Styling and detailing question

[Tundra_10]

Hey guys I have a rather "off-the-beaten-path" sort of question here. As if my non-creative user name does not dictate, I have a 2010 tundra. Just last weekend when washing it I noticed I had a little rock chip on each side in the rear fender wells. I wish I would have noticed before it started to form a spot of rust, but it is what it is. I put some rust stop stuff on and a little touchup paint so the chips are gone now. I now am deciding what I am going to do to stop from having to constantly fix rock chips in and around my fenders. Its a newer truck so I do not want it to look like crap in a couple years with all the chips that will accumulate and me having to repair.

I was thinking about getting fender flares for my truck. This is so totally against my style of "simple, clean lines", however I think I can justify it based on the need to protect the paint.

There are a couple different styles of flares offered for my truck, and I cannot decide what route I want to take and was hoping you all could give me a little feedback as to what you might think would look the best and also would give me proper protection.

I belong to a tundra forum as well, however no one seems to understand how a forum helps members with giving advice, opinions or feedback if it does not have to do with a huge lift or a blaring stereo. Needless to say I am turning to my friends who I know care about keeping their vehicles clean and who care about maximum protection against door dings, paint chips, etc.

Here is a picture of my truck how it sits (I know its dirty so please do not mock)

Here is a picture of one of the sets of flares I am looking at. Since my truck is a 4x4 and I am putting something on it I think these fit the "theme" of the truck. The concern with these are they eliminate the mud flaps. In my eyes I am gaining fender coverage only to loose coverage on the side of the body panels. However in my eyes they accent the truck well since it has a black front and rear bumper.

Here is a picture of the factory flares... They are smooth, they can be color matched and most importantly they retain the mudflaps. HOWEVER, there is an issue. If you notice where the front flare begins (front of truck), it overlaps the front bumper. On the example truck here that is no big deal as that strip is color-matched to the truck. Mine on the other hand is black. So my truck will kind of have this "fang" thing going on. Its my understanding I can buy these "unpainted" however I am not sure what color they come in unpainted, also I am not sure if they are meant to be used unpainted. To add more to that, I am not sure if they would look good unpainted as it might just be too much bland unpainted plastic slapped onto the side of my truck vs the others at least have some styling to them to take away from the bland look.

As I mentioned, any advise or tips or suggestions are more then welcome with me. They can be negative, positive, or heck you can even say buy a ford, chevy, or dodge and you wont have that problem. I do not care what you post, however promise something will pertain to my situation and hopefully I can make a decision soon.

I am leaning toward the aggressive ones but I am just worried about the side of my truck getting chipped up. UGH!

 

[Ron Atchison]

I personally like the factory ones better. Seeing how they will need to be painted you could see what it would cost to have your peice above your bumper painted also to match. Sure it's an added expense but your going to have to look at it a long time. So you need to be happy with it. The first pic looks like a trip to pep boys.

 

[phantom]

Factory = understated elegance.

 

[SeaJay's]

If your looking to protect the paint and keep the clean lines maybe look into a clear film for those areas. Will enable you to keep the clean lines and have protection.

I personally don't like the bigger fender flares unless they are on an off road vehicle. And from reading above it sounds kind of like you prefer the cleaner lines and look of the factory truck. Which I completely agree.

I'd call around to some local shops and see how much it would cost to get some film put on.

Just another option you can look into.

 

[JBL]

I belong to a tundra forum as well, however no one seems to understand how a forum helps members with giving advice, opinions or feedback if it does not have to do with a huge lift or a blaring stereo.

I belong to one for my Accord, and believe me when I say I understand. There's a lot of good informaiton provided by the factory and the moderators there, but unless I need a drop kit, new rims, something tinted or 10 million lumen fog lights, asking questions can be an excercise in futility.

That being said, is it possible to finish the factory-style flares? If they need to be painted anyway, what's to stop you from having a body shop cut and finish them to get rid of that "fang"? Do you think you'll ever jack this truck up or put bigger rubber under there? New rims? I like the aggressive flares, but not the way they look with stock rims. Stock, black rims might be different, but now we're just adding projects.

