bc-chris

and the last thing i got done this weekend was something i've been wanting to do for a while now.... add a little more light to the lower part of the center console. i know there is the 'ceiling light' above that shines down but it just doesn't throw enough light (especially since i changed it to blue a while ago). i was tring to figure out what i could do and then came up with the idea of adding an LED into the front of the cup holder to shine onto the lower part of the center console. i didn't want anything crazy bright, so i put it on the same circuit as some other LED lights i have in the cab that are on a dimmer. i popped open the center console, drilled my hole for the LED and mounted the LED inside the cup holder. the hole i driller was tiny - pretty much the same size as the LED... this is the 'before'... (pretty much black below the lowest buttons) and this is it now with the LED in the front of the cup holder... it's nothing too crazy or bright, i just wanted to be able to see a little bit! i'm really happy with how everything turned out and can't wait for tomorrow.... new summer rims/tires go on!!!

i finally got around to adding some of the interior 'trim' that i bought a while ago - i went with chrome (for now). i can see myself changing to blue in the future i also added some 'finger grip' things to the doors to hopefully reduce the finger prints on the outside of the door front driver's side door... rear driver's side door

this past weekend i finally had some time to wire in my police scanner and external speaker. it wasn't too hard to figure out. i replaced one of the cigarette lighters with a switch from oznium.com - it worked great! i used the power from the cigarette lighter for the scanner/speaker. i like it becuz it's always on power. this was the first time i've ever used a relay so i was pretty happy everything worked (thank you google!) the scanner is a small 'desktop' scanner and it fit pretty much perfectly into the side cubby by the driver's right leg in process.... and then all buttoned up...

ok - a few pics of some of the changes that have happened the last little while... i picked up some used running boards. i still want to get the amp research power steps eventually, but these will do for now (and cost a whole lot less)

hey Mouwser check my build thread. i think the changing of interior lights starts on the second page. there are lots of "how to" pics with getting things taken apart http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/topic/189651-bc-chris-2014-silverado-slz-z71/ when i changed my lights over i used a blue plastic 'gel' to cover the white LEDs to make them blue. i'm toying with pulling everything out again and actually changing the LEDs to blue... mostly just to get some 'truck therapy' time

a little update on the truck.... installed the stubby antenna and bull rings in february towards the end of february i got new exhaust - oh sweet mother!! i love it!!! i ordered the MBRP S5080AL. when the guys doing the install opened the box there was some old used exhaust in the box - so they were not impressed. they tried to get another one shipped out right away but there was no stock available out west and they wanted it here right away becuz of the screw up. they could get the same exhaust but stainless here the next day, so that's what they did at no extra charge to me - so that was pretty sweet! i've been wanting to give my truck a bath for the last couple weeks since it's been so warm, but we seem to be in a weather system right now of 2 nice days then a rainy day... then repeat i ordered my summer rims (or wheels if you prefer)/tires yesterday rims will be... moto metal MO951 20x10 -18 https://www.customwheeloffset.com/buy-wheel-offset/MO9512055218/moto-metal-mo951-20x10-18-custom-wheels tires will be 35" hercules terra trac mud tires (but with black lettering, not white) i'll also be getting the bushwhacker fender flares (the ones that come painted black to match) i can't wait for the summers to go... likely in mid-april

had some fun with a the snow too....

not much lately - i do have a bunch of stuff to do, but it's just a nutty time of year. the run up to christmas is the busiest time of the year for my business. add to that running a men's hockey team, playing in a band (and now we're actually in the process of recording an album - that doesn't eat up lots of hours!!) and having a sick household since early december (somehow i avoided the bubonic plague that got my wife and our two kids (4 yrs and 1.5 yrs old)) - just not a lot of time to do truck stuff my current to-do list for january/early february.... - install stubby antenna (i've got a 12" for now... might end up getting a really short one in the future) - install silver trim around interior pieces in cab - install bull rings in box - install police scanner and external speaker in cab - install new air intake tube - get a new exhaust installed - possibly get a tune (likely needed after the new exhaust/air intake tube is installed) - need to order more LEDs from oznium.com for a few things i want to try once it warms up once spring hits the list is.... - summer rims (or wheels... don't want to get in trouble again for calling wheels 'rims'!) - new mud tires (i want to leave my other rims/mud tires on my old truck) - amp research power steps - fender flares. likely bush whacker - i'd like to open up my headlights and replace the amber lenses with clear ones and while i'm in there i'm likely going to add halos i'm currently in 'discussions' with my local chev dealership. i took my truck in for the airbag recall and they of course mentioned the not yet done seat belt recall. i sent them a link to the thread in this forum and asked 3 times if the flaps would get cut. each time i was reassured by the guy that nothing would be cut. i get my truck back and the flaps are cut - soooo not impressed. the head service guy who told me nothing would be cut said, 'yea, the tech wasn't supposed to'. so we'll see where that goes. like i said - i'm not impressed

ha - no... that's the best part of plastidip! i put some painters tape around the area becuz there will be over spray, but you just spray it on and peel off what you don't want (so the excess dip on the truck) any over spray that went past the tape came off real easy with a little goo gone

i have the same issue with my 2014. there seems to be a 'sweet spot' to get the nozzle so it doesn't continually shut off the pump. i also found that instead of sticking in the nozzle and trying to fill at 'full speed', if i start it off slow and gradually increase the amount of gas that seems to help the pumps turn off becuz of a vacuum.... my guess is that maybe the angle of the intake tube into the gas tank is 'just right' that it's messing up the airflow/vacuum? who knows??

