Project Luxury S10

[ChilinMichael]

Anyone who lowers a truck IMO, should have bought a car. (Or a station wagon )

[00Beast]

I like some lowered trucks, depending on the combination. Some people need a truck for hauling crap, but don't like how high it sits. I have no problem with a lowered truck. I want to lower my 67 C20, and put some nice wheels and tires on it.

[LeSabreUltra]

Yeah, lowering isn't too bad I guess...it just gets a little old on the S10 forum. It's amazing how far the lengths some of those guys will go to and the finances they will strain just to make those things sit so low to the ground that they look retarded, lol.

Plus, when they start talking about doing it to rare vintage cars, it kind of makes me want to punch a kitten.

I know you guys are probably tired of my mind switching back and forth, lol, but I have found ANOTHER option...and this one is cheaper than either the s/c or V8 swap.

How about a performance camshaft? Cost is lower, I think I'd be able to keep my total costs below $1250 and that's with a pretty aggressive cam setup.

Check this out. This guy has a 266ahr cam (which is relatively mild) in his nearly stock Sonoma. All he has other than the cam is a performance exhaust.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/S15- ... 149645.htm

Not too bad! I think he managed a 5-6 second 0-60 time, even with the loss of traction between the 1-2 shift.

I like this because of it's low cost. I can do this and some other things I really want, instead of just one thing. I'm still researching it though, I want to know how it will affect daily driveablility and what the expected power gains are.
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[LeSabre in Buffalo]

Ooh! I likey this camshaft idea the bestest!

With a cam and a tune, you'd get a very quick truck.

Lowering isn't too bad if you keep it mild so it doesn't look too out of the ordinary. Too low and it's a lot of issues. But yeah, a mild drop would go well with that truck. Say 1.5" all around. Then you'd still have ground clearance and better handling from the lower center of gravity.

[LeSabreUltra]

Yeah Dave, that's what I'm hoping for!

I've kind of got in my mind that with a decent cam it will drive sort of like the Hemi Ram I drive a lot at work. The engine in the Ram doesn't seem fit for a truck really. It doesn't have a whole lot of low end, but then the power comes on hard at around 2000 rpms...and it will really pull! It's fun to drive for that reason cause it will just fly around town even when you're not giving it a lot of throttle, although the revs are up there, and it sounds sexy as hell while doing it. My truck might not manage the get the sound, but if it could mimic the driving dynamics, that would be pretty cool. My truck is pretty flat above 2000 rpms unless it's floored.
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[LeSabreUltra]

Update.

Those of you at SEBF may remember that the reclining handle for the passenger's seat was well...destroyed.

I actually recently found a company whose sole purpose is manufacturing aftermarket handles for the S10/Blazer family that are designed not to break. I guess it's a fairly common problem.

If you're wondering why the handle was in place in a previous picture, that handle was off my old seats and I just put it there to make the picture turn out all pretty-like.

Here's what was left of my reclining handle.



I pretty much thought I was screwed there. You could recline the seat with a flathead screwdriver, but that's a pretty socially awkward situation, to make your passenger step out with a screwdriver to recline their seat.

So here's the solution:



It's an almost-match. Color is perfect but it sticks out a little further than it would stock. Functionality wise, this is actually better, as you can get your whole hand around the handle.

Now for a bigger update.

All the ideas I was throwing around about performance items for this truck, are unlikely to happen, at least in the near future. I got to looking at my LeSabre and thought the money could be better justified being spent on it versus my low mile truck. So right now, things are getting moving on the LeSabre project. I'll make a thread about what I have planned and progress once things get serious.
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[LeSabreUltra]

Okay, so here's an update on this little project.

I took another step towards finishing the Chevrollac project with these HIDs.

For a long time, I've wanted to put HIDs in this truck, I've tried various ideas and none of them work. The conversion housings you usually find for sealed beam vehicles either suck or are prohibitively expensive, or both.

But then after a ton of researching, I found these. Autopal E Code H4 conversion housings.



E Code is a European standard for headlights...kinda like ours except theirs doesn't suck. DOT requires that headlights be able to cast some light upward to illuminate overhead signs. This is where your glare comes from with PNP HID kits. E Code lights mandate a sharp cutoff and even light distribution instead. Definitely the better choice.

