Anyone Painted Fender Flares?

Some jackass hit my truck while it was parked on the street and decided not to tell me about it, so I get stuck with the repair bill instead of his insurance company. My fender flare was chipped and there's some small scratches on the fender, and the turn signal was broken. I bought some new clear turn signals off Ebay for $25 and I think they look good. The fender might be able to be buffed/polished out (still has a small dent), but the fender flares are painted to match my truck and the paint is chipped pretty bad.

Has anyone ever tried to paint the flares with Dupli-Color or something like it? I wasn't sure if I could paint a part that big and make it look ok. I did paint the lower headlight filler piece and it looks ok, but it is a very small part.

 

Had mine painted to match by a body shop... Never was very good at automotive paint...

 

Ya, you can do it yourself. SEM has great plastic paint. You would be best to pop the whole thing off. There are like 6-7 red and blue plastic clips. The clips will break when you take them off. No worries, Toyota has them in stock all the time

Scuff up the paint surface with 800P and shoot it. The biggest concern is matching the color. Might be better off having a body shop shoot it for you and you put it back on. Prepping and assembling will save you a couple bucks.

Never hurts to try it yourself. If it doesn't work out, then bring it in.

 

It's just that the way the paint chipped off in chunks, I don't know how I should approach repainting it. I don't think I can "feather" off sainding the good paint to the bad paint and repaint it. It seems like I'll have to strip the whole flare and repaint the whole thing.
I just don't know if I do this myself with some Dupli-Color if it will look ok.

 

Agreed. Take it off the truck, carefully peel the rubber seal off the flare and start wet sanding the thing down. You do not need to get every last spec of paint off it, just the loose stuff, maybe half way back. You need plastic paint, not sure dupli-color has it in your color for plastic. Plastic paints are different, they have a flexing agent in them. Google for an automotive paint supply company by you. Thinking about this more....you may find this cheaper to go to a body shop....but it's worth seeing what they can do for you.

Remember, if it doesn't come out right, then bring in in....

 

So if my flares were painted from the factory, they use a different type of paint for the plastic parts??? I might try painting it with the Dupli-Color paint I used on the headlight filler piece. It might look like shit, but then maybe I'll just Rhino Line all the flares along with my bed!!! ha ha ha I do like the body color matching my flares and bumpers though, I think it looks really good.

 

There you go, now you got the idea..... just do it. If it looks like shit, bring it in. OR, roll it out with bed liner...lol.

Ya, factory (and professional body shops) use different paint for plastics. Amazing how they color match so well.

Here, do this then...scuff with a grey 3M pad. Do the best you can to remove the paint. Press the plastic and pick off the paint until you can no longer pick it off. Then wet sand with 800P, apply 2 very thing coats of primer. Lightly dry sand the primer to knock down the nibs and hit it with 3 or 4 coats of single stage dupli-color paint. First two coats, almost dry and the last one or two coats should be wet. Ya gotta take the thing off the body though....it's really easy, you'll see.

 

I have no problem removing the flare and sanding, etc. But, if I can get a body shop to paint it for under $100 I'll just pay them and forget about experimenting with the Dupli-Color paints....

 

I have no problem removing the flare and sanding, etc. But, if I can get a body shop to paint it for under $100 I'll just pay them and forget about experimenting with the Dupli-Color paints....

Still pisses me off that someone hit my truck and didn't tell me about it or at lease leave a note! Isn't that why we have insurance???

 

To be honest, that's what I would do. Your truck looks to nice to half ass it. Maybe when it has 400K on it Then you can Rino that whole dam thing....

Insurance really sucks. To get decent rates, you have to have your deductible set at $1,000.....

 

paint em black or roll on bedliner like suggested... it will go with what you got going on already (bug deflector, wheels, tint, lined bed)

 

Yep...i'd Herculine them:

Heres mine:

 

I had that happened to one of my toyota before, somebody hit the passenger side door. I called the cops and gave me a police report of 'Hit and Run' and submitted to my insurance company. Geico got it repaired no problem.

 

Yeah there is a pretty sweet thread around here about some guy that painted his flares green. find it!

 

I still have a $500 deductible. Wouldn't I have to pay that even if it was a "hit and run"?

 

Pretty sure, plus your rates might go up a bit. Not worth it for just a fender flare.

 

I didnt have to pay anything out of pocket. Took it in to Progressive, told them that somebody hit me. They filed it under "un-insured motorist" which kicked the deductible down to $200, but they paid it out of the claim money anyways......... so no big deal. Worth a shot, rates didnt go up either. With all the companies doing the accident forgiveness nowadays, I would definately give it a shot.

 

I LIKE THIS IDEA! mine are all scratched up and don't really want to go to all the work of trying to fix the paint. i think i may just do this so i never have to worry about them again. in a gallon enough liner to do the bed aswell as the flairs?

 

you would probably be cuttin it close with a gallon. the only reason i say this is because if you want the flares to really last you need to do at least 2 coats and you really need to scratch em up. I put one coat and all i used was a green pad to scratch em and already the edges are coming up.

 

here are the before and afters though. HUGE difference, i like it