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

[05Single]

Who else on here has the plugs?
Very easy mod and it only takes a few minutes . Hardest part was finding the right size plugs lol.
Think I spent less than $5 in material.
Anyway I have a few ideas bouncing around my head. I'm tired of looking at those plugs

 

[Rocket Man]

Ok Ok dammit. I removed the wiper tonight and found some plugs but haven't found the right combo yet. I just kinda fitted them tonight, no paint. I'm thinking I won't leave these in for long though, I'm going to go ahead and find someone to weld an aluminum backing plate in place. My bodyshop friend quoted me $200 to do the bodywork and paint. I think I'll get it done while we still have nice weather here in the NW so I can ride my bagger to work for a couple days.

 

[05Single]

Wow $200 body and paint ?! Nice hook up.
A rear hatch shave is gonna be the finishing touch on the exterior for that beast.

 

[93blkongreenpro]

Dam. Truck looks awesome!

Sent from my SM-N930P using Tapatalk

 

[Fosscore]

Yep already looks better. Not a bad price to do that body work and paint and be done. Sweet!!

 

[#1taho]

Who else on here has the plugs?
Very easy mod and it only takes a few minutes . Hardest part was finding the right size plugs lol.
Think I spent less than $5 in material.
Anyway I have a few ideas bouncing around my head. I'm tired of looking at those plugs

Try an electrical supply store. They have plugs or different sizes to plug holes on panels. I have them at work. Will try to post a pick later. But it would be perfect for that mod

 

[#1taho]

Front side

That come in many different sizes. I have 1"-4" here at work.
They don't look like much but they lye fairly flat and hold on with a wing nut. The front piece also has a o-ring so it's water proof.

Back side

 

[Rocket Man]

I couldn't handle the plugs, my OCD kicked in but MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE LEFT THEM!!! I found a guy with a small welding business at his home. he looked at it with the plugs in and said, sure he could do it for $100. I told him the hole sizes. He told me to come back in an hour, and I removed the plugs and went back. He looked at the big hole and said he didn't know one was THAT big. He started talking about warping the door due to so much welding. I called my bodyshop and asked what he should do; they said to just weld backing plates, spot welded about every 1/8". No need to fill that huge hole. So dude welded plates in, had me look, and I could see daylight at 2 places in the big hole and there was only 4 spot welds. So he said he'd add some welds. Called me over, there was still 2 holes. Damn. So he filled them. Cool, but now it looked like ass because I swear the dude couldn't see very good. So he "buffed" the welds and ...hey, I think it's going to be ok, looks like it's fillable, strong so nothing can move, and there's very little warpage. I pay him the $100. I stayed calm the whole time even though he was stressing me out. As I'm leaving, he's standing there in his driveway/shop area and I have the driver's door open and he's chatting about my truck. He's standing on the other side of my open door. I say "thanks" and extend my hand through the open window and... there's a loud "thunk" against my door as he shakes my hand. He was f****ng standing there balancing a 15 lb piece of 3" x 3" heavy wall steel about 3' tall and when he went to shake my hand, he just let loose of it and it fell over onto my door!!! AHHHHHHH!!! So he says " I didn't know you were going to open the door, blah blah blah...I mean the door was already OPEN!!! Then he said he just scratched it.. I said no, you DENTED my door, and now it's going to cost me to have it fixed. So he offered to give me $40 back and... I said f*ck it. I took the $40 and drove away. Dude didn't look like he was doing very good and I didn't want to make his Friday end like shit. Oh well, maybe my guy can do some magic and not have to paint the whole door. NOW my OCD is in FULL EFFECT!!! Damn welded holes in the back, and a new ding in my driver door. Arrrrhhhh I need to calm down!!!

View attachment 66454

 

[Tonyrodz]

Hatch doesn't look too bad, looks fillable .As for the door , really hard to tell from the pic , unless I'm missing it , but have you ever thought about paintless dent removal ?If you do , just make sure you get someone who knows what they're doing. I had a scratch along my driver side door that was put there by a kid on a bike which fortunately didn't get into the base coat, it was wet sanded out. Think that'll work ?I hope it isn't too bad for you.

