Pete's (Now Nate's) 2003 Denali Budget Build thread

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

OP
OP
Sevenevez

Sevenevez

Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2012
Posts
1,202
Reaction score
3,321
Location
Arizona
yeah i agree. consistency. why a honeycomb upper and a horizontal bar lower???
also. if i did a billet matching lower, i would cut it for the tow hooks, so i can still pull people out of situations. form function and fashion
 

kwOH

Banned
Joined
Jun 19, 2016
Posts
2,958
Reaction score
3,514
yeah i agree. consistency. why a honeycomb upper and a horizontal bar lower???
also. if i did a billet matching lower, i would cut it for the tow hooks, so i can still pull people out of situations. form function and fashion
Or if you ever break down, so they can pull you up onto the flatbed .
 

adventurenali92

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2015
Posts
7,415
Reaction score
8,663
Location
Big Bear Lake, ca
I'll be leaving mine as is. I have the rare Denali Down Under matching lower that I replaced the stock plastic piece with. And I need that lower one with the flow-through because that's where my Tru-Cool trans cooler is mounted since I installed my intercooler for the Whipple in front of the radiator and didn't want to triple-stack things. But yours looks good.
This!^ Lol. This is why I didn’t go the billet route with my grill. I think your billet looks great, and like you said looks good in combo with the lower stock plastic piece! I too like @Rocket Man , have a rare Denali Down Under grill that matches my upper stock chrome honeycomb. I scored mine from another member that demodded before he sold his Denali:)() but i love having it! lol. Anyways enough of my rambling, trucks look good! Like the billet in the middle of color matched grill!
 
Last edited:

05Single

afraid of the dark
Joined
Feb 26, 2015
Posts
8,186
Reaction score
11,456
Curious on the DDU grille. Is it plastic or metal?
And what size diameter are the holes ?
 

adventurenali92

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2015
Posts
7,415
Reaction score
8,663
Location
Big Bear Lake, ca
Or if you ever break down, so they can pull you up onto the flatbed .
DDU made a two versions of the full across the opening down under grill. One with openings for tow hooks and one without. Unfortunately the one that I scored is the one without openings. So I got no hooks up front. Lol. So if I need a tow he ain’t hookin up to hooks which is kinda scary. Lol. But that bridge hasn’t been hit yet so I haven’t worries about it.
 
OP
OP
Sevenevez

Sevenevez

Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2012
Posts
1,202
Reaction score
3,321
Location
Arizona
Paint your own vehicle in your own garage:

I will try to be as detailed as i can here, so it may be a bit boring for some of you OG's.
After all, a big part of this build is to show people that things be done all on your own on a budget and still get some awesome results.
I hope somehow it motivates other people in the future to do the same.

I have only painted a handful of vehicles in my days and my last one was about 10 years ago.

After weeks of bodywork and prep i have been watching the weather report and saw that this weekend would be ideal. I asked for Friday off work and mentally prepared myself to literally pull the trigger and commit. Many of you have seen the mockups i have been doing since the day i got this Denali so this is a bit of a Milestone for me in this build. I have to say it was VERY taxing on my body to fight through this weekend and get it done. I had a lot of help from my buddy Garett so that definitely sped a lot of the process up and i am thankful. I planned on doing it myself but even just one friend there to help hold the hose, mix paint and mask is very invaluable when time is racing.

Ok, lets get to it.
Thursday night i taped and masked everything to be able to start laying down the black.
I also had to get 3/8in pipe from Home Depot to hook up my filtration. (without it you will be spraying water drops and oil and other crap into your paint)

d342.jpg

after installing all of this i noticed my new compressor had a pretty wicked air leak right under the pressure switch, but i tested the gun with water and i made a decision to go through with it. I didnt want to push another weekend and return/swap the compressor out because the temperature was going to be 60 or less, and you need 60 degrees or above to paint as a general rule.

This is where the leak was.

d343.jpg

Moonroof, Windows, buttons, wheelwells front end all taped off.

d344.jpg

d345.jpg

Then i taped off the radius line to split the colors. This took me hours to get it all with a clean smooth curve on both sides using professional pinstripe tape then filled it with more auto body tape. I knew it would be the last color to spray so it had to stick through all my basecoats of color and double/triple taping/masking.

d346.jpg

d348.jpg

I wanted to do something different in the rear instead of a boring straight line or subtle curve so i freestyled this out by hand taping and making sure each side aligned with the side curves already laid.

d349.jpg

d350.jpg

d351.jpg

Then taped off a paper mask skirt to protect the lower from the dark black. I wanted the Bermuda Blue to be on a light base not a dark one to show more personallity in the hue(s)

d352.jpg

d353.jpg

d354.jpg

d355.jpg
 

Tonyrodz

Resident Resident
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Posts
31,711
Reaction score
47,449
Location
Central Jersey
Paint your own vehicle in your own garage:

I will try to be as detailed as i can here, so it may be a bit boring for some of you OG's.
After all, a big part of this build is to show people that things be done all on your own on a budget and still get some awesome results.
I hope somehow it motivates other people in the future to do the same.

I have only painted a handful of vehicles in my days and my last one was about 10 years ago.

After weeks of bodywork and prep i have been watching the weather report and saw that this weekend would be ideal. I asked for Friday off work and mentally prepared myself to literally pull the trigger and commit. Many of you have seen the mockups i have been doing since the day i got this Denali so this is a bit of a Milestone for me in this build. I have to say it was VERY taxing on my body to fight through this weekend and get it done. I had a lot of help from my buddy Garett so that definitely sped a lot of the process up and i am thankful. I planned on doing it myself but even just one friend there to help hold the hose, mix paint and mask is very invaluable when time is racing.

Ok, lets get to it.
Thursday night i taped and masked everything to be able to start laying down the black.
I also had to get 3/8in pipe from Home Depot to hook up my filtration. (without it you will be spraying water drops and oil and other crap into your paint)

d342.jpg

after installing all of this i noticed my new compressor had a pretty wicked air leak right under the pressure switch, but i tested the gun with water and i made a decision to go through with it. I didnt want to push another weekend and return/swap the compressor out because the temperature was going to be 60 or less, and you need 60 degrees or above to paint as a general rule.

This is where the leak was.

d343.jpg

Moonroof, Windows, buttons, wheelwells front end all taped off.

d344.jpg

d345.jpg

Then i taped off the radius line to split the colors. This took me hours to get it all with a clean smooth curve on both sides using professional pinstripe tape then filled it with more auto body tape. I knew it would be the last color to spray so it had to stick through all my basecoats of color and double/triple taping/masking.

d346.jpg

d348.jpg

I wanted to do something different in the rear instead of a boring straight line or subtle curve so i freestyled this out by hand taping and making sure each side aligned with the side curves already laid.

d349.jpg

d350.jpg

d351.jpg

Then taped off a paper mask skirt to protect the lower from the dark black. I wanted the Bermuda Blue to be on a light base not a dark one to show more personallity in the hue(s)

d352.jpg

d353.jpg

d354.jpg

d355.jpg
That's alooooot of work!
 

Forum statistics

Threads
132,762
Posts
1,873,816
Members
97,594
Latest member
Jcurt
Top