Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I worked at as a detailed for the body shop at a Chevy dealership in 1990 and drove a few 454 ss trucks. I always said to myself one day I will own one. In July 2016 I finally bought on. It is a two owner with 60,000 original mile. Don’t worry for you purists out there, every mod I have done I have kept every part. So if I ever go back to factory i can.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

The first think I wanted to do was take take of that factory stance. With a belltech 4/6 drop.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

The previous owner decided to put on some 70 series wild country tires. I wanted to go back to a factory style tire

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Took care of the single exhaust. It must have been welded by a third grader with a stick welder. I ran magnaflow dual tube cats, dual hp2 Flowmaster and electric exhaust kick outs with 3” tube. Passed request with no problems

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Installed some discontinued Edelbrock tec headers with air smog ports. I had to by new smog tubes from rock auto because mine where fused to the stock manifold. Took about and hour to hook up and bolted right to my exhaust flange.i noticed an instant torque increase.also added e fire spark plugs

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Nice! Watching!

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Next was modernizing the interior
Installing a speaker box behind the seats that allow the seats to move all the way back. Foot kick panel speakers so I don’t cut into my door panels

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Funny, I wasn't sure about the drop when it still had the Wild Country tires. Soon as you put the stock type tires on, it looked killer. Good call on keeping the stuff to make it back to stock, but I'm in to see what all you decide to do to it. Ultimate TBI mods will probably add more than you expect, now that the exhaust is opened up. I see you have a K&N and my TBI 350 really jumped when I went to an open element housing with the K&N filter top. It howls, to be sure, but sounds great.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Good looking truck, I would've lowered it too, you greatly improved the looks and handling in my opinion.

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Didn’t care much for the single dinn stereo so I bought a metra 95-3000 double dinn adapter. Not bad for $25

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I bought the speaker box on amazon. You just have to get shallow mount speakers.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Thought some of you might like this. The sticker was on the window when I bought it

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

As most of you know these trucks don’t stop very well and have always had a mushy pedal. The first thing I needed to do was remove the rear abs. After I removed the abs and bled the brakes,I notice an immediate stopping improvement. With just one $5 brake fitting and about an hour of work. It was a pretty quick fix. I didn’t take any pics of this. I got this off another forum

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Still wanted it to stop better. So I bought front drilled slotted rotors and ceramic pads on ebay for $150 shipped. The only thing you have to do is break them in so the pads won’t glaze up. You have to go 40mph down to 1mph without stopping 10 times. They will smoke and look like they are on fire. But that is normal break in. I literally had people tell me my brakes where on fire,when I was breaking mine in. Then you need to park it for a couple hours to let them cool. As the galvanized coating wears of on the disc surface over the next couple days. The breaking will improve even more.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Brakes needed to be improve even more. So I bought ssbc a rear disc conversion for summit for $650. The only thing different about the kit is the inagraded e brake. They require a little thought, when installing the cables. hooking up the e brake is recommended but not required. Also when bleeding the brakes. You have to bleed them from the fitting that goes into the caliper and a not from the caliper like normal. Also don’t be a cheep and make sure you get the ugly firm feel master cylinder that comes with the ssbc kit.I tried 3 different wilwood masters and a couple others and they wont bleed right. The disc look a little small. But they are way better then the factory drums. Although I have 20’s.If you can’t afford the kit, you can always just buy the firm feel master from summit for $225.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Next I had to go 19s in the front and 20s in the read. These are a rohana rc10. I had to use 1 inch wheel adapter to go from 5 on 5 to 5 on 4.5. As most of you know 5 on 5 rims choses very limited. The fronts are a 19x8 with a 35 mm back space with a 1 inch spacer and the rears are a 20x10 with a 40 mm backspace with a 1 inch spacer. So the front is roughly 5 inch and thr rear is 6 inch. But you should always measure yourself before you order rims. The front tires are a nitto 555g2 245/40r19 and the rears are a nitto drag radial 555r 305/35r20. I had to roll the inside lip of each fender with a baseball bat. Don’t have any rubbing issues at all. Also got a cowl induction hood from summit,led running lights from ebay and hid bulb conversion. I also installed a line lock up front. Word the the wise. Never do a 1 minute smoke show with drag radials.I lost almost 50% of my tread in one burnout. These tires are deigned for little to no burnout for drag racing. It was the quickest $300 I have ever spent

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Pic of the halo headlights

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Did care much for the factory gauge so I got one from Dakota digital. If you attempt this yourself make sure you buy a factory wiring manual off ebay, have a lot of patients and a labeler to label all the wires.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Wanted a better ride so I bought a Ridetech airbar system and a front cool ride.But to save $800 in shocks. I got the shock measurements from ride tech a bought montroe 32290 rears and 32245 for the front. The only thing you have to do to the rear shock is drill the 12mm holes to 1/2 inch. And buy garage 8 carriage bolt to replace the rear upper shock studs

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Air bar system

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Before air bar

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Finished air bar system. The down side to the air bar system is you lose the option of exhaust going over or under the axle because the bags are in the way.So you have to dump the exhaust right after the mufflers. But still working on developing a system that will dump the exhaust before the axle out the side. But for now I have exhaust kickdowns so I don’t overheat the air bags. The plus side is you don’t have to do a step notch like in the catilever system where you have to cut the wheel wells. You just have to cut the center cross brace out of the middle of the bed.Make sure before you start you get nice sharp 1/2 and 3/8 dewalt drill bits. It’s only $20 and will save you a ton of time. Just know you have to throw out the drill bits after you are done. Because you will have to drill 8 holes on each side through the frame in the rear and 3 holes on each side up front. Last 4 pics are not mine. Since my truck is a 454 ss I kept all my shock brackets and leaf spring brackets attached to the frame.

