Night0wl
Full Member
I just purchased an 06 Avalanche last week. I have always liked the look of the luggage rack and thought if I ever had an Avalanche that I would like to have the luggage rack especially for road trips where I could use a cargo carrier and not have to worry about the bed being bone dry with all of the families items.
I was able to pick up an 06 Avalanche luggage rack, a rear window motor, a set of steering wheel buttons (mine had some paint come off and the light was shinning through at night), a cargo box light (mine only had the drivers side) some decent gutters (mine were already torn and cracked) all for only $100.
Here is my install on the luggage rack. I ran into a couple of issues and hopefully this will help others attempting the same thing.
Here are the fasteners I used. Came from Fastenall. A pack of 10 for $16.
Here are some measurements on the fasteners
I made my first mistake by taking the measurement of the rivnut just under the collar. I used a 13/32 drill bit for the first hole. I should have used a 7/16 because the riv nut would not go in the hole. When I measured the rivnut again at the bottom I saw the larger diameter measurement.
This presented a dilemma because my bits have pilot bit points on them and they will not self center once a hole larger than 1/8 inch have been drilled.
So I had to improvise and use a step bit I had with a 7/16th level.
I ended up using this step bit for most of the holes if it was a single piece of sheet metal to go through. I will explain later.
you can click on the pics and see pics of the entire install.
Continued on next post.....
I was able to pick up an 06 Avalanche luggage rack, a rear window motor, a set of steering wheel buttons (mine had some paint come off and the light was shinning through at night), a cargo box light (mine only had the drivers side) some decent gutters (mine were already torn and cracked) all for only $100.
Here is my install on the luggage rack. I ran into a couple of issues and hopefully this will help others attempting the same thing.
Here are the fasteners I used. Came from Fastenall. A pack of 10 for $16.
Here are some measurements on the fasteners
I made my first mistake by taking the measurement of the rivnut just under the collar. I used a 13/32 drill bit for the first hole. I should have used a 7/16 because the riv nut would not go in the hole. When I measured the rivnut again at the bottom I saw the larger diameter measurement.
This presented a dilemma because my bits have pilot bit points on them and they will not self center once a hole larger than 1/8 inch have been drilled.
So I had to improvise and use a step bit I had with a 7/16th level.
I ended up using this step bit for most of the holes if it was a single piece of sheet metal to go through. I will explain later.
you can click on the pics and see pics of the entire install.
Continued on next post.....