 

[Tundra_10]

Thank you all for your insight. Painting the strip on the front bumper was something I was thinking of as well. If I go that route, should i get the entire bumper sans the lower middle section (you can see what I am talking about on the other trucks) or should I just get that slim strip painted? I guess I was just trying to get away from the expense and something else to have to worry about but that does seem to be the correct thing to do.

I was thinking about protective film but my problem with that is that I am worried about the chipping of the paint, unless that film can "wrap" around the lip since thats where the chipping is happening.

Again thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I am going to put all into consideration and I do agree that the smooth factories are the best looking and I do agree with some of you that unless I am going big, might as well stay with the understated look.

I loved the pep boys comment, that I think totally turned me off from those flares lol. That is the LAST thing I want to be mistaken for or to have settled with.

 

[OCDetails]

I will just give the advice that just because something is made for your vehicle doesn't mean it is necessarily something which should be put on your vehicle. I love seeing cars that look like they went down the appearance do-dad aisle at PepBoys and bought one of everything. Sometimes OEM does it right and it doesn't need to be changed. That doesn't mean some stuff doesn't look really good either... It just means you have to be selective.

Honestly if this were my truck I'd get some running boards and chrome bumpers and that is about it. I'd probably take those vent things off the doors too. I really don't know what the point of those is unless you are smoking in the truck while driving in the rain and want to avoid water pouring in while you vent the cab. They just have that 'pepboys was having a sale' look whenever I see them.

Some other things that are fun appearance projects are to paint the grille and smoke the lenses on the back. Maybe not so much the smoking on your truck since I think the red and grey are good contrasting colors, but a little tinting of the grille or body matching even would be pretty sweet. Here is my neighbor's Tundra that I've done some work on to give you some ideas.

I painted the grille with a black chrome spray. It is still chrome looking, but definitely tinted. It looks great on the dark green. I did the same thing to his front and side emblems too.

Then I smoked the tail lights with VHT Nightshades. The brake light on the top of the cab is smoked too. Again, I think it looks sick on the dark green, but on your silver I think the red looks pretty good. It was just the wrong type of contrast on this color I think.

He put a pretty neat mural on the back. It's a picture of the Alaskan tundra. Get it... Tundra? lol I'm not usually a fan of murals on tail gates, but this one fits.

 

[Tundra_10]

OC... I have been contemplating the tail lights as I think tinting them would look good, especially with the other black accents of my truck. To be honest, I am not a chrome fan, even if it is factory. Furthermore I am trying to minimize the paintwork on the front as I really hate rock chips (I bet more so then anyone else on this site lol) :dig:. Anything I can do (such as leaving a part unpainted)I will to prevent my OCD from seeing any such imperfections. I understand its a DD and I understand that stuff happens, but I get nauseous when it does. I really want to keep as much of that front end unpainted as possible but I think everyone has me convinced to go ahead and get the factory-styled flares. The only issue will be me getting that front bumper painted, wont be till after the new year so am going to be dealing with some fangs (or not depends I guess when I see on the vehicle).

I am not a fan of murals, if its good looking (as the one you showed me (I enjoy the witty pun with it being the alaskan tundra)) I can appreciate the time and effort put into it, I can even appreciate its artistic value. I cannot appreciate it being on a vehicle though, not my cup of tea at all. Too busy, too much for me. I like things simple, heck I have been contemplating removing all my badges on my truck as I want it to look more smooth and simple. Thats for another day lol.

 

[OCDetails]

I'm totally with you. I told him it is something I would have had painted on a tailgate and then hung in my garage as Auto Art. On the back of my truck it is just not me.

If you want to send me some pictures of your truck where I can see the tail lights then I can photoshop some smoke to them and you can see what it would look like. I did that with one client's car and the out come was almost exactly like the photoshop job.

Before...Photoshopped...After

Shoot me a PM with your truck and we can play around with styling and you can see what it would look like before you dive in and do it.