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Another pic from the backend with a airbar system. again not my pic.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Here is how to lift a bed by youself. First pic is mine second pic is where I got the idea. While you have the bed off buy a high flow fuel pump and install it if you plan on doing any engine performance upgrades later. The one I bought is pretty much a direct bolt in. The only thing you have to do is shorten the wires to the fuel pump on the sending unit and don’t be afraid to use the supplied butt connectors. They are submersible for gas. I wanted to get a new fuel sending unit. They were only $49. Just make sure you know if you have a high temputure or standard sending unit. The option code for standard fuel sending unit are VAH, VEC, VRA, VRR, and VSD. If you don’t have these options on your sticker in the glove box in the option codes then you have a high tempurture fuel sending unit.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Here is a pic of the cantilever system by KP Components . You can run full exhaust diffently under the axle and maybe over the axle depending on you notch height.but you have to cut the frick out of your bed to get it to travel because of the steep step frame notch. This system is Also best to lay frame. Ridetech air bar is more for ride quality and only travels about 10 inches max

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Next things to get done coming up. Front disc conversion from pr proformance, front Ridetech cool ride and a Ridetech air pod that I am mounting in the bed

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AirPod Mocked up in the bed

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Most of you know custom parts are hard to find for the 1988 to 1998 trucks. Heres another hard to find part. It a instrument cluster made by ferreus industries to help out that ugly factory gauges. It comes in 16 colors, comes with double stick to stick to the surface (no cutting or mod is required) and they are about $30 on amazon

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Here’s information on a part I posted earlier. Speaker kick panels so you don’t have to cut up your doors for speakers. They are q-forms made by crutchfield and comes in 7 factory colors. May require bending by hand the e brake level,just watch the size of the speaker magnet and you will have to cut hole in the panel to fit speakers or order the ones with precut 5.25 speaker grilles.they are kinda expensive at $199 but they are good quality

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Here is pics of my kick panels again

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Another inexpensive thing to do to make the inside of you bed look better is spray can bed liner from Walmart it’s $6.50 a can and you will need about 8 cans. It’s the same stuff that oreillys sells for $12 a can.Make sure you scuff or sand the areas you want lined and don’t forget the tailgate, and deside if you want to include the stake pocket areas. Remember it is tuff to sand off and is permanent.good quality blue tape is best, don’t buy the Walmart stuff.cover the entire truck with that thin plastic 9 x 12 drop cloths ,even the wheels. This stuff can get everywhere. This stuff floats around for a little bit and will stick to any paint not covered.will require about 3 coats. Spray a light coat first let it get tacky and let each coat get tacky. The key is to not let it dry in between coats.dont spray it and let it dry over night and recoat it again or it won’t stick well. This spray liner works great and sticks and drys hard. I have used it on all my off road bumpers, rock gaurds and rocker panels. It’s never peeled or chipped. Buy a spray grip, your finger will thank you.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Started the front Ridetech coolride today.Removed controls arms. Then cleaned and painted the frame

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I installed a wolo philly express train horn a few months ago. Fits in the engine bay perfect. Since it’s not a good idea to hook your train horn to the airbag tank. I bought a wolo Sherman tank( it comes with a regulator 90 on and 120 off) it’s only 14” long and since I don’t run a spare tire, it fit perfect behind the rear bumper perfect. Down side is the compressor is a little loud. But one run up of the compressor to 120psi, will work for 20 uses. It’s really loud.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

so I notice at one point you added a new center console with a shifter, are you converting the truck to a stick?

also, in your first post the pic of the passenger seat, why does the truck have a lap belt for a center seat with no center seat?

I owned a 454ss for 10 years I think. neat truck but just too underpowered for me. plus i thought mine had too many miles to ever really be collectable.

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Its coming right along!

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The reason why someone put in the ugly brown lap belts is they replace the factory plastic center console with this center seat

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Didn’t care for it much for the center seat. so I put the factory one back in and removed the lap belts

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Then I wanted some 1996 seats with the inside arm rest and power seat option. So the factory center console got removed and the factory seats. I swapped the maroon manual seat brackets over to the power seat bracket. Had to drill two hole in the track so the seat would line up and it fit right in

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

Since I installed bucket seats with arm rests. The factory center console was to big. So I got one out of a 1990 Camaro. It just required cutting the plastic at the bottom to level it out and a cut in the front to make it fit against the dash. Then I installed a cable ran lokar midnight black automatic short shifter with boot. The only thing I need to descide on is if I want to run a handbrake. Then I installed some lighted cup holders and made carbon fiber plastic inserts on the top surface of the console

Re: Fastfreddys 454ss
 

I like this setup👍🏻👍🏻