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The 2010 "Z71"

60625 Views 226 Replies 33 Participants Last post by  ferraiolo1, 
pewter98
13
Finally got around to compiling most of my photos and threads of my 2010 Chevy Silverado 1500 ECSB. I know my build thread isn't put together the cleanest way or how most members have put their's together, but I'm just glad that everything is together and in somewhat of the correct order of when it was added onto my truck.


September 30, 2010. All the documents signed and ready to drive her off Classic Chevrolet's new truck lot!






I was afraid to haul anything in the perfect paint bed before getting the Line-X bedliner.








pewter98 said:
I won this brand new SLP LM II off ebay for $75 shipped. The seller bought the wrong series and didn't want to mess with returning it to SLP. I had Big John's Muffler Shop in Haltom City, TX remove the factory cat-back system and install my new setup for $70. They fabbed up a 3" turndown that was long enough after the SLP LM II outlet end to weld a hanger on the turndown pipe and reuse the stock exhaust hanger location to support the SLP LM II. This setup is in conjunction with the stock exhaust manifolds, y-pipe, and all the cats.

I really like both the interior and exterior tone of the SLP LM II dumped before the axle on my 5.3 liter V8. There is a very small amount of interior reasonance at around 1,900 rpm if you keep it at that point. Compared to my old 1998 Chevy Cheyenne SCSB, I was really impressed with Chevy's engineering of sound deadening the inside of the 2010 Silverado Extended Cab. There is quite a big difference in how loud the exhaust is when the door is opened and closed.

After several hundred miles with my SLP setup, I did notice one of the small acess panels on one of the extended cab's door panel (the ones that hide mounting bolts) start to vibrate as the rpm range increased. This was easily fixed with a little dynamat applied on the back of the acess panel. I had already planned to dynamat both the inner and outer door skins, backs of the door panels, and the other plastic interior pieces that are touching metal for a sound system in the future.

Sorry for all the wind noise in the video, the SLP Loudmouth II sounds WAYYY better in person!! It's been very windy here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for the last few weeks. At the very end of the last scene, the video cuts off for some unknown reason just as I'm getting into the gas. I'll try and shoot another video with the camera closer to the turndown during reving and another shot of the interior take-off scene.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.












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pewter98
16
The CST suspension lift and new wheels/tires were installed in April 2011:

pewter98 said:
FINALLY!!! The CST 4” 4wd suspension lift, 295/65R18 Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac tires, and chrome 18x9 American Racing ATX series “Ledge” wheels. Both Discount Tires Direct and Performancelifts.com were amazing with each company having the lowest pricing, great customer service, and super-fast free shipping. From when I placed my order to it being delivered, it took less than 4-5 business days for each company to send me their product. I had the automotive shop that I used to work at install the lift kit, tires/wheels, and perform a front-end alignment. They said it was one of the most hassle-free lift kits they have installed.

The ride is great, with it being nearly as smooth as stock! I was really surprised that these Goodyear tires are quieter than my stock 265/65R18 Bridgestone Dueler A/T tires. I have to give a big thanks to George (forum name:NWI_#73) for his personal review on these tires. I picked up the truck on Friday, so I think the front end will settle a bit. You should have seen the god-awful rear lean with the bed full of stock suspension parts and the OEM Z71 tires/wheels! It looks like I’ll have to trim the small portion of the lower rear area of both front fenders behind the covers (like the “Show Me How You Trim” sticky) because the tires do rub slightly, but only if the steering wheel is at full, full lock. CST does advise that some trimming might be required depending on which tire/wheel combo you want to run.


Stock Height:



Stock Fender Measurements:

Front- 37" Rear- 39.5"


After Lift Kit, New Tires/Wheels, GM Rear Wheel Well Liners, and Removing Front Lower Airdam:













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pewter98
9
The suspension upgrades were done in January 2014:

pewter98 said:
Finally got around to installing the upgrades. The CST 4" lift kit reused the OEM front struts. So after 60,000+ miles on 33's and the recent addition of the Fab Fours winch-only front bumper, they were in need of replacement. The Bilstein 5100's all the way around were a great improvement, giving the ride a firmer feel both on and offroad! A HUGE thanks to a fellow firefighter for letting me use his driveway, tools, and helping me install everything on a Saturday morning! Everything installed without any issues.

