Fender flare installation on non-flared Tacomas: tutorial

Lucky you! Looks nice!

 

Anyone have any suggestions on how to shine OR flares? Besides soap and water lol.

 

Maybe try a product like turtle wax jet black endura trim coating. Not sure how effective it is but its supposed to be for restoring trim

 

Tire shine would work for ya

 

Finally finished mine!

 

Looks great

 

Thank you!

 

Finally got mine flared.

 

Looks good

 

Has anybody has an issues with it yet, have the fender flares in hand and just waiting to do it but worry wont hold up too well with just 3m tape

 

After 2-1/2 years and about 100k miles, nope.

 

The 3M tape is the only thing that holds on most of the lower body cladding on the factory made camrys and corollas and stuff like that. The main bumper panel is held on with clips, but any of the "ground effects" type stuff on the "performance" models was usually just taped on with the 3M red trim tape for the last 20+ years. Its extremely strong stuff and I see several cars in the junkyards with the panels still attached with tape while the rest of the car is falling apart.

I have a garage door opener switch I stuck on the wall at least 15 years ago with the 3M tape and its been outside in the sun/rain and its still on the rough stucco concrete and holding like a champ.

 

Just a quick update after installing the flares.

Truck is a new 2020, I didn't have any screws in the tops of the fender liners. Meaning I was short 6 screws all together with the install. You should probably check your truck before ordering and add at least 6 screws to the order. You need an additional 3 screws per wheel. One under the bottom and two on the top of the wheel well.

My mud flaps came with 4 extra screws that I used and re-used the two from the rear fender wings. So I got it done. I'll get some extra screws and finish up.

 

got mine installed today, thanks for the write up!

 

Looks great

 

COOL!! any one has black bumper on white fender? about to install mine debating which one to color the bumper or fender

 

First of all, those clips don't do anything to hold the flare to the fender. They are only there for alignment. If you were to rub up against a bush or a hedge with just those little plastic clips, then they would just snap.

Secondly, the 3M red trim tape is used universally by all manufacturers for mounting plastic molded panels to cars. Toyota has used it exclusively for all front lip and "ground effects" add-ons for all toyota cars going back to at least the 90s. Its solid stuff and will last longer than the paint that its adhered to. Screws and plastic fasteners would concentrate the forces and just break the plastic if used in place of the tape.

Lastly, there are 4-6 bolts holding the fenders in place, which gives very little room for adjustment. I was surprised at how fast the overall install was. I spoke to an engineering friend of mine who works with manufacturing lines and such. Why do we need the clips? Simple, because you don't have 15 minutes to install them on the line, you have 5-15 seconds if you are lucky.

The clips are only for idiot proof alignment on the manufacturing line. If you have 30 minutes you can do the whole truck. You will literally spend more time applying the tape to the flares on your kitchen table than you will on the rest of the installation.

 

Does anyone know if there are aftermarket replicas of the OEM flares?

 

Sorry not a fan . Great job and all but why are they shiny .. it looks odd to me .