Paint current fender flares or buy new ones?

[pong]

I have an 02Sport with the grey fender flares and am looking to paint them the same color as the rest of the Liberty. I got some good info from the board as far as painting them but am now wondering would I be better off buying some from maybe a Limited model and painting them to match.
On the models that are already painted.. are they the same plastic material or is something different from the ones I have.

PONG

 

[kj924]

The Ltd flairs have a smooth finish as oppose to the sports rougher texture finish.....same plastics just different surface texture.

 

[twack]

its possible to sand down the liberty fenders to be smooth. HAHA or be lazy and cover them in a thin layer of body filler and sand that

 

[Austen]

I also want ltd fenders. Will the same front turn signals fit? I think the ltds screw into the body right?

 

[HoosierJeeper]

I also want ltd fenders. Will the same front turn signals fit? I think the ltds screw into the body right?

I'm pretty sure they'll work....same units.

 

[pong]

Thanks for the info everyone... so same material just a different finish? So bottome line is whether or not the time to sand it down to a smooth finish is worth doing instead of buying some fender flares off a limited I suppose...

 

[J-Thompson]

Just some advise from a guy who has hit many bushes ,shrubs ,thickets ,thorns ,hedges
saplings and even full blown trees ,well maybe not hedges those are what people plant
in front of their house and I am quite sure I have never ran over any of those
painting flares on any Jeep that will see even limited trail time is point less
even my unpainted flares look bad I would hate to see what they would look like if they were painted
Jeep looks bad enough
Just my .02

 

[Andynator]

I have an '02 Limited and I had my front flares repainted under warranty. I got too aggressive with the power washer and started to flake the paint off...whoops.

That said I would have rather have the textured finish unpainted flares (at least as an option) on the Limited.

BUT, my thinking is, if you degrease the plastic well enough they will look very nice painted body color.

Honda makes the SCV Element with the textured plastic panels. Last year they introduced one of the trim levels with regular painted panels, but I saw some of the prototypes where they painted the textured panels and they did not look bad at all, looked downright good, as a matter of fact.

Paint them a contrasting color (but not grey or black) and go for a cool retro look.

Andy

 

[tjkj2002]

its possible to sand down the liberty fenders to be smooth. HAHA or be lazy and cover them in a thin layer of body filler and sand that

Good luck with that besides from not working it will crack off or have a melted look.

If you want the painted flares and bumpers just get some from a junkyard or order new ones.It is not worth the time a hassle to try to paint the textured ones that will just not last no matter what you do.I have a limited and sprayed bedliner on mine,looks good and no scratches from stuff on the trails.

 

[LibertyOrDeath]

Good luck with that besides from not working it will crack off or have a melted look.

If you want the painted flares and bumpers just get some from a junkyard or order new ones.It is not worth the time a hassle to try to paint the textured ones that will just not last no matter what you do.I have a limited and sprayed bedliner on mine,looks good and no scratches from stuff on the trails.

Do they make that type of bed liner in different colors, such as dark blue??

 

[tjkj2002]

Do they make that type of bed liner in different colors, such as dark blue??

You can get tintable version and tint it any color you want as long as you can get it in single stage paint since 2oz of single stage paint is added to each quart of bedliner to get the color.

 

[tumanator]

Next nice day when I have the time I'm going to paint my fenders with black Gator Guard II bed liner. I have the same crappy gray fenders and they just don't work, I don't have a fancy spray gun so i'll just be rolling / brushing it on. From everyone that I talked to, they all recommend the bed liner way, it's only gonna cost me about 50 bucks, and I might even go so far as to do the bottom of the doors.

As far as color I know Gator Guard comes in 2 colors, black and white, but I was told you can go to a paint shop and they can match the white to the color of your vehicle, so it's something to look into.

 

[tjkj2002]

Next nice day when I have the time I'm going to paint my fenders with black Gator Guard II bed liner. I have the same crappy gray fenders and they just don't work, I don't have a fancy spray gun so i'll just be rolling / brushing it on. From everyone that I talked to, they all recommend the bed liner way, it's only gonna cost me about 50 bucks, and I might even go so far as to do the bottom of the doors.

As far as color I know Gator Guard comes in 2 colors, black and white, but I was told you can go to a paint shop and they can match the white to the color of your vehicle, so it's something to look into.

You do know that stuff needs a painted surface to stick to,that means you will have to prep the flares and at least prime them with massive amounts of adhesion promoter to make it stick and a agent(sorry forgot it's name) that allows the primer/paint to bend with the plastic without cracking.