Obviously, the first thing you do when you get a new Colorado is to remove the air dam. It was sort of a pain in butt due to the limited access, so I borrowed a neighbor's kid to get the center bolts.

The following weekend, I replaced my chrome "Colorado" emblems with black ones which I had purchased with the GM Rewards points I got when I bought the truck. I also plastidipped the rear Bow Tie and swapped in the Baja Designs Squadron Pro fog lights which I had removed from the 4Runner.

First, I taped around the chrome emblems so that I would be able to place the black ones in the same location.

Then I removed the chrome emblems using fishing line and then Goo Gone to remove the last of the residue.

Then I stuck the black emblems on:

Then I plastidipped the rear Bow Tie with black Plasti-Dip

Finally, I finished off the day by swapping in my Baja Designs Squadron Pro fog lights. The swap was very simple and the fog lights work off the stock fog light switch. LINK to the Baja Designs kit.

I also ordered a Leer Topper with the sliding front window, LED interior light, carpeted interior, and roof rack rails and was told it would be in the following weekend. One nice advantage of a black truck is that the topper was in stock and just needed to be shipped to San Diego.

 

Finally, I finished off the day by swapping in my Baja Designs Squadron Pro fog lights. The swap was very simple and the fog lights work off the stock fog light switch. LINK to the Baja Designs kit.

Awesome build and truck! I’ve been looking for a yellow fog light and this looks like it would be it. Are these the cornering set or the combo set? How do you like them?

 

While I was getting the Leer topper installed, I decided to have the bed sprayed with bed liner at the same time.

The next day we left in the 4Runner for two weeks at my mother-in-law's house in Oregon, leaving the truck behind.

 

When we got back from Oregon, I had a few boxes waiting for me that Brown Santa had dropped off for me. First up, because it was the easiest, was to install Datin shock skids to protect those low-hanging rear shock mounts. It was soooooo nice working under a brand new truck after working on a 200,000 + mile truck for the past couple of years. 🤣

They were very easy to install and look like they should provide good protection to the mounts.

 

The next step was a BIG one. When I was building my 4Runner, I needed a sleeping platform with tie-down points and it needed to be low enough that our dogs, two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, would have plenty of head room. I saw a build thread on T4R.com in which the guy had built a low platform with slide outs under it. I realized I could do the same and have two 2" tall drawers under it for tools and other miscellaneous stuff like a spare pair of flip-flops. A friend welded up the frame out of 2x2 aluminum stock, we bolted it to the stock tie down points, and then I built a plywood platform for it. When I bought the Colorado, I knew I wanted something very similar for the bed.

Well, as it turned out, the aluminum frame from the 4Runner fit almost perfectly in the bed of the Colorado! I went up to my friend's (same guy who welded up the frame) and we installed Nutserts in the bed to bolt the frame to.

A quick test-fit of the drawers and I went home to build the platform:

The idea of the drawers is to have every tool I need to work on the truck in the drawers. When I work on my truck, I usually use the tools in the truck to make sure I'm not missing anything. One nice thing was that I've only had to add a couple of tools for the Colorado. I do need to get an oil filter socket and I need to get a spark plug socket for this truck (assuming it's not the same size as the 4Runner plugs.)

I had purchased a rubber bed mat and used that as a rough template for the plywood platform. I used two 1/2" sheets. On the bottom layer, the tie-down tracks are screwed through the plywood and into the aluminum frame for strength. Then I cut out the "holes" for the tracks in the top layer, screwed it to the bottom layer, and then glued down some exterior carpet I found at Home Depot. Then I made an additional small platform for the tailgate, giving me a 7' flat platform for sleeping on. I also cut the front of the platform off and re-attached it with hinges so I have a relatively hidden storage compartment at the front of the bed.

The front "hidden" storage area:

And the finished platform:

Finally, to finish off the camping set up, I installed the TopperLift Nomad bed tent. It wasn't perfectly installed at this point, but you can get the idea. A cool part is that the top half lives rolled up in the roof of the shell, the tent pole lives in the passenger side drawer, and the lower half of the tent lives under the fold-up front of the platform.

