My
HD Hood is done!!
Figured I do a little write up from acquisition to install, which took about 1 month. Thanksgiving to Christmas 2015.
Here is the thread put together by Young28 with all the specific model and year info that you need to know regarding the HD hood for your Tahoe or Yukon.
http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/hd-hood-swap.54958/
The day before Thanksgiving I found a posting online at one of the junkyards in Hialeah (
aka Cuban Town) in southeast Miami for a 2002 Chevy Silverado 2500HD. I jumped in the work Suburban and drove down to the first yard about 45 minutes away. I walked around the yard with the forklift driver who knew where every truck was. They were all confused about what HD hood I was after, even after I had called to confirm its existence before I drove to the yard. No luck.
The smaller yard next door had a completely mismatched 2002 Chevy Silverado 2500HD body with a rusted hood that had just come in. I almost gave it a miss, but decided to go have a look since I was there. The owner of the yard walked me directly to the truck as he had just bought it a few days earlier. The hood was completely rusted over, but it turned out to only be surface rust. There was a small rust blister underneath the heat shield, which is in perfect shape for a 2002. I ran my hand all over the top of the hood and it felt and looked in great shape. No wrinkles or massive dents indicating a crash or otherwise.
The owner wanted $50 for the hood. I offered him $40. I still cannot believe it! They even took it off the truck and loaded it into the Suburban for me with a smile. It was all I could do to contain my excitement right there after scoring that HD hood for so cheap. I know he did not even realize the value of what that hood means to guys like us.
When I showed the hood to my wife initially on my phone, she said she liked the one I already had and why did I need another hood? Because it's an HD hood woman!! Don't you know that? ssheeesh...So when I brought it home from the junk yard and asked her to help me dry fit it, I was able to properly show her why the HD hood was just more aggressive and sexy at the same time. She finally understood. She likes the "chunky" look of that front end and rise from the sides to the crease.
Now it was time to spend the money saved on the actual purchase and get it painted. I ordered up a quart of Dark Ming Blue Metallic paint ($100) from
automotivetouchup.com and dropped off the hood for prep work at the painters. One week later after the paint arrived, the hood already had 5 coats of primer, the corrosion was gone and a couple small dings on top were faired in. It already looked good in grey primer.
I came back the next week and they had used the entire quart on the underside of the hood. They needed another quart, but hey that meant the topcoat was going on heavy. So I ordered up another quart ($100) and waited another week for it to arrive. I dropped that quart off and waited for the final product. When I returned to pick up the hood just before Christmas, the boys had seriously sorted me out with some extra detail work. They hit the top side with the entire second quart of paint and put 6 coats of clear on. They only charged me $300 for all the labor and materials. Final HD hood cost all in was $540. No complaints considering they didn't charge me at all for the last color matching project I dropped off to them.
Here are the pics from rust to install. Aggressive and Sexy. Super stoked!!