Steve-o-08's Silverado Build Thread

[Mtrhd329]

I spy some black widows under there... you mentioned earlier a truck class. When did they start that? How are the classes broken down? Truck looks great!

[Steve-O-08]

Got my front arms on the bench. Cut the spring notches out of the pockets. And got my filler plates ready to weld in along with the coil-over and new sway bar link mounts. I'm going to strip the terrible powder coat on the arms and either re-coat or just paint them. Might make some new bushings for them too.








Also got the rear leafs on the spring tester to check the rates. Why? because I could. My original plan was to 4 link the rear, but I am going to try out a few things with the leaf springs first.






Found a set of rear leafs off of a 2007 Dodge Ram RCSB in an old parts pile at the shop that are pretty close to the dimensions of the Silverado springs.
Might use one of the leafs out of that pack to stiffen up mine.



My springs tested out at 220 lbs and the dodge's were 260lbs. So the additional leaf would add a little bit of rate to the rear. I am going to get the front suspension finished up before I change the rate on the rear.





That's all for now. I was going to have the arms finished up yesterday but they had to shut the power off to our building due to an electrical fire on a near by power pole.

[Steve-O-08]

I spy some black widows under there... you mentioned earlier a truck class. When did they start that? How are the classes broken down? Truck looks great!

Yeah the BW is coming out to be replaced with a Magnaflow.

The truck class was new for NMCA last year. NMCA has Modern Muscle, Classic Muscle, Sports Car, Sport Compact and Exhibition classes. My trucks were originally in the modern muscle class with the Camaro's and Mustangs.

[Steve-O-08]

Even with it being a short week I make some good headway on some of the truck parts.

I got my lower control arms almost completely stripped after welding in the spring pocket plates and lower coil-over mounts. I will spend a little more time getting the rest of the coating off the arms is prep for some new paint or maybe powder coat. Anything would be better than the ugly hammer-tone powder coat that was on these arms. Cut off the old sway bar link mounts and going to make some new ones. ( in the correct spot...)











Also made a trip to Mc Master Carr for some Grade 8 Threaded rod, shaft collars for my front sway bar and some sticks of Delrin for some new bushings.



And since I can't buy 'em, Gotta make 'em.











Nothing DJM left on these arms. Now that the crappy ball joints are gone, poly bushings are gone, dumb sway bar mounts are gone lol.

Getting close to having everything ready to go back in for one last mock-up and cycle before making them look pretty. Then it's back on to the rear.

[rentedmule]

Nice work on the LCAs. I may copy some of your ideas on my Spohn coilover arms; the lower shock mount is just flat plate for the shock t-bar but it doesn't even have the reinforcing ring around it like those arms do. I've already bowed it from heavy use. I like the idea of the double shear mount.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Impressive work, I must say.
Never saw anyone have a level of fab that he's making his own control arm bushings.
Well done!

[Steve-O-08]

Impressive work, I must say.
Never saw anyone have a level of fab that he's making his own control arm bushings.
Well done!

Why thank you haha. Luckily I have access to the lathe at work and readily available material. Someone once told me if you have more time than money you build it, if you have more money than time you buy it. Well you can see what my case is. haha

[Bob in St. Louis]

Why thank you haha. Luckily I have access to the lathe at work and readily available material. Someone once told me if you have more time than money you build it, if you have more money than time you buy it. Well you can see what my case is. haha

Oh, amen to that!
I'm the same way, but my abilities are limited to the equipment I can afford. Of course I'm envious of your equipment (insert joke here).

[Steve-O-08]

Oh, amen to that!
I'm the same way, but my abilities are limited to the equipment I can afford. Of course I'm envious of your equipment (insert joke here).

Having the right tools at your disposal is a big part of making cool stuff. I am definitely lucky to have access to the tools at work along with the tons of money I've spent on my own tools, but we won't get into that... haha

[Bob in St. Louis]

....... along with the tons of money I've spent on my own tools, but we won't get into that... haha

Agreed. The wives might be reading. ;)

[Steve-O-08]

Brought the arms back home and mocked up the position of the sway bar link tabs and got those welded up.



Also got a new set of Crow 5pt's from the girlfriend for Christmas. So those will replace my orange-now peach colored harnesses haha. And will be a lot easier to get in and out of than the latch-types.



Threw some more aggressive media in the blaster in hopes of knocking the rest of the powdercoat off the arms. It helped a little but some of it is still pretty well stuck on there.





Probably just going to paint them so they are easily touched up if the ever got scratched. Going to try and get them painted up tomorrow and reassembled this weekend.

[Steve-O-08]

Alright, lower arms are finished. Got them painted up and the new delrin bushings and ball joints in. I think they came out pretty good. Decided not to powder coat them for ease of touch up.

Coat of etch primer.



And some semi gloss chassis paint.



And the final product. Still need to do a little touch up, but they are ready to go back on the truck.





Now Just need to double check some measurements for the front and rear and I'll get my new shocks and front springs coming. :thumb:

[Steve-O-08]

Got my arms mocked up the other night to double check shock measurements. Got the shocks ordered. Waiting on an ETA. Having them valved for the truck vs off the shelf valving.



