Removing factory fender flares

My fenders look like this::



I want to take them off and have them painted.

?#1 Is the body painted under the flares? and should be okay without them?

?#2 I see people say the clips break a lot, well I noticed my Fender Flares are missing a few clips here and there. I can tell they have been painted before.


It's strange because every thing on this truck looks brand new, but my fenders are chipped to hell.

Well 1 and a quarter are. It's just the driver front-piece that's on the bumper, and the passenger rear.

If in this situation, what would you do? I can't go get them painted right now, I have two cars I have to sell that I'm still paying insurance on. Then other BS. I bought this truck on a whim, glad I did, but I can't justify putting much into it. Besides necessary maintenance, and free-(or cheap) mods.

But I can't drive in something that looks that bad, I'm making Tacoma's look bad driving with those fenders.

 

If everything looks brand new and your flares are chipping that truck as maybe been in a wreck and had a shady paint job..... are you original owner?

 

No, but its two fenders on opposite corners, and carfax was good and this thing is in pristine shape. I have every service record on it. I can always spot body work..

but I don't want to talk about that, just wanted info on how to remove them.

 

I've never had the fronts off but the rears came off easy enough. (A few screws in the fenderwell and then pop out the plastic clips)

The plastic clips WILL break when you take them out so I would grab a few from the dealer ($$) or order online first.

http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/Toyota_Fender_Moulding_Clips_90904_67036_p/A20390.htm


If you don't want to spend the money right now to have them painted professionally, I would take them off and rattle can them satin black. It would look repectable until you are ready to have them done professionally.

Other options would be bedline them or Plasti dip.

 

what do they look like cause NAPA and Advance show that they carry Toyota fender flair retainers..

 

The plastic clips are available at the dealer. When I bought my truck, I hated the "orange peel" look of the fender flares. Seemed like all the Tacomas in the area were the like that. But on the same lot, the Tundras with fender flares had beautifully matched fender flares with the body color. So, I found there was a TSB on the fender flares and I had the dealer paint mine right after I bought it. They look great, like they should. My point is, maybe the previous owner had the flares painted but the job was not done properly? Or, he could have been rear ended and then hit something up front at the same time, then had the work done on the side which would not show up on the Car Fax? Look closely and you should be able to tell. Good luck...

 

It looks to me, like the bumpers and fenders were all black "orange peel" and that all were painted around the same time.

The paint is color matched as this is a very easy color to match. But the fenders just don't seem factory. I can't think of any wreck scenario that would include the front bumper and all four fenders needing re-paint.

A far more likely scenario is that the prep work wasn't done right the first time.

What I'm doing for now is, I'm just going to spray some color matching rattle can paint on it. Then start getting appraisals on getting the four flairs and the front bumper repainted. After that I'll be good to go, I'm hoping to get it done around $500 or so, then maybe I can do it next week.

I just can't keep driving around on this



Of course it wasn't too pretty under the front one.


We have a tropical storm coming through, so humidity is going to be too high to paint, so I'm either stuck with this for now, or I can go all natural and take the paint off. Pressure washer should do it.

Tell me more about this TSB.

 

I've got a similar situation on my drivers rear flare only not to the extent of yours. I took mine to a Maaco body shop and got a quote on touching it up. The guy there said that because the flairs are textured plastic they can be spot painted, not that your rear one would be anyways. Apparently the textured plastic makes it difficult for the paint to fully adhere and thus chips easily. He said that he would end up ordering a new one from Toyota and just bolting it on or I could do that myself, he said for one flair painted from Toyota was likely about $200.

 

I know you can't paint textured plastic.

But you can sand it down and get it to accept paint. Cars have painted plastic all the time. I already talked to body guys who said step one would be to sand down the plastic.

 

Nola...wasn't you the one with the recent EBay, unseen purcahse? Is this the Taco you got?

 

yeah. I paid $9,800 but then the dealer took off $400 for the paint chipping.

I still think I made out like a bandit. This is a very minor problem.

I have a $9,400 Tacoma with a like new interior engine bay and interior

 

Those clips above look right, but be aware there are two separate sizes used in there.

 

You could paint them up with something like Line-X. That crap sticks to anything! They can color match also so it'd match the truck and have a nice texture to it.

 

I wasn't slammin' you at all...I just remembered the post & awesome deal you got. The fenders will paint up just fine

 

The build sheet says Toyota Tacoma Prerunner SR5 Off-Road.

I'm at a loss, but in the last ten minutes I had a friends paint-guy out here. He looked at the fenders and chipped some paint off and said there was no binder between the plastic and the paint.

His advice "Don't go through anymore car washes"

He then agreed to paint all four fenders and my front bumper (has scrapes from front license plate, and a scrape by fog-light), if I changed the motor mounts on his wife's Malibu.

So good trade I think.

I'm taking the four flares off now, so he can paint them this weekend, and gonna drop the truck off Tuesday for him to paint my bumper.

He also doing two other cars and my Ram's tailgate for me.

I'm happy right now.

Even though I would really like to be done with the red completely, changing a cars color never works out right.

 

Wow, that's a great deal!! You made out pretty well I'd say!

 

A lot of good body shops use a rubberized additive to paint on the plastic ,otherwise the paint might chip or peel

 

Does that section come off? it look like it attached to the bumper overwrap?

 

Quoted me at $500.00 plus but it does come painted