UofAZCats Victory Red Rally Silverado

UofAZCats · September 3, 2017

I couldn't resist taking a picture today after basketball. Truck needs a wash.

I'm thinking I need to get the bumpers color matched. Anyone have any recommendations on the best way to do that? Also thinking about painting the valance black. Anyone tried painting their valance? Recommendations?

Edited September 3, 2017 by UofAZCats

tyrich88 · September 21, 2017

Truck looks great!
Your build thread is very well done as well!
Thanks for all the write ups, makes me wish I would have done that to my build thread!

UofAZCats · September 29, 2017

Truck looks great!

Your build thread is very well done as well!

Thanks for all the write ups, makes me wish I would have done that to my build thread!

Thanks for the kind words. I just wish my wife would work harder in order to make more money I can spend on my truck...

UofAZCats · November 12, 2017

Been awhile since I had the inspiration/money to do something to my truck. I am planning on lowering the truck but don't have the resources/knowledge to install my Inez Hot Rods lowering kit myself. In trying to save up a few bucks to get it installed I have not been looking to do too much with the truck. i finally got a burr up my saddle to see what I thought of going with the color matched bumper. i bought some red plasti dip and put it on this weekend after washing the truck. Despite not truly matching the Chevy Victory Red I think it looks damn cool. I'll leave it on for awhile to be sure but now I need to add getting truly color matched bumpers to my list of things for the truck. I also now think I'll end up painting the valance and other blackish-grey trim. Anyone do something like this? Tips are appreciated.

While I was at it I figured it made sense to plasti dip the Silverado nameplate on one side of the truck to see how it looked as well. I think it looks great, but I need to upgrade from the plasti dip. I saw replacements on eBay in gloss black that I will probably pull the trigger on after getting the lowering kit installed. Thinking about replacing the LT on the tailgate with RALLY. Not sure yet.

Edited November 12, 2017 by UofAZCats

UofAZCats · July 19, 2018

I took the plunge. I have wanted to have my truck lowered almost ever since I bought it. I have always liked the street truck look and thought this truck is perfect for that look. I was not interested in slamming it to the ground or anything drastic like that. I initially only planned to do a 2" drop in the front and 4-5" in the rear (whatever it took to level it out). I researched the Lowering thread on this forum and looked at a bunch of kits.

I was most impressed with the Inez Hot Rods kits that replace the control arms to lower the front end. Based on what I had read the kit would allow the wheels to be aligned properly, whereas the drop spindles would not. Unfortunately with the Inez kits that replace control arms the minimum drop is 3". While more than I thought I wanted it seemed the best compromise to be able to use the best method for lowering. There is one detractor for this kit, Nasty, that consistently calls this kit out as bad because his experience with similar kits is that they stress out the ball joint causing it to wear out very quickly.

The flip kit for the rear that is part of the Inez 3"/5" drop is pretty standard but their kit does include the shocks while many others don't as part of the standard package.

I bought the kit from Inez Hot Rods last August during their annual sale and it sat in my garage until a week ago. Part of the delay was moving, part was my apprehension as this is my first time lowering a vehicle and part of it was wanting to find the right place to install the kit as lowering is not that common here in my area of Florida. I took it to a local shop that I became comfortable with as the right place to do the work.

As the guys on the Lowering thread know the install has not been smooth. The flip portion of the kit did not include the reverse hanger. Without that piece the flip kit drops the rear 7" (or greater). It took a little while to figure out what piece was missing and took some messaging and phone call with Ivan at Inez Hot Rods (who was very helpful). Ivan arranged to have the missing part sent out. The part is scheduled to arrive Friday but my local shop is closed starting Friday afternoon as the owner is heading to the Keys for a week. That bout of poor luck aside I picked up the truck this evening with the back end sitting too low. Any bump at anything greater than 5 mph causes the back end to bottom out. If the part comes in Friday morning the shop said they will install it before they head out so I am hoping FedEx does me a solid and I can get the truck I want.

The front end drop ended up being about 3.5" and there is rubbing on anything more than a moderate turn. I have ordered 1.5" spacers to help with that issue. They are scheduled to arrive on Friday as well.

The pictures below make the truck look pretty level but it is still a touch lower in the back.