Parts List:

*Bilstein Adjustable Front Lift Struts (Set on the 1.18" setting) # BIL24-186940
*CST 2007-2012 GM 1500 Extended Length Stainless Steel Front Brake Hose Kit # CSS-C11-12
*CST Front Skid Plate 2007-2013 GM 1500 # CSS-C29-8
*CST 4" Rear Lift Blocks - Fabricated Steel # CSB-C14-4
*CST Performance Suspension U-Bolt Kit # CSU-C15-12.5
*Bilstein 5100 Series Rear Shock Absorbers # 24-186636
*A new set of 295/65R18 Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac Tires


Previous CST 4" Fender Measurements: 41.5" all the way around

New Bilstein/CST 5.18" Fender Measurements: 43" Front / 42.5" Rear

I'm not worried about the rear being 0.5" lower because I'm still looking to add the Air Lift rear helper airbag kit and I've heard these kits slightly raise the rear even when the airbags are running their min. air pressure.








Even with the addition of the Bilstein 5100 front lift struts set on the 1.18" setting, the ball joint & cv angles didn't change too much:




This CST front skidplate is designed to be installed on trucks that are not running a subframe-type suspension lift kit:

http://performancelifts.com/CST-Skid-Plate-2007-2013-GM-1500-CSS-C29-8.html

The front piece of my CST subframe prevented the rear pair of the front skidplate mounting bolts from completely being removed. To work around this issue, the only modification that was needed was to cut the front skid plate's rear circular-shaped mounting holes into upside down U-shapes. After that modification, I cut out the broken OEM plastic front skid plate and loosened the two rear skid plate mounting bolts enough before they came into contact with the CST cross member. This allowed the newly modified skid plate's rear U-shaped mounting points to slide right in and butt up against the two rear skid plate mounting bolts. The CST front skid plate's angles and alignment of the two front mounting holes were a perfect fit. The flanged heads of the OEM skid plate's mounting bolts act as secure fasteners for the modified rear U-shaped mounting points and I was able to fully re-tighten all 4 of the OEM rear skid plate bolts with the new CST skid plate installed.


The end result turned out great, way better than the cracked OEM front plastic skdiplate! The fitment was perfect and the new CST front skidplate matches the belly skidplate that came with my CST 4" lift kit.
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pewter98
13
I'm not a huge fan of the roof-mounted lightbar on any vehicle, so I went this route:

pewter98 said:


http://www.rigidindustries.com/led-lighting/88421

Screw that!

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been doing my research for other options for a curved 40" LED light bar to be mounted behind my grille of my 2010 Silverado 1500. After reading countless reviews and seeing several different models in person, I went with the 40" LED Totron Curved CREE LED Light Bar with the Spot Beam Pattern:

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...ww.mansquadspot.com/Curved-D...-Curved-DC.htm

Here's the link to the light bar's Totron page:

www.totron.com/products/details/101...w-cree-10-30v-double-row-curved-led-light-bar

Totron 40" Curved CREE Led Light Bar:

Length: 130.59 mm = 5.14 in.

Width: 1136.87mm = 44.75 in.

Height (Light Only): = 3 in.

Height on Brackets: 121.23 mm = 4.77 in.

Mounting Base to bottom of light: 1.77 in.

The mounts that come with the light are 1 3/4 (L) by 1 1/4 (W).


Out of the box, this light bar's quality is outstanding! The included wiring harness is great quality too, nice thick wiring with a heavy duty weatherproof outer cover, in-line fuse, relay, and included rocker switch. I got a little OCD, so I ran the wiring inside black wire loom and wrapped in it black electrical tape to go with the factory wiring.

To mount the light bar's mounting feet to my truck, I bought a foot of 3/16" thick 2"x2" aluminum angle metal to fab up a pair of mounting brackets.

After removing the grille, the pair of vertical metal pieces of the center grille support needed to be cut out in order for the the bar to fit.

Here's a quick shot of the light bar fab'd up just after cutting the grille's center section to check for depth clearance.


Even with the removal of the large pair of vertical center grille support pieces, the pair of upper and lower center grille mounting clips holes still have plenty of strength and support since they are still bolted to the top and bottom horizontal areas of the grille support.


You can see the pair of my fab'd aluminum mounting brackets that attach to the pair of lower outer factory grille black mounting brackets.