 

The idea of the drawers is to have every tool I need to work on the truck in the drawers. When I work on my truck, I usually use the tools in the truck to make sure I'm not missing anything

I’ve got my truck tools streamlined but you definitely have me beat.

 

Following. Looking good brother. SFMF

 

Yut!

 

The next few changes weren't huge but they were significant to me. First, I got rid of the LED light fog light surrounds and replaced them with the black oem ones. (I'm not a fan of chrome on modern vehicles.)

I also added Diode Dynamics SL-1 LED bulbs in my low beams. It actually went very smoothly and I was able to tuck everything behind the stock dust covers.

In @BizzyB build thread I saw that he had attached a couple of small bags to the backs of his headrests to keep track of frequently used things. I'm always hunting around for my headlamp, flashlight, extra sunglasses, etc. So I grabbed a small NorthFace duffel and two #2 NiteIze S-Biners LINK and attached them to the headrests. To remove the headrest, there's a little hole on the inside of one mount that you have to stick something like a paperclip in to release the headrest.

Then the big(ish) thing happened; I got my Baja Rack Camper Shell Standard roof basket for my shell. LINK This is my third rack I've bought from Baja Rack and they're great. Fortunately for me, they're only a 30 minute drive from my house, so when it was ready I just drove down and picked it up. I assembled it in the parking lot and the dude even helped me lift it onto the roof of the truck. Install took 30 minutes max.

 

The next few changes weren't huge but they were significant to me. First, I got rid of the LED light fog light surrounds and replaced them with the black oem ones. (I'm not a fan of chrome on modern vehicles.)

Do you have the part number for the black OEM surrounds? I want to get rid of the chrome ones also. Awesome build! Following. I like to see others that don't have a decked out ZR2 as I'm working with an LT.

 

About time you started one!!

 

Next up was moving my Kenwood TM-V71A Dual Band Ham Radio (KM6WTD) with Diamond K400C NMO Antenna Mount from my 4Runner to the Rado. Fortunately, I was able to fit it in pretty much the same spot as I did on the 4Runner and the battery is in the same location so I was able to re-use my harness too. I mounted the main body in the center console to keep it safe. A lot of people mount them under one of the seats. Well, I'm special and I've thoroughly soaked the interiors of most of my trucks so I wanted it somewhere safer. I also don't really use my center console for anything else so I stuck it there. The head unit and speaker live in the cubby at the bottom of the center stack but still provide access to the USB for Apple Car Play and charging my iPad.

The first step was to tear everything up to see how it would lay out. Luckily, Crutchfield sells their installation guides without requiring you to actually buy anything other than the guide for ~$20. Their guides have been very helpful to me over the years. This is how it looked after I'd torn everything apart:

The main unit mounted in the center console. The fit was a bit tighter than I would have preferred with the antenna cable being a bit crimped, but it's held up so far. (Sorry for the crappy picture)

Then I mounted the head unit and external speaker in the cubby. The mic has a NiteIze steelie on the back, but I ended up not using and I just set the mic in the cubby with everything else where it's easily accessible.

One issue I've had is that when I transmit on the ham, I get interference on the trucks radio and it kicks me out of Car Play. Any ideas why that would be happening and how to fix it?

Up next, front suspension . . .

 

Looking good! Do you have the HAM radio piped in through the sound system?

 

Thank you, no it is entirely stand alone.

 

The next step was a big one, but there aren't a ton of pictures. What we're talking about here is, of course, suspension.

Shortly after I got my Colorado, I went out of town for two weeks. While out of town I did a ton of research on what I wanted suspension-wise. I intend to use my truck off-road as much as possible, so a spacer lift was not on the table. I've had Bilstein 5100's before and while they're adequate, they were not sufficient for my purposes either. I briefly considered Kings, but their price tag and frequency of re-builds took them off the table. I considered OME but have heard several reports of them being overly harsh although very reliable. Ultimately it came down to Peak or Fox. What ultimately sold me on Fox over Peak was that I could get the same setup from Fox for the same price as the Peak suspension through a contact. I'm familiar with Fox and just didn't know peak back then. So Fox 2.0 coilovers, rear shocks, and 1" lift blocks it is.

