Lets make my 03 Denali pretty

[greezy]

Hi people

New to the forums. I was changing out the water pump on my black 2003 GMC Denali today and realized it might be time to give her a face lift. The paint is FUBAR!!! Clear coat peeling all over the place. Stock everything on this thing. Here's a list of what I want to do in the coming months:

-Paint (Flat matte black)
-Wheels/tires (2014 Sierra 20" matte black)
-Better looking hood (Cowl or something)
-Side mirrors (drivers side mirror cover is damaged)
-Head and tail lights
-Rear panel things the Escalade has that are body color

That's what I want to do to the outside. The inside I'm not touching yet because there is no rips or cracks anywhere. I have a few questions.

1. What's the biggest tires I can sit on with stock autoride (I read on this forum 305/55/20. Just cross checking) I live in a place (Oregon) that gets some snow during the winter and rain throughout the year so I want some beef

2. Are there other options for hoods besides cowl or those weird looking ws6 hoods? I'd like a stock hood that has some lines but I don't know what fits from different years/models.

3. Can I use any mirrors that might have come with this vehicle? I'm not sure if mine are heated or if I will need heated mirrors because this is my first time living where it snows.

4. Any recommendations on lights? Keep in mind I'm going for a flat black finish all the way around


Thanks guys and gals for any input you can give me.


Part numbers for reference #15045877 and #15045878

 

[EzSkAnKeN]

Wheel and tire combo for fitment I'm not sure of. But yeah good call on the matte black. Don't want chrome when they start spraying salt in the winter.

You can do a HD Sierra front clip conversion same year.

If you don't have heated stock mirrors, then adding heated mirrors won't work. IIRC anyway.

Cleared stock headlights, and then get some LED tails. Smoked looks good, but why get pulled over for something silly like that. If that's a law. Wife got pulled over by a state trooper in eastern Oregon for her tint.

 

[drakon543]

You can get pulled over in pa for tail lights tinted too dark since it makes the lights less visible. Easy work around is just to upgrade the lighting in the tail lights to make them brighter to compensate for the darker lense. As far as tires and rims id stick with an after market 17 or 18 and stick something meaty on those. Just a personal choice tho im just not into rims bigger than that.

 

[Rocket Man]

Don't worry about smoked tail lights in Oregon, I live in Portland and ALL my lights are smoked, no problems. Just go with LED.

 

[greezy]

+1 about not worrying about police. I'm from Ca where they pull you over for everything. I don't even see police anymore here in Or. And, if I do get pulled over, it's only a fix it ticket. My front windows are tinted to where you can see inside the truck at all and I've never been pulled over for it. My original car scenes were street races (Muscle cars) and tickets are just an extra tax for being better than everyone else lol

@InTruckDesign ran 305/55/20 and I like the way it looks on his truck. I'm not worried about slight modifications to get them to fit. My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.

 

[adventurenali92]

All 2003-2006 denalis came with heated side view mirrors. Standard feature. They should be power adjustable, fold away, heated and driver side is auto dim, and the adjustment feature ties into your memory function. You can pick up a mirror from any full size that has those features. Which would be all the upper end trim package tahoes, suburbans, avy, SLT and Denali package yukon and XL and all the esky packages as well as the Silverado and Sierra in those upper trim packages. Just make sure it's 2003-2006 and you should be good to go.

 

[greezy]

Thanks for the info. I've never seen a button for heating up the mirrors. Is it auto? I know about the folding mirrors. They're awesome for parking lots

 

[adventurenali92]

The heat function is tied into your window defrost button for the rest window. The small rectangle button far right on your climate controls. Its for a rectangle on it with little wavy arrows going up through the rectangle. That button engages rear window defrost and heated mirrors. Yeah the power fold away is great. I use it just about everywhere I park. Be aware sometimes the little gear in the 2003-2006 mirror that turns to fold the mirror away goes bad and doesnt hold the mirror in place when it's folded out. I have many clients with nbs style full sizes and some of one's closer to 2003 and 2004 mirrors aren't solid. When I go to dry off the mirror or clean glass they push in or out just by the pressure from my hand. Mine doesn't have that issue yet fortunately but I have a 2006 with under 100k. Lol.

 

[greezy]

Oh ok. I hit 100k on my 03 in late may finally. 108k now because of the move. My mirror folds fine now but I'll make sure I hang on to the old ones if I buy new ones.


Here's where I get exposed as a noob. What's nbs?

 

[adventurenali92]

Oh I dont know if they go bad @ 100k Lol that was just my train of thought. . You can buy new mirrors on eBay pretty easy so if you're buying mirrors and you get new you shouldn't have to worry about it. No such thing as a noob! Just less learned than some of the other guys here. I didn't know it until after i bought mine. GM designated our body style as NBS. couldn't tell you why. But that's what they designated it haha. The pre 2000 full size is designated OBS, The 2007-2014 full size rides are designated NNBS.