Painting fender flares

I've done a bit of searching and can't find what I'm looking for. I want to paint my stock silver fender flares black. Two of them were in really rough shape. I don't want to pay to have them color matched yet so I think I've decided to just paint them black myself.
Is it necessary to sand it prior to painting them? If so, with what? These things aren't exactly the easiest things to sand paint off. What type of paint would you recommend? I've seen some guys line x and use the black trim paint. Thanks.

 

Man, I figured there would be more info out on this.??

 

Is the paint bad on them now? I'd not you just need to scuff then up and not take the paint off. ..

 

It is on three of them. One is in pretty decent shape.

 

Take some low grit sandpaper and get the rough spots smooth, work your way up in grit until it's smooth enough that the scratches will get filled in.

Of course first remove the flares, that involves removing a few 10mm bolts and then ripping them off. You will break 95% of the clips, there isn't really an easy way around this. You can buy new clips on eBay for less than $5.

 

I got the flares off and somehow managed to only break a few. So it's ok to hit it with pretty rough sand paper to get factory paint off? Then sand it with a finer paper once most paint is off?

 

Yeah. You don't have to get ALL the paint off, it just needs to be smoothed down. Wouldn't hurt to lay some primer down, lightly sand and then put on your black paint after, unless you use a 2 in 1.

 

Ok thanks. Looks like I'll have a little project this week.