**Note: At that time, the Bilstein 6112 front and 5160 rear suspension was not available for our trucks. I have that suspension on my 4Runner and really like it, so I may have been persuaded to go with those had they been available as they have the added advantage of not needing service and coming with a lifetime warranty.

Anyways, I ordered the Fox suspension and set to waiting. I ordered them on May 26th and the fronts (only) came in on July 1st.

Isn't it beautiful?? I also received the lift block and u-bolts for the rear so I decided to have those installed and figured I would swap the rear Fox shocks in whenever they came in.

One of my off-roading buddies is the head tech at a local shop so I had him install them.

While the truck looked great with the lift, it was clear I would need new tires sooner rather than later as it looked like I had skipped leg day.

The front suspension rode great, but it was clearly mis-matched with the stock rear shocks.

Fast Forward to December 29th: My rear shocks finally came in. Although it's out of chronological order, I think it makes more sense to cover them here.

You can see how much thicker the Fox shocks are compared to oem.

They are also about 1" longer fully-extended:

And installed in the truck. After I took this picture, I hiked the boots up so they're not all wonky and they look pretty.

What can I say about the ride other than that I am very, very impressed. I've taken them off-road twice now, once on some washboard roads and high-speed dirt roads and once in some rutted out, whooped out trails. In both scenarios, the suspension worked great. They are much more plush than the stock shocks while absorbing big hits much better.

Measurements:

Passenger front: 35 1/2" before, 38" after
Driver's front: 35" before, 37 1/2" after (so 2 1/2" lift in front)
Passenger rear: 36 1/2" before, 38 1/2" after
Driver's rear 36 1/2" before, 38 1/4" after (so 2" give or take)

We'll see how they do for longevity. If they don't last long enough I'm going to reach out to the folks at Peak, since they're semi-local, and see what to do.

 

Truck looks awesome! Jealous of the drawer system, a nicely organized tool box is always satisfying. I'm still trying to figure out the best setup for me, currently battling not bringing those extra 8 adjustable wrenches and a whole power tool set everywhere I go.

 

Due to my neck injuries, I was able to get a "disabled archer" permit this year and bought myself a crossbow. After a bit of research, I ended up getting an Excalibur Micro 360TD Pro. I won't go too into the details, but I wanted a crossbow that was field serviceable and the Pro has the upgraded (and very nice) trigger and comes in Kryptek camouflage. Once it arrived, I took it out to a friend's ranch to sight it in. Took next to no time to get it dialed in out to 60 yards.

The next upgrade was adding an ARB awning to the roof rack. I had an awning on my 4Runner and found it really nice to have in inclement weather or on sunny days. The nicest thing about this new awning is that, apparently, ARB now only makes them with the LED light strip in them. I used FourTreks mounts to attach the awning to the rack. LINK At $105 they aren't cheap, but they're made in USA and they are pieces of CNC machined art. They are also solid af.

As you might be able to tell from the skies, the awning came in very handy on this trip. Although it's light out, you can also see the LED light strip. It's really nice and dimmable too.

 

Due to my neck injuries, I was able to get a "disabled archer" permit this year and bought myself a crossbow. After a bit of research, I ended up getting an Excalibur Micro 360TD Pro. I won't go too into the details, but I wanted a crossbow that was field serviceable and the Pro has the upgraded (and very nice) trigger and comes in Kryptek camouflage. Once it arrived, I took it out to a friend's ranch to sight it in. Took next to no time to get it dialed in out to 60 yards.

The next upgrade was adding an ARB awning to the roof rack. I had an awning on my 4Runner and found it really nice to have in inclement weather or on sunny days. The nicest thing about this new awning is that, apparently, ARB now only makes them with the LED light strip in them. I used FourTreks mounts to attach the awning to the rack. LINK At $105 they aren't cheap, but they're made in USA and they are pieces of CNC machined art. They are also solid af.

As you might be able to tell from the skies, the awning came in very handy on this trip. Although it's light out, you can also see the LED light strip. It's really nice and dimmable too.

