Fastfreddys 454ss

[fredscarryall]

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.

[fredscarryall]

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

[fredscarryall]

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

[fredscarryall]

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

[fredscarryall]

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

[jjzepplin]

Nice! Watching!

[fredscarryall]

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

[lofly'a]

Originally Posted by fredscarryall

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

I like this setup👍🏻👍🏻

[fredscarryall]

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.

[LT7A]

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.

[91short]

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

[fredscarryall]

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

[fredscarryall]

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

[fredscarryall]

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

[fredscarryall]

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

[Tiger Joe]

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.

[JohnJ@RideTech]

Its coming right along!

[fredscarryall]

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

[fredscarryall]

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

[fredscarryall]

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

[fredscarryall]

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

[hutcholdschool]

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.

[fredscarryall]

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.

[hutcholdschool]

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.

[fredscarryall]

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