UofAZCats · July 19, 2018

I also had that same shop replace the chrome emblems that come with the truck (and really look out of place on the Rally editions) with black emblems. I had a custom RALLY emblem made up to replace the LT on the tailgate. Ordered all these on eBay. The RALLY emblem was a custom that one of the sellers agreed to do for me at a very reasonable $20. The black is so much better than the chrome on this model/color scheme. Couldn't be happier with this mod. Note the lettering perfectly straight though the picture does not look like it is. Not sure if this is due to the rain or a strange picture angle or what.

UofAZCats · June 18, 2019

Been awhile since I posted. I did finally get the truck at a level I liked. The post above shows it at its lowest which was well below where I wanted it. I finally got it adjusted to approximately a 2/5 drop and I think it looks great. I won't go into the whole saga with this since I covered most of it in the Lowering thread while I was going through it. I ended up using Belltech drop spindles to lower the front end and a flip kit in the rear. As I noted above I initially had the Inez lower control arms installed but the drop was more than I wanted in the front and the front wheels really moved backward in the wheel well which was no supposed to have been the case. I ended up having the OEM lower control arms reinstalled and added the drop spindles to get the drop I wanted and this also reduced the amount the front wheels shifted back. Its perfect with the exception of the front wheels shift rearward. Picture below gives a view of my ride now.

The turning radius has been hampered somewhat to avoid rubbing and while I have gotten somewhat used to it I would really like to have the OEM turning radius. The upper control arms are the controlling factor based on discussions with my guy at the alignment shop. Nasty recommended Twisted Metalworkz camber correction control arms to replace the OEM upper which would allow the wheel to be moved back forward. Saving up my pennies to get that done and hopefully be finished with this issue.

UofAZCats · June 18, 2019

For Father's Day I painted my front bumper. I had previously plasti-dipped my front bumper in red as noted above. unfortunately it got a ding on the very tip of the bumper from when I didn't back into the garage far enough and the garage door dinged the tip scrapping off a small section of the plasti-dip exposing the chrome underneath. While planning to fix that issue I decided I wanted to try to paint over the plasti-dip to try to color match the paint. The color is not perfect but much closer. The finish is a little too matte. I put on two coats of the Dupli-color clear over the top of the Victory Red paint. Not sure if I need to add more clear or a better clear coating or what. I am happy with it now but I was panicking a little yesterday. I put on 3 cans worth of the touch up paint but each time I finished with a coat the red would get cloudy white looking almost like it would have if I sanded it. It has been rainy and humid all last week and apparently the white was due to the humidity. I put on the clear on it still looked cloudy. After a little Google/Youtube research I found that the cloudiness was most likely due to the humidity and could be solved with my heat gun. Half an hour later I was much happier. I am going to try polishing it next week to see if I can get more gloss out of the clear. Took the following pictures today (almost 20 hours after the last coat).

UofAZCats · October 9, 2019

Ever since having my girl lowered the front wheels shifted back in the wheel well and I have had rubbing on anything more than moderate turns. Since I enjoy the drive-thru lifestyle the rubbing has been annoying. My mechanic that aligns the truck said I would need new non-stock upper control arms to move the wheels forward any further. Based on Nasty's recommendation I bought a pair of Twisted Metal Workz Camber Correction Control Arms. Got them installed today and the rubbing is almost gone. Only have an issue just before full lock. It was too dark when I picked her up to get any pictures of the truck or the wheels tonight but I will take some in the next couple of days and post them. Drive-thrus beware!

Twisted Metal Workz Camber Correction Control Arms: https://www.twistedmetalworkz.com/collections/control-arms/products/2008-2018-silverado-sierra-camber-correction-control-arms?variant=11703967285295

Edited October 9, 2019 by UofAZCats

Melks · October 25, 2019

On 6/17/2019 at 10:40 PM, UofAZCats said:

Been awhile since I posted. I did finally get the truck at a level I liked. The post above shows it at its lowest which was well below where I wanted it. I finally got it adjusted to approximately a 2/5 drop and I think it looks great. I won't go into the whole saga with this since I covered most of it in the Lowering thread while I was going through it. I ended up using Belltech drop spindles to lower the front end and a flip kit in the rear. As I noted above I initially had the Inez lower control arms installed but the drop was more than I wanted in the front and the front wheels really moved backward in the wheel well which was no supposed to have been the case. I ended up having the OEM lower control arms reinstalled and added the drop spindles to get the drop I wanted and this also reduced the amount the front wheels shifted back. Its perfect with the exception of the front wheels shift rearward. Picture below gives a view of my ride now.

