Painting Fender Flares

Murphyman · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 3:08 pm

I was considering painting my fender flares black. I was curious as to all of the steps to do so. Do they need to be sanded, or just cleaned and then spray paint em. It's a sport, so they are just the bare plastic grey. Not painted or anything.

I was thinking about either black, or using some Line-X or other kind of truckbed liner. And maybe the side molding on the side too, so they all match.

And do you guys recommend taking them off? Or could I just leave them on and tape the edges, use newspaper, all of that good stuff. Thanks!

jeepkj02 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 3:57 pm

Clean them really good with acetone or a prep cleaner. Krylon has a paint made specifically for plastics, they say you don't need a primer, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to use a plastic primer/adhesion promoter for better results.

JMSMN · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 4:21 pm

I ussed herculiner on mine, the fenders, bunpers and all of the side mouldings. That perticular kit said to sand with supplied scotchbrite pad. Didnt think that was good enough so I used 60 grit for good adhesion. Then I wiped it all down with xylene to get rid of dust and all other residues. Came out looking great. Have pics in my photobucket if you want to check them out.

jeepkj02 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:06 pm

How is the bedliner holding up? Any chipping, flaking, etc...?

Sorry about going OT, but in your photobucket, is the rear shock suppose to be installed like that? What shock is that, Rancho? I have mine installed the other direction.

oddball · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:45 pm

I was taught (given a crash course) by a guy who custom paints hot rods & muscle cars the following - which I have used to bedline the center section of my stock front bumper and the plastic strips (don't know the actual name) along the doors on both sides (of a KJ Limited anyway)...

Product brand is a personal preference and mine was to use Dupli-Color products including spray-on bedliner.

1. Use the RED Scotch Brite pads to scuff the surface to be painted. Do not use the green or blue pads. The red pads are for automotive body prep work. The green & blue pads are made for household chores. Supposedly all automotive body shop people use the red pads. NOTE: The only hard part here is finding said, Red pads. I couldn't find these at any retail store. I searched PepBoys, Advance Auro, Autozone, Napa, Wallmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware, and a few other local retail chain stores in my area with no luck. I found the red pads online through a auto paint supplier in Florida and bought a box. All the places online I found who sold these pads, had one thing in common - which was that the pads are only sold by the box. I purchased a quanity (box) of 20 for $29.00 shipped.

2. Use a surface cleaner like acetone (I used the Dupli-Color brand) sprayed directly to the surface to be painted and wipe dry with a lint-free cloth. The key here is to make sure there are no contaminates remaining on the surface including peeled, bubbled, cracked or chipped paint.

3. Mask (tape) off the area to be painted. The best tape to use (again, according to a pro) is the green tape from 3M. It too is made for automotive body work unlike the blue tape made for painting interiors of homes and such. I found the green tape at Advance Auto (btw; the only auto parts store who had it). Newspaper can be used to protect areas outside the prep area to be painted.

4. Apply the adhesion promoter.

5. Apply the bedliner (paint).
Dupli-Color recommends waiting 5 minutes between coatings. You can go as thin or thick with the bedliner as you like.

Hope this helps.

JMSMN · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 6:52 pm

jeepkj02 wrote:

How is the bedliner holding up? Any chipping, flaking, etc...?

Sorry about going OT, but in your photobucket, is the rear shock suppose to be installed like that? What shock is that, Rancho? I have mine installed the other direction.

Holding up great, nothing wrong with it. It was really shiny when I put it on so i didnt put the coating on it to keep it shiny. Turned to a dull black and I like it alot better. The shocks are RRO I believe. Bought the kit from another member. The are going to be replaced with BDS rear and ranchos asap. Need new tires first!

KY Liberty · **Joined:** Sat Jul 09, 2005 1:46 pm **Posts:** 1195

You can also get them Line-X'd. It costs more, but it is really nice. I have color matched Line-X Xtra on the bottom half of the doors, the fenders, and the bumpers. There is black Line-X Xtra on the brush guard, splash guards, sliders, and top of the rear bumper.

tumanator · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:50 pm

I opted for Dominion Sure Seal's "Gator Guard II" my reason was for the more rugged appearance. I tested several and I personally found the aerosol ones create a more smooth texture, the paint on types give a rougher texture. Gator Guard is also epoxy based which is supposed to give it more flexibility but honestly they all work the same, as stated it's just opinion. I'll Throw in a couple pics of mine just to let you know what it looks like.

