07-11 Southern Comfort Avalanche Upper Cladding Kit aka "Slick Kit"

[felixgun]

After talking to a local custom auto shop, they said that they do not recommend painting the side sail panels on the Avalanche because it is the unpainted/textured grey that will just not stick to paint (as well as others, that is). They said a lot of people get it done but it chips easily and no one is really satisfied. The route that everyone goes when wanting to color match the exterior of their Avalanche's, is getting the Escalade EXT rear conversion (which after hunting for hours on end, is impossible, because apparently it's a rare truck to have parts for). Another route is getting the Southern Comfort "Slick Kit" which covers up all the stock parts via 3M adhesive tape kinda like on the door side mouldings. The guy at the shop said Escalade EXT's come stock with something similar to this that is actually cladding OVER the side sail panels/rear parts/etc, NOT a replacement/different cladding panel set... Anyways i'm at a loss if I should just save up and get the factory OEM escalade EXT rear so I can have color matched side panels, OR get this SoCo slick kit for 850 shipped on eBay... if anyone has more info (OR PICS!!!) on this please let me know:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_W0Q...49QQsspagenameZSTRKQ3aMEWAXQ3aIT#ht_668wt_948

If ANYONE finds pics of anyone else doing this, please post pics! I can only find the gross stock two tone red/black photo that the ebay page has on google. Thanks guys.

Felix

 

[soulsea]

Mmm ... not sure how much more the Caddy one is over the SC but it does look a little cleaner to me:

It could be the pic quality but the esky one looks better color matched in both color and gloss.

 

[felixgun]

Yea the caddy one is way more I'm pretty sure. I really like the look of the color matched panels. Guess this ones going on the mod list. Thanks for the pics Serge!

 

[yates ™]

Does the not painted pieces bother you since it is black? I guess I need to look one up because to me it doesn't sound like it would look bad the way it is.

Edit: I now see where you are coming from and it does look odd especially since i'm sure you will/do have chrome door handles and the like...

 

[Ceejkay]

are these plastic of some sort?? If they are the body shop needs to rethink the materials used. There are a few of us that paint plastic cars for kids that get run into things and dont have much problems. take a look at this link here he tells exactly the materials used, and he has done a few of them this way

 

[yates ™]

Couldn't they be sanded smooth and then painted? People paint plastic all the time and it holds up as long as it is prepped correctly.

 

[THE YETI]

Yeah Felix, I know folks who had theirs done RIGHT. It's sanded down smooth and painted. No issues whatsoever. The shop you went to appears to be lazy or against custom work. I haven't seen anyone have any issues with painting avalanche plastics.

 

[felixgun]

Does the not painted pieces bother you since it is black? I guess I need to look one up because to me it doesn't sound like it would look bad the way it is.

Edit: I now see where you are coming from and it does look odd especially since i'm sure you will/do have chrome door handles and the like...

That is pretty much what it looked like whenever I first got it actually. So far I added the new LTZ side mouldings and the bowties are blacked out. Esky roof rack is tomorrow and I wanna paint the side panels ASAP. I will call another place in town today and get a pricing on them to just paint it all...

---------- Post added at 01:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:48 PM ----------

Couldn't they be sanded smooth and then painted? People paint plastic all the time and it holds up as long as it is prepped correctly.

The original shop said that a LOT of people get this done and it ends up chipping ...

 

[OHSIXX]

For the price I think the kit is worth it...it looks pretty good.....didn't take long for the MODDING....did it??

 

[felixgun]

are these plastic of some sort?? If they are the body shop needs to rethink the materials used. There are a few of us that paint plastic cars for kids that get run into things and dont have much problems. take a look at this link here he tells exactly the materials used, and he has done a few of them this way

Yea they are unpainted textured plastic.. I just don't want to paint it and it look kind of... half ass...

---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:51 PM ----------

Yeah Felix, I know folks who had theirs done RIGHT. It's sanded down smooth and painted. No issues whatsoever. The shop you went to appears to be lazy or against custom work. I haven't seen anyone have any issues with painting avalanche plastics.

Realllllly? Hmm well it looks like this might still be up in the air. I'd be out 850 BEFORE it had to get painted so if I can avoid buying this kit I will... They just said a lot of people have done this and it always messes up... the guy I even talked to owned an Avy... hmmmm...

---------- Post added at 01:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:53 PM ----------

For the price I think the kit is worth it...it looks pretty good.....didn't take long for the MODDING....did it??

The modding is in full affect lol... i've been bit by the mod bug several times now...

Now that everyone is saying I can just paint it all this money can just go towards paint if it can be done correctly... I am going to have to call and get that estimate ASAP and weigh out my options... I really don't want THAT many stuck on pieces on there and would rather have the actual thing painted.