The factory grille black mounting brackets that I'm using have three slot openings, the grille's mounting clips goes into the top and I used the bottom slots to mount my fab'd aluminum mounting brackets. The wide slot openings allow for making any needed alignment adjustments. My pair of aluminum brackets and the plastic area around the pair of lower, outer factory grille mounting clips found on the backside of the grille required quite a bit of trimming so they could have clearance from each other and from the front bumper.


To secure my aluminum mounting brackets to the factory grille black mounting brackets, I used 5/16" x 1.5" stainless steel bolts, washers, and nuts. The supplied Totron bolts were going to be too short to use to secure the light bar's mounting feet with rubber spacer to my brackets, so I swapped them for M6 x1.00 x 40 stainless steel bolts, washers, and nuts.



I decided to swap the supplied rocker switch for this OTRATTW rocker switch and modified my truck's ashtray to house them. The other switch is for another upcoming project...


The end result turned out great!








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pewter98 said:
Because my rocker switches sat so high in the OEM removable ashtray even with trimming the rocker switch frame bracket, the height issue sometime caused the switches to hit the top area and switch in the "ON" position as I shut the ashtray door. So I ended up taking out the removable ashtray, getting a new rocker switch frame bracket, and everything fit perfectly in the deeper open space.

40" LED Light Bar Rocker Switch: https://www.otrattw.com/proddetail.php?prod=VVPZCLB-540

Backup Lights Rocker Switch: https://www.otrattw.com/proddetail.php?prod=VVPZC77-58B

(2) Snap-In Switch bracket- End: https://www.otrattw.com/proddetail.php?prod=VME-01

Definitely glad I also ordered this OTRATTW Actuator Tool: https://www.otrattw.com/proddetail.php?prod=VRT-CAR
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pewter98
10
Here's the reason I went with the Fab Fours bumper-only front replacement bumper on my truck.

pewter98 said:
A commercial stake bed truck with a rear Tommy Lift gate and rear bumper-mounted vice backed into my parked truck the other morning. With all that crap on the back of his truck, it could have been A LOT worse! The picture doesn't show all the damage, but the chrome bumper piece, low black air deflector, and both color matched bumper end caps will have to be replaced:


Fortunately, the guy driving the truck didn’t drive off after he backed into me. He even called the police in order to get an accident report done. Getting the company to pay to fix my truck shouldn’t be an issue at all, as we have dealt with them before. It was going to cost well over $1,000 before prep, paint, labor, miscellaneous cost, rental car cost, and taxes. GM sure does love their new OEM replacement parts!

At that point, I started to research aftermarket front bumpers. I’m definitely not a fan of and not looking to go with any type of the full replacement bumper with a built-in grill guard, bull bar, or pre runner bar. Even most of the basic aftermarket replacement bumpers-only models don’t look that great or don’t flow well with the 2010 Silverado body lines. I then came across the Fab Fours CS07-H2051-1 // WINCH BUMPER NO GUARD:







*
I probably wouldn't have even consider buying one of these out of my own pocket if my front end wasn't damaged, but this situation caused me to consider looking into it.
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pewter98 said:
I had placed my order for the Fab Fours winch front bumper on Dec. 12. Both Line-X and Fab Fours said that due to the factory going into holiday mode for Christmas/New Years, delivery could take anywhere from 4-8 weeks. My bumper arrived from South Carolina on Jan. 6, Line-X coated Jan. 7, and they had a last minute open install spot yesterday. So from placing my order to the bumper being Line-X'd and installed on my truck took exactly 4 weeks.

Though it greatly changes the look of the front end, I'm very pleased with how the bumpers looks on my truck!
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I placed the order for the matching rear Fab Fours bumper last week and it usually takes 4-6 weeks. Usually, Fab Fours only starts building their bumpers once an order is placed and paid for, so hopefully I'll have mine by the first part of October.

Here's what the NNBS 1500 rear bumper looks like:


Once I get the bare steel Fab Fours bumper, I'm going to take it to the automotive/machine shop that I used to work and have them modify the pair of Fab Four logo cutouts on the rear bumper so that my pair of Totron 3x3 flush-mounted LED cubes will fit in those spots like this Ford Fab Fours rear bumper:


As you can see in the picture, the 3x3 flush-mount cube LED lights are not quite wide enough to fully cover the pair of Fab Fours logo cutouts on the rear bumper. There wasn't anything that could be done to fill in the small gaps in the bumper pictured above because it's already coated in Fab Fours powder coating and any further fab work would have damaged the visible coating area of the bumper. Since I'm ordering the bare steel version, I want to reuse the same metal pieces of the logo cutouts to weld in/fill in those small gaps. Once those modifications are done, I'll take the bumper back to Line-X to have them spray the bumper in the color matched GM Sheer Silver coating and install the bumper.