While I'm waiting on shocks I got started on the leaf springs. Sticking with the rear leaf springs for now. Just going to try and make them work as well as I can for what I'm doing with the truck. A 4 link and coil-overs may still be in the future, but for now they'll have to wait.

Going with a slightly modified version of our Hotchkis Swivel bushing kit and possibly adding a leaf from the set of dodge leaf springs I found along with the overload spring. The front of the leafs will get the modified swivel bushings, the rear of the leafs will have new poly bushings and I'm going to machine up some more delrin for the shackles.





Had to turn down the collars to clear the spring pockets.





Pressed out the solid bushings.





And the new bearing retainers pressed in:



Energy suspension leaf spring kit, Sadly I'll only be using the rear leaf bushings and the sleeves.



Going to get the rear springs pressed out this week and then tack the front sleeves in place just to make sure they don't go anywhere. Then I'll get the passenger side spring back in and do the same to the driver's side.

[Steve-O-08]

Got the other leaf spring finished up this week and ready to be installed. Hoping for a break in the rain we have been having to be able to install them.








Also decided while I had the U-bolt Plates out that I would cut out some tie-down hooks and weld them on.







Luckily I had a few hours of better weather to work with and got the leaf springs back in the truck. Still need to trim the ends of the U-Bolts, but I am going to wait to see if I need any pinion shims.






Just received a new pair of hubs for the front. Front springs and shocks will be here this week. Finally able to get the truck back on the ground. Then I'll need to align it and test it out.

[Steve-O-08]

Some small progress made on the truck this week.

The parts are still accumulating. Have front springs, rear shocks, new front hubs and a bunch of parts for the eventual manual swap.





When I got the shocks in a few weeks ago I found that the fronts had the wrong bodies on them. (compression adjuster on the bottom instead of on the side) so I sent those back to have them swapped out. Still waiting on them to come back from Afco.








In the meantime I got the rear's installed after I made some reducer spacers for them. (1/2 bolts in 14mm holes) I still need to modify the shock extenders to make sure they don't loosen up again.










Once the front shocks come in I can get the new hubs on and take it to work and align it. Unfortunately I also have to smog the truck by the end of the month too... Also kinda hard to do without the truck drivable. Stupid California... End rant.

[Steve-O-08]

Finally made some progress on the truck this weekend. After waiting on parts and being preoccupied with house hunting and working on other projects, she's finally down on the ground again.



Ended up finding an issue with my modified DJM control arms. I wasn't happy with where the shock was sitting at the desired ride height. So I bit the bullet and ordered a set of RT Strong Arms. They were delivered on Friday along with a set of Atomic's seat brackets.

Nice stack of parts waiting for me on Friday:





Had a clearance issue with the adjusters on the lower arms, but cut out the brace and replaced it with a grade 8 bolt and sleeve.





Got everything installed and torqued up. New hubs and Belltech spindles installed with the coilovers. Just need to fine tune the ride height and take the truck into work to align it.







Ordered tires to replace the BFG's I sold so those will be here this week. I'll get the seat brackets painted up and installed after work this week and get my new harnesses installed. Finally coming together.

Claudia's truck got some love too. Different springs up front along with a set of Belltech Spindles are in the truck now. Just waiting for her shocks to get here and we'll get those installed. Would like to make it out to an autocross next Sunday, but it's still TBD.

[Steve-O-08]

Got to drive the truck for the first time in what seemed like forever.



Very happy with it so far. I brought it in to work to get the alignment done and get a few other things checked off the list. Re made a different exhaust hanger and turndown for the magnaflow and trimmed and welding the shock extenders in place to keep them from moving around.





My new tires showed up and I was able to get them mounted and installed right after I was finished with the alignment.



I'm very happy with how the truck feels right now. Front spring rate seems just about perfect and there is still a lot of adjustment in the shocks to get it fine tuned.



The only thing I have left to do now is get my set of Atomic's seat brackets installed with the new Crow harnesses. Still contemplating a color change. Might have a vinyl wrap in it's future.

[RBEAST]

STEVE O you do some nice work, truck is looking great as always. looking forward to first "HOTCHKIS" event in fontana next week to check it out are you going to be there? what color wrap or color are you thinking of changing to? you may have to change your licence plate soon with all of the work you have done lol ... hopefully see you next week, best of luck in this new season of autocross

[Steve-O-08]

STEVE O you do some nice work, truck is looking great as always. looking forward to first "HOTCHKIS" event in fontana next week to check it out are you going to be there? what color wrap or color are you thinking of changing to? you may have to change your licence plate soon with all of the work you have done lol ... hopefully see you next week, best of luck in this new season of autocross

Thanks man. Thinking about white or a different shade of gray on the wrap. Still undecided. We'll see how the truck does. Lots of changes so it'll take some getting used to. We'll be out there. Good luck to you too.

[RBEAST]

i didnt realize you switched to falkens , what do you think after this weekend? do they give any warning when they are going to let go or just let go?