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

[Rocket Man]

No problem @Red Rocket . Glad somebody is gonna get some use out of it.

I think I'm going to be happy with it. The end caps are the right color- pewter- and now I have to decide how much of the rest to color match. I'm thinking the chrome might get painted pewter and I will leave the cross rails black.

 

[adventurenali92]

@Red Rocket , pewter for the chrome would look good!

 

[Rocket Man]

Saw my cowl hood today at my body shop. I am going in for a test fit tomorrow so I'll get a pic of it on my truck, prior to paint and bodywork.

 

[gat0r]

coming along nicely

 

[Rocket Man]

Had the hood test-fit today; now for bodywork and paint. He said next Wednesday probably.

 

[Rocket Man]

UPS dropped off the Esky roof rack today. I took it to my body shop (Thompson Autobody in Portland) and his wife took a look at the chrome side rails and said" we're not painting that, no way!" So I found Jim and said: hey will you paint this for me? And he said "sure!" It pays to have a friend with a body shop.

 

[Rocket Man]

A "before" picture from this weekend.

 

[mmeachem]

A "before" picture from this weekend.

View attachment 65831

The stance of your truck is perfect


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[05Single]

UPS dropped off the Esky roof rack today. I took it to my body shop (Thompson Autobody in Portland) and his wife took a look at the chrome side rails and said" we're not painting that, no way!" So I found Jim and said: hey will you paint this for me? And he said "sure!" It pays to have a friend with a body shop.

I still wouldn't trust paint on that chrome. I'm thinking of going with a vinyl wrap. Should be easy and cheap.

 

[Rocket Man]

I still wouldn't trust paint on that chrome. I'm thinking of going with a vinyl wrap. Should be easy and cheap.

Well he painted my chrome grill and it's holding up great. The side rails on the roof rack are easy to sand compared to the grill.

 

[05Single]

Well he painted my chrome grill and it's holding up great. The side rails on the roof rack are easy to sand compared to the grill.

But it's metal and actual real chrome where the grille is a fake chrome coating over the plastic. It's like painting a chrome bumper. Rarely works. Or better yet look into powder coating

 

[Rocket Man]

He will let me know if it won't work. I can always strip the chrome if needed. It will be color matched one way or another. PC or a wrap wont be CM.

 

[05Single]

He will let me know if it won't work. I can always strip the chrome if needed. It will be color matched one way or another. PC or a wrap wont be CM.

That's what Im saying , I don't think you can strip the chrome.
Either way hopefully I'm wrong cause I'd rather paint mine too.

 

[Rocket Man]

Chrome on METAL can be stripped, chrome on PLASTIC can't. I've been through all this with my grill, talking to chrome shops. If it's on metal, they can strip it. I don't know why you don't think it can't. They strip and rechrome bumpers all the time. Anyway, like I said, the rails are relatively flat surfaces that are accessible with a DA sander, which is what my painter is going to do. The plastic grill he had to hand sand which he said was a ***** and took forever. He owns a body shop, he's been doing this all his life and if it wasn't going to work, he'd tell me. He has a product that he sprays on before priming which he said is similar to self-etching primer but better. I'm not sure what it is. I'll post results.

 

[#1taho]

Had the hood test-fit today; now for bodywork and paint. He said next Wednesday probably.

View attachment 65676

View attachment 65677

View attachment 65678

Any imperfections with the hood ?

 

[Rocket Man]

Any imperfections with the hood ?

The box it came in was damaged and so there was a small dent in the cowl, and there was a spot on each side that he said needed a bit of work so he took out his body hammer and tapped it down a bit. He said they always need body work before painting or they look like shit. Can't just scuff and prime.

 

[05Single]

Lol well keep us posted.

 

[Rocket Man]

Will do! Supposed to drop the truck off in the next day or two so I'll know more then.

 

[Fosscore]

Just to throw my .02 in Red's thread. My front and rear real chrome OEM bumpers and fake chrome OEM grille have been color matched for over a year and still look great IMHO. As well as the rest of the color matched black plastic since mine is an LS.

 

[Rocket Man]

I stopped by the body shop today to check on progress. The hood has all body work done and is primed and the roof rack was sanded and in the process of being primed so I didn't get to see it but he assured me it was going to work; he said they just started with 80 grit and sanded the shit out of it. He said don't worry. But since it's going to be around 100 degrees here for the rest of the week and he's running out of time, we'll have to wait until early next week to drop the truck off and finish; he needs it for 2 days so I'm hoping it will be Tues-Wed and be done Wed night.