What would it cost to replace the major plastic body parts?

Draco · **Posted:** Fri Apr 24, 2015 1:56 am

My KJ has 130K miles on it. I plan to keep it until at least 160K miles. But I may keep it until 200K, 250K or 300K miles as a daily driver. But if I do that it, it has to look good and be weather tight.

As an exercise I tried to estimate what it would cost to replace the major plastic body parts (flares, fascias, weather seals, door handles, etc). Spending a few hours looking at places like Quadratec (Omix-Ada or Crown Automotive aftermarket), moparpartsoverstock.com (OEM) and factorychryslerparts.com (OEM), here's a quick list. I'm not going to itemize which parts are aftermarket and which are OEM. Prices can vary a lot. The point is just to get a big picture.

Front fender flares 2x$131 = $262
Rear bumper fascia $313
Cowl cover $120
A-Pillar exterior moldings 2*$90 = 180
Front door moldings 2*$80 = $160
Rear door moldings 2*$60 = $120
Sill moldings below rear doors 2*$22 = $44
Rear door appliques ("flares") 2*$80 = $160
Rear wheel opening appliques ("flares") 2*$87 = $174
Roof moldings 2*$45 = $90
Door handles 4*$45 = $140
Rear wheelhouse seals 2*$25 = $50
Hood to cowl seal $17
Fender to cowl seals 2*$12.50 = $25
Weather strips front doors 2*$75 = $130
Weather strips rear doors 2*$75 = $130
Roof rails 2*$90 = $180
Roof rail end pieces 4*$22 = $88
Sunroof seal $53
Tailgate gate weather seal $87
Tailgate opening weather seal $60
Tailgate handle $70
Power side mirrors 2*$72.50 = $145

That all should add up to about $2800.

By the way, I do understand that lots of the plastic parts could be painted.

What I consider doing after 160K miles is getting an OEM quality paint job (which I guess will cost $5K or $6K). And if I bought ALL that plastic and rubber listed above, that adds $3K for a total of $9K.

Additionally I would have to plan on replacing the engine at some point with a remanufactured one, and probably transmission and transfer case.

That all adds up to a lot of money, but I could justify doing it for a daily driver that I planned to drive until at least 250K miles.

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Apr 24, 2015 8:12 am

Why replace all of the plastic parts? Are they broken / cracked / damaged ?
Plenty of KJs running 225-250,000 without replacing anything at all except for regular maintenance items
One local guy here is at 235,000 or so on his 03, I'm over 214,000 etc

Draco · **Posted:** Fri Apr 24, 2015 9:55 am

I don't really think I'll replace all of the plastic parts. I just want to understand what that might cost. If it only cost $1000, I would absolutely do it. I really doubt all of the pieces will be available anyway.

The concern is not so much miles as it is years of UV exposure in the intense Arizona sun. I drive a little more than 10,000 mi/year. So it will take 12 years to get to 250K and 17 to get to 300K.

My roof rails are damaged already and need to be replaced. The only reason I haven't replaced those already is I couldn't find any. I doubt they're available, and expect to have to have metal ones fabricated. I actually like the stock ones just to keep the weight down.

Last time I cleaned around the door jambs, some crumbs of weather stripping came off. It may have just been the driver door.

I'm impressed at how well automotive plastics hold up in the sun. But they do look chalky eventually.

Who knows what I'll decide to do in three years. This was just information gathering to make a more intelligent decision when the time comes.

What would it cost to replace the major plastic body parts?

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