My adventures in making my new Bilstein 5100's my own - Ok...that was my teaser title to get your attention...haha... I have been wanting to upgrade my shocks for a ...

Ok...that was my teaser title to get your attention...haha...

I have been wanting to upgrade my shocks for a while now. About 3 years ago, shortly after purchasing the truck...I purchased some OEM Rancho shocks and installed them. I was happy with the improvement from the worn ones that were on there, but after hearing much about the Bilstein 5100's I wanted to give them a try. Got a full set for front and rear for a decent price and worked on installing the fronts yesterday.

Along with this, I had purchased a set of struts off of a member and was going to use the newer parts to refresh my struts a bit.

I will give a before and after then go into some more detail.

Before:


After:


I like how these turned out. Painting the spring was just sort of a fun twist I thought I would add to dress them up a little.

The take off shocks I had gotten came off a 2015 silverado. I was unsure of what difference the may have from the nnbs truck shocks since they had different numbers. Here is a shot side by side and you can immediately see some differences:


The location of the lower spring mount on the body is a different height on the new shocks. The shaft is a bit longer and has a longer threaded section.

Secondly there are big differences in the upper mount:



Additionally the upper shock bump stop was longer on the newer one. I tried to use it but could not get the shaft to push up through to get the upper bolt on...so took it back apart and reused my old ones.


The newer style on the left have a much taller central mount location making the shorter thread a concern using with an older style shock. After discovering this, I ended up reusing my old ones...but the spring seat and boot along with the plastic upper spring seat were the same and reused.

After I got the old shock off one side, I used the weight of the truck to dis-assemble the strut assemblies I had bought.


Then I got after prepping and painting the springs.

First I sanding them down good then wiped them down with alcohol.


Sprayed them with some self etching primer


Then started applying the GM DE 1608 high temp ceramic blue I had:



Got the ring height settings moved and transferred over the lower spring mounts. Here is where I maybe added some height from the set up I had before. The lower mounts from the previous picture lift the bottom of the spring some from the older location.


About ready to install


Pics of final result:










Hopefully get to the rears today. Ran over my time I had and went to the NHRA drag races with my son yesterday evening.

Nice work.

Did you buy the 5100s for your year truck or for the 2015 to get some extra height?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I bought for my year. Ended up with some additional height due to lower spring mount difference and possibly the upper rubber seat/boot thickness. My old ones were thinner I think...but completely shot.

The springs themselves seemed to be identical for the most part...height wise.

I may go back and drop the 5100's down a notch or two. I need to take some measurements again. I did it fast last night scrambling to put things away and get cleaned up to go to the drag race. Front was up but I dont recall the exact measurements. And I still have some side to side differences. I am thinking that the rear could be throwing off the front if they are uneven? I plan to test that and jack up and level the rear and see where the front sits after that...

Nice job and good pics, as usual, Neal.

You would need to drive it for a few miles and let everything setting before determining that. My front settled about 1in after driving it.

Rear shocks at least will only take about 30min


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well drove it about 110 miles or so last night to Baytown for the race...so I will re-check this am sometime.

Nice color choice on them


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looking good Neal.

Freaking imgur images never show up on the work computer.

Those look good Neal! I have to stop look at your build thread and other individual mod threads. Always giving me more reasons to spend money that I don't have

Great job!