As you can see I left my fenders and bumpers on, I just took off the grille and taped thoroughly around everything I painted. The process as stated earlier is pretty much the same, sand down what your going to paint (you don't need the acetone unless you have wax or other oily substances on your surfaces but it won't hurt.) You can spray, roll, or paint pretty much any type of bed guard depending on how you buy it.

During

After

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tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 10:25 pm

oddball wrote:

1. Use the RED Scotch Brite pads to scuff the surface to be painted. Do not use the green or blue pads. The red pads are for automotive body prep work. The green & blue pads are made for household chores. Supposedly all automotive body shop people use the red pads. NOTE: The only hard part here is finding said, Red pads. I couldn't find these at any retail store. I searched PepBoys, Advance Auro, Autozone, Napa, Wallmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware, and a few other local retail chain stores in my area with no luck. I found the red pads online through a auto paint supplier in Florida and bought a box. All the places online I found who sold these pads, had one thing in common - which was that the pads are only sold by the box. I purchased a quanity (box) of 20 for $29.00 shipped.

There are 3 different ScotchBrite pads for automotive paint prep,there is the Gray(equal to 600 grit sandpaper),Red(equal to 220-320 grit sandpaper),and then there is the brown ones(equal to 80 grit sandpaper).For bedliner prep I always used the brown ScotchBrite for best adhesion.

tumanator · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 10:31 pm

That makes sense, most paint products recommend either 80 or 100 grit sandpaper to rough up the area to be painted.

And honestly I wouldn't spend 30 bucks for a box of the brown pads. For only a couple quarters you could just get either 80 or 100 grit sandpaper and it'll work just the same.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 10:41 pm

tumanator wrote:

That makes sense, most paint products recommend either 80 or 100 grit sandpaper to rough up the area to be painted.

And honestly I wouldn't spend 30 bucks for a box of the brown pads. For only a couple quarters you could just get either 80 or 100 grit sandpaper and it'll work just the same.

As soon as you use the pads you'll never want to use regular sandpaper again.

Anyways......................

For paint prep the most common used grits..............

Paint strip--36-50grit
Body filler rough cut--36-50grit
Body filler smooth cut--80grit then 320grit
Primer---320 rough cut--600 final cut
Scuffing clear coat---600 grit
Sanding finished paint(for buffing)--1200-4000grit

Murphyman · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 10:52 pm

Man, lots o' replys. Well sounds like I have a fun project I can tackle tomorrow. I saw some duplicolor truck bed liner at O'Reily, and it looks good enough for me. Unless someone has anything against that. I'm just hoping it will look good with my dark blue Liberty.

tumanator · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:21 pm

It doesn't matter what you use, you could color those stupid grey fenders with a permanent marker and they'd look better :lol:

at least that's my opinion. The duplicolor is cheap, but look around before you make up your mind.

DryBones · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:52 pm

thanks for all the info. I need to do this to the LJ too. I can't stand that gray, especially on a black vehicle.

Murphyman · **Posted:** Sat Aug 08, 2009 12:01 am

My only decision left is to use either black paint, or bed liner. Hmm... decisions, decisions....

oddball · **Posted:** Sat Aug 08, 2009 12:02 am

I'll stand by the Red which I was told (in my case) was best to simply remove clear-coat and contaminates from the plastic prior to painting.

cluelessklewer · **Posted:** Mon Aug 10, 2009 12:37 am

bed liner it... i just had all my plastics rhino lined and it looks great. a buddy of mine painted his and dont think it looks as good.

audiboy86 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 10, 2010 3:46 pm

I cannot find anything that seems close to the brown scotchbrite pads yall are talking about on here i need a part number or something. I mean i find things that are close but i want to be 100% before i order anything else. I already have my bedliner just need to get it applied. PLEASE HELP ME

12Bravo · **Joined:** Wed Jun 02, 2010 10:37 am **Posts:** 6

You should be able to find all the different grades of Scotch Brite pads at any online auto body supplier or any machine shop/welding suppliers. I use to use different grades of Scotch Brite pads when working as a tool and die maker.

Painting Fender Flares

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