I have been wanting to paint my faded black flares and side moldings for a while. After viewing some of the photos on the forum I decided to remove the side moldings since it was easier than painting them. So first I removed the side trim. Then I removed the fender flares. The driver's front flare came off perfect without a single broken bolt so I thought it was going to be smooth sailing, wrong. All three of the other flares ended up with broken bolts.

I got them off the Jeep and painted them with Dupli-color spray can bed liner and I am happy with the finish. I hit them with some steel wool then cleaned with degreaser and shot them with 2 light coats. Worked great. I was able to get all four flares back on but only of of them has no gaps (the one that I did not break any bolts). It will work for now and I will need to order some new brackets.

 

moved to chat.

 

Did you do you bumper caps and bumper as well?

Fenders look good.

 

Looks good.

 

looks great I'll be doing this as well with mine. however I'm thinking of using plasti dip on the fender flares

 

do you have a close up picture?

 

Brackets from where? Quadratec only has up to 1996.

 

wow getting those side moldings off was a nightmare. well not the actual molding but all the glue was killer!.. I have no skin on my fingers and I really wasn't even using them the majority of the time. I thought the heat gun and adhesive remover would cut right though the stuff but I was in for a rude awakening

 

I love it man. Looks nicely done!

 

Looking good. Clean XJ. Ours look a lot alike.

 

So taking off the plastic side trim is pretty easy? Do you just literaly pull them off and then get the glue off? Is that all you have to do?

1998 Cherokee Sport

 

Yes. 3m eraser wheel or a clothing steamer will take the adhesive right off.

If you go the steamer route (about $20 at walmart, target, ect) just pry the molding up some and steam under it for a bit, then pull and repeat. The adhesive should come off with the molding and you wont hurt the clear coat like a heat gun can.

 

I used the heat gun and rolling with my fingers method. My fingers were sore after but I made my kids help too

Since I removed the moldings, I added Smittybilt armor on the rockers.

 

Were you able to get all the glue off!? Mine still has residue like it was burnt on there!