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What colors did the Cladding on the first Avalanches come in?

Diamond Jim

New Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2016
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Being a fan of the AV's since they first came out, I paid attention to them. I almost traded in my 99 GMC crewcab daully on one, but the dealer low balled me on a trade and I stopped looking. I remember see black or gray cladding. We're there other colors available? Did you have to choose the color you wanted or were they coordinated to the body color?
 
2002 Avalanches came with a medium gray cladding. They are particularly prone to zebra stripping and sun fading.

Now to make things interesting, there are a handful of early production 2003 Avalanches that also came with medium gray cladding, but from 2003 until the deletion of body hardware, the cladding was a charcoal color. It deals with sun exposure a little better than the gray, but not by much.

To also make things REALLY interesting, there are some late production 2002 Avalanches with medium gray cladding, but with the 2003 yellow paint - came that way from the factory.
 
Welcome Diamond Jim.

Chief is correct in that the first year or 2 of the AV was in a light grey cladding. Then GM changed it to a darker grey cladding. It wasn't until the second generation AV (2007-2013) that they went to a black cladding. It wasn't until 2011 or so that Chevy offered color matched smooth cladding as an option. The color matched smooth cladding was standard in the 2013 AV.
Both generations Cadillac EXTs had smooth color matched cladding and some owners of AVs bought the Cadillac cladding and installed it and painted to match their AV.  That is why you may find some used first generation AVs with painted cladding.
 
I have 2002 white Avalanche with white cladding. Are they rare?
No, as it was not a GM option.
Probably an owner before you painted it or wrapped it.
 
Wow Gatekeeper you deserve the "strong but silent type" award if this site had one........With only two posts I was going to welcome you to the website then i noticed you have been a member since 2008! (Your postings only started this year though.)
It is impossible to determine how many modified AVs are actually still on the road to determine how rare yours is actually, as ygmn has stated above yours was not a factory option in 2002 so someone painted it, wrapped it, swapped it out for Cadillac EXT cladding or it was a Southern Comfort conversion AV.
 
I was wondering about the cladding colors. I have a 2002 and did the cerakote treatment, looks great but it's grey. I kept seeing other cerakote treated trucks that was black and looked a lot better than mine. Thought maybe mine was just that far gone 😃.
 
Stoner has a product for the cladding, its called detail shine. Try it makes the gray look new again.
 
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