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

[Rocket Man]

My appointment at my friends body shop was today so I stopped by. He is way behind due to the big snowstorm we had a month or so ago and so we decided to push it back 2 weeks to give him a chance to catch up. I understand since he’s doing it pretty much for the cost of materials plus a little. Had a nice long talk about him trying to get to a retirement point. He bought a house with a big shop and plans on eventually just doing small jobs there and close his body shop down but he figures he’s still at least 5 years out.

Here’s a couple pics of how bad it’s getting. Once clear coat starts flaking off it starts looking bad pretty quick.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Did you buy it just for the reservoir?

No, going to replace the complete unit since mine is bad. Procrastinating---still--but I'll do it--eventually.

 

[iamdub]

My appointment at my friends body shop was today so I stopped by. He is way behind due to the big snowstorm we had a month or so ago and so we decided to push it back 2 weeks to give him a chance to catch up. I understand since he’s doing it pretty much for the cost of materials plus a little. Had a nice long talk about him trying to get to a retirement point. He bought a house with a big shop and plans on eventually just doing small jobs there and close his body shop down but he figures he’s still at least 5 years out.

Here’s a couple pics of how bad it’s getting. Once clear coat starts flaking off it starts looking bad pretty quick. View attachment 396024View attachment 396025

It must only bother you cuz you know it's there. Anyone else only sees the taillights.

 

[Rocket Man]

Dropped the hood off yesterday so he can sand it down and primer. He will call me to drop off the truck when it’s time to paint so he can blend the fenders. The hinges had some rust on top where they contact the hood so I sanded those down, primed, painted and cleared.

 

[randeez]

Dropped the hood off yesterday so he can sand it down and primer. He will call me to drop off the truck when it’s time to paint so he can blend the fenders. The hinges had some rust on top where they contact the hood so I sanded those down, primed, painted and cleared.

you should just leave the hood off imfo

 

[Rocket Man]

you should just leave the hood off imfo

Yeah…. In this town there wouldn’t be a blower on it after awhile. Some homeless fcker would have it mounted on his baby stroller or shopping cart.

 

[Scott in AZ]

Following ….

 

[Rocket Man]

Hinges are ready, no word on the hood yet. I didn’t get too carried away with the clear on these, just a couple light coats on the visible areas.

 

[Rocket Man]

I bought a new steering column shroud and painted it. The one that’s on there now keeps popping open on the left side ever since I swapped out the ignition switch a couple months ago. And there wasn’t a problem with that switch it turns out. I guess I messed up the shroud when I removed it.! You used to be able to but these color matched to your interior but all I can find now is black. I have some SEM just for this purpose on hand. This is the color for the pewter interior in case anybody needs to buy some.

 

[Rocket Man]

And my body guy had me come by today so he could match the fenders color for the hood. The hood will be ready in the morning. Kind of interesting- he took my paint code for pewter metallic U382 and showed me they provide him with 6-8 shades of that color on swatches so he could hold them up and zero in on the exact shade depending on how much the surrounding areas have degraded from UV and age. Then he mixed up a batch and had his assistant (wifey) hold this bright light up and they both determined it was dialed in to my fenders. This way he won’t have to blend since the fenders aren’t in a plane with the hood. He said if it’s adjoining panels like fenders to door he might still have had to blend but he’s confident in this method for this application. We will see.

 

[pwtr02ss]

And my body guy had me come by today so he could match the fenders color for the hood. The hood will be ready in the morning. Kind of interesting- he took my paint code for pewter metallic U382 and showed me they provide him with 6-8 shades of that color on swatches so he could hold them up and zero in on the exact shade depending on how much the surrounding areas have degraded from UV and age. Then he mixed up a batch and had his assistant (wifey) hold this bright light up and they both determined it was dialed in to my fenders. This way he won’t have to blend since the fenders aren’t in a plane with the hood. He said if it’s adjoining panels like fenders to door he might still have had to blend but he’s confident in this method for this application. We will see.

My camaro is pewter and them amount of variants for that color is stupid. I'm not doing any blending on my car either, since the hood and spoiler were painted at SLP when they did the SS package on all of the camaros. It wasn't a perfect match before, so I'm not concerned with "perfect". We pulled like 15 spray outs and 8 color cards. Zero were a dead match, just using the sun gun (probably the bright light you were talking about). We have to wait for a sunny day to do all of this but its looking like we'll still have to do some experimental tinting when we get it to the body shop and start our sprayouts. We have a base color picked out but its not "yellow" enough. Metallic is great, base color is 95%, but the tint is slightly off. I'm not looking for perfection, you'll never get it without blending, but I want it as close as I can get it. The way the hood lines up with then fender on your truck, it should be fine. My car has about 4" of fender on the same plane, so I'm sure it won't be a perfect match. Again, they weren't perfect when they shipped to the dealers so I have that going for me!

 

[Sam Harris]

Yeah, when I had my Esky caps, and mirror caps painted, he did 6 spray outs to find the match. I wish I would have bought the remaining paint from him before leaving the state. It takes serious skill to get that right.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Yeah, when I had my Esky caps, and mirror caps painted, he did 6 spray outs to find the match. I wish I would have bought the remaining paint from him before leaving the state. It takes serious skill to get that right.

That's where experience comes in. I knew a guy that used to mix paint by eye. I was impressed. He was a mobile bumper guy.

 

[Rocket Man]

Well I think it looks good. Close enough for me anyway. Only charged me a few hundred bucks so I’m happy.

 

[Rocket Man]

After I brought it home I decided to tackle the column shroud. What a giant PIA. No wonder I broke the other one when I removed it to replace the ignition switch without removing the steering wheel. I pulled the wheel this time and I still managed to break one of the clips on the new one. I ended up stitching the right hand side with a tiny wire. Can’t see it with the steering wheel on. And while the wheel was off… cleaned the grime off it.

 

[89Suburban]

After I brought it home I decided to tackle the column shroud. What a giant PIA. No wonder I broke the other one when I removed it to replace the ignition switch without removing the steering wheel. I pulled the wheel this time and I still managed to break one of the clips on the new one. I ended up stitching the right hand side with a tiny wire. Can’t see it with the steering wheel on. And while the wheel was off… cleaned the grime off it.

I approve of the MacGyver repair sir.

 

[Rocket Man]

I approve of the MacGyver repair sir.

Thanks. I did have this t-shirt on so I felt I had no choice but to fix it.

 

[Tonyv__]

Yeah…. In this town there wouldn’t be a blower on it after awhile. Some homeless fcker would have it mounted on his baby stroller or shopping cart.

I’d follow that build thread

 

[pwtr02ss]

Well I think it looks good. Close enough for me anyway. Only charged me a few hundred bucks so I’m happy.View attachment 397426View attachment 397427View attachment 397428

Looks great to me! I'll be happy if mines that close

 

[RAMurphy]

Well I think it looks good. Close enough for me anyway. Only charged me a few hundred bucks so I’m happy.View attachment 397426View attachment 397427View attachment 397428

Mark, your Beast looks awesome.