Just a note on painting your tails though... Technically it is against the motor vehicle code in every state. You can't 'cover' your lenses with anything. If you do a faint enough job then it isn't likely anybody but a Toyota dealership will notice, but if you go too dark then everybody will notice. You just want something nice and subtle to take the edge off the crispness of the red lenses. This is my car next to factory lenses. Maybe just a touch too dark to really not be noticeable, but on my color it just had to be done. I did get hassled at the dealership when I went in for my safety inspection, but another shop didn't even notice. That serves me right for going to Toyota. They also tried to tell me my headlights were tinted when it was just black housings and no tint on them. Morons... Anyway, it isn't too tough to get this stuff off your lights if you decide you don't like it. A little paint stripper and some rubber gloves and it comes right off.

 

[tuscarora dave]

Here is something else to consider about the fender flares. This customer is nice enough to remove his before I come to polish the vehicle and this is what the panels look like under the flares. This guy always keeps a clean truck too so neglect isn't to blame. I think it's just the nature of flares on a vehicle.

 

[Tundra_10]

OC I am going to take some shots this weekend and send to you if you do not mind helping me out. I would love to see how my truck would look with flares and also the lights tinted. I have had "film" covering a previous vehicles tail lights. It looked sharp and no one messed with me. I never contemplated spraying them as its permanent and also I would probably screw up a 300 taillight lol.

Tuscarora, that was one of my concerns as well. My previous truck was a ranger and it had factory flares on it. It was really bad because the flares rubbed directly on the paint (no rubber gasket) and they rubbed through the paint and caused rust spots.

Does that clients flares have such gaskets as well or is it bare plastic to metal contact?

 

[tw33k2514]

Personally I am not a big fan of fender flares. They just look off to me.

 

[Tundra_10]

tw33k2514, I am totally with you. I think my truck looks good without them and am afraid of busyness. However, I like rock chips and especially ones that escalate into rust even less. I can deal with one of "mikes list of cardinal sins of vehicle accessorizing" in leu of the bigger picture I am trying to accomplish. I do not think the factories look bad at all, however if I had my choice I would not put anything on. I just want protection. I could probably go with a factory-sized tire that is not quite as wide, but what fun or how cool would that look?

 

[toycar18]

Bushwacker's Fender Flares for retail are OEM also. They manufacture them for Toyota

I put some on my Tacoma and they have held up great and have a rubber gasket.

Bushwacker - Fender Results

 

[Tundra_10]

^^ thank you toycar18, I have seen those and are probably the ones I will go with. Well those or the toyota renditions... whichever is cheaper. The toyota flares I can get color-matched for $415. It looks like the cheapest (after a 2 minute search) I can find the bushwacker OEM for are $359 unpainted.

Have you ever taken yours off to see if they caused any sort of rubbing or dulling of the paint underneath?

 

[Tundra_10]

So I think I found a different solution. I want to run it by you guys to see if you think this is a good idea or if I have some cans of volatile chemicals leaking fumes into my house giving me crazy thoughts and ideas.

I want to get a spray-in liner for my truck as I like the look of the liners plus its nice to be able to throw crap in the back of the truck without worrying about it scratching up the paint and changing the appearance. When I went in to get a quote I had an epiphany and asked the guy to include the inside lip (rolled in portion) of the fender in his quote. I told him I just wanted the rear done since thats where I noticed the chips. He said for the liner in the truck and for both rear fenders he will do it for $600.

This is the way I look at it, I think the liner itself was going to cost me about $500 (which I want anyway). I am not a huge fan of flares and would be spending a minimum of $400 to get them (the flares) even close to what I want to be somewhat satisfied but not exactly what would normally do (add the flares). I look at it as killing 2 birds with one stone and I do not have to worry about rock chips on that fender lip and I do not have to worry about making my truck look busy or adding more work for myself to cleaning, waxing, etc, nor have to worry about the fender flares rubbing into my paint.

Furthermore, the liner will be a huge protectant and will never let any contamination get through.

I made sure to instill the fear of God into this guy so he realizes he needs to do a damn good job masking and taping off the area and I will again when I drop it off if I decide to do this.

I just thought I would throw this out there to see what you guys think?