The 2nd wave of mods has been completed! A friend of mine is a bodyman so he did some painting for me last week. I picked up a Sierra "work truck" grill that is black instead of chrome. He sanded that and my mirrors then painted them red. He also sprayed a set of smooth flares, Denali door handles and the tailgate handle. The newly painted shell received a Precision Stainless grill before it went in. I also had him take all of the badges off the truck.

Before -

http://www.tbyrne.com/Sierra/sierra1.jpg

After -

http://www.tbyrne.com/Sierra/grill1.jpg

http://www.tbyrne.com/Sierra/grill2.jpg

I installed the Denali headlights before he started this. They will be upgraded to HID next week. My lift shipped later than it was supposed to so I should see that by the end of the week. 4.56 gears and performance mods will be going on after that.

Daddy likes!

Niiiice! :ro)

DID u have to dis assemble the mirrors to have them done properly? That is all I have left to do, but am wary about the paint coming off when the auto-fold in button is used?

The lip of the mirror was taped off so it remains black. It probably won't have been a pain in the butt to take everything apart to paint the whole thing.

Looks sweet!
How much is the work truck grill? Planning something similar on mine (dark blue). Did you get the tail gate handle painted or bought it aftermarket? Did you get extra smooth flares or used your factory ones?

Thanks for the info

I don't remember the price of the grill but can check it on Monday. I believe it was $300. or more. I also had a smooth tailgate handle painted along with a set of smooth GM flares.

Very Nice!

Nice, show pictures when all that red goes up in the air.

I sure will! This truck feels like a low rider after driving my lifted '02 HD :)

Real nice!

Would like to see it parked next to BlueOx's!

DID u have to dis assemble the mirrors to have them done properly? That is all I have left to do, but am wary about the paint coming off when the auto-fold in button is used?
To do the mirrors right, they should be disassembled. That way you get the paint in all of the cracks/crevices and behind the mirror. If you're on a budget, then it may be too $$$ to have the shop disassemble the mirrors. I had mine painted the right way and it cost $200 for the pair. Of course, if your truck is black, you might be able to get away with not disassembling. One word of caution, part of disassembling requires popping the mirror out. That mirror is very fragile and very expensive if you have the built in turn signal LED's.

that looks so much better then the mix match of colors they are stock.

I'm at the point where it's time for the lift and gears to go on. Part of me really wants to raise the truck while the other part is worried that the ride quality will go down. Can't have that because I use the truck as a tow vehicle and can cover 3000 miles on some trips. The lift and wheels are on a pallet so it will be time to decide soon. :)

Tom, if you decide to keep her low shoot me a pm...may have to roll up and take that pallet off your hands:lol:

I'll keep this in mind. The pallet is still wraped so it could just go right in the bed.

I was at the same point with my truck as you seem to be now, I was so content just to have the truck, new found towing power, comfortable interior, etc. I was planning to wait until my warranty was up and then do the lift, but everytime a stock ford or dodge pulled up next to me, not to mention a lifted one, I just didn't feel like I was driving a truck. After the lift and wheels went on I felt like I was driving more than a truck. I say go for it!!!! I think a good wheel/tire combo makes the biggest difference, my tires are really wide and tend to wander, but the truck feels more solid and less sway after the lift than it did stock. I tow a 30ftWW with 2,000 pound buggy in it almost every weekend and made a trip from San Diego to Park City Utah with stops along the way, a drive through zion, coral pink sand dunes etc. About 2200 miles total and the truck worked great!!

Here is a pic before I added another inch to the rear/and air-lift bag set-up and other goodies. There was alot of sag with 120 gallon of water/40 gallons fuel/500 pounds of wood in the bed, etc. I should have done the bags way sooner!!!!

http://chevytruckworld.tenmagazines.com/gallery/destroythesand/149874.jpg

Seeing your rig makes me want to put my 37's back on "chaps.":( Sweet looking ride. You will never regret the bags out back, these trucks should come from the factory with them on. :grd:

I was at the same point with my truck as you seem to be now, I was so content just to have the truck, new found towing power, comfortable interior, etc. I was planning to wait until my warranty was up and then do the lift, but everytime a stock ford or dodge pulled up next to me, not to mention a lifted one, I just didn't feel like I was driving a truck. After the lift and wheels went on I felt like I was driving more than a truck. I say go for it!!!! I think a good wheel/tire combo makes the biggest difference, my tires are really wide and tend to wander, but the truck feels more solid and less sway after the lift than it did stock. I tow a 30ftWW with 2,000 pound buggy in it almost every weekend and made a trip from San Diego to Park City Utah with stops along the way, a drive through zion, coral pink sand dunes etc. About 2200 miles total and the truck worked great!!

Here is a pic before I added another inch to the rear/and air-lift bag set-up and other goodies. There was alot of sag with 120 gallon of water/40 gallons fuel/500 pounds of wood in the bed, etc. I should have done the bags way sooner!!!!

Yours was the first post that I read this morning. It gave me a smile that won't go away for the rest of the day. That looks sweet!!! :) I wondered why the back was sagging I guess the extra 1200lbs in the bed along with the trailer would do that :)

My '02 Silverado HD tends to be pretty bouncy up from while towing. I think that might be because I have the torsion bars cranked up to go from 6.5 - 8.5" of lift. I have a Cognito lift for the Sierra HD. I've been told the ride will be good but I'm still worried about putting it on and having the ride go down the drain. This gives me hope! I've been thinking about how the truck will look with my boat behind it. Stock height with 20" + wheels/tires would look good but 9" up in the air with big tires turns it into "oh my god, look at that!"

So tell me about the benefits of running the bags out back. I've used them for drag racing so they probably pretty much do the same thing. Do they have the ride quality at all?

tbyrne - after looking at your current mods your truck is gonna be an eye-catcher no matter what!! But all that red sitting nice and high will make people http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/images/smilies/drop_mouth.gif
before the bags I had relocated my stock bump stops down, and when towing, when I would hit a dip or bump and the truck w/trailor bucked it would smash those rubber bump stops to almost nothing and the rear tires would contact the fender flares. Well once I got some smoothed flares color matched I couldn't have that happening anymore!! I didn't realize just how in-expenive the bags were. I got the kit off e-bay for like $230 and used my (ugly, crappy weld job, POS) drop brackets I made to lower my bump stops and mounted the top bag plate to that. I couldn't believe that I could hitch up/load up and then pump the bags up and lift the rear a good 2" and have the truck sitting almost level. I inflate the bags to about 55psi loaded and find that the truck has alot less tendency to sway when the trailor sways (I don't know if im saying that right). The truck wants to stay level and doesn't lean as much when cornering. The ride isn't harsh like I expected and if anything it is smoother. Without the trailer I let them down to about 7psi and will admit that I feel that the ride is stiffer than before I had them on. I will try to post some a pic of them as others had asked previously and I never got around to it.

Chaps did you change your gears, and if so what ratio did you go with?:ro) :cool2:

Duramx Man - no im still at 3.73, I figured that I would wait to see how it towed and if they held up, plus the idea of a SFA is always floating around so figured I would have to do it then. I think it does just fine with the 3.73's, I like the feel of the longer gear ratio, as it seems to pick a gear and I get a nice long strong pull before the next shift while towing. Not gonna lie though my DIC shows that im only getting about 13mpg unloaded, never tried calculating it myself.