Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Got one side done. Ridetech really did a good job in researching and designing the front coolride kit. It only took 2 hours to put in and that was teaching a high school kid how to install the kit. Went in without a single problem and fit perfect. I would Diffidently recommend this to others. I have to wait on installing the big brake kit. It won’t get here till Friday. So I put the Óld discs back on.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Nice work, your truck looks fantastic. I am following along closely on your build. One question I have for you is on that Ridetech Coolride kit did you have to cut out any of the frame on the spring pocket for the airbag to not touch? On other kits I have seen there is a lot of cutting to make the bag fit without touching. Thanks for the updates very cool build.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

On the coolride for these truck you don’t need to cut the spring pocket. The upper cup is tall enough. So everthing clears. With no rubbing.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Thank you for clearing that up for me. I want to bag my truck but I have been fighting it because of having to cut the frame on the spring pockets. I have a pace truck so I would prefer to have the option to put it all back to stock if I wanted to at some point. Thanks again and keep the updates coming please.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Hutcholdschool, I don’t think I have ever seen a pace truck. Do you have a pic.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Here is a photo hopefully it works. Not as collectible as your 454 but they did not make very many of them. That is why I was following your build so close, as you said in the beginning you were going to make your 454 so it could be returned back to stock if needed. It has a 2/4 drop on it now and I am itching to try something else with it.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

That’s really cool. In awesome shape. Pretty Rare,like about 1500 made.Sounds like your getting board with the look. Here’s a pic of your truck with a belltech 4/6 drop and cowl induction hood. Totally changes the look. Unless you got a lot of money sitting around. Like $4500 just for the basics to have air ride with air management . I would go to summit racing (shipping is free if you go over $100 on most items exept the hood)and get you from 2/4 to 4/6. Get it in pieces to finish off with what you already have. The only thing you got to commit to is the frame notch. I cut mine with a plasma and it’s in a box with my factory parts.A lot of people worry about it but they are strong and made of good quality thick metal For $670 total. I would get

Frame notch kit axle flip kit $260
2” drop spindles $260/ or 2” front springs for $140(if you already have spindles)
4 lowering shocks $160

Then get yourself a modern set of affordable 18s or 20s for $1000 to $1500, $400 cowl induction hood with shipping and another $200 to paint the hood. All for around $2000 to $2600. Nice part about it is you don’t have to get it all at once. Each step is an improvement.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Got the suspension on the passenger side removed, cleaned and painted in under an hour. Hope it goes together that fast

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Cool build.

Can you possibly get a better pic of the front upper Air Bar mounts & the actual center to center length of your upper bars in place?

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

The bed is already on. I took a couple pics of the upper bags mounts before I put the bed on,but I can’t find them. The air bag mounts are built into the upper bar.I will take a couple shots from underneath with a tape measure and let you know tonight

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I was wanting pics of the upper bar front mounts, possible measurement on the difference between the center line of the upper vs lower front rod end bolt, & length of the upper bar as installed on your truck.

The install instructions have a starting dimension for the upper bars. I was curious how close your set-up came to those dimension as I will be building my own upper bar front mounts (I'll be using better rod ends on the front of all 4 bars on my set-up) & the info requested will help dictate how things fall into place (your info will be used just as reference compared to my observations/mock-up).

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Finished the coolride today. Didn’t change the look. Right now I can’t lower the truck anymore without the fender sitting on the tire because of the front wheel spacers. As soon as I put in the front pro proformance front disc conversion which will bring the wheels in about 7/8 (because I had the front hub converted to 5 on 4 1/2 to get rid of the conversion wheel spacer)and roll the front fenders a little more. I will be able to lower it another 3 or 4 inches. I also need to adjust the pitman arm in the rear to center the axle and roll the fenders a little more with a baseball bat.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Look what showed up today. I can’t beleive the size difference in the rotors. These are based off of the c5 corvette

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Ordering caliper covers from mgp

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Going to order a 10 pt roll cage from s&w. I going to get the wrap around dash style. I think it looks a lot better. The only bars I won’t put in are the ones that go thru the Back window to the bed and the door side bars.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Don’t like the velour seats and door panels. Since I already have my factory seats in storage. I going to remove the original door panels and store them also. I saw a picture of manual door panels a while ago and bought a set off ebay.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I got board and did a renduring of what I going to do. Drawings kinda suck, but you get what I’m going. My uphostery shop is out about a month. So they will be done in a while. Going to wrap both in red vinyl with exposed stitch and maroon inserts

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Cool item I came across. Dash insert sticker kits by RVINYL. They come in about 20 different colors. Cost $49.95. Make sure you wipes down contact areas with alcohol before applying and they will stick really good.Says will only fit 92-94. But will fit 1988 to 1994. Just won’t be able to use a couple pieces depending on year. Also available for suburban,Yukon and tahoes

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Did you have them do something custom for you in the c5 corvette size, or are they still the 14" kit?

