• If you currently own, previously owned or want to own an Avalanche, we welcome you to become a member today. Membership is FREE, register now!

The Benefits Of Cladding .....

T

teking

Charter Member
Full Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2002
Messages
180
Location
Orlando Florida
This make make you pause if you are considering ordering your AV WITHOUT cladding. There has been much discussion about the athetics of the cladding, but I haven't seen much on the functionality. Many have speculated that the cladding will help protect your truck off-road.

Saturday my wife was broadsided by a large suicidal buck. The animal did a header into the rear passenger door w/ the truck traveling ~50mph. He then flipped sideways into the rear quarter panel.

Damage: door cladding baddly scratched
quarter panel cladding was ripped off!
NO DAMAGE TO THE BODY!!!

So we will trot down to the dealer and pick up a cladding panel($50.00) and some clips. Instead of going to a bodyshop with severe body damage from the rear door to the bumper.

I was truely amazed! This would have cost a mint if we had not purchased a "cladded" AV.
 
I am glad that everyone is all right. That had to shake her up a bit.

Two questions:

Did you get to keep the buck?
Did you get any photos to share?
 
pdxkevin said:
I am glad that everyone is all right. ?That had to shake her up a bit. ?

Two questions:

Did you get to keep the buck?
Did you get any photos to share?
Click to expand...

The man who stopped to help her kept the buck. I learned later there wasn't much good meat left as the animal was baddly bruised from the multiple impacts.

I will try to get photos tonight. Not much to see but a missing panel and some scratches on the door cladding.
 
I don't think I've ever seen a LARGE buck in the state of Florida...were you traveling? I'm not a big hunter (occasionally only), but the deer in Florida seem skimpy to me.

Glad to hear your Av held up so well :)
 
One of the reason I got the AV was because of the cladding.

I keep my vehicles a long time, 10-12 years.

The cladding seemed like a good option to keep all of those rock dings, door dings, and other minor cratches at bay.

Sure the cladding gets scatches sometimes but I seem to have a lot less of them that I do with painted vehicles. Plus a dinged or scratched cladding has less chance of rusting than a painted surface.

If the cladding ever gets too messed up or cracked I will just pull it all off and have it Line-Xed or something similar.

Now, I got my first door ding about a week after I got my AV. Right on the wheel well where it does not have cladding. :7:

Went and bought the AV 2500 wheel well moulding and installed.

Form follows function. Now it would be nice if they color matched the cladding to the paint. The cladding should be made with he color the same all the way through.

It will probably never happend because of the different fade rates of paint and plastic.

If something cataostrphic happened to my AV (like accident or theft) I think I would go for the 2003 Dark Silver. The paint and the cladding are a close match.
 
teking said:
I was truely amazed! ?This would have cost a mint if we had not purchased a "cladded" AV.
Click to expand...
I don't know about you, but that's what I have insurance for. ;)
 
I love the cladding. There has been too many times that me or my wife have opened the door a little to quick or the wind has caught the door and it has it something. Either another car or pole or something that would normally put a dent or scratch in the paint. To be quite honest, it takes some time to get used to it, but when you see the advantages of it, you're very happy that you got it. I went up to the NASCAR race at Talladega and a guy asked me if the cladding was Chevy's answer to the rust problem. I said sure, and door dings (noticing the multiple door dings in his F**D. Kinda made me laugh a little. Anyway, cladding is the way to go.
 
In the first two weeks I had my AV the cladding prevented a couple of serious scard to the paint. The first was at Sam's where I was in the back as my wife was handing me boxes. When she took the last box off the flat bed cart, it headed downhill towards the rear quarter panel. I was to high to stop it, but the cladding did so nicely. On a couple of occasions my wife has let the door go in the garage and it hits the wall pretty hard, once again cladding took the hit. Found a shopping cart against my AV once, even when I parked it in the furthest row away from the store. It hit the cladding, not the AV.

Glad all is well teking.

Later.
CT
 
I was at a highway rest stop and an orange highway construction zone barrel was blown into the side of my cladded AV by a gust of wind the day after I bought the truck. Cladding kept my sanity that day!!!
 
txyank1 said:
I don't know about you, but that's what I have insurance for. ;)
Click to expand...
Understand your point about insurance, but any time I don't have to go to the shop is a big (y) for me. Insureance will take care of some of the hard costs, but none of my time. The older I get the more I value my time.
 
sparky said:
Understand your point about insurance, but any time I don't have to go to the shop is a big (y) for me. Insureance will take care of some of the hard costs, but none of my time. The older I get the more I value my time.
Click to expand...

How right you are! Chevy Thunder I'd get rid of the Wife! ;)
 
Follow up: Local dealer wanted $82.00 (not including tax!! 7%) for the panel. Got it online AND SHIPPED for less than $60.00 ($48.00 for the panel and $12.00 for shipping)
 
i had a person back into me on the passenger side front-end. hit the lower side of the bumper. i saw the cladding buckle, then retuen back to it's original state. to my surprise there was no damage. a little bit of scratching on the cladding. nothing i could not handle with a little rubbing of the finger nail.
 