looks great!! just a thought.... do you have any extra?? maybe coverup the red "Z" with the vinyl i plasti dipped mine and really like the 'no red' look

i've used the seat protector mentioned above, but my wife also found a heavier duty one - it reminds me a lot of a truck floor mat, but made to go under a car seat - nice heavy rubber when i take the car seats out to clean the truck the seats look great **sorry - i have no clue where she found the heavy duty one - likely at a local store

this looks great! i'm planning on baking my headlights at some point next year, just not sure when

sweet mother that looks AWESOME!

i plasti-dipped the red 'z' on mine (since i didn't like the red) - it doesn't get rid of the logo, but at least it ties in better with my colour scheme

thanks the cluster is the stock 2014 silverado cluster with new inlays/needles installed. i got the inlays/needles from usspeedo.com i also changed a bunch of the LEDs behind the needles i LOVE how it looks!

sorry... you have to pop the door panel off that part was such a pain to get to, but yea, unfortunately the panel has to come off. on the bright side, the current door panels are a lot easier to deal with than my old truck (mom always said to look for the silver lining right!! )

forgot.... i also added an LED to the bottom inside of the center console. the top organizer is great (removed for the pic), but it blocks the 'stock' light from getting to the bottom of the compartment

so i got my add-on LEDs wired up this weekend. i'm still having either a ground or power issue, so these pics were done with external power. i love it and can't wait to figure out the gremlin (i think the ground is the gremlin, but didn't have time to mess around with stuff) illuminated with the overhead lights: drivers footwell.... passenger footwell back seat footwells (both sides) illuminated when the truck is on: center console side storage on both the driver and passenger side... cup holder rear storage (back of center console)

thanks the first couple took a little bit becuz i had never done it before and was suuuuuper cautious (kinda don't want to mess up the dash computer board!). i was also back an forth to my truck a ton making sure stuff i did wasn't messing anything up and that the lights were in fact done properly and lighting up. all the LEDs have a little 'notch' in the corner (this tells the polarity of the bulb) and one would assume that you just match them up - and i my case it was, but i did watch a video on you tube where the guy mentioned that his LEDs had the notch in the opposite orientation so make sure you check. it would suck if you get everything soldered on, only to find you did it all wrong. i think the oznium LEDs all have the same polarity notch except the red, they are reverse for some reason. these are what i used - https://www.oznium.com/plcc-2 after getting the hang of it i would say it's at most 1 minute to remove a stock LED and maybe a minute or two to put on the new one. i found a lot of the time was used to make sure my tweezers had a good hold of the new LED and that it was positioned exactly where i wanted it.

i got around to changing a bunch of the surface mount LEDs in my dash today! i LOVE it - it goes sooooo well with the rest of the 'blue lit' interior.... stock: us speedo inlays with stock LEDs (really hard to see the needles at night as the red LEDs made the needles "glow" (if you can call it that) a kinda purple and now..... us speedo inlays with a bunch of the red and green surface mount LEDs swapped over to blue (surface mount LEDs from oznium.com) day time shot:

got my glowing cup holder assembled this afternoon too.... it is two pieces of black plastic cut to fit inside of the base of the cup holder. the bottom piece is the same size as the base of the cup holder. the top piece is 2mm smaller all around so the glow tubing has a 'lip' to sit on. first thing was to drill my holes thru the base of the cup holder and feed thru the glow tubing then i epoxied the 2 pieces of black plastic together. once they were set i used a bead of clear silicone on the lip and put the glow tubing in place and held it there with tape until the silicone had set up it looks much better now that the wiring comes up thru the bottom of the cup holder. hopefully everything goes well with the install tomorrow

ok - a dash update.... i swapped out a bunch of the surface mount LEDs and it looks soooooooooooo much better in my opinion. so here's the dash transformation.... stock: i ordered a dash inlay/needles from us speedo (http://www.usspeedo.com/ awesome company to deal with!! talk to tyler... [email protected]) the power/temp/gas/oil indicator from us speedo: and then i painted it black: the needles from us speedo: and then i painted them black: so when i originally put in the inlays, the tack inlay was made incorrectly (that's why it says KPH instead of the z71 logo. no problem at all, a correct part was immediately sent to me from us speedo - like i said, fantastic company to deal with) i really liked the look but the red LEDs behind the needles we're cutting it - the needles didn't glow and you couldn't see them at night (and lots of my other interior stuff is now glowing blue, so "a change was coming") i ordered a bunch of surface mount LEDs from oznium.com (another great company to deal with!! and a side note - i discovered both oznium and us speedo from this forum, so others have had good dealings with these companies too!) pulled the dash apart last night.... removed the red LEDs and put in blue ones.... you can see the red LED on the right has been replaced with a blue one: i swapped out all the red "behind the needles" LEDs with blues (14 total - 2 for each of the battery/temp/gas/oil needles and 3 for both the tack/speedo) i also swapped out: - the green LEDs for the headlights, fog lights, turn signals - the white LED for the 'KPH' these are a couple night shots... and a daytime shot... **if you plan on doing this make sure to order extra LEDs as you are most likely going to mess a few up .... unless you are a soldering ninja. i do not have the ninja skills, but i did get the hang of it after a few LEDs, so i'm glad i ordered extras. oh... and they are really inexpensive, so it's not like getting extras will break the bank. i think i only messed up 3 and they were the first few i did overall i am absolutely thrilled with the dash - i just love it and think it looks fantastic

for the mirror adjustment and for pretty much everything in the truck in only covered up the white LEDs. so in my heated seat button the button is lit blue, but when it is turned on the 'intensity lights' are red and the 'on' button i think is orange driver's door... my thought process was it would be a weird colour if i did a blue gel over an orange or red light.

all i covered up were the LEDs i remember the light pipe things and thought to myself 'how am i gonna do this?' then thought to myself that if white light can travel thru the pipe then so can blue!