Sport Silverado

Oh, this is sweet.

Don't you just love this stuff?

You know, one question I get a lot from people that have late model two wheel drive trucks

is what can you do to them to make them a little cooler? A little slicker

but not do a full build up on one like something like this

or

make it so radical to where you can't drive it every day because most people's truck is their daily driver

and most of us are still making payments on them. So the idea here is to make it better

but not destroy the value. Now, to show you how to do that. Last week I started a build up on a 99 Chevy Silverado

dropped it two inches in the front four in the rear to give it a nice stance.

Today, I'm gonna finish up the transformation on this into a cool street truck. And the first thing we're gonna look at are brakes.

Ok. Here's the deal. If you've got a truck, two wheel drive, four wheel drive doesn't matter.

And you are gonna upgrade to larger wheels and tires,

you need to upgrade your brakes and here's why

when you put on bigger wheels and tires, you not only add weight

but that increases your rolling mass and that is gonna overpower your stock brakes

because they weren't designed to handle this kind of stuff. So two things are gonna happen.

Brakes are gonna wear out quicker and they're not gonna stop you very well while they're wearing out.

So to fix that problem, we went to bear brakes, got what they call their errata speed plus one brake system for the front. We've got these two huge extra thick rotors to give us more mass and greater heat absorption.

And of course, they're drilled and slotted to allow gasses to escape.

Then in the center, they've got directional curved veins to give us better cooling

and the diameter 14 inches, that's up a good bit from the stock 12.5 inches.

And also you get this bracket that will remount your stock caliper. So it can be used with these rotors. Of course, the rear kit is exactly the same except that the rotors are smaller.

Now, this kit utilizes your stock pads, but if you wanna upgrade them, bear's got those available too

to install the system,

unbolt the caliper

and set it aside.

Follow that with the old bracket

and the pads

then

get rid of that old rotor.

Now you wanna take a wire brush and come in and clean the face of this hub,

so the new rotor fits down good and flat against that hub.

Now, slide on the new bear rotor. Now, the only thing to watch here is to make sure you're putting them on the correct side so they cool properly. They're well marked,

then install the pads

into the new anchor bracket. Now, we're using these Bear carbon ceramic pads

to give our brakes even more bite when we step down on the pedal

with the new bracket and the pads in place,

go ahead and remount your caliper

and you are done.

Yeah, it's that simple.

Now, you got to admit that is a good looking brake set up, but that's not the best part about it. The best part is if you put on these brakes with your stock pads,

you can shorten your stopping distance from 90 miles an hour by up to 50 ft.

Now, if you put on these good pads and you can shorten your stopping distance from 90 miles an hour by up to 80 ft.

Yeah, that's amazing.

It's like a super charger for your brakes

to install the rears.

Pretty much follow the same procedure

as you did on the front

and that is all it takes to upgrade to some serious brakes.

Ok. We're gonna shift gears here a little bit while we got the truck up in the air and the wheels off. I'm gonna see if we can squeeze some more power out of that engine, gonna do that with a set of headers. Follow me.

We got our kit from a place called dyno

Tech and this is their super max system available for most late model trucks.

Now, the headers themselves are a long tube design

made out of 304 stainless steel.

They've got thick

phalanges so they won't warp and leak on you

long flowing mandrel bend. So you get some great flow

and a special collector back here so you won't leak. We're gonna show you how that goes together when I put them on.

Now, you also get a stainless steel Y pipe factory style

flange bones for the 02 sensors, all installed

two stainless steel catalytic converters to keep you legal. And of course, all the hardware to put this on

this kid is so good that it won the best new product award from GM at the

SEMA show. That's pretty impressive.

Now, most people know that installing a set of headers

has got the reputation of being a major pain in the butt,

but you're gonna find on these late model trucks. If you pull out this plastic inter fender,

you got all kinds of room to work in here. Now, we'll just come in, pull out the plug wires or anything

that's in the way of those manifolds coming off.

Follow that with the 02 sensors,

OK? To get rid of the old Y pipe, first jack up the transmission to support it,

then unbolt one side of the transmission cross member and lower it down for clearance.

Now, you can unbolt the old Y pipe

and get it out of there. This is also a good time to get rid of the rest of the exhaust system. If you're gonna replace it,

next up are the stock exhaust manifolds. You just un bolt them

and you can slide them right out.

Be real careful around your spark plugs because it's easy to hit them and break them off with that heavy manifold.

Now, we're ready for these new headers and they just slide in from the bottom. Now, the kit also comes with new gaskets

and new header bolts. Now this is where a lot of people make mistakes with headers. They over tighten the bolts and that'll either warp the

fangs or strip the bolt holes.

Header bolts only tighten down about 15 to 20 ft pounds.

Next slide your gaskets onto the collector, these prevent leaks,

make sure you put your spacers on. This keeps you from over tightening everything and warping that flange

and then slide on your new catalytic converter. Now, it's a lot easier to put this 02 sensor on now, as opposed to waiting until you have it all up here in place.