Yakmar said:
I had a Grocery cart blow into the side of my Av in the parking lot of the mall.... it bounced off the cladding, small scratch but NO damage!! ? :eek:
Click to expand...
I had almost the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago on a windy day. The cart bounced off the front fender just behind the front wheel. I was too far away to do anything about it except cringe while I was watching it head for my truck. But on close inspection: not even a scratch! :cool:

-- SS
 
I hate to admit this, but it was early (very early) one morning, and my AV is a little Tight going in and out of my 8ft garage door. So I have 1 mirror pulled in... That means that on the driver's side, I pass the outside of the garage door with an inch or 2 to spare, and the passenger side has to make mirror clearence.... well anyways...

I was backing up and the AV came to a HALT. ??? Hmmm interesting... Roll down window... see cladding rubbed up against the door "frame" to the point it had stopped a 5700lb vehicle :rolleyes: :cautious: :cry: I get out walk around to see my cladding squished up pretty bad, so I get back in and do the only think I can... Pull forward... SSSCCCCRRAAATTCHHH and release... :cry: I don't wanna look... getting :8: at myself...

Get out and look.... only 2 super fine scratches in the cladding. Paint is completely gone off of the garage door frame, fixed the cladding with a fingernail rub and some Zaino...(tire shine that is)

Literally... the cladding saved me several hundred dollars in body repair for my sheer stupidity...

I don't care how it looks (but *I* do like it) but is SURE is functional! :love: :love:
 
I have the same problem as bmontini. My garage is a pretty tight fit for two cars. I also have to pull in my drivers side mirror. In the one month I've had my Av, the cladding has saved me several times. My better half and my three year old son have a habit of opening the doors on the car too far and whacking the Av. With the cladding there is no problem. It also saved me from some serious Juniper bush scratches while I was out 4-wheeling.
 
As some of you may know, I've had my (basically stock) Av on some trails that it probably had no business on... As such, I've nailed the panel right in front of the back wheel on both sides, catching them on rocks when the truck got a little tippy in a tight spot. The driver's side one was ripped clear off and then (stupid me) I ran over it. Well the cladding is pretty tough, but not that tough! However, $25.00 got me a replacement panel and it's just like new!

wood4.jpg

wood8.jpg


I doubt you could lay a panted panel onto a boulder like that and get away for $25.00!

 
txyank1 said:
I don't know about you, but that's what I have insurance for. ;)
Click to expand...


I don't know about you, but my insurance has a deductible, and it is MUCH more than the $60 I paid to replace my rear QP after it was backed into a boulder. ;)

If there were no cladding I would have been paying that whole deductible. Cladding is SMART ;D
 
I WAS TRAVELING SOUTH HWY 75 AT 58 MPH DECEMBER 5, 2006 ON CRUISE CONTROL (TO SAVE GAS MILEAGE ). WHEN A DEER CAME OUT OF NOWHERE, HIT THE FRONT DRIVER SIDE AT THE HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY. THEN GOT PULLED UNDER THE TIRE AND HIT THE $680.00 MIRROR. THEN WENT AIRBORN TO HIT THE SHERIF'S CAR (THAT WAS FOLLOWING ME TO CLOSE).? YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN HIS CAR!!! THE BODY ARMOR HELPED THE BODY BUT SHATTERED THE PANELS.? INSURANCE EST.? $3,636.39.? IT'S BACK TO NEW AGAIN!!!
 
WTGEDDES said:
I WAS TRAVELING SOUTH HWY 75 AT 58 MPH DECEMBER 5, 2206
Click to expand...

So this accident hasn't happened yet? If you know about it already.. maybe you can steer clear of it.







:kidding:
 
WTGEDDES said:
I WAS TRAVELING SOUTH HWY 75 AT 58 MPH DECEMBER 5, 2206 ON CRUISE CONTROL (TO SAVE GAS MILEAGE ). WHEN A DEER CAME OUT OF NOWHERE, HIT THE FRONT DRIVER SIDE AT THE HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY. THEN GOT PULLED UNDER THE TIRE AND HIT THE $680.00 MIRROR. THEN WENT AIRBORN TO HIT THE SHERIF'S CAR (THAT WAS FOLLOWING ME TO CLOSE).? YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN HIS CAR!!! THE BODY ARMOR HELPED THE BODY BUT SHATTERED THE PANELS.? INSURANCE EST.? $3,636.39.? IT'S BACK TO NEW AGAIN!!!
Click to expand...

:nopics:
 
"BUT SOME OF US LIKE THE LOOK BETTER WITHOUT CLADDING. THAT'S WHY THEY MAKE IT BOTH WAYS"
I think the cladding is what makes the AV unique looking. Tough to tell the difference between a WBH model and a regular old Silverado. 
 
SORRY NEW TO THE SITE.  I HAVE PICS BUT HAVE NOT PUT THEM ON THIS SITE YET. I WILL TRY IN THE FUTURE NOT TO MAKE TYPING MISTAKES.. THANKS FOR THE REMARKS.
 
this thread should be renamed to body armour stories.                                                                    well here's mine when i had my 02 av ,going to work one morning i decided to take back way into work . i work on a job site where you need a 4x4 and it was a cow pasture being converted to a gated community . any way the barbed wire was laying on ground i didn't see it it got wrapped around rear axle and scrapped the cladding . if it wasn't for the cladding paint would have been damaged. glad i had it then and so when traded it in on the 05 that was one thing i made sure it had.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top