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Painted Cladding Avalanches

J

jewvalanche

GUEST
I'm looking for some pics of painted avalanches. If you have them can you please post them here. Tell me how much you paid, and if you had any problems. If you live in south florida, I'd like to meet up and possibly see your truck and go to the body shop that did the work. A lot of shops talk a good game, but I want see some expierenced AV painters.
 
Click on the link under my siggy...

Total Cost to me was about $1500...
 
You can click on the picture trail link below. There are multiple albums there. Ignore the Digby ones unless you are a fan of Great Pyr dogs.

There is an album of pictures taken right after the painting. The last album shows the most current pics and latest mods including spoiler, visor rims etc.

The cost was about 2600-2700 Canadain which is 1700-1800 US. This included the cost of clips.
This cost included smoothing the cladding which adds a lot of extra work. Make sure they put a flex additve in the paint.
 
Well you can watch as I paint mine. At my webshots site I'll be posting Pics when I'm not Sanding. Mid september I hope to put her back together. I will be driving my 1/2 AV to work every day and sanding the other half at night.
I will be using Tec-base from NAPA. I'M starting with a catalyst primer With flex addative at 10% through out.
The botom and top sides are going Pewter. What clading that I do not paint Pewter is going a darker charcoal.
Come and see what an AV looks like without rear bumper. :eek:
Next is Neked And more!


http://community.webshots.com/user/alaskaav >:D
 
This is great, I hope guys follow up on the posting.

Alaska AV, I'll be looking foward to your project. By the way, when you instaled the EXT cluster (which I am drooling over) how did you get the milage on there? is it the computer or did the dealer have to reprogram it. By the way, absolutely beautiful country in Alaska.

Sparky, your truck looks sharp!!! What size tires or on the truck with the DJM?

Flynhigh, your truck look just plain EVIL!!!! The old people here in Florida would be afraid to leave Century Villiage if they came across your truck!!! The truck looks sweet, It great that the truck can be a cruiser like Sparky's or a bruiser like yours.

 
Jew V. No one I could find In the state, could program the cluster. Went to my service dept, showed them a low net price for the cluster. that he tried to match! ?;D

He had it programed by his source. They replace clusters all the time because of bum gages, and treated mine as such. I keep a service log of receipts as a back up in case of ? mileage. But I plan to have this thing for life. And at 28.000 miles a year the miles wont mater much soon any way. >:D

Hope that helps. Just striped my truck of cladding 20 min before a thunder storm >:D Will be posting soon!
 
jewvalanche said:
This is great, I hope guys follow up on the posting.

Alaska AV, I'll be looking foward to your project. By the way, when you instaled the EXT cluster (which I am drooling over) how did you get the milage on there? is it the computer or did the dealer have to reprogram it. By the way, absolutely beautiful country in Alaska.

Sparky, your truck looks sharp!!! What size tires or on the truck with the DJM?

Flynhigh, your truck look just plain EVIL!!!! The old people here in Florida would be afraid to leave Century Villiage if they came across your truck!!! The truck looks sweet, It great that the truck can be a cruiser like Sparky's or a bruiser like yours.
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THey are 20" Epic Blix's. By going with 20 and not 22 you are still left with quite a bit of rubber on the wheel. 22's and you are getting down to some thin tires unless you want to increase the overall tire size.

The stock height is 31". I made a mistake and allowed the dealer to put on a tire one size lower than best, so mine is now about 30.5, but I'll fix that when I replace the tires. Plan to have the truck for some time.
 
sparky said:
THey are 20" Epic Blix's. By going with 20 and not 22 you are still left with quite a bit of rubber on the wheel. 22's and you are getting down to some thin tires unless you want to increase the overall tire size.

The stock height is 31". I made a mistake and allowed the dealer to put on a tire one size lower than best, so mine is now about 30.5, but I'll fix that when I replace the tires. Plan to have the truck for some time.
Click to expand...


many dealers use the goodyear eagle gtll which is a 285 50 20 when you need a 295 50 20 :0: think they would know what is the right size and not just use a tire cuz it is cheap
 
goo929 said:
?The thing I didn't get was the plunger from the Dodge mini-van--what's that for? ?What's the scoop (in a nutshell)?

Nice scenery that Alaska... ?Must visit sometime.

Brendan
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It's the power lock out of a doner door.
I'm replacing the key lock on the tailgate with it. So now when you push the buton to lock or unlock the rear doors the tailgate will also >:D

Come on up anytime.
 
