Rocket Man's 02 Denali Build Thread AKA "THE BEAST"

[Rocket Man]

Well it's been asked why I don't have a build thread and my answer was that I didn't intend to do all that much to my '02 Denali when I bought it so I didn't start a thread when I started doing mods to my truck. I didn't think it would be such an ongoing project, so I just didn't think it would go over well, to do it retroactively. But....thanks to @Fosscore and others, I have been persuaded to do just that. So here goes. I will try to add a bit to this thread every couple of days or so. I have pictures of everything, I believe; it just might take a bit of organizing. Some of these will be out of sequence so when you look at the pictures and see something already done that I haven't discussed, just know that I'm doing my best to get this in order. I have done 2 other build threads, both on Harley's. One was a 2009 V-Rod Night Rod, the other a 2014 Street Glide, so I'm familiar with the process. I'll start with a few of the only before picturess I have. I didn't get carried away taking these when I first bought the truck, since it only looked that way for a few days. Take a look at those original wheels and that fender gap! Next I'll post a couple of how it looks now, along with a shot of my Denali and my Street Glide together, both with 26's. Enjoy!

 

[Rocket Man]

And now, as it looks today. And my Street Glide, which I built in my Living Room a couple of winters ago. (That picture was taken a while back, before some of my latest mods to the Denali.)
Edit: there has been more done since this picture was taken, including a Whipple supercharger, a cowl hood, completely colormatched Esky roof rack, and rear wiper shave. Read on!

 

[Tonyrodz]

Those are some good looking rides ! Love the wheels on the truck . Damn good work !

 

[fiatdale]

Love your truck man. Makes me miss my 03 pewter Denali like crazy!

 

[Rocket Man]

The very first thing I did was get some new wheels. I knew I was going to lower it and so I tried to visualize it lowered when I was deciding on rims. I ended up going with some pretty old-school but always classic Dub ballers in " double black", 26", with some Venezia 305/30/26 tires. The Dubs look gold when the sun shines on them, so they went well with the Pewter paint. Here's what it looked like before I had it lowered. I had to visualize since it still didn't look right. I immediately ordered a Belltech 2/4 kit, with 2" front drop spindles and rear springs. As you can see, it needed it. At this time, I didn't even know about this forum.

 

[fiatdale]

Throw some wilwoods behind those and you'll give half of us hardons. The other half, well they're gay.

 

[Rocket Man]

I had the lowering done by the same shop that sold and mounted my tires. I needed this as my DD and it was February so I wasn't riding any of my Harleys to work, or else I would have done this myself. As it turns out, I'm glad I didn't. The spindles ended up being a pain in the ass.......for the shop. It was at this time I learned I had something called Autoride. The shop said the lowering kit came with some link things to correct the ride height, (ride height sensors I learned later) but it seemed my compressor wasn't turning on, and it looked to them like the fuses for it were missing. So I took the truck home and thought it rode and looked fine, but I was definitely going to look into this Autoride stuff. And that's how I found this forum, googling Autoride problems. Here it is right after lowering it. Autoride is disabled. Or it WAS. Until I replaced those fuses, and the dreaded "Service Ride Control" message popped up in the DIC and then it wouldn't go away. Even after I pulled those fuses. Better fix it.





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[Rocket Man]

As I was looking into the Autoride issues, I decided to get some new LED tail lights and 3rd brake light. I bought some Spyder lights and had those in my hands quickly. After looking at the shocks and researching my options with the Autoride, I decided to replace all 4 shocks and the compressor with Arnott's kit with rear Bilstein rear shocks (new not remanufactured) and their also new front shocks. I don't see the Bilstein option on their website anymore which is too bad, I like their stuff. Here's the tail lights. The 3rd brake light hasn't been delivered yet and the old one doesn't work.

 

[Rocket Man]

Throw some wilwoods behind those and you'll give half of us hardons. The other half, well they're gay.

Yeah, I considered those, but just finished installing the GMT900 upgrade instead. Oh well, semi-hard will have to do...

 

[Rocket Man]

And since there were new wheels outside, I needed a new wheel on the inside so I ordered an Autowoods Denali leather/woodgrain steering wheel. It matched the interior almost perfectly.