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Rhino lining (bedliner) truck parts


Falko

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So, I'm sick of the plastic upkeep on the Avy. Every time I go out there it looks grey, and two shades of grey (not fifty though, so that's good). Thinking about having the plastic on the bed and boxes coated with Rhino. I don't have the full armor truck, so no side moldings except the little door rails which I might do as well. So I'd do the rear deck, and the plastic on the bumpers. Thoughts? Is Rhino lining over done now? Too fadish?

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Find an EXT and pull the smooth upper parts off and paint them to match. There were two companies that made stick-on smooth kits, but I think they're both gone now.

Silverado front bumpers fit, including the SS cover.

Pull/delete side moldings.

My personal choice for the lower body would be to buy a Denali XL and swap the front clip, all the lower body cladding, rear bumper cover, running boards, etc. over

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10 hours ago, jk13 said:

Find an EXT and pull the smooth upper parts off and paint them to match. There were two companies that made stick-on smooth kits, but I think they're both gone now.

Silverado front bumpers fit, including the SS cover.

Pull/delete side moldings.

My personal choice for the lower body would be to buy a Denali XL and swap the front clip, all the lower body cladding, rear bumper cover, running boards, etc. over

That's a lot of work on the switch over. Just trying to not look at the dull plastic. The EXT thing isn't bad, the whole Denali switch would be a big more intensive.

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34 minutes ago, Falko said:

That's a lot of work on the switch over. Just trying to not look at the dull plastic. The EXT thing isn't bad, the whole Denali switch would be a big more intensive.

It's not always easy to have the coolest truck around...

J/K, just giving you options and I knew that part would be a reach. I've just wanted to build a Denavalanche/Denali EXT ever since it was a possibility. Denali is by far my favorite trim package on that body style and I dig the Avalanche, so it makes sense to me to marry the two.

Edited by jk13
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I have the older Avy, not the newer one. So not sure the Denali changeover of that year would work? Besides, I kind of like the slant aggressive eyes of that nose. Add a bully bar to the front and it accents it nicely.

Just checked out duplicolor site. I can get bed liner from them or do their new removable wrap paint.  Still kind of like the bedliner idea, just not reversible.

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Bedliner will fade every bit as fast as that plastic. Maybe faster. There are pretty good bed coatings out there but they are not meant to look pretty as much as protect the bed. Painting them would be a good solution but expensive. 

I hate black plastic on vehicles for this reason. They take a ton of cleaning and maintenance to look good. 

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Yes, the '06 and prior SUV in Denali trim is still one of the best looking trucks on the road IMO. In an ideal world I'd take the money and time to swap all the body trim on the lower doors and rockers, along with the running boards and painted bumper covers. This picture is a short one, but your Avalanche body is the same as the XL/Suburban version and all the parts are direct fit. But again, I was throwing that out there more as a 'this will never happen' long shot scenario.

Denali_zpshri28tnv.jpg

Nothing wrong with your 'angry eyes' front end. Can look really good too. I like it with the SS front bumper, but I'm a street truck guy, not an off-roader.

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17 minutes ago, robbennett said:

Bedliner will fade every bit as fast as that plastic. Maybe faster. There are pretty good bed coatings out there but they are not meant to look pretty as much as protect the bed. Painting them would be a good solution but expensive. 

I hate black plastic on vehicles for this reason. They take a ton of cleaning and maintenance to look good. 

A lot of the bedliner materials have UV inhibitors and/or a UV final coat now. They hold up pretty well. But that is why I am thinking about the removable wrap paint might be a better option. I have a paint booth here and compressor and HVLP gun. So that might be an option. This isn't a great truck to dump much money into. But if I can keep it looking good, I'll be less likely to go to something else.

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14 minutes ago, jk13 said:

Yes, the '06 and prior SUV in Denali trim is still one of the best looking trucks on the road IMO. In an ideal world I'd take the money and time to swap all the body trim on the lower doors and rockers, along with the running boards and painted bumper covers. This picture is a short one, but your Avalanche body is the same as the XL/Suburban version and all the parts are direct fit. But again, I was throwing that out there more as a 'this will never happen' long shot scenario.

Nothing wrong with your 'angry eyes' front end. Can look really good too. I like it with the SS front bumper, but I'm a street truck guy, not an off-roader.

That's a sharp looking truck. I too like the SS bumper and have thought about getting one. I actually want to lower the truck 2" in the front and level the rear. But again, not looking to dump much money into it, just looking to prevent dumping money into another truck.

