How to restore color to faded fender flares?

The thing you have to consider is that once you use single stage paint (rustoleum) you won't have the durability or look of a factory finish when washing / waxing / adding detailing materials. I'd only advise doing this if you're planning on keeping the truck a very long time - selling a truck with diy paint jobs on any part of it is a lot harder than selling one with armor all on the black trim to make it shiny every once in awhile.

That said, I've had a plastic bumper cover last a pretty long time with decent results: primer, rustoleum bedliner sanded with 400 grit to knock down the texture on the bedliner, black spray paint to hide the sanding marks and rustoleum clear coat. I wouldn't recommend this system if you're going to sell the truck any time soon and it will take bi-yearly or so upkeep depending on the climate in your area.

 

I did plastidip on my flairs. It turned out pretty nice. I had color matched flairs that the clear coat was coming off, so I ended up sanding most of the color off and doing plastidip. I off-road with mine and it's held up relatively well against brush scraping, but I do have a few chips missing. For a more durable finish, I'll probably do something like benliner, though.

As others have said, those "magic" fixes you see from infomercials are temporary, if you want a permanent fix, you'll need to paint them. The secret is the prep work. Take the flairs OFF your truck, clean them with alcohol, etc... Don't try and mask your truck and paint them in place. You'll break the clips that hold them on the sheet metal, but they are cheap/easy to replace.

Even if you just do plastidip, you still need to prep the surface, and make sure it is CLEAN. Then 4 or 5 coats of the plastidip should be fine.

 

Thanks man. Still need a bit more help. I want a durable finish, where can I get that bedliner coating spray, or plastidip for that matter? Which one would you go for?

 

Either at Home Depot (they sell the rustoleum version of plasti-dip there) - Plasti-Dip is temporary, but is better if you don't want to keep the truck for a very long time.

 

These how mine look as of today...

 

Do any of you mind linking the fender flare clips in this discussion thread. Do the clips differ from the front and rear fender flare clips?

 

These are the clips I got. Just keep track of which color goes where when you take them off, they kind of alternate, so it's not like red = left side or something. There are several screws too, on the underside of the flair, and a couple that are kind of hidden on the ends of each flair, too.

NWCLIPS 2001 Tacoma Fender Flare Clip Kit C42-43x4

https://www.amazon.com/NWClips-Toyo...r1&keywords=NWClips+tacoma+fender+flair+clips

For a more durable finish, go bed liner. Just look around for some of the smoother finishes (some are pretty rough), but that's just my preference.

The plasti-dip IS removable, so if you're at all unsure you want to permanently alter your truck, the plasti-dip is good for that.

As with any paint, more thinner coats are better than fewer thick coats.

 

I had my truck bed coated in Rhinoliner, and I ended up doing the same thing to all of my fender flares. Out of necessity I replaced all the red and blue plastic clips (got a dealer discount thankfully) and lastly a new seal pad behind each fender flare. That was the most tedious part, applying the seal pad over uneven Rhino liner coated flares. But it came out great! I'll attach a pic right after I did it. Total cost was $50 each for the flares to be coated, and about $150 in parts from the dealer between the clips and seal pads. About $350 all said and done

 

You paid $50 for each flair, or for all 4?

$150 for some clips and rubber gasket seems like highway robbery, but you say you got it from the dealer so that makes sense...

 

The front is before and the back is after. That's using Mother's "Back to Black" which is pretty much just a liquid that you rub on with a microfiber cloth. It lasts for a couple weeks and then you have to reapply. Of course it would be nicer to paint or plastidip them but this is the quickest and easiest thing you can do.

 

$50 for each flare, so 200 total for the flares. Yep, those clips and the rubber seals were pricey but good quality. Shouldn't need to touch them again for 8-10 years or so I hope.

 

I'm sure they were good quality, but so are the ones that cost 1/10th as much. Like I said, your dealer took you for a ride. Sorry man.

 

Those rubber seals are indeed expensive and necessary if you dont want your fenders to look like butt.

 

This time I was able to reuse my old ones, but I've seen rolls of stuff that will work fine for like $30 (like bushwacker gaskets), then get some double sided foam tape (another $10) and call it a day.

 

Hey look I managed to forget again. Sorry. Lol but here’s what the came out like with the duplicolor bed liner. The plastic on top of the front bumper is new.. everything’s just dusty so it looks a little light...

The texture is pretty decent too.

 

Wow guys thanks for the help. I went ahead and removed all four fender flares from the Tacoma and rinsed/washed that area (that was full of dirt and small debri) and still have to remove some old glue from that wheater strip that I haven’t had in years. I went ahead and purchased some fender flare clips from eBay, it had the red and blue clips all counted for. Now I’m uncertain of what’s the best option for a weatherstrip. I don’t really want to pay $44 for a single weather strip for one flare. Do you guys just recommend a welting trim that’s not OEM ? For example this one .....
https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/112478402493

Or

https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/272816773760

Thanks again my fellow tacos!!

 

Where did you purchase that bed liner to spray on your fender flares. I just got the Plastidip, hopefully it comes out good like yours.

 

this was duplicolor bed armor. got it from autozone. and i used some plastic adhesion promoter to help the first coat stick

https://www.autozone.com/paint-and-...-16-5-oz-bed-armor-truck-bed-liner/291641_0_0

 

I fell for that stupid "Wipe New" crap about 7 years ago. Applied it to all the plastic stuff. Well it turns out that stupid crap is not stupid crap at all. 7 Years so far and it has not faded one bit. Granted, my truck is garaged all the time though but hey-7 years so far. That shit works.

 

@jbrandt I know this might be a silly question. When I receive my fender flare clips, how do I go upon installing them? When removing the fender flares some clips broke off but all the clips remained intact on the body of the truck. So when installing the new clips do I install them in the fender flares first then just insert them in the correct spots and push in the flares until I hear a "click" letting me know they got installed properly. Or, do I insert the clips on the truck first then push in the fender flares. Hopefully you were able to understand my question.
Thank you.