BlueTopaz14’s truck build!

BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

Hey everyone, I’ve been talked into starting a build thread so here I am. First off I just wanna say thanks to everyone who has complimented the truck. And for those who don’t know me yet, my truck is a 2014 Silverado 1500 LTZ Z71. However let me get everyone up to date on my story.

I always loved the 80’s style square body’s and when the 14’s came out I absolutely fell in love, never thought I would have one of my own at the age of 18. Just so everyone knows yes I am young, only 21 however it’s not about me, It’s about the truck. My parents helped me get my first truck my freshman year which was a 1999 GMC Sierra (I will include before and after photos of it)

I modded it significantly! I think it’s where my addiction started, heck I know it is lol. But all throughout school I worked, it’s how I was raised. I spent all summer farming and working at a welding shop to save money for the down payment for whichever truck I would find next. I stumbled upon my current Silverado. This is where it gets interesting, it was a brand new fully loaded blue Silverado, I instantly fell in love. But she had a downfall which nobody knows until now. Somehow, some way it came from the factory with a tweaked frame. The dealer didn’t notice till I brought it up. I debated on buying it, I mean let’s be honest it’s frame damage. But it was unique so I worked out an unbeatable deal and took delivery of my 2014 Silverado on October 16, 2014.

The frame damage was just slight but you could see the bed was cocked, I had it corrected with simple spacers so the bed would sit level (I know criticize me but I don’t care it was my dream truck and I had a big plans for it) so here we go!

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

The first thing it needed was steps, within a week I put in my order for some N-Fab steps, I like how they give off the “off-road” look plus not many people have them so I wanted it to stick out

My birthday rolled around the next month so I bought myself a little present, I purchased the 2.5” lift/level kit from rough country.

I’m not a huge fan of the “rake” look and with the help of some buddies we got it installed. If anyone is looking at going this route I’d highly suggest the rough country route. I had zero issues with it and it had almost 60k miles on it. I however left out the install of the rear blocks because again it leaves the truck with the “rake” look lol if you also notice it didn’t take me long to black out the bowtie with plasti dip [emoji1417]

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

Several months rolled around and I had graduated high school. My next immediate purchases were 10” subs underneath the rear seat, an amp, and a k&n cold air intake (I will have to get interior photos when it’s back from the shop)

I also purchased bushwhacker fender flares, and to fill those out I purchased 20x9 Fuel Maverick rims wrapped with the aggressive Toyo MT’s which were 33x12.5x20

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

I then wanted the interior to look just as sweet as the exterior so I took off all my silver interior trim pieces and had them hydrodipped in a color matched carbon fiber blue and if anyone is familiar with my “interior piping” thread I also did that. Which I’m glad became so popular.

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

This is where things got interesting. I started noticing these trucks almost start looking identical, I mean this style truck with black rims is almost so common it’s crazy so I had to do something different. I decided to have the middle of the hood wrapped black (and pillars) and then I went to the local Chevy dealer and ordered a “Midnight Edition” grille for my truck. To put the icing on the cake I liked how the Raptors looked with the amber lighting so I integrated that into my new grille before installation, at this time I also color matched my chrome headlight bezels, front Bowtie and Z71 grille emblem

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

My next big purchase was my Addictive desert design bumper, which I thought would be perfect to match the Black coming down the center of the truck as well as help wrap around into the black rims. And the silver bolts also helped tie into the silver bolts on the rims as well as the chrome trim.

Along with my bumper purchase I purchased a rigid radiance 20” light bar with amber back lighting along with 4 rigid radiance cubes. The point of these was to come on with the amber lights in the grille. I also tied them straight into the existing fog light wires and that’s also how I turn them on as well.

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

The thing about me is I want unique and I have always been fascinated by prerunners but the price of everything has always held

Me back I had an image in my head and

Here is my makeshift rendering

so I started saving but I wasn’t satisfied yet, I needed more so I also started spending [emoji23] anyways onto tail lights, I loved the look of the gorecon tail lights so I got a sweet deal on a brand new set, I also removed all the chrome Silverado letters and replaced them with black and had the rear bowtie custom painted into a very metallic black

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

So all black tail lights and now I had to get really crafty, I read nothing but bad reviews on aftermarket 3rd brake lights and how they leaked. So my thoughts “why not just make the factory light custom?” I take super good care of my truck and couldn’t have leaks! so I went full on custom however I HIGHLY suggest not doing this unless you’re extremely talented with a drimmel or precise cutting tool because this was a total pain in the butt!!!!

I ordered a red “Rigid Chase Light” because it was going to be acting as a brake light but I also wanted it to look like a prerunner style light also. So I very careful cut a hole into

The middle of my 3rd brake light (the chase light is almost perfect size) to allow the chase light to fit very snug (it does stick out though because I wanted to make use of the courtesy light) and then I ran a nice bead of heavy duty clear silicone around it to ensure it doesn’t get water inside of it or leak, which it doesn’t, I tested it with a pressure washer.

But here is the end result after paint and clear coat [emoji1417] I was very satisfied and it’s extremely brighter than any aftermarket led out there, but that’s just the rigid quality lol I also did the reverse light mod to allow it to come on when I put it in reverse as well as with the cargo light switch

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

I have videos of me testing it but Tapatalk removed the feature to add videos I think [emoji854]

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

Here is where the current stage of the build I’ve now started officially begins. Keep in mind I still have several interior mods I’d like to do, such as footwell lighting and the cup holder lighting

I ordered fox 3.0 front and rear shocks with adjustable dsc knobs, mazzula long travel kit, deaver leaf springs with the mazzula shackle and hangar kit.

Fenders will be fiberwerx 5.5” bulge on the front and 3” bulge on the rear

Tires and rims I went with Method Racing NV305 wrapped in 37x13.5x17 Toyo MT’s.

For gearing I went with the Yukon 4.56 set (not installed yet)

Here is some pictures of the destruction. It was hard for me to do it but it had to be done wasn’t too hard after the first cut lol

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

A picture from the day we took it to the shop to get the rest of the work finished on it

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

And here is the truck (as of yesterday) as it sits and waits while the fiberglass fenders get painted, all the suspension is installed and I’m so stoked to get it done, we’ve definitely come a long way!

Also included is the picture they sent me while they had the fenders on to be test fit and modified to fit the 37’s in all directions

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

Stay tuned for more!

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jgraves13 · August 31, 2018

Need some up close pics of the suspension! Beautiful truck. I'm like you, young (22) but love working hard and being able to spend money on the truck!

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BlueTopaz14 · August 31, 2018

Need some up close pics of the suspension! Beautiful truck. I'm like you, young (22) but love working hard and being able to spend money on the truck!

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Yes sir, that’s how I was raised, you want something you earn it! But thank you it’s my pride and joy! but I will get some as soon as I get it back! It’ll just be teasers till then! Haha looking at getting it back next week sometime I hope

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