Fender Flares polishing

For those that machine polish--- Do you guys polish the fender flares as aggressively as the paint? My pyrite mica flares almost have a sort of matte look to them. I think it's a textural thing, but the substrate is also an entirely different material than the rest of the vehicle. There is some "give" when you press on them and they just feel thinner than the body panels. I just sort of have this feeling like the clear is more delicate or thinner on the flares-- Like they might not hold up to repeated polishing like the body paint.

And the top edges of the flares-- that's also an area where I do sometimes see some clear coat failure on older tacomas.

Any thoughts? Am I the only one?

 

No, your not the only one. I also think there's a difference between the paint on the flares and the body panels. I have some scratches on my flares that are really stubborn, and haven't gotten them out yet. But I was able to get the same scratches out of the body panel

I wonder if Toyota just painted over the textured flares and called it good

 

If you notice on the bottom side of the cab under the door it's rough like that too. Maybe it's meant to be like that Sony doesn't scratch as easy? Under the cab would make sense for rocks flying up?

 

My flares are experiencing a clear coat failure on the top planes on all four of them. I do not recommend polishing them at all unless it's very lightly and you can protect them indefinitely

 

I know what you're referring to. I don't think it's the same thing on the fenders vs rocker panels. The rockers are almost like they have a spray on bed liner type material under the paint. I don't know what it is exactly, but it's tougher down there for rock chips due to debris being kicked up from the tires (rocks/sand/etc). It's not "orange peel" as some suggest. The fenders, on the other hand, seem more like black plastic trim that has been painted, as Benzdriver pointed out.

 

I'm thinking that's solid advice (and kinda what I've been thinking all along).

 

I do not polish the fender flares on my truck nearly as aggressively as I might polish the paint. The reason is that the surface of the flares is textured - as one can clearly see on base trim level trucks with unpainted flares. What this means is that you will have very small high and low spots on the unpainted surface. Paint tends to fill the low spots but does not add nearly as much paint to the tips of the high spots. So if one hits the area too hard with polish, you run the risk of dramatically thinning out the clear coat (or worse) at those high spots. Besides, you can polish all you want on a textured surface and unless you get really stupid, you're still going to have a textured surface.

As for the texture along the bottom of the doors and rocker panels, that's called Chip Seal and is applied specifically to ward off chips thrown up by your tires. Lots of folks think this is just really bad orange peel, but it is indeed there for a reason.

 

Mine is an 2006, I noticed clear on the top edge of the flares started coming off a few+ months ago and
today I noticed the clear on the sport hood scoop is bubbling up.
I park outside so my once a year full detail is with a PC so I think its just the clear aged.
I'd like to repaint the clear but I read on another thread that pulling the flares you'll need new clips, rubber gasket and the clear rock shield.

 

My truck is white, so can't really speak to the matte look but I do know that the flares give off a different sheen than the rest of the truck. It's more muted. I polish just aggressively, but I would say that I have not really polished aggressively. By that I mean I've only used single stage polishes. I might not do this when I eventually do a two stage polish later this year.