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

[Rocket Man]

I’ve been doing some work on my door panels and painting the exterior door handles that were worn and had white plastic showing through. I painted the speaker grills with the same color paint that the console is done in, kind of a dark pewter I think it is. Not too much of a change but I like it, a bit of contrast.

 

[ivin74]

Can you share a pic of the paint can used, thx

 

[Rocket Man]

The door handles were going good until they weren’t. I got the rear doors completed this morning after the paint on the handles dried overnight. They came out perfect. I had most of a can of Automotive Touchup left over from an other project and half a can of U Pol #1 clear, plenty to do the fronts too so today I pulled everything apart. I disassembled and scuffed/sanded the handles, painted them and cleared them. I thought I did a perfect job until I noticed one of the parts, the driver escutcheon or whatever it’s called, had a spot in the clear that was messed up. I tried to respray it but noooo. So I removed all the clear, re-scuffed, painted and cleared again. Then as I was spraying a second coat of clear I saw I messed up
and left some clear on the top edge. I then removed all the clear AGAIN, re-scuffed and realized I now had just enough paint for one more try. I just got that done. No more paint. I might have enough clear to do it if I shoot one coat. The next can won’t be here for 3 days. My truck is sitting in my driveway with no handles for the second night. Damn. Sometimes I hate painting.

 

[Rocket Man]

Can you share a pic of the paint can used, thx

Here’s all of them. Yes the interior is a Fo*d color, it matches the dash and console original color.

 

[ivin74]

That's my next mod, thx

 

[Rocket Man]

I just shot the clear. Finally nailed it and there’s nothing but fumes in both the base and clear cans. Whew. That was a close call.

 

[iamdub]

That's the newer/revised formula of the U-Pol that I was trying to avoid. Since you seem to be having no issues with it, maybe I'll give it a whirl. Although, I did find a NOS can of the original stuff that I'm gonna use first.

 

[Rocket Man]

A couple notes. On the passenger front, the lock had been punched in and I had put a piece of black plastic in there back during the aftermath of the break in. I hadn’t pulled the handle then, so this time I did a better job. I removed the lock cylinder from the rod inside the door where it was hanging, removed the rod so it’s disabled, and used the lock cylinder to hold a part of a plastic plug I modded to fit. It’s held in good now and I was able to paint it with the handle. It’s much better than before. The lock is attached with a clip and it pushes down on the plastic to hold it in place.

 

[Rocket Man]

That's the newer/revised formula of the U-Pol that I was trying to avoid. Since you seem to be having no issues with it, maybe I'll give it a whirl. Although, I did find a NOS can of the original stuff that I'm gonna use first.

It’s working awesome for me.

 

[Rocket Man]

A couple more pics. I also removed and re-glued the carpet on the front door panels because when I first did it, the glue didn't hold well. I used 3M Super 77 this time. You can see the darker color of the grills better on the fronts.

 

[Rocket Man]

The color match of the Automotive Touchup was perfect. The old handles had looked terrible for a long time. They're like new now. Anybody that's thought about painting theirs , all I can say is do it. Removing them, disassembling and painting isn't that hard. It was way easier than I thought. The rear handles are real easy to get to the 3 bolts, the fronts have one that's a bit hard but if you roll the window down a couple inches you can see it and a 10 mm standard socket fits on it, behind the glass. You have to smash the ends on the pin on the handle itself to disassemble it, and replace with a bolt and I used nylock nuts.

 

[Tonyrodz]

A couple more pics. I also removed and re-glued the carpet on the front door panels because when I first did it, the glue didn't hold well. I used 3M Super 77 this time. You can see the darker color of the grills better on the fronts.

View attachment 232528 View attachment 232529 View attachment 232530

77 is some good stuff.

 

[Sam Harris]

A couple more pics. I also removed and re-glued the carpet on the front door panels because when I first did it, the glue didn't hold well. I used 3M Super 77 this time. You can see the darker color of the grills better on the fronts.

View attachment 232528 View attachment 232529 View attachment 232530

That looks great Mark. Really nice contrast

 

[adventurenali92]

I need to get my rear handles that I bought re painted. But I’m dragging my feet on disassembling them. Because I know I’m gonna screw it up and break them as I’ve never disassembled the door handles before... ugh...

 

[Rocket Man]

I removed my roof rack crossbars today. I’m going to CM them after seeing what they look like on @adventurenali92 ’s truck. But it looks so much cleaner without them that Ill probably leave them off afterward and just install them when I need them. I might not even CM them, since I’ve only needed to use them twice in the last few years. Sure will be easier to wash the roof, I hate them being in the way. Decisions.

 

[adventurenali92]

I removed my roof rack crossbars today. I’m going to CM them after seeing what they look like on @adventurenali92 ’s truck. But it looks so much cleaner without them that Ill probably leave them off afterward and just install them when I need them. I might not even CM them, since I’ve only needed to use them twice in the last few years. Sure will be easier to wash the roof, I hate them being in the way. Decisions.

View attachment 232656 View attachment 232657

I color matched mine before even thinking about having to put stuff up there... I was like oops... but I’ve never had to use my roof racks either. So there’s that. Although I did grab a couple of pool noodles and cut them to the length of my cross rails and then put a cut in them down the middle so I can slide them over my cross rails. Just in case I ever have to set anything up there.

 

[Rocket Man]

I color matched mine before even thinking about having to put stuff up there... I was like oops... but I’ve never had to use my roof racks either. So there’s that. Although I did grab a couple of pool noodles and cut them to the length of my cross rails and then put a cut in them down the middle so I can slide them over my cross rails. Just in case I ever have to set anything up there.

That’s a great idea.

 

[adventurenali92]

That’s a great idea.

A cheap and easy solution to protect the cross rails if you have to put anything on them. Lol

 

[SteveB]

I vote leave them off

 

[Tonyrodz]

I vote leave them off

X2