camar0corey

iTrader: (22)

Hello, is there really a difference between the 99-02 and 03-07 grilles?

I saw this grille on ebay: Denali style center but for non Denali trucks.

I'm curious because I wanted the Denali style center but like the factory bumper on my 2006 Sierra quad cab. Their compatibility list though claims its for 99-02 Sierras only...

I had snagged a OEM Denali grille, but realized it won't fit well or look good with a factory bumper, and I don't want to go through the trouble of putting a Denali bumper on the truck. Unless its ridiculously easy to do so, I see Denali bumper covers go for $125-175ish shipped...

darkirish63

iTrader: (5)

I have this grill on my '04 Sierra. Only slight fitament issue is a small gap between the bottom of the grill and the bumper which I plan on modding with matching metal mesh.

camar0corey

iTrader: (22)

Thanks for the reply! I decided to go another direction, I ordered the black billet grille inserts for the factory shell, behind the bumper section, and the lower valence.

Are you running the LED DRL and turn signals, or just black housings? I'm going to try to wet sand and clear coat my factory turn signal housings, see how that turns out first.

camar0corey

iTrader: (22)

After looking at a few of the 99-02 trucks, I also realized that their factory bumper/grille shells are both more rounded off in nature, like the Denali grilles. The 03-07 (classic) bumpers have that more angular look to them, same for the grille shell. Probably what made me want to keep my factory bumper in the first place.

If anyone is interested in a OEM Denali 99-06 grille and a pair of new Denali (eBay, not OEM) turn signal housings, hit me up. The housings are stock orange in color.

RedXray

It is real simple to do. It can get expensive if you don't have the rebar and the bumper filler, then you have to consider the cost of paint materials and labor. The paint I did myself (retired bodyman) but I was surprised at the cost of the bumper filler ($100 for a piece of foam). The cover is just held on by a handful of push-pins and can be RnR'd in a few minutes.

Re-bar



$100 piece of foam

darkirish63

iTrader: (5)

I actually lost swapped out the halos in the pick for standard styles dark smoked headlights with LED turn signals and DRL. The halos constantly failed when cold and I hated that.

camar0corey

iTrader: (22)

I'm contemplating spending the money on the LED turns/DRLs.

I'm thinking of replicating the truck in the eBay listing where I picked up my black grille inserts.


So here is a little before and after of my truck.



So far as I can tell, the lights I picked up don't have light up halos. I definitely need to do something about my turn signal housings however. I tried to wetsand and seal them, that didn't go so well. I think the DRL's toasted them from the inside, so they are hazy from the inside. The outside? The clear coat looks spider webbish...

Thanks RedXray, pretty sure I've seen your post on it somewhere else before, or maybe on here, where you posted up the whole thing. I decided I didn't want to try to track down everything and went the route I did. I appreciate the input though! Looks like it would be $500-650 more to do a Denali bumper, that's just not gonna happen. That's like buy a camshaft and new lifters kind of money... I feel like I'm unlucky for finding affordable parts trucks around here for Denali parts.

EDIT: Also this truck was in an accident way before I got my hands on it. Looks like it took a hit to the passenger front back in 2007. What's insane to me, is the repair work that was done to a one year old truck. You can sorta see it in the pictures, but there is a huge gap between the grille and the passenger side turn signal housing. Now that I put a non-tweaked bumper on this thing, there is like a 2-3" gap between the lower bumper bracket and the brace the runs from the bumper to the truck on the passenger side. I'll get some shots up later of that.

DOUBLE EDIT! What year HD hoods can we run on our trucks? I'd hate to see how long it will take for me to acquire one of those... Is that a HD hood in that eBay page photo, or does a company replicate/make something similar?

1FastBrick

iTrader: (17)

You didn't post a picture of your truck.

The HD hoods are from a 01-02 Chevy 2500HD

There is a few threads, you have to chop the front over the head lamp to make it follow the contour of the light.

RedXray

Yeah I did a write up on the Denali conversion over at GMFS. On your bumper adjustment... loosen the inner two bolts on the pass side brace just enough so the bumper can move with a floor jack. Slowly jack the bumper end up using the brace as a jacking point until it's slightly higher than level or when it stops moving up. Then lock the bolts down. If you've already done this... you'll need to remove the bumper and address what was tweaked in the collision.

Same brace, same adjustment technique as the Denali.You can see the jack marks on the bottom of the brace (disregard text in pic)



On the LED signal (corners) housings. Have you thought about going with clear corners and SwitchBack LED bulbs? They are a bright white 5K then switch over to an amber directional when the signals are deployed. This makes them DOT legal and will pass state inspections. I like the way they alternate white/amber. I never cared much for the amber reflectors on the OEM headlamps and directionals YMMV.

Here are two pair of switchbacks on my truck (pre denali)

comeaux818

For your turn signals must do what I did. I put some JDMASTAR switchbacks, and their 3157 white LEDs. For the LEDS in turn signals I bought the LED flasher module. It's like $60 at auto parts and $35 on Amazon for the same one. The V leds he put a video up are pretty bad ***. I'm and electrican so I'm pretty partial to leds but I've tried so many different ones. Most failed with in a few weeks to a year. I was gonna buy the Vleds but they are like $150. I figured I'd try these first and they are amazing. If I knew how to post pics I would but it's insane, more then worth the $40.