Rocket Man's 02 Denali Build Thread AKA "THE BEAST"
- Thread starter Rocket Man
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OP
OP
Small world, huh?
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Today UPS delivered a 2005 Yukon Denali wood grain dash bezel I bought off Ebay. This will be the second one I've bought; the first one I bought when I did my DD mod for my stereo had 2 cracks through the wood grain part at the top and every time I pulled it, the cracks got worse. The rest of my interior is almost flawless and those cracks bothered me. I got this one for $117 shipped; all the others I've seen when they became available were around $200. Now I have to strip the painted part like I did on the other dash and console parts and spray with Dupli-Color Dark Shadow Gray. Yesterday I repainted my DDU lower grill insert in gloss black and a few coats of clear. I also painted the black parts of my Esky roof rack so it will be ready for installation when I get the rest from the painter.
OP
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Stripped the old paint off with Denatured alcohol and a fine Scotchbrite quick and easy. That makes the old paint literally dissolve while not affecting the wood grain. Painted and ready to install. I think it came out good.
Tonyrodz
Resident Resident
Taping must've been a pita! But looks great.
OP
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Actually not bad, I just taped over the lines then, pushed it down into the groove a bit, and used a single edge razor blade following the edge at the bottom of the groove. Total time to strip and paint was 1 1/2 hours.
05Single
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Nice, I love those little details. Most people wouldn't go through the trouble.
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I guess I'm a bit neurotic like that. One crack was literally right in front of my face though and if there's something obvious that I see constantly, I can't leave it. Pretty much my entire truck looks like new, especially the interior, with the exception of what I'm having painted next week. And the headliner. I will redo the headliner someday...anyway here's some shots of the cracks and how the new one looks installed. It makes me feel better to have that taken care of.
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So I didn't want to say anything for the last week for fear I would jinx it, but it looks like I finally fixed the problem that has been a constant annoyance for months. My engine had been "stumbling" for lack of a better word. Especially at stop lights, and it seemed to be worse the hotter the weather. It would literally almost die at random times, in fact it did die twice. It was startling sometimes. No codes. It was almost like the ignition was shut off for a split second. I tried a few things, and then thought maybe Black Bear might be able to read some logged data and analyze what was going on, so I emailed them. They said they would do that, all I needed to do was hook up my Autocal and log some data and email it to them. I was looking through my emails to them, and saw where they were reading my previously logged runs and my MAF was " all over the place" as they said. So I thought maybe... the MAF sensor could be the culprit? I bought a new one and so far it's been a week and not one single miss or stumble. I think that was it. Fingers crossed still.
OP
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Today I removed the Denali roof rack and listed it on Ebay. Then I had to remove the marks on the roof where the old rack was because the Esky rack has a narrower footprint. I used Meguire's Fine-Cut Cleaner with a buffing pad and it's almost perfect.
Tonyrodz
Resident Resident
I really like our trucks without any racks , looks so much cleaner Imo. I can't wait to take mine off.
OP
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True, but I actually use mine on occasion so I'm hoping the CM'd Esky rack will blend well. I like the option of having a rack when I need it.
Fosscore
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It is clean without for sure, but IMO it just adds that little extra subtle finish to the top.
A sharp detail, like the icing on the cake tying in the rest of the CM body parts,
running boards and Denali cladding. That CM rack is going to look sweet.
A sharp detail, like the icing on the cake tying in the rest of the CM body parts,
running boards and Denali cladding. That CM rack is going to look sweet.
05Single
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I'm excited to see how that rack turns out. Reason I haven't put mine on is because I refuse to have any chrome on my tahoe lol. So I'm still waiting on a decision for vinyl wrap or paint, I'm thinking wrap so later if I need to I can remove it and reveal the chrome again for resale..
Ours look good without the rack too but it's nice to have that option for storage on long trips.
In the end anything is better than the basic factory tahoe/yukon rack
Ours look good without the rack too but it's nice to have that option for storage on long trips.
In the end anything is better than the basic factory tahoe/yukon rack
OP
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We'll find out tomorrow; the painting will be done and I'm supposed to pick my truck up in the afternoon. It's been at the painter since yesterday morning. Unfortunately I'll also find out what the bill is!
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DAMN! I'm lovin it! Picked up my truck and all I can say is DAMN! It looks good. Might have time to install the rack tonight, we'll see. Here's a couple of pics.
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Got the Esky rack installed. Took me awhile- I had to figure out how to get the end caps to snap on right with no gaps. There was an adjustment that had to be made before I started attaching it to the truck. Of course I didn't figure that out until I already had it all attached. Anyway, colormatched is the way to go for sure.
Fosscore
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Looking badass man!!
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A few more shots of the paint. He repaired and repainted my license plate holder too, along with the complete front bumper and he blended and repaired the paint on both front fenders. there's one spot left that he found, and I had forgot about- a scrape on the rear bumper that he is going to take care of one day when I stop by. That will do it for paint, it will be pretty much flawless at that point.