Quality is great too. They feel just as hefty and well built as a stock sealed beam. No cracking from a tiny pebble with these. All metal and glass construction.

I coupled this with a high/low H4 HID kit from DDM tuning. Wow, I wish I could put HID high beams in my Buick...they're great!

But the best part is the cutoff. These are actual pics of mine from my truck.



It's not as good as a projector, but *dang*...show me a halogen housing with a better cutoff!

Those two spikes aiming up and off to the right are intentionally designed into the headlight lens...they are meant to illuminate roadside signs. And I do need to do a little more adjusting. Ideally there should be no gap in the middle, it should be one even bar of continuous light. But you get the idea.

I'm pretty pleased. As I said the light distribution is fantastic.



Low beams.





High beams.

As you can see there are no hotspots or unnecessarily scattered light.

I also chose 5000k for these. I like 5000k because it provides excellent light output and the color looks exactly (to me) like factory HID equipped cars.

Here is about what opposing traffic sees:



As opposed to what it looks like inside the cutoff:



HUGE improvement over sealed beams!
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[LeSabre in Buffalo]

Nice lights! I really like the H4 bulb in a properly designed housing.

[BonneMe]

4300k is OEM... It only appears blue because of the cutoff bending light.

[LeSabreUltra]

Yes I know. Maybe I wasn't clear with how I described it, but I meant it looks like factory HIDs to a bystander.

Although, factory reflector based HID systems are often fitted with replacement 5000k bulbs, from what I've read.

And thanks Dave.
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[LeSabreUltra]

I guess this is going to be the official topic of my truck from now on, lol. I prefer updating one thread rather than creating several.

Nothing much new. Still loving the HID + ECodes. I was able to aim them up a little higher, and now my low beam and high beam is even better. Really, it's like a narrow projector pattern. Can't complain, and it doesn't blind anyone.

I was unloading some stuff from the truck out to the shed in the side yard today and thought "hey that would make a pretty cool picture" but it ended up looking a lot cooler in person, lol! I blame the crappy camera. Now the live view doesn't work anymore and I have to use the viewfinder. Seriously getting a new camera soon.









Had a lot of material in the back...you can see the rear sagging a little...the towing package with the stiffer springs helps that a lot though. Bringing in stuff to rebuild the very back yard which you can sorta see. Neighbor built a dam on the creek and it ended up bursting, trashing everything immediately downstream. Most of it is cleaned up but I've got to fill in a few spots.

Not sure I ever got 'quality' pics of the interior, so here's my best attempt with a craptastic camera.

Here's one of several attempts without a flash, the only 'successful' one. Kept giving me error messages and if it has an error, it won't take a picture. A good smack and it decided to take a picture, albeit a blurry one. This is to give an idea of the ambient lighting.



With flash. Removable floor mats are very dirty but that's what they are there for, to keep that dirt off of my carpet and the rest of my truck.



That's it for now. Nothing really major planned anytime soon.
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[LeSabreUltra]

A bump for some paint restoration and a little bit of new stuff.

Spent today cleaning, polishing, and waxing the outside, and uncovered some things I didn't even know about my truck.

I thought the mirrors and the cowl were flat black from the factory...by accident I discovered I was completely wrong, and continued until I found this...



Who knew? I never would have guessed that they were supposed to be glossy. Here's what they looked like before, a pic from many moons and many mods ago:



I can't even begin to say how that small change made a huge difference in my truck's appearance, along with the rest of the polishing and waxing. It looks like new again.

More whorage:



Both of the Buicks wanted to slip in that shot...











And now for a minor bit of new stuff.

I haven't been completely satisfied with my HID setup. Since completion of my retrofit in the LeSabre, I began to feel that my cutoff wasn't as sharp as it could be, and that my high beam wasn't doing as well as it could be either. Plus, if there is one thing I've learned about HID kits, it's that kit bulbs SUCK. Go OE D2S or don't bother. Kit bulbs are cheaply made and they colorshift and lose luminosity fast.

There's nothing wrong with a good set of halogens, which is what these were designed for...and with that in mind, I set out to find a set of uber high wattage halogens, since these housings were also designed to take the heat. I ended up with a set of 90/130 watt H4 Hellas, meaning that the low beam filament is 90W and the high beam is 130W.

