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

[Rocket Man]

So, I decided to go with an MTX Thunderform enclosure which MTX says won't work with a Denali. This has to do with the fact that there's the stock Lux amp mounted in the way. I found here on the forum, that that amp could be mounted in the compartment that's built into the panel. Then the jack that was mounted back there needed to be mounted under the hood, where a second battery would go, and the tool kit went under the 2nd row seats. I ended up with a JL Audio 10" sub and a Soundstream Picasso nano 450 watt monoblock amp. It sounds real real good. And it's complete stealth.
I followed this member's install. ( the member's name is justplayinn) Keep in mind this is for the Denali's only. The Thunderform enclosure is for a 10" sub and they offer the allowable dimensions for it on their website.

From member "justplayinn":

I ordered the thunderform hoping it would fit in my 2001 Denali... I hated the box in the back and wanted my cargo space back...And it worked!! Here a few pics i took on the install



factory Bose sub and amp



after all removed



replaced the MTX sub with the Polk MM1040



cut a hole in the cubby and moved the factory Bose amp



with cubby bracket installed

 

[Rocket Man]

Here's my finished amp and speaker. The amp came with a remote gain control and combined with all the adjustments in the Sony HU, I have unlimited control over the entire system. I also later replaced the 4 door speakers with 2- ohm (Bose Lux amp compatible) JBL 628's. The hybrid system sounds great. I feel I'm using the best of both worlds, with the stock amp driving 8 satellite speakers ((2) A-pillar tweeters, (4) 6 1/2 door speakers and (2) rear pillar speakers, and the Soundstream amp driving the 10" JL sub.

 

[Rocket Man]

I also started working on the interior of the truck. First was the front seats. The bottoms were pretty worn so I ordered replacements from Richmond Auto Upholstery and followed their instructions to install them. And since the seats were going to be out, I decided to replace the dirty carpet. I looked at samples and finally decided on a color that was a bit darker than stock but wouldn't clash too much with what was on the backs of the 2nd row seats and bottom of the console. Here's a few shots before and after of the seats.

 

[Rocket Man]

Here's the new carpet. I also ordered a bit extra carpet and did the bottoms of the front door panels. The carpet was not too bad, cutting it was a ***** due to the mass backing I ordered it with. I opted to just cut slits where the bolts came through so the areas around the seats looked cleaner, instead of making cutouts like the factory stuff had. I was able to get the nuts started and then tighten things down. It came out real clean. I ended up buying a matching rug that fits the rear cargo area perfect. I needed the cutouts because I use my 3rd row seats occasionally. At this time, I also removed the speaker grills from the door panels and painted them with matching SEM 17163 paint.

 

[Rocket Man]

On the exterior there were a few things I wanted to fix up. The wiper arms were faded as well as all the black plastic on the running boards and rear bumper. I bought all new OEM wiper arms, then I removed all the faded plastic and at first I tried restoring it using the heatgun method but that only worked on the smooth areas. Where there was bumps, raised areas or other irregularities it turned it more white. I ended up using Krylon Fusion semi-gloss black paint. It came out nice and a year later it still looks great.

 

[Rocket Man]

At this point it was looking better inside and out. I bought some Esky rear appliques and had them color matched. Here's an exterior shot from that time. This was almost exactly a year ago, I believe.

 

[Rocket Man]

One other exterior item was bothering me- the exhaust tip. The Denali tip is fine, but mine was not looking so good and I wanted something that went with my black/ pewter theme so I bought this black chrome tip and installed it.

 

[Fosscore]

So much win in this thread. Great mods to a killer looking Denali. Nice work man.

 

[Rocket Man]

At this point my cats got clogged up and as I was looking into replacing them, I made the decision to use high-flow ones and right about then I started moving away from making the Denali look better to making the Denali faster and better-handling. I replaced the muffler along with the cats. I went with a Flowmaster 50 series which was pretty loud but fortunately I didn't experience a drone problem. I also installed a Spectre CAI and got rid of the terrible stock air intake. The Spectre isn't the best or most expensive CAI but it works well and I get a bit of an intake growl. Forgive the dirty engine bay in these pictures.

 

[Rocket Man]

Next I needed a tune and E-fans so I gave Blackbear performance a call and decided since they're never over here in Oregon to do an in-person tune, I'd opt for the Autocal purchase option which allows me to go out and drive around, doing data logging, e-mail them the log, and they e-mail me the tune files which I then load onto my ECM via the Autocal. At this time I had them activate the pin to enable control of Efans. The tune really woke the truck up, especially with the new intake and exhaust components. And calibrated my speedometer for my tires.