Wow!! Alaska, you are really putting that sander to work. I see you are nottaking the bumper off. Why aren't you painting the lower part of the cladding (bumper)? I'm going to use your truck as a project of mine as well. Are you going to paint the cladding on your own?
 
jewvalanche said:
Wow!! Alaska, you are really putting that sander to work. I see you are nottaking the bumper off. Why aren't you painting the lower part of the cladding (bumper)? I'm going to use your truck as a project of mine as well. Are you going to paint the cladding on your own? ?
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Yes, no sander is safe around my place right now! That little mouse sander is awsome for geting around the lettering (y)

I ground down to flat plastic so I do not have a thick layer of primer and filler that could crack and chip badly.

Leaving the front bumper on. It is far easyer to sand this piece on the truck. The center of the bumper and lower center of the doors are not being painter pewter. I'm also not sanding them, as a contrast.

After I paint the rest of the truck I'll stand back and decide weather i'll leave the unpainted clading, natural or a darker charcoal.

Oh ya man, I'm painting her myself, In a past life I did collision body and paint for a living. Some costoms and show cars also.

Hope this novel covers your ?'s >:D
 
Has anyone experienced paint chips or dings on the cladding. I am thinking about having my cladding painted but am concerned about the damage to the front by bugs, rocks, and road debris, and doors being opened into my AV. How has the paint held up?
 
Alaska_AV said:
Yes, no sander is safe around my place right now! That little mouse sander is awsome for geting around the lettering (y)

I ground down to flat plastic so I do not have a thick layer of primer and filler that could crack and chip badly.

Leaving the front bumper on. It is far easyer to sand this piece on the truck. .

After I paint the rest of the truck I'll stand back and decide weather i'll leave the unpainted clading, natural or a darker charcoal.

Oh ya man, I'm painting her myself, In a past life I did collision body and paint for a living. Some costoms and show cars also.

Hope this novel covers your ?'s >:D
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That seemslike a good idea >:D Are you doing the back bumper?
 
sparky said:
Are you doing the back bumper?
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Thats a hard one. I have no idea yet.
I would like to paint it but that wouldn't go with the rear quarter pannel lay out. I am going to replace the plastic dimond plate w/cleered alominomminumnium plate. That would go best with a darker cladding colour. I'll just wait till next weekend after i spray her. No need to rush into a bad plan.....again >:D

I'm now wet sanding the final prime with 400 grit. Then I'm going to spray sealer on them. Cut in the edges and reinstall the lower cladding. And paint them on the truck.
The sails will be painted off the truck along with the tail gate.
Still all my friends don't just drop by anymore >:D
Wiki- The paint I'm useing is the same used on any car or truck on plastic bumpers or steel. Just with flex added. Done right it will last for years. I expect some chips Just no cracking.
 
flynhigh said:
Click on the link under my siggy...

Total Cost to me was about $1500...
Click to expand...

Looking good!! I enjoyed your pictures! Looks like you had some fun on the trails. If I can find someone to paint my AV Cladding for $1500 or less I am going to do it for sure now. Painted cladding adds alot to the looks of these beasts! >:D Gives it a touch of class!
 
That looks nice, I would like to paint the cladding on my truck, but, will have to wait in line behind other mods first. AKA CHEAPER MODS FIRST :)
 
Very Cool Alaska!!!
 
3 weeks and $700.00, you 2 can paint cladding >:D

thanks for the comments.

AK_AV.jpg
 

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Looks great!!!!

I see you didn't paint the bumpers or the rear step. I guess they are the most prone to scuffing and the cladding will take the abuse. Can this project be done with 2 people over a weekend? Lets say rip off valdding on a friday night, sand and prep saturday, paint on sunday, assemble monday? is this possible? How many man hours of work did you put into it?
 
Very nice Alaska, it looks great. One helluva project!
 
jewvalanche said:
Looks great!!!!

I see you didn't paint the bumpers or the rear step.

Can this project be done with 2 people over a weekend? Lets say rip off valdding on a friday night, sand and prep saturday, paint on sunday, assemble monday? is this possible?
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Thanks again people.

I'm glad I didn't paint the rear bumper. From the ass these things are huge! So it gives a great visual break in color.

Two guys, 4 days, 700 bucks, let the plastic fly.

No not possiable, maybe if leave the lower cladding on. >:D Two guys knowing what there doing and a lot of room to lay out the pieces. maybe a chance. I had 31 pieces laying about, 32 if you count the truck. Good luck, take pics. (y)

I went through 2 1/2 cases of beer doing this project. I dont rember how many hours I worked because I drank. how this relates to real time I dont know. >:D
 
For those weak at heart with a sander or bodywork skills....

Dealership Designs

They sell cladding replacements that are pre-painted for $1650.00 exchange.

The pics on their page look good, seriously thinking about their panels for my 2003
 
Great job ALASKA...it even makes the cladding appear to be a bit darker......where you did not paint....
 
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