Rah

 

Awesome set up. Had a very similar set up in my previous truck ([emoji895]). Looking to do the same with my zr2. We should go on a Coues hunt in AZ sometime! How long is the awning ?


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Awesome set up. Had a very similar set up in my previous truck ([emoji895]). Looking to do the same with my zr2. We should go on a Coues hunt in AZ sometime! How long is the awning ?

Coues in AZ is on my list, let's do it. The awning is the ARB 2000 which is, iirc, 6.5' long/wide and 8' extension.

 

I did a bunch of small-ish things to the truck in December. First, I installed the Chevrolet fender flares. Pretty straightforward installation and I really like how they "beef up" the truck's appearance:

One of the things I missed most from my 4Runner was having a Homelink garage door opener. I found a GM Homelink auto-dimming mirror on eBay and ordered it. It was plug-n-play as advertised, the only hard part was getting the damn plastic cover back in place. If not for fighting with that, this would have been a five minute job. Works as advertised!

Finally, I ordered up and installed an AEV rear differential skid plate. It seems really well made and was very easy to install.

I also finally got to go out for an overnight camping trip to Big Bear to help a buddy with a late season deer hunt in early November. He was not successful, but it was great to get out and camp in the truck.

The orange was because he was archery hunting during rifle season. We don't have to wear orange in California, but during rifle season I won't go out without it.

 

January was a huge month for the truck. First, I finally, with a lot of help from a friend, installed my Trigger4 Plus along with the ditch lights and rear rack lights. I chose the Trigger4 Plus for a few reasons. One, it's a Bluetooth controller so you don't have to run any wires through the firewall. It also can be controlled from an app on your phone so you can dim the lights and make them flash. Fun. Finally, it's a lot cheaper than an sPod.

I mounted the controller to a Power Trays plate.

At some point, I will pull the tray out and cut a hole where the Adventure Wired sticker is and run the wires under the plate.

The switches are mounted in a 3D printed holder where the sunglass holder used to be. My switches are for 1. Compressor, 2. Ditch lights, 3. Rear chase light, and 4. Rear reverse light.

My ditch lights are @BajaDesigns Squadron Pro's with the combo lens. I would have gone with clear lenses but I bought them from a guy here on the forum and he must have used red Loctite on the cover screws so I can't get them out to swap the lens.

The passenger side rear light is my "chase" light. It's a Baja Designs S2 Sport with a yellow lens. The driver's side is also an S2 Sport and is a clear lens to assist with backing up in the dark. (This picture is before I swapped the passenger side lens to a yellow one.)

 

Then, I saw a post on here by @oxidizr that he was selling his Bison wheels. A short negotiation was had in which I agreed to pay his full asking price 🤣 and I met up with him to pick up the wheels. Oxidzr is a really nice guy with a ton of knowledge. I look forward to hitting some trails with him in the very near future!

I took them to Discount Tire to have my TPMS sensors swapped over and to have the wheels wrapped in BFG KO2's in 255/75/R17. I prefer a thinner wheel than seems to be the style today and these are C load tires so they're a bit softer and lighter than my E Load Nitto Ridge Grapplers on the 4Runner.

And yes, a 32" spare tire fits easily. I would be willing to bet a 33" tire can be stuffed in there since there seems to be plenty of room.

Finally, my wife bought me an AEV Bison snorkel for my birthday. I considered installing it myself, but then I realized that would be stupid and had my friend do it at his shop.

I finally got to get out for a long weekend and went Jackrabbit hunting with a Marine buddy. It was very cold and rained Friday night and snowed Saturday night so I was really happy to have my awning and the LED light strip in it was really nice.

My buddy, Kevin:

One of Kevin's Marine brothers that he went into Iraq with came out from Las Vegas Saturday late afternoon and hung out with us. He brought some good Bourbon which was nice of him. We didn't see a single Jackrabbit the entire weekend, but we did get a lot of target shooting in which was a blast. And yes, we did police all of our brass and shot shells and left our campsite better than we found it.

