Side Panels (Wind sails?)

I have been trying to find a post about the plastic panels on our trucks.

I have a 2007 LTZ. The panels are all grey of course. I have also seen some vehicles that have smooth glossy plastic parts.

Does anyone know what vehicles came with this option and would it fit a 2007?

My Avvy color is the Malibu Green / Blue I guess I would be looking for smooth gloss black color.

Chris

You will find many posts about the "sail panels" of our AVs. From ways to restore the finish on up to replacing or painting them.
Basically the Cadillac EXT had the smooth painted sail panels first then around 2009 or so the AV had them as an option, the last year of the AV had all models with painted smooth cladding.
The cost to totally replace the upper cladding runs around $1,500-$2,000 in parts then the labor to install. (you could sand a prep the rough cladding yourself and save some in parts but it requires lots of labor to get best results.)

You will see many posts regarding the restoring of the plastic textured sail pieces, bed panels, as well as the lower cladding of the first generation Avalanches that were equipped with those pieces.

This is a very common theme in this forum and on the Facebook group pages.

Let me say first, under no circumstances, do you ever attempt to use a heat gun to try and revive any of your plastic pieces.

DON'T DO IT.

You can do your own research on that method, but do not fall for this when you see someone say that is the way to go.

It is not.

With that being said, if you are not inclined to replace your plastics with a set of factory smooth and painted pieces, like mentioned above, or you are not interested in smoothing out and painting your existing pieces, then there are many ways to apply products that will attempt to restore your existing pieces to a close to factory appearance.

The product I use to restore and maintain my bed covers (I have an EXT and the bed panels are, for the most part, the only pieces I have to worry about), is a product that generally gets good reviews from other owners, is the Carworx Refinish Restorer.

I won't go into the application and duration of this products since this has been discussed in depth here and on other Facebook groups.

Thank you for the replies.
I bought some spray the other day from Autozone that was called Maguiars Ultimate black.
First coat was splotchy so Ill let it dry and maybe spray another on top.
I was asking about which models had the smooth because I was going to try to find some and replace them myself.

I'll go research the sail panels topic again.

I use the ultimate black on my lower cladding it's about the easiest product to use for good results. It does take 2 coats the first time and expect to recoat about 3 times a year. If I remember right the EXT smooth cladding came on the 2010 ltz. Try eBay but they run 1,000 bucks plus. If you get lucky you can find some at the local salvage yard

Thank you. I'll check Ebay out. I am sure they are close to the same mounting.
Also, I did spray the ultimate black on.....I'll need another can as it is splotchy on just one coat and I took care to do it evenly. Seems great on the storage doors though. They seem to be not as faded as the sails and header panel with the brake light.

FYI be advised you will need not only the top cross member piece with the EXT third brake light but the inner and outer sail panel parts, top side boxes with drains as well as tailgate trim and bezel around the tailgate handle to eliminate all gaps between pieces. Then you will want a bag of cladding clips too since many clips break when you remove the cladding. Older threads have the part numbers and links to where to get the clips cheaper than a dealer.

Awesome info...thank you much.