I already installed (but didn't connect to the battery) the Totron wiring harness for the dual LED flush-mount cubes when I installed the Amp Steps.

I'll be sure to post pics of the Totron lights on to show their light output.
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pewter98
6
I bought a used (aprox. 1 year/15,000 miles of use) Amp PowerSteps kit from [MENTION=2454]BeastHD[/MENTION] for $625. He traded in his NNBS 1500 truck for a 2015 Duramax and his NNBS 1500 Amps were not compatible to his new truck.

I finally got around to installing the steps 2-3 weeks ago and they are awesome! As per Amp's requirements for NNBS extended cab trucks, a sawzall cut the 7" of width from each board very smoothly and the bolt-on end caps hide any evidence of the cuts. I even got Amp Research to send me a pair of their required extended cab-specific arm spacers for free that were tossed out because my steps were originally installed on a NNBS 1500 crew cab truck. I love how the boards tuck up so high near the frame. Disregard our station's steep dips in the parking lot, causing a major cali-lean illusion to my truck:








A little 409, some Windex, and some new 3M Outdoor double sided tape got the used AMP LED lighting looking like new. The lighting is actually quite brighter than the pictures show, but not anywhere near as bright as my VLED white 6k interior bulbs.


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00silvyON
2
pewter98 said:
I bought a used (aprox. 1 year/15,000 miles of use) Amp PowerSteps kit from [MENTION=2454]BeastHD[/MENTION] for $625. He traded in his NNBS 1500 truck for a 2015 Duramax and his NNBS 1500 Amps were not compatible to his new truck.

I finally got around to installing the steps 2-3 weeks ago and they are awesome! As per Amp's requirements for NNBS extended cab trucks, a sawzall cut the 7" of length from each board very smoothly and the bolt-on end caps hide any evidence of the cuts. I even got Amp Research to send me a pair of their required extended cab-specific arm spacers for free that were tossed out because my steps were originally installed on a NNBS 1500 crew cab truck.


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Truck looks great! Dfw Amps. Trucks begging for de-mold & colormatching
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pewter98
00silvyON said:
Truck looks great! Dfw Amps. Trucks begging for de-mold & colormatching
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Meh, the full GMFS treatment is not a high priority on my list of mods. I'm happy that the Sheer Silver Line-X coated rear Fab Fours bumper will delete all the black plastic on the OEM rear bumper that's a P.I.T.A. to keep clean! I was glad that Classic Chevrolet professionally removed the dealership's decals/emblems from where they had my truck transferred from and forgot to install their own.
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WillyPaul
Look's good, that 4" is perfect for a DD. I'm really digging that skid plate too, didn't know they made such as that.
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04slox2
How do you like that muffler? Ive had that exact same one banging around under my rear seat since 2012, still have yet to have it installed.
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pewter98
WillyPaul said:
Look's good, that 4" is perfect for a DD. I'm really digging that skid plate too, didn't know they made such as that.
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Thanks man and I couldn't agree more! After the suspension upgrades that I did back in January of this year, my truck is now sitting at 5.5" of lift. The CST aluminum front skidplate is awesome! Even though is cost a little under $200, it's a steal compared to the $500+ that the local 4x4 shops wanted to charge me for them to build me one!

04slox2 said:
How do you like that muffler? Ive had that exact same one banging around under my rear seat since 2012, still have yet to have it installed.
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Even with stock exhaust manifolds and the 3 stock cats, the SLP Loudmouth II definitely lives up to it's name when dumped before the rear axle! When I install the longtube American Racing Headers with it's high-flow catted y-pipe, I'll probably get a piece of tailpipe installed to go over the rear axle to eliminate any drone but still keep it out of sight for that clean/no tailpipe showing look.
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pewter98
3
My Fab Fours bare steel-finished rear bumper arrived last Friday. From placing the order to the bumper being delivered to me only took 11 days, which is surprisingly fast since Fab Fours says it usually takes 4-6 weeks and it took a month to get my front Fab Fours bumper last Dec./Jan.