Now, install the new Y pipe starting with the passenger side,

follow it with the driver's side

and finally reassemble the cross member

and tighten all the bolts and clamps.

Well, that takes care of the brakes and the front half of the exhaust system. Now, when we come back, gonna finish off the exhaust system and put some wheels and tires on this thing.

Hey, we're back. Now, if you're just getting here, I'm in the process of taking this little step side, Chevy, turning it into a cool street truck. Now, I've already upgraded the brakes, put on some headers and some new catalytic converters. Now, we're gonna finish out the exhaust system. We're gonna do that with a cat back. Now, the system got laid out here is from Flowmaster. It's called the Force Two kit

and it's pretty simple and straightforward, starts out with a resonator.

Then goes to the big Flowmaster Muffler.

You have both tail pipes and the tips

and of course a bag of hardware so you can put this thing together

without too much of a hassle

first bolt, the resonator assembly to the Y pipe. And since our dyno

Tech Y pipe comes through in the stock location,

all this is gonna line up perfectly,

then we'll follow that up

with the muffler.

Now you're ready to slide in your tail

pipes. Now, the only thing to watch here

is to make sure that they mount high enough to where they clear your axle, especially if you've lowered the vehicle like we have as long as it's above your bump stop. You're all right.

Obviously, we can't reuse this stock hanger because it's in the wrong location.

But the kid comes with this new hanger bolts right to an existing hole in the frame

and that's what the tail pipe goes to

once it's all in place and sitting, how you want it, go back and tighten all the clamps starting at the front and working your way back to those polished stainless tips.

Well, that takes care of the exhaust system. Now, it is time to stick some wheels and tires on that sucker and see what we've got.

Now for wheels, we went to weld racing

and this is from their Evo series. It's called the Axis six. Now, this is a really slick 12 spoke design

and notice you've got all kinds of grooves and flutes cut into the spokes into the outer rim.

What this does is reflect light at all different angles. So this thing just sparkles even when it's sitting still. Now, this is a forged one piece design.

So it's incredibly strong. Matter of fact, it's got a lifetime structure warranty.

They're guaranteed to be perfectly true. Heck, even the chrome has a five year warranty on it.

Now, for size on the front, we're going 8.5 by 20 on the rear. We're going 9.5 by 20. Give us a little bigger footprint

to go with those big old 20 inch wheels. We made a stop to NTO tire, got a set of their NT 404 Extreme Force tires made specifically for trucks and suvs. Now these have a real unique tread design.

They got twin V grooves running down the center.

Then you have these two outer grooves on the shoulders and these work together to channel water off of the contact patch. Of course, it looks really cool too.

Now, the tread itself is silica reinforced to prevent excessive flexing. So you not only get longer tread life, you get better handling at the same time. Now, on the front here, we're going with a 2 55 50. Then on the rear, we're going with a bigger 305 40 to fill out that bigger rim. We've got on the back

with the new wheels and tires on. We can finally get this thing back down on the ground and see how it's all working together.

Pretty nice. Huh?

Now the cake is done. All we have left to do is put some frosting on it and you're gonna love what I've got for you

after the break.

Just can't get enough of trucks. Check us out online at trucks, tv.com.

Welcome back to trucks. What I'm working on today is this 99 Chevy Silverado turning it into a cool street truck

and it actually looks pretty good. We could stop right here, but I've got some other stuff I wanna do to it,

make it a little more special, a little different than what you see running down the road every day,

which means I'm gonna turn my attention to that front end, namely the hood because there is nothing like a custom hood to completely change the look and the personality of your truck. Now, there's gotta be something out there for these late model Chevys. Right.

Well, there is, and I got it right over here.

This hood is from Keystone Restyling products and they call it the SSC

induction hood

with the functional flipper door.

This looks very similar to what you saw in the old classic Chevelles. Now, the hood is fiberglass, fully finished top and bottom,

but the most unique feature is that flipper door and it's back here at the back of the scoop and here's how it works,

it runs off of engine vacuum and while you're idling down the road or just tooling along the doors closed, you stomp on the gas

open, it comes,

gives you a big blast of fresh air that runs down through the hood into this box and exits here at the air intake. Now, is that cool or what?

Now? These hoods don't come painted and you're on your own for that, but to show you how cool it looks,

I had the guys done a pro glass put on the matching white,

then bring out this stripe with house of colors, Sunset pearl to really set off the hood and bring out that scoop

to install the hood, just bolt it to the factory hinges. Now, the hood comes with threaded metal inserts, so you don't strip out the fiberglass,

then locate a vacuum source and hook it to your canister.

Since we're squeezing some extra horsepower out of that engine. We might as well pick up a couple more by putting in some royal purple synthetic oil.

And after that, we'll replace this stock air intake box

and in its place, use this Excel cool blue filter system.

