The correct installation sequence of Fender Flares

Installing OEM flares:

After swapping my white flares for non-painted flares I learned somethings the hard way that everyone should be aware of, if they aren't already. I didn't search too hard as I though it was going to be pretty easy and it was until I found out that easy after trying the hard way.

3 things to do:

1. Buy all new plastic clips or wait until you see how many you break when you remove them.
-Please note that not all these clip are the same as they are different colors but that shouldn't matter beause it is the length and the width of the clip that is your concern. I had blue and red colored but when I bought the new clips to replace the old ones I found out that there is a slight difference in length and width as a couple of locations on the flare requires a wider clip or it WILL NOT work.

2. If your lucky like myself you will require to use some sort of good adhesive to adhere the old molded tab on the inside of the flare because onece you remove the flare and breaking the clips you will also break a couple of tabs. I used some JB WELD.
-Please note that you really should follow the instructions for JB WELD as the tabs will not hold!

3. Now that you have all the appropriate clips and repaired tabs then it is easiest to place all the clips on the flare, NOT the truck. I tried to place the clips on the truck as this worked for about 50% of the clips the others didn't end up catching the tab. So after hours or monkeying around and breaking more clips and going back to the dealer for more clips and waiting another week for them to come in and removing the flares again I decided to put clips on the flares first then put them on the truck.
-Putting the clips on the truck is possible as it took me about 2 hours trying to mess with lining up the clips on the flares. Once I put them on the flare it took me literally 5 minutes to install them on the truck!!!!!

 

Good post. Quick question though, I want to take off my fender flares for good. With that in mind I have two questions, 1) How exactly do I safely do that and 2) Will it be difficult/will there be and sort of adhesive or anything that I will need to be worried about removing on the truck? Thanks for the help!

 

Removing them is as simple as just pull them off. By doing this you will reveal about 80 holes that are 1/4"x1/4".

So unless you like the look of hole around your fenders and bed then you should probably leave them on.