Saturday night it got down to 19° and I froze my assets off. All I had was a 30° sleeping bag and my Woobie. Fortunately, I keep a box of handwarmers in my truck, so four of those were thrown in my sleeping bag and I survived the night. I have since picked up a heavy military surplus wool blanket which will make things much more comfortable.

The only problem was that now my passenger side ditch light was hitting the snorkel so I couldn't open the hood all the way. A quick call to CBI had a set of their brackets to me the next day. I swapped the lights over to the CBI brackets and all is good.

ALL THE LUMENS!!

 

Wow. A complete make over. Truck is looking great


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Wow. A complete make over. Truck is looking great

Thank you! I'm really enjoying it.

 

I just realized I never covered the air compressor installation. I had an ARB single compressor in my 4Runner on a homemade mounting plate. I removed it when I gave the 4Runner to my daughter and it was sitting around in the garage. I found @larson328 's great thread and video on installing the ARB in our trucks and set to it. LINK I bought a 589 Fabrication mounting plate and mounted the compressor under the coolant overflow tank. Installation was very straightforward using 589's instructions. Just remove the airbox, move the coolant overflow tank aside, install the compressor on the plate, mount the plate in the truck, replace the overflow tank (somewhat of a pain in the ass), and then re-install the air box. Only tools needed were a phillips screwdriver and a 10mm socket wrench with a couple of extensions.

One thing I really didn't like was how difficult it was to attach my hose to the compressor. to fix it, I removed the airbox and overflow tank again, and installed a flexible hose extender (parts list is in the thread linked above). Now the air chuck is very easy to access.

(I just realized that in this picture the nuts are not on the coolant overflow reservoir and the ARB solenoid is just dangling there. I put everything back together before buttoning up.)

Much better! It's wired into my Trigger 4 Plus and works great.

One lesson learned from this: Don't switch on your ignition with the MAF sensor disconnected (part of removing the air box). I turned on the ignition to check the extension for leaks while the MAF was disconnected. Got a CEL for my efforts. I also got an email from GM to take my truck in for service, crazy. Luckily, I have a code reader so I just cleared the code and everyone is happy again.

 

Couple of small things. First, I made a mount for my tablet. I bought a Vehicle Specific Mount from ProFit: LINK

Originally, I had it hooked up with a RAM ball mount on the swivel. However, that was too long and the tablet was bouncing everywhere. So I cut the swivel mount off, drilled a hole and mounted a RAM ball on the much shorter arm.

Then I re=installed it per ProFit's instructions:

Almost perfect! I used a RAM short arm and an X-grip and it holds my iPad Mini right where I want it. The tablet does still bounce a little bit on really rough off road, but it isn't going anywhere.

Also, when I installed the Bison wheels with the larger tires, my speedometer was off by 2-3 mph which bugged me. After some quick research on the forum, I bought the Rough Country Inline Speedometer Calibrator. LINK It says it's only for 2017-2018, but when you go to install the latest software, it offers up to 2019 and I can verify it works perfectly on my 2020. I checked it against Waze and my Garmin Montana GPS. Very easy install too.

 

Added a little piece of mind and added a spare lock. The lock goes in the opening where the rod would go to lower your spare. It was a little pricey, but when I thought about how much it would cost me to replace my spare wheel and tire it seemed like a good idea. LINK

 

Nice idea!!
I could see this being a really good mod for the Zr2/bison guys too as they have high priced wheels off the lot.

 

Totally. When my wife balked at the $50, I explained to her that my wheel and tire are worth about 16 times what the lock costs. Maybe more?

When I finally get a hitch carrier for the spare tire it will become useless, but for now . . .

 

This past weekend, I took a three day weekend to head out to the desert with my hunting club to camp out and do some long(er) range shooting. The camping set up worked great except that it was too windy all weekend to use the awning. The wind also made long range shooting a bit tough but it was good to practice calling winds at 400+ yards. One nice thing about my set-up is that it's pretty easy to undo the topper tent when you want to do things like drive over to the shooting area.

I also got to test the suspension at high speed in washboards and whoops and it passed with flying colors. A friend and I were driving back to camp from the shooting area and when I tried to pass him he punched it. I was passing him at about 80 mph when I suddenly noticed a rut/drop-off right in my passenger side tire's path. I puckered up for what I suspected was going to be an "interesting" moment but the suspension just soaked it up and I barely even noticed it. Nice!!