So we get full benefit out of that cool air coming through the hood.

Ok. Let's see how this thing works.

You gotta admit that is cool. Now, another way to pick up some really easy horsepower is with the super chips max micro T

Now this thing just plugs into your diagnostic port

and with just a punch of a few buttons, it will install a performance

program into your computer.

You even have the option of custom tuning, things like tire size gear ratio, things like that,

you can even read and reset your diagnostic trouble codes. That's nice.

And installation is literally just a few minutes.

The last thing we're gonna put on the truck is a tunnel cover. We got ours from a re, this is a nice thick fiberglass cover, has a styling rib running down the center

and all the hinges, gas trucks, even the lock are all installed. This is gonna look really good on that step side bed

to put it on. You don't have to drill any holes. Just take these aluminum brackets that come with the K

slide them down into the steak pocket holes and then just bolt them on,

then flip the lid over and run the supplied foam sealer down the rail. So the cap won't leak on you

with the lid in place,

just bolt the rail to the clamps

and you are done.

Now, speaking of done,

this is it now, just in case you've forgotten what we started with before, check it out,

an average everyday truck and here's what we've got now, a little lower, a little slicker, a little cleaner, a little faster and still fairly subtle.

Now, some of you may be wondering what about that orange stripe that doesn't really match anything, does it?

Well, no, not yet.

But now that I've got all the body modifications done and all this old trim is gone,

I've got a clean slate where I can come in with some more of that orange and do some really cool stuff, but not today. We need to take a break. And then after that, I'm gonna introduce you to this hot little Ford.

If you walked into a Ford dealership in 1970 you could drive off in a brand new mustang in a color called Grabber Blue.

And today a Grabber Blue mustang is a pretty valuable collector's item.

Well, when Terry Delong started to build this truck, he wanted something that paid tribute to those classic mustangs and was worthy of their reputation.

Well, he did it.

It's called the grabber.

The first thing that grabs you about this truck is the color, call it Smurf blue lock, tight, little whatever Ford called it. Grabber blue. And it makes the truck stand out like a big blue toy in the crowd, but that's not why it's called the grabber

to get the truck to handle like it should

and get the stance. Right truck was dropped four inches in the front and six inches in the rear.

Then big 20 inch wheels were bolted on after they were wrapped in wide expensive Goodyear rubber

and this truck will handle,

but that's not why it's called. The grammar.

Body modifications are subtle and clean from the custom roll pan tailgate cover and dual exhaust

to the functional Cobra R style hood with built in gauges.

The interior is just as cool with custom bucket seats and door panels and a big her shifter to give you something to grab on to and slam gears. Hm. Maybe that's why

that five speed tranny is hooked to a 4.6 V8 that's been packed with a bunch of stuff like steel crank and flywheel. Ford's pistons and an innovative T 66 turbo run £12 of boost.

And this combination throws over 450 horsepower at the rear wheels

and allows you to literally shred those rear tires at will.

As you can see, there's a lot of really good reasons why Terry calls this truck. The grabber.

But the real reason is because of what it does to the seat of your pants.

When that boost rolls in at around 3000 RPM,

you better have something to grab on to.

Everybody knows that excessive heat is an enemy to your engine.

And anything that you can do to drop your oil temperatures is a good thing. Right?

Well, Innovations LLC has come out with what they call the cool caller. Now, this is a thin piece of aluminum that works like a heat sink goes over your oil filter, clamps in place

and then as the oil heats up inside the filter, the aluminum conducts it out through the filter into the aluminum where it is dissipated by the fins.

Now, innovations, LLC

claims that this will drop your oil temperatures by as much as 23 degrees, all that it looks good

and it slides in place in about a minute. Sometimes it's the little things that make the difference

for those of you that are into custom paint. Oh, I have got something new to show you. This is called exotic crystal and it goes right over your existing paint.

And here's how it works. Take your exotic crystal, shoot it over the color,

then shoot on a missed coat of black, wipe it off with water, put on a final clear coat and this is what you end up with kind of a spider webby crinkly sort of look. Now you can't get exotic crystal just anywhere but I know where you can get it,

auto body color and supply in Nashville, Tennessee.

If you're building a four wheeling rig, especially something with a big lift or a hardcore rock crawler.

Well, you're probably wondering what you're gonna do about your drive shafts. Well, I have got a name and number for you that you have got to have in your book, High angle drive line. These guys build some of the most incredibly strong drive shafts that have ever hit the market.

They will handle anything you can throw at them,

but that's not all. You can also get them with a CV joint that'll run up to 32 degrees. You need more.

Well, you can also get him with a CV joint that'll run up to 42 degrees. Still need more.

Well, you can get him with a CV joint that'll run up to 80 degrees. Yeah,

they don't call him, he angle drive line for nothing.

And if you need more than 80 degrees, you need a pogo stick, not a drive shaft. Now, that does it for today. Next week. Crazy horse.

That's all I'm gonna say.