 

[05Single]

I can see a small ding , count from the mail box in the reflection it's between the 3rd and 4th bush. Small but still shouldn't be there!!! Damn I would've been piiiisssed. Should be a easy removal and maybe a touch up paint away from being barely noticeable (except by you of course, and now all of us )

And at least the hatch looks ok, but damn what a headache. I have ocd just as bad but I'm not gonna let it get the best of me and rush things cause I know my luck and it never works out

 

[Rocket Man]

I can see a small ding , count from the mail box in the reflection it's between the 3rd and 4th bush. Small but still shouldn't be there!!! Damn I would've been piiiisssed. Should be a easy removal and maybe a touch up paint away from being barely noticeable (except by you of course, and now all of us )

And at least the hatch looks ok, but damn what a headache. I have ocd just as bad but I'm not gonna let it get the best of me and rush things cause I know my luck and it never works out

Yeah I'm not gonna rush anything, that's something I'm always fighting because my reaction is always to fix things instantly so I can forget about them. I like loose ends tied up. I'll take a couple more pics tomorrow but yeah what a bummer. I'm calm now. Right before this happened the shop that is replacing my rear tire on my bagger called to say the powdercoated rim was bubbling...oh yeah, I picked up a 1/4" x 3" long bolt in the rear tire of my motorcycle this week...so I was already bummed. I'll get it all fixed, it just seems I went backward this week but that's how things are sometimes. I'm picking the bike tire up to morrow, and next week my hatch will get painted and the ding will get fixed too. It was just a difficult afternoon.

 

[Rocket Man]

Here's a couple of pictures of the dent and scratch. It's not big but it's right on my driver's door so I see it every time I get in. I will have to get it fixed. It's a bummer because the rest of the body is perfect. I don't have a single ding anywhere, not even a door ding.

 

[Rocket Man]

And moving on... since I don't have a rear wiper anymore, I don't need a rear wiper switch. Delete complete. This was a real easy mod- pull the switch housing, pop off the back cover so I could remove the switch itself and the bezel, a bit of grinding, a piece of thin blackish plastic and a bit of silicone.

 

[Tonyrodz]

And moving on... since I don't have a rear wiper anymore, I don't need a rear wiper switch. Delete complete. This was a real easy mod- pull the switch housing, pop off the back cover so I could remove the switch itself and the bezel, a bit of grinding, a piece of thin blackish plastic and a bit of silicone.

View attachment 66483

View attachment 66484

You are the man!! Looks good , and if you didn't know there was a switch there you'd never look twice ! I wouldn't.

 

[Rocket Man]

You are the man!! Looks good , and if you didn't know there was a switch there you'd never look twice ! I wouldn't.

Exactly, "rear wiper? what rear wiper?" LOL.

 

[05Single]

I took a switch out from another truck and used another faceplate. Trucks have a switch for fogs like us but instead of a wiper switch there's a cargo light button. So now I have an extra switch for extra accessory lights or whatever. Not sure what I'll use it for, maybe underglow, but it's a nice option that looks stock. And when wired right it only works with the ignition on.

 

[Rocket Man]

I took a switch out from another truck and used another faceplate. Trucks have a switch for fogs like us but instead of a wiper switch there's a cargo light button. So now I have an extra switch for extra accessory lights or whatever. Not sure what I'll use it for, maybe underglow, but it's a nice option that looks stock. And when wired right it only works with the ignition on.

Great option! I have no use for an extra switch but if I ever do....

 

[Rocket Man]

Today I dropped it off at the body shop again, to have the rear hatch painted after the wiper delete. He said he has a dude that does paintless dent repair and the door ding should only be about $50, and he can just touch the paint up by hand for no extra charge. So it looks like it's handled. It should be done in a couple days. I'm feeling relieved. Pictures to follow of course.

 

[Rocket Man]

Yeah, pdr is what came to mind right when it happened, just wasn't sure until I talked to my body shop. When it was in there for the hood, I heard him talking about his wife's brand new 2016 Tahoe and how somebody had already put 2 small dents in it that I could barely see. He was going to have his pdr dude take care of them. Mine actually has a tiny gouge from where the edge of the steel hit so I wasn't sure. Between the pdr dude and my friend I'm sure it will be taken care of.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Oh yeah. I've seen some amazing work done , as long as he knows what he's doing .