Since the Totron 3x3 flush-mounted LED cubes didn't come with gaskets or mounting hardware, I went to my local O'Reillys and bought a multi-pack of Fel-Pro gasket material sheets that comes with several different kinds of gasket material sheets (part# 3060). I found the Rigid D2 flush-mount cutout template online and used that to make my mounting gaskets out of the rubber-type Fel-Pro gasket sheet. The Rigid template matched up to the Totron lights perfectly. Pictured is one of the lights with my gasket being test fitted and the female end of the deutsche (DT) 2-pin sealed connector that I wired to the Totron red/black wires that's protected inside electrical tape-covered wire loom.
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pewter98
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Got the rear bumper back today from 2nd Opinion Automotive Center in Haltom City, TX and they did an awesome job cutting out the mounting holes/mounting bolt holes and welding some small filler plates to cover the areas of the Fab Fours logo cutouts that the Totron 3x3 flush-mount cube's width couldn't cover.

The lights may appear to be a little off or crooked in the picture, but that's due to the angle of the photo, the sharp lines of the bumper, and the area where the filler plate welds were smoothed down. The pair of lights are in fact aligned correctly and spaced evenly apart. The bumper will be Line-X coated and then installed next week.


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pewter98
Dropped my bumper off at Line-X to be coated tomorrow. Due to my work schedule with both jobs, the finished bumper will be installed on Saturday.
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pewter98
4
Got the finished bumper installed the past weekend and it turned out awesome! Just like the front bumper, the rough texture of the Line-X, the sharp lines of the bumper, and the smoothness of the GM Sheer Silver metallic paint causes the sun to play tricks on your eyes when you look at areas that are in the shade. The pictures don't do the Line-X color matching justice, it looks great in person!



Here's some shots taken in the early evening sun. The difference in lighting makes a huge difference when your looking at it.





I'll post a pitch dark night shot of the Totron flush-mounted 3x2 Cree LED flood-pattern cubes. They are bright as hell!
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pewter98
This was shot while standing in the bed in my pitch-dark driveway. Though my driveway is very narrow, you can see the beginning of the light's beam pattern at the bottom of the picture. I'm interested to see just how wide the light's beam pattern is in an open area.

As with my Totron curved 40" LED lightbar, Totron continues to impress me with just how powerful these small, low-powered lights are. $75 for the pair, free shipping, and a 2 year warranty is a steal compared to Rigid's version of these that run $260-290 for a pair!
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pewter98
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Driver's side view and from inside the truck bed next to a wide open field to give y'all an idea of the Totron flood pattern:




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98BlackSierra
I love the look of that. That lift looks perfect for a normal truck that is a DD. The wheel/tire combo looks just right too, nothing over the top. Any plans on colormatching the front grille?
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pewter98
98BlackSierra said:
I love the look of that. That lift looks perfect for a normal truck that is a DD. The wheel/tire combo looks just right too, nothing over the top. Any plans on colormatching the front grille?
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Thanks Brandon [MENTION=39515]98BlackSierra[/MENTION]! It's nice to see someone still rock'n a '98! My first and only other vehicle before my 2010 Silverado was a pewter-colored '98 Chevy Cheyenne 1500 SCSB that I got as a 16th birthday present back in January 2001. It had super clean paint/body, the "S.S." front end conversion, and about 63,000 miles when I got it. The truck served me well through high school, college, emt school and then fire academy, countless Texas roadtrips, and numerous roadtrips to fire department entrance exams, C.P.A.T.'s, and chief interviews. When I sold my '98 to a friend in October 2010, she had just over 230,000 miles. Original engine/transmission and only a few common repairs.

You hit it dead on with what I was going for with my truck, especially with trying to find a tire/wheel combo that wasn't over the top. I just wanted a simple, clean style of chrome wheel, but a major factor was that whichever aftermarket wheel I went with had to be within a certain backspacing/offset range due to the CST lift kit. I'm a fan of a proper amount of chrome on a truck, which I feel the chrome grille, OEM lettering, and wheels accent the Sheer Silver paint nicely. I think it would be too much if I got the chrome side mirrors, door handles, and tailgrate/surrounding bezel. I might consider Sheer Silver colormatching the door handles and side mirrors in the future, but I'm in no hurry.
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J
Those bumpers really make the truck stand out.
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