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Paint it then! just get some black or body color base and clear it with a good high solids clear. Will look awesome! 

I did this to some black plastic on vehicles before and it held up great. Just wash the parts with dish soap for a few washes before. I just leveled it with some 320 grit then good adhesion promoter (I use SEM XXX) and 3 or 4 coats high build primer after that. Block it down with 500 and go. 

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I have to be careful with the texture and sanding. The texture is very rough, and filling it with multiple layers of primer might make it look goopy.

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17 minutes ago, Falko said:

That's a sharp looking truck. I too like the SS bumper and have thought about getting one. I actually want to lower the truck 2" in the front and level the rear. But again, not looking to dump much money into it, just looking to prevent dumping money into another truck.

We did the Ground Force 2.5" rear kit (p/n 1086) on my Dad's and was able adjust the front down to level with the factory torsion bar keys. Cheap and easy. I know the Silverado SS front bumper cover will fit, unsure about the rear SS bumper being a direct fit. I'm sure an aftermarket rear cover could be made to work with some adjustment.

If you don't want to buy a new truck a couple minor mods like these can make it look and feel like a different vehicle.  

You are correct that filling in the texture can be a real trick. I have seen them painted with the texture, and while it's much nicer than the raw plastic, to me it would be worth searching out the smooth parts in the used market. car-part.com is a great place to begin. Be sure to search Cadillac EXT and not Avalanche.

Edited by jk13
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If I paint them, I'm going with a Matte color anyway, so the texture shouldn't make a difference. I'd like to matte the whole truck in dk grey or olive green and do the trim in matte black. Lower it the 2" and add the bully bar, Fuel Beast wheels in 18", kind of an urban warrior. But again, much time and expense.

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3 minutes ago, Falko said:

If I paint them, I'm going with a Matte color anyway, so the texture shouldn't make a difference. I'd like to matte the whole truck in dk grey or olive green and do the trim in matte black. Lower it the 2" and add the bully bar, Fuel Beast wheels in 18", kind of an urban warrior. But again, much time and expense.

That would be a cool truck!

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I heat gunned them already. Lasted about 2 months. And the trim is now to the point that it is two different colors, drives me nuts.

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Yes, but the material plasticizes well within the temperature of the heat gun. I don't really trust myself with a torch, and the large area of the plastic would be hard to do without streaking, no?

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3 minutes ago, Falko said:

Yes, but the material plasticizes well within the temperature of the heat gun. I don't really trust myself with a torch, and the large area of the plastic would be hard to do without streaking, no?

never had issues with the jeep flares.  On them streaking indicated not enough heat

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More worried about even heat over such a large surface. The deck lids are about 2'x4' and there are three of them. Then all the upper box covers and such. Just more surface area than flares.

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I have two large (about 2' by 4') aluminum covers for hatches on the back deck of my houseboat. I had them coated with Rhino liner to match the Trex decking around them. The Rhino liner had a pretty matte finish to start with, but has gotten more so with time. It looks even a little chalky. The color has faded quite a bit too. Luckily, the people that did my coating told me it would fade so I went a little darker to start with and it has now faded to pretty much match the Trex. If I were looking for a finish more likely to retain its color and any gloss at all, I would be more inclined to look at power coating.

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Luckily my 2nd Gen EXT has no plastic.  When I had my 1st Gen Avalanche (full body hardware - I'm not a fan of the Silverado front end on the WBH models) most of my molding stayed looking good, only the upper bed side (covers, upper "roll bar" trim and side storage bins) really took a BAD beating by the sun.  If I were to have kept it and dumped money into it, I would have swapped those with EXT parts and left the rest as-is.  That said, mine was an '02 with the lighter cladding - the '03-'06 with the darker cladding shows the fading more drastically. 

Most of the paint jobs I've seen on the cladding looks like total hell.  I say torch the small stuff and EXT swap the rest. 

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I don't see how spraying Bedliner on a large flat flexible plastic trim panels can end up well.

you are headed for an internet meme joke in a few years.

there aren't many great options.  You can replace body panels with others and recommended above--- but that will take 10x longer and 10x more expensive and difficult even than described above.  That advice is akin to the same clown advice on here of swapping a tranny in your driveway on your daily driver on a Saturday. So super easy a real man could do it.

you can try to paint --- also headed to long term garbage results.

Blowtorch plastic to change colors? Ok ya super.

your real options:

1. Deal with it and drive the truck.

2. Get rid of the truck and buy a truck that isn't 35% exterior plastic

 

 

 

 

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