After 178k miles, the green fender flares have finally gotten to wear I can not stand the way they look. I need to know what type of paint I should use. Krylon Fusion? I also need to know if I need to sand them down and what grit should be used.

I have never painted anything except for my steering box spacer and exhaust manifold. If someone who has painted these and they looked good for years could give me some advice, that would be great. Thanks

I will post some pictures of my flares tomorrow.

 

bed liner spray of plasti dip is the general consensous. Im going to shoot mine tomorrow too.. I have a lot of experience with plasti dip so Im leaning towards that, though I may go get some cans of bed liner instead because it is tougher. be sure to tape and bag off areas you do not want paint on and test your spray before hand on something other then your truck. good luck, ill be posting pics tomorrow .

 

I just took care of my fender flairs 2 weeks ago. I used spray on bed liner. they came out pretty good. Now all I want to do is do the side molding to match. The good thing about the bed liner. It'll out last the spray paint. Which every you decide to do. Make sure you prep them really well before you paint them or it will peel.

 

You need to use an "adhesion promoter" before the topcoat. Ask me how I know that sometime.

 

My XJ was missing some of the flares. Once I bought them at the junkyards I dropped them off at a local body shop and had them painted to match. Just $40 and done.

 

I bedlined mine as well, my only recommendation would be to cover it with some UV resistant black paint after the bedliner. Any brand is going to fade. Herculiner is my favorite though

 

What prep work is involved? I want to do it right the first time.

I got quotes from $80-$150 from the local shops. They can just forget that haha.

What prep work did you do to the flares before painting?

 

When I preped mine I sanded them down first with 500 grit sand paper Then with 300 grit. Then finished with cleaning it with alcohol. Make sure you get any wax or oils off before you paint. Get as close to the edges as possible. The edges are the first place it will want to pill. Your best bet would be to take them off so you can get the edge of the flare that meets the fender.

 

Careful taking the flares off the bolts break pretty easy.

 

Yeah, if you could just loosen them up just enough to slip some non-absorbing paper behind them you would get a sharp break line for the paint.

I wouldn't take them completely off.

 

I'm going to take them completely off. I have had them off before so I am not worried about the bolts breaking.

 

I also don't recommend taking them off but ultimately it's up to you. I just think getting them back on correctly is a pain. Use the prepping method described already and you should be good

 

I don't plan on taking mine off. going to bag up the whole side of the truck and use painters tape like a mad man. is rather do that then try to take these things off and risk breaking something

 

did.mine today they came out great. just a lot of prep work masking off the area around. I used bedliner spray.