The turning radius has been hampered somewhat to avoid rubbing and while I have gotten somewhat used to it I would really like to have the OEM turning radius. The upper control arms are the controlling factor based on discussions with my guy at the alignment shop. Nasty recommended Twisted Metalworkz camber correction control arms to replace the OEM upper which would allow the wheel to be moved back forward. Saving up my pennies to get that done and hopefully be finished with this issue.

Sweet lookin truck! I ended up installing the Belltech 2/4 kit on my truck and I have to say I agree with you. I think the 2/5 looks great on these trucks. I had a heavy load in my truck the other week which brought the rear down another inch and it looked just right. Belltech mentioned if I swap back to the factory shackles instead of the supplied ones with the 2/4 kit it should give me my additional inch of drop in the rear. Do you have any issues with vibrations or have you had to do any pinion angle shimming?

Edited October 25, 2019 by Melks

UofAZCats · October 25, 2019

32 minutes ago, Melks said:

Sweet lookin truck! I ended up installing the Belltech 2/4 kit on my truck and I have to say I agree with you. I think the 2/5 looks great on these trucks. I had a heavy load in my truck the other week which brought the rear down another inch and it looked just right. Belltech mentioned if I swap back to the factory shackles instead of the supplied ones with the 2/4 kit it should give me my additional inch of drop in the rear. Do you have any issues with vibrations or have you had to do any pinion angle shimming?

Thanks. The 2/4 drop gives the truck a great feel without being so low turning radius and potholes are a regular problem. My truck was initially down 3.5/6 and the look was nice but it was too much. I have been lucky and not had any issues with vibrations so I never had to add any shims.

UofAZCats · February 16, 2021

I while back I found the thread that showed how to upgrade puddle lights on the DL3 mirrors to the Chevy Bowtie. I always thought something like that was a cool idea. Sold on getting this done I got on Facebook Market and found a pair of the DL3 mirrors for $150. The seller ended up dropping the price to $100 since I had to drive 2 hours to meet him. The mirrors were in great shape. I used the conversion harness from Dr. Harness. The directions were great and swap went very well. I was able to get the mirror caps swapped out from the typical chrome to the glossy black that coems on the Rally without breaking any of the tabs. Wiring the harness was something Iwas worried about because I didn't want to screw it up but after double and triple checking before I put them in the end result worked out perfect. This Christmas my wife was good enough to get the bowtie puddle lights. Tonight I put them in and, while they are oriented perfectly yet, they look great. I was concerned about the brightness but they look great. Tomorrow I will be able to test them in the daylight.

UofAZCats · February 16, 2021

Also added another Christmas present - a black chrome Chevy Bowtie exhaust tip. Not much too it but I love the look. Plus I am sure it added about 1,000 hp...

UofAZCats · July 22, 2021

Inspired by the others that have recently done the tranmission thermostat delete, I finally got off butt and did it to my truck. I used the Superior Solutions kit and the install went pretty straightforward. I had to improvise since I didn't have snap ring pliers but that was about the only issue.

I purchased the kit at https://globaltransmissionparts.com/6l80-6l90-sure-cool-cooler-flow-system-stl010/

UofAZCats · September 11, 2021

I had always liked the look of colored brake calipers. One of my boys got me the Duplicolor Brake Caliper painting kit for Christmas last year. Given you can’t drive the truck for at least 24 hours after painting I just had not found the time to tackle this project until this week. One of my boys is out of town and we were able to use his truck for the week. This gave me the opportunity to finally get this done.

Getting all the prep work done took some time. All the research I did before getting starting emphasized prep as the biggest factor in getting a good result. I cleaned the calipers at least three times each starting with Brakeleen and Adams Wheel Cleaner before sanding with 80 grit and then 400 grit sandpaper before finishing up with the t Duplicolor cleaner that comes with the kit. The kit is brush paint kit so I didn’t have to mask much though. One garbage bag each wheel was all I did for masking.

As recommended in my research I did not use the provided paint brush and got a better one from Lowe’s. The paint is very thick. I probably put on too heavy a coat on for the initial coat. Part of that is that as I tried to avoid brush strokes I kept putting on more paint to try to smooth out the paint. Overall it did not come out very smooth but unless you are up close you don’t see the imperfections. If it bothers me, I have read that it can be sanded down. I’m going to give it a couple of weeks to see what I think.

Edited September 11, 2021 by UofAZCats