Camp:

The trucks out at the shooting area

Me shooting the Henry at a 150 yard target and testing some new handloads:

The guy with the pistol on the sticks is shooting his 40 at the same 150 yard target. He hit it 3 of 5 shots!

A few of us in the group are Marines and one of them brought these for all of us:

Campfire. This is what happens when one of your members owns a tree trimming business, you get giant Eucalyptus logs

And last, Savanna waiting for me to get my buzzed ass to bed

All in all a great trip and everything worked as hoped. Can't wait til the next one.

 

YUT! Good **** brother. I have a Marlin that looks just like that Henry! Mine is in the only government I trust though. 45/70 (read that in hickok45's voice).

 

First, I installed my AEV Transfer Case Skid Plate. Although the instructions said I would need to drill 4 holes in the frame, they were already there which was really nice. Maybe Chevy started pre-drilling the holes on the 2020's? A floor jack made it an easy one man job. AEV included a bunch of extra hardware for some reason.

See @WV NATIVE I do have the same floor jack.

Then I installed the Colorado/Canyon Enthusiasts "waffle" replacements and the Rough Country Tow Hook to Shackle Conversion kit. LINK More tire clearance and shackles are a good thing!

 

See @WV NATIVE I do have the same floor jack.

Glad to see you're putting it to work. Can't go wrong with undercarriage protection. Way more important than the other stuff most people want to bolt on their trucks. You can't typically see skids so they don't have social media appeal.

 

Today I played hooky from work and installed my AEV Transmission Skid. It was both very simple and very difficult. There is next to NO access for some of the nuts, I think AEV could have come up with better way to bolt things up. That said, everything fit perfectly and looks VERY solid. First the picture, then the details of the install.

So here is how I was able to install the transmission skid. I already had the transfer case skid installed.

1. Install the front plate that goes under the engine skid plate. Leave all bolts loose.
2. Drop the transfer case skid plate. I used a floor jack to control it.
3. Attach the transmission skid plate tubes to the transfer case skid plate, straighten the tubes so they're pointing in the right direction and tighten them down. (You will never be able to get a wrench in there once the transfer case skid is back in place.)
4.Re-install the transfer case skid plate. Make sure you drop the second J-bolt into the frame at least once so you have start over again. Then re-install for the second time, this time being VERY careful not to drop the J-bolt into the frame. Leave all the bolts loose so the skid plate can shift a wee bit.
5. Attach the fronts of the transmission skid plate tubes to the adapter plate. Attached them all loosely, then tighten those down working from one side to the other. This will suck. You will get through it. Your neck and shoulders will hate you. FAFO.
6. Tighten up the three engine skid plate bolts.
7. Tighten up the transfer case skid plate bolts.
8. Go drink a beer, smoke a fatty (if that's legal in your state), or do whatever you do to relax and celebrate a job well done.

I wish I had one of those horizontal ratchet wrenches like THIS. Would have made this job a LOT easier.

If you have any questions, fire away!

 

It looks like they supplied carriage bolts?
whatta pain in the a

I know there’s a place for them but I may have swapped them out for standard bolts with protectors if possible. It looks like all the turning happened from above?

 

It looks like they supplied carriage bolts?
whatta pain in the a

I know there’s a place for them but I may have swapped them out for standard bolts with protectors if possible. It looks like all the turning happened from above?

Exactly. Whoever at AEV designed that should be taken out back and flogged. Carriage bolts are stupid for this application.

If I had known this ahead of time, I might have done what you suggested and gone to the hardware store for some Grade 8 stainless bolts. It would be very easy to hold the nut stationary from above and then screw a bolt in. I wonder why AEV didn't do it that way. Potentially, they were concerned the bolt shoulders might get beat up by actual use, but you could easily use an hex-head bolt if that was the concern. No way in hell I'm going in there and replacing the nuts and bolts, but if I ever have to remove the "skid plate" for any reason, I will replace the bolts.