There is a guy with a chevy avalanche with out any body/fender platic panels. The only plastic is the “roll bar” Was this a factory option, or did he take them off after. Wouldn’t there be holes in the tuck for the panels if they were removed. Why would you buy the truck, take of the panels, fill the holes and repaint the truck? So my only guess is this came from the factory with out any panels, is that possible.

 

I believe this started as an option on 2003's. It's stock.

 

You can by it without the plastic, courtesy of Bob Lutz.

I actually like it better without the plastic. It looks alot cleaner.

 

There is another piece of plastic left also... on the tailgate...

I, personally, perfer it WITH the cladding... it looks beefier... I think it might look better painted though, not unlike the Cadillac EXT...

 

Dude, Chevy has been selling the WBH (without "body hardware") package for months now. Check out www.chevrolet.com. Of course, the funny thing is that the WBH package uses entirely different sheetmetal/plastic for the hood, grille, front fenders, and rear quarter panels. It is not simply a removal of the plastic. They actually use the front end of the current Silverado on the WBH Avalanche, along with rear quarter panels that echo the same theme. The normal Avalanche fenders/quarters have the upper part of the wheel arch stamped in, while the lower parts are made of plastic. If you removed the plastic, you'd have a big eyebrow of sheetmetal over the wheels. The WBH package is how the Avalanche should have been from the start, and it is the ONLY way I'd buy one (actually looks pretty sweet, IMO). The original only looked right in certain colors (black, navy blue, etc) that could sort of hide the ridiculous plastic.

Chevy will also be selling a super short box crew cab pickup (on the same wheelbase as the normal short box extended cab) to combat Ford's SuperCrew directly. The Avalanche is even more specialized.

 

The "WBH" avalanche does look better, but I'd rather have one with the body hardware that is painted. Like the cadillac.

 

With cladding it looks gross---without, it looks like a totally different truck, looks great. Way to go Lutz

 

I agree. It looks 100 times better, IMO. I'd still probably just buy a "normal" truck, though.

 

Looks a lot better and, at least in Canada, it's a $750 credit to delete the cladding. I believe one of my co-workers is ordering one like that, also without the roof rack, running boards or any other tack-ons. Dealers here don't stock them that way.

 

Yeah, looks MUCH better without the cladding!

I wonder what the sales numbers are for with/without the cladding?

 

to be honest IMO.. the Avalanche looks better WITH the cladding. This truck came out that way and looked "rugged" enough to carry that name. Don't get me wrong I like the WBH Avalanche but it looks way too watered down and exactly like a Silverado with a midgate. (The front end is different)
i.e.

http://www.canadiandriver.com/testdr...1500_z66-1.jpg
http://www.pickuptruck.com/IMAGES/20...nocladding.jpg

as you can see here the Avalanche looks exactly like a Silverado..
The Avalanche was simply awesome when it came out and the Blackened cladding made it perfect, however i've seen a lot of WBH Avalanches here in TX....

 

Ah less plastic = much better

no plastic = perfect.

 

The one I saw didnt even have the fender flars or door molding,

If I ever got an avalanche I would keep the "cladding" But I would have to do 3 more things to it to make it appealing.

1. Paint the "cladding", like the cadillac
2. Alot bigger tires (the stock tires are way small)
3. Level out the front with the rear

 

Last week I saw a "de-cladded" Avalanche, a whiter-than-white Z71. Even with the chrome bumpers, there is still way too much black plastic. This includes the nasty little strip at the bottom of the tailgate. It looked like an afterthought, something they forgot to remove with the rest of the cladding. Overall, the new "cleaner" look only highlighted the more awkward aspect of the design - like the massive height of the tailgate - and made the vehicle look worse. The dull looking "refrigerator white" paint didn't help, and neither did the horrible Z71 decal.

De-cladding wasn't the solution with the Avalanche, but a monochromic paint treatment would be. There is way too much unpainted black plastic on every current Chevrolet truch, as well as some Chevy cars. (Why did the 2000 Wimpala get those tacky black rub rails?) I'd say that the Escalades are far better looking vehicles than their Chevy counterparts, if only because of the complete lack of black plastic trim. Isn't this yet another example of Chevrolets being diminished to sell even higher profit margin vehicles?


Redzed's Six Steps to Avalanche Improvement


1. Paint all of that hideous black plastic! (The same goes for every Silverado, Tahoe, and Suburban.) If you can't figure out how to do it, ask the dullards on the Aztec team. At least Pontiac's pig looked better after it got the all-body-color treatment.

2. Put some decent treads on your trucks, Avalanche included. Even the 17-inchers on the Z71 look demeaning on such a big vehicle. Let's face it, I'd be ashamed to own a 2500 model with LT245/75 R-16s. All I see is empty wheel well. Look around the industry: 18" wheels are the new norm, 20" rims are where everyone is heading on upscale models. Even 3/4 ton and up models could be fitted with LT-rated 17-inchers.

3. Get serious when it comes to realistic pricing. How about $41K for the white Avalanche Z71 w/o cladding I was looking at. Without the incentives, I doubt you'd sell a single on at that price. Slash MSRPs to what the market will bear and people won't have to pay the sales tax on rebate money any more. Paying sales tax on your own money: another great idea from the domestic manufacturers.

4. Get serious about active safety. I've never seen a Tahoe, Suburban or Avalanche "on the lot" with Stabilitrak. There are so many exceptions and deletions that accompany a Stabilitrak order that I can understand why dealers don't bother ordering it for their inventory. Why should I waste my time and money trying to special order a GM SUV with Stabilitrak? Stability control comes as standard on every Toyota SUV and Pathfinder Armada. Other manufacturers can make stability control work with a 2-speed tranfer case, but GM can't. A Landcruiser can actually have stability control and a locking rear differential - no GM vehicle can to the best of my knowledge. What's wrong? Does the entire GM engineering department have a take a long "nap time" every afternoon? It's pretty obvious that someone's sleeping on the job, because GM is falling further astern of the competition year by year.

5. Fix that horrible "mid-gate" design. The Avalanche/Escalade EXT has horrible rearward visibility. Even with the tiny rear window, as small as it is, is a pain to store away. How about a bigger window that rolls down into the seat back instead of manually clipping to it? How about a tailgate that doesn't look like the stern of a supertanker?

6. Like all 1500 Chevrolets, the Avalanche deserves the option of the 6.0 liter V8. The poor little 5.3 is outclassed by every Nissan Titan, 5.4 liter Fords and HEMI Rams. It’s time to stop worrying about CAFE, and start offering some decent power for the money. Perhaps it’s also time to stop downgrading Chevys just to push even more overpriced Denalis and Escalades.

 

BlackLS1Z's Six Steps to Redzed Improvement.....

(Feel free to put in anything you wish)



Just bustin on ya Red


Colin
98 Z28