You can just snap that piece off to raise the bottom of your front bumper an inch or 2. If you crawl under and look at the back side you can see how the clips go in.

Yes, I had seen that already

 

[nmatcek]

Seems like a long time to get moderator approval.

 

[tweenerlj]

Seems like a long time to get moderator approval.

I'm thinking the same thing. I'll fire off an email to inquire.