fender flare liberated itself

so i'm driving down the road, about 300 miles from panama city, where i just moved away from, and a who knows how many miles from corpus christi where i was heading when i hear a loud bang from the front right of my truck. i was conviced it was a blown tire or i'd thrown the tread off of it and started pulling over. i dont have a spare, so that would have been bad. i stop and look and i find my flare is folded back on itself! apparently the very front mount point hade broken clean off and at 70 mph, the wind is stronger than 3M tape. pulled into a gas station and finished pulling it off. i'm going to end up riviting the front and bolting it back on once its cleaned really well.








here's a picture of it with my kayak on the roof with my $25 pep boys roof racks. drilled new holes to spread the feet out on the front one and wrapped them in foam pool noodle and they work great!

 

Same thing happened to me, because of a couple broken clips that I hadn't replaced yet, except mine didn't give up until after about 2000 miles of consistent 85mph road trip driving. I'm surprised to see yours is held on with tape, mine is an 06 and has clips holding it on, were all the 05's held on with only tape?

Also, do you have any more pictures of your rack setup?

 

^^Looks like the OP put the flares on himself. The base models don't have flares, hence the "no hole" fenders.

 

they were on the truck like that when i bought it, kinda like the redneck american racing rims and the goofy chrome stepbars. from what i understand though, all the 05's are held on that way.

 

if you look at how the bumper part of the flares are mounted, they DO have clips that go through and all the inner fender parts are mounted using the same bolts that mount the flare to the fender. i kinda wonder though if this truck got into a fender bender at some point

EDIT: insert foot into mouth, just pulled the inner fender back on the passenger side and it definitly has clips. i figure it was in a fender bender and the shop fixed it with a standard fender and taped the flare to it. sweet (rolls eyes)

 

on the back side of the flare, the clip holes were covered in 3M double sided tape.



here are pics of my racks you asked for

 

that sucks...a blow out would have definitely caused more damages...but at least this is a DIY fix...

 

I'm just posting to say, I ROFL a lot at the thread title. Very nice word choice lol.

Also, that sucks major balls it happened...

 

To the OP, what's your solution ? New fender, drill holes or 3M tape again ?

 

im a jet engine mechanic in the air force, and if a blade comes loose in a jet engine, it's said to liberate itself. seemed appropriate hahaha. no big deal though, it could have been way worse things that went bad.

a rivit or 2 at the front bottom edge, replace the other bolts at the bottom edge and new 3M.

 

05 definitely has the clips when they are factory mounted flares.

 

like i said, just pushed back the inner fender on the other side and saw clips on it... pretty sure the truck was bumped at some point and fixed with a standard fender. everything opens and closes well though and there arn't unusually large gaps between the hood and fender or door and fender.

 

That is what I would have suspected of happening. at least your Rack didnt Liberate itself, Check the first pic in may gallery, dont stack 4 kayaks on your rack.

 

i havnt hit 4 yet, but i did get 3 stacked on my suzuki sx4 before i traded up for my truck haha. i got a buddy who had a RTT pull off the roof of his f150 on the highway