Refinishing Fender Flares

[h0tr0d]

Here's a quick writeup on how I refinished my fender flares with the dupli-color paint shop pro system. They only have a few colors, but since my truck is black, it worked out great for me.

Materials Required:
320 Grit sandpaper
400 Grit Sandpaper
Sanding Block
Bucket
Spray Bottle
Duplicolor Paint shop pro paint (get 1 can primer, color, clear)
Paint Gun (HVLP preferred)
Mask
Compressor
A place to shoot the paint
Beer
Good friend (optional)

Here is what I started with, you can see the clear flaking off everywhere:


I started sanding them with 400 grit on a d/a which was fine until I melted the plastic in a few places and had to go back and reshape the melted plastic with 320 by hand. Also, be very careful around all the edges with the d/a because you can totally screw them up in a hurry. But if you do, just reshape them to your liking with the 320. Get rid of all scratch marks from the 320 with the 400 and give the entire fender another once over with the 400. Run water over them to kind of get an idea what they're going to look like after paint.

What you end up with after sanding:


Now Find a place to paint, this can be in a booth, or in a plastic tent in your garage, or in my case, some osb setup in the corner of my buddy's shop. Wet the floor and make sure there isn't any dust that's going to be blown up and into your paint. Wipe the flares down with prep-all, then wipe it off. Spray the primer on the flares with several coats using the entire quart of primer, which works out to about 3 coats.

Wait at least 30 minutes (I waited a day) and sand them by hand with the sanding block using the 400 grit sandpaper that's been soaked in water. Keep misting the surface of the flare with water and occasionally dip the sanding block back in the water to keep it from building up. After this step, they should be almost perfectly smoothe.

Wait until they are dry and and clean with prep-all again. Spray the color in the same manner as the primer using the whole can ~3 coats.

If you want, you can color sand in-between the color and clear, but I chose just to buff out any imperfections later.



Spray the clear in the same manner as the color, you only have to wait between 5-20 minutes with this stuff between coats, so you can basically chase yourself around the parts.

Wait 24 hours and bolt 'em up.



Success!
They turned out pretty good for my first time working with plastic and look 100x better than the old flaking clear coat.

Remember: If you screw it up, you can always sand 'em down and start over.

 

[99denali]

Im helping a buddy of mine repaint his grill, going from chrome to black. Would it be basically the same stepps as your flares? it was already painted black by the previous owner but its peeling bad now.
Good job on those flares! they look great.

 

[puckhead]

Nice write up! need to look into this spray gun and the paint. I have just been using rattle can and its no where near what your looks like

 

[h0tr0d]

@99denali: I haven't tried to paint the grille yet, but I may do that sometime in the future. I'm not exactly sure what the chrome grille material is, but I think it's sort of a metallic foil type product. I would start out by getting all the peeling paint off with sandpaper. You might try something like fast etch on the chrome before wiping down with the prep-all. That may help the primer adhere better to the chrome. And thanks for the comment.

@puckhead: Thanks man. I have been buying all the stuff over the years. I got the gun kit from eastwood.com for around $100 bucks on sale. You do need a hoss of a compressor to shoot HVLP though, so you might make sure that your can handle it before forking over the dough. I had some money laying around and bought a big Husky compressor with all the trimmings and a set of air tools for about $650 at Home Depot, but you could find a compressor that will push the CFM for cheaper.

 

[puckhead]

That chrome is like a thick foil and is a pain in the ass to get off. so much so that I was trying to for a few days and ended up buying a new blank one to paint.

Thanks for the info h0tr0d! might look into that once I have a house and have the room for stuff like that

 

[DBLTAP]

hotrod,
nice job man, those look great. i am about to attempt the same but haven't yet figured out removing the flares. aside from the screws in the inner fender-well, how do the flares attach to the body?

 

[h0tr0d]

Those screws were the only thing holding mine on. I looked at my friends mom's suburban and it looked like she had some double sided tape running along the top edge, but I don't know if that's factory or not.

 

[BlizzardX23]

lol heres mine

---------- Post added at 08:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:39 PM ----------

1999 GMC Yukon SLT 4x4 Black on Tan Leather
Mods: Cragar Soft 8 17x8 4.5" BS, Nitto Terra Grappler 285/70/17, Keys cranked 2"
Plans: Grill guard, pro-comp lights on the guard, respray roof rack, lift blocks in the rear.


​

 

[h0tr0d]

Hey all, I just thought I'd come back and state that the paint shop pro system just plain sucks. It is super easy to shoot and make it look good, but the paint hasn't held up well at all. After less than a year, I've got sand embedded in the paint....they look like they have a matte finish instead of the gloss they had. I donno wtf I did wrong.

Luckily, the matte finish doesn't look bad at all on my truck, so they're going to stay like this. I should also state that I drive on sand roads every single day.