The end result is that the 130W is very close to HID in light output, the 90W is less, probably on par with HIR lighting. But both light up the road very well.

AND, I got my cutoff back...



That's how an E Code cutoff is supposed to look.

Output shots:



Low beam...



High beam.

The high beams are unreal. I have noticed that the few people I've had to flash with my high beams for leaving theirs on, generally don't leave them on for very long. The high beam as you can see in the above photograph, is a very centrally concentrated beam with less escaping to the sides. Whatever is in the concentrated area...such as an oncoming car who left their brights on...is met with an ungodly amount of light, more so even that OE bixenon setups which tend to scatter the light out to the sides as well. This also allows the beam to cast further down the road as you can see, at the expense of side lighting. On a straight section of highway, it lights up around a mile down the road. And I don't mean reflectors, I mean actual lit highway...

In any event, that's where my truck is now.
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[wake]

holy high beams Batman..id hate to be coming at you and catch you with those things on

[LeSabreUltra]

^ lol, me too...I try to be extra considerate with them for that reason. It is a lot of fun flashing people that don't return the favor though. :D

Long time, no update but since most of the more premium vehicles come with foglights I thought I'd throw this in here.

Well, I had given thought to fogs before but short of converting to a factory fog bumper I have never really found a solution that I liked until I saw another S10 that had them placed up by the grille Mustang-style and so I pretty much just copied it lol.

This rectangular style fits well inside. I like these, thick glass and solid metal construction, and they use the foglight standard H3 bulb.

My truck is in a very bad need of a wash, so don't judge that lol.



Put the switch in the dash under the stock headlight switch, all the wiring is tucked in behind the dash and goes out through the firewall...



I dunno how much good they'll do with my headlights (cause they're really freaking bright) but I'm hoping to get a little more peripheral lighting with these. I'll see how they do this evening. H3 is rated to put out 1450 lumens each bulb so it ought to help some.
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[BonneMe]

Can't say i'm a fan, starting to look over-accessorized...

[LeSabreUltra]

Well, I appreciate your viewpoint and I welcome all constructive comments, positive or no. I'm not sure exactly why this particular addition bumped you over though. The only visible parts (the lights themselves and the switch) are very inconspicuous in their respective locations. Perhaps the picture above was misleading to you, or perhaps not, but the lights are tucked up inside the grille and not particularly obvious, unless you're looking for them.

Perhaps the picture above is misleading. I hesitated to show this one yesterday because they weren't properly adjusted yet so they are somewhat crooked, but as you can see they are tucked pretty far back in there, their presence isn't really blatant...



In any event, while I did have the best possible aesthetics for my truck in mind when doing this, the foglights were in no way an aesthetic mod. This addition was all about function, and in that way these excel at what I wanted them to do.

E-Code beam patterns are very narrow, not at all what you guys are used to with your DOT lighting. I missed the width, and honestly that width adds a large degree of confidence through the extra lighting though whether the benefit is genuine or perceived is up for debate. But now when I'm driving in the dark country, I feel like a huge lighting hole has been filled. I now have over 180 degrees of lighting in high or low beam.

I don't have any real way of showing the full added benefit but this is the best I can do.

Fogs only:



Lows only:



Lows and fogs:



As you can see, it adds a significant amount of extra side lighting (particularly on the far left of the picture), a must have for late night rural driving.

All on:


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[Jrs3800]

Looks good Dan... Here in FL we have a lot of the same issues... Total darkness...lol

[Wes]

I like it. All of it.

and on the s10 forums I heard of some guys using a LS1 getting close to 30 mpg.

[LeSabreUltra]

Thanks guys!

And yeah, I can get 30 too if I'm coasting downhill. With a tailwind. :|

I don't know why 4.3's love fuel so much but they do.
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[LeSabreUltra]

Guess it's time for this to make it's way over here now...



My truck is back together finally!

And...



I have swapped over to a factory tach cluster and put my odometer from the old cluster in it so I can keep my mileage. Works great!

Next plans are to find an unmolested A-pillar at SEBF so I can replace the one I have and lose the aftermarket tach. Also might try to find a new cover for my cluster. My clear plastic cover has a few scratches in it. Something only I would notice, but it does bother me.
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