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

The 14” kit uses c5 corvette parts.I believe they used both the c5 caliper and disc(Makes it easy to go to the parts store and get Pads)With a Baer design mounting brackets and hubs.The only change I made was to convert the hub from 5 on 5 to 5 on 4 1/2 because of rim choices for an extra $200.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Love the truck!!!

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

sweet ride.

congrats

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

May go with this design for the seats and door panels

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Started on the az performance revelator disc conversion today. Didn’t like the cast grey on the caliper. So I sprayed them red, until my caliper covers get here. Not everyone needs a step by step, but it’s nice to use as a reference.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

The kit shows to remove the spindle, but I can do it without removing it. Drilled out two of the brake shield holes for the caliper bracket with a 3/8s bit.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Tapped both holes with a 7/16-14 tap

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Put the hub on to see if everthing fit. I had to use the spindle nut off the belltech spindle. The one the came with the kit had the wrong thread

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Next, I had to trace the caliper mounting bracket with it bolted on to get ready to cut the ears off the spindle. More to come

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Ran into my first hang up. The Wheel hub bore is about 1/16 smaller then the hub. So I going to try one of three tools to bore the rim hub out. Or I may take the hub to a machine shop to get it turned down a 1/16.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

What are the benefits here? Why is this necessary especially after removing 4 of the bars that maintain the integrity of the set-up?

Rear bars (to the rear portion of the frame) help the structure. Door side bars? Same thing. Any bars in the vicinity of your noggin w/o a helmet? Not a good idea. I've seen roll bars form fitted to the interior sheet metal (as in nearly touching the bare steel on early trucks) that might work but a cage like that in a street vehicle w/full interior doesn't seem worthy especially because you don't have protection for your head.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I thought out some of your points. I think I am going to take the back slider window out and put it in storage. Then replace it with a solid tinted Lexan and cut two holes for the bars that go in the bed. With a nice rubber gasket around the window and bars the go to the bed.Then I will do swing out side bars. I know they are not as strong as solid welded.but since I’m in a wheelchair I have to be able to transfer in. You have to admit though 4 attachment points will make the integrity of the truck stronger then stock.As far as my head bouncing around and hitting my head on a bar. I will be wearing a seat belt and my bars will be thick padded. Thousands of people have a full interior with a cage. May be a little less room, but if done right there is enough room. It’s not going to be a full on drag race or road corse truck

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Cut the tabs off my spindle. If you aren’t using a band saw. Make sure you use a 6” cut off wheel on your hand grinder. 4 1/2 disc is too small.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Mock up

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Before and after. Turns out, all I had to do to my wheel hub bore to fit was sand off the powder coat with a drum sander. took about 5 minutes. So far 3 hours into one side. The other side should only take 2 because I know exactly where to cut. Had to order 14x 1.5 lug nuts. Won’t be here till Friday night. So looks like I won’t be able to see how low it goes and how it stops and rides till next week. I finally found end caps for my lug nuts

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

For some reason when Baer brakes redrilled my hubs to 5 on 4.5. They uses the oddest size, a 14x2.0 metric stud. They sure make it tuff using that size. It really limits you options. Unfortunately because the lug nut holes in the rim are small, they don’t make a lug nut to fit. Looks like I’m going to drill out my 12mm lug nuts and retap them to 14x2.0. Only have to do 10. Should take a couple hours. Not so bad if that’s the worst thing to happen with a front brake conversion

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Found a better alternative then drilling and tapping the lug nuts to fit the hub studs. I desided to call AZ pro performance. The place I ordered the disc kit from and told that my studs where a 14x2 mm and the kit said they should be a 14x1.5 mm. Within 20 minutes they gave me a call back and where air shipping the correct studs to me. These guy are really stand up guys. You rarely see customer service like this. So today I used an air chisel with a pointed tip and got them off in 5 minutes.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Wheel studs showed up today. Went on with an impact and a large washer. Took about 5 minutes.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Ran into another problem. When I ordered my front disc kit from AZ properformance. I decided not to order the kit with the $95 stainless steel brake line kit ( that comes with the correct banjo bolt) because I just replaced my factory front brake lines. So I didn’t get brake line banjo bolt. I though I could just use my stock one off my truck.Turns out they are a different size. Doesn’t say anything about this in the instructions.I had to go to 2 parts stores to get dorman 14100s (10x1.0x20) banjo bolts.the dorman are 27mm long, so I’m going to cut them down to 20mm. The left ones are factory and the the right ones are the dormans that are to long.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Wanted some cooler designed nuts

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I want more performance out of my front pads, then the sport brake pads supplied by Baer brakes that came with the kit. So I ordered a set of ebc yellow stuff organic pads and red stuff ceramic pads. Not sure which one I will pick. Then I will match the backs.