Yeah well sometimes I'm not so observant! Anyway it's fixed now but I'm thinking about buying the Retrofit Source's Morimoto HID conversion kits for them. Kinda spendy at $300 though.
Aftermarket tail lights
- Thread starter pnwdan
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pnwdan
Cunning linguist
See what happens? New tail lights turn into new appliques, then...anyway looks great! With me, the headlight that was messed up has turned into me starting out on a new look for the front of mine. The rest of my rig is black and Pewter and it always bothered me that there was this whole chrome thing going on up front. So I ordered new head lights , corner lights, and LED fog lights in black and then blacked out my Denali chrome grill using a black chrome effect kit. BIG mistake. Way too much black and I hadn't even installed the lights. So I stripped that off and went to my painter to see about color matching the chrome. That's turned into a whole new project. I don't care what others have said about painting over that chromed plastic, he said it won't last more than a couple years. So I have to find someone to strip it first, then I'll have it painted, then the lights. Seems nobody makes a paintable grill / surround for the NBS Denali's. And it seems we never quit modding our rigs. As an example, look what I did do my Street Glide. It never ends.
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pnwdan
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I painted my grill white. It's a pain to mask but it's been over a year. Rock chips show right away though. Nothing really sticks to chrome. So I figure I'll just redo it when I need it again. Dare I say I've considered just swapping to a normal yukon front?
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No don't do it! The Denali front end is sweet. I'll post up my results of stripping and painting. I actually ordered a new Denali grill so I can work on one and still have one on my truck. I've heard that chrome plating companies can strip them to bare plastic.
Countryboy07
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Please do post up your results! I'm looking into swapping my regular Yukon front end for a Denali, but want everything painted to match. Wonder how a vinyl wrap would hold up?
adventurenali92
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I'm thinking about color matching my denali grille too. But don't want to if it's going to be a major hassle haha.
I thought about a vinyl wrap but I see 2 problems. One is that it wouldn't be a color match and the other is that I don't think the honeycomb part would be able to be wrapped. A hydro dip would probably work but that would also not be a color match. I had a company do a carbon fiber dip on a motorcycle cowl and it looked pretty good, but that's not what I want for my Denali.
05Single
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The chrome is such a pain. I've never been able to paint chrome and have it last. There has to be a easy way to remove the chrome.
Only ways I've seen were intense sanding down to the plastic frame or razor blade and lots of tedious time. Also I've heard oven cleaner works but it's never worked for me.
Only ways I've seen were intense sanding down to the plastic frame or razor blade and lots of tedious time. Also I've heard oven cleaner works but it's never worked for me.
Today I received the new grill I ordered and so I attempted to remove the chrome from the old one. It has a few bad spots where the chrome was flaking so I figured I didn't want to paint it anyway unless it was stripped first. I have called every chrome shop in my area and they all said they could only strip chrome from metal. So far I have tried muriatic acid, a light pass with a propane torch, and paint remover. No oven cleaner yet. I soaked a rag with the acid and it seemed to remove SOMETHING. It was smoking and dripping something yellow onto the concrete. Might have been the actual chrome that was on the surface that it dissolved but it was still pretty shiny. I understand that is probably the nickel that's under the chromium. Not sure if that makes it more sandable or paintable. The paint stripper had no effect on either the chrome or the area that the acid was used on. The torch...now that's another matter. It bubbled the chrome instantly and I was careful to barely pass it over the surface. Where the chrome was real thin, like on the backside, it worked OK but in the main surface areas the coating was thick and there seemed to be a lot of glue. So when I heated it, it bubbled but as it cooled, the glue or whatever is underneath the chrome made a mess of things and after a lot of effort to get the chrome peeled there, it left lumpy glue areas mixed with what seemed to be the actual ABS raised up. Unpaintable without sanding heavily and even then, the glue just makes it about impossible to get a smooth surface that could be painted. So my old grill is now pretty much worthless except to keep my truck from looking TOO bad while I take the new one in to my painter. He said he'd scuff it and use an adhesion promoter but wouldn't guarantee it. I might use the acid before but I'll ask him first if it would help. It's a pain in the ass to use though. Spec-D makes a black one with a vertical center. I'm trying to find out if it's paintable but so far they haven't answered. Maybe I could remove the center part of the stocker and install it in it since I don't care for the vertical.
