Painted fender flares

Velocity12 · March 9, 2020

5 hours ago, cvklok said:

Does anyone have a picture of the back of the fender flare that you removed, or a picture of the truck after the fender flare is removed. Looking for the exact location of the clips. Also want to confirm that there is no two sided tape used to secure them?

I found a picture of the front fender on eBay. It’s all just little push in clips that hold the flares on. No double sided tape. There’s like 15 to 20 clips in each flare. I pulled from the bottom and once one came loose the rest pulled out fairly easily. It’s hard to explain but once you start pulling some of the clips will pull away from the flares and stay in the fender. I used a plastic trim tool to pop them out. They are a tight fit so when I pulled mine off it bent the metal on the fender around the holes the clips go in a little. Nothing too bad. I just tapped them back flat with a dead blow hammer.

Chrisj4 · March 9, 2020

On 11/25/2019 at 8:44 PM, Bkegz said:

What kind of flares are these??

I second that, those look super clean

Glava2876 · March 9, 2020

I have a related question for those with the painted fender flare and the standard OEM splash guards. Mine came painted and I like they way they look transitioning into the OEM splash guards that came with it. But, have many of you changed to the larger OEM flaps to get a little more chip protection or do the others do a good enough job? And how do they look on the truck?

cvklok · March 16, 2020

On 3/8/2020 at 9:40 PM, Velocity12 said:

I found a picture of the front fender on eBay. It’s all just little push in clips that hold the flares on. No double sided tape. There’s like 15 to 20 clips in each flare. I pulled from the bottom and once one came loose the rest pulled out fairly easily. It’s hard to explain but once you start pulling some of the clips will pull away from the flares and stay in the fender. I used a plastic trim tool to pop them out. They are a tight fit so when I pulled mine off it bent the metal on the fender around the holes the clips go in a little. Nothing too bad. I just tapped them back flat with a dead blow hammer.

Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

cvklok · March 20, 2020

I installed the painted flares on a 2020 Sierra, few things I learned. Passenger side I took the inner fenders out to get to the back of the clips..... don’t waste your time doing this. The back ones have several of the clips enclosed anyway. In the end here is what worked for me.

Start by pulling the lower rear corner of the trim, pull it off enough (maybe 3-4 clips) pulling very hard.....

once you have it off enough that you can look in and see the next clip, use a flat screwdriver, be sure to press the tip away from the finished paint in case you slip, and put the screwdriver between the flare and truck on one side of the clip. The clips have wings that snap into the hole. You really only need to press one wing to get the clip to release. With a steady outward pull, the clip will pop out still attached to the trim piece damage free.

once you have about a 1/3 of the flare pulled away, pull it down causing the clips on the top to slide out of the trim. NOTE - the front uses different clips where it attaches to the bumper (front) and they will not slide out, again use the screwdriver to depress the wings of the clips to release them without damage. The back flare will easily slide of the clips as you pull down for the top and towards the rear of the truck for the front 1/3.

the clips will stay attached to the truck. I used standard pliers to pull outward on the existing clips while using the screwdriver to depress one side of the clip releasing it damage free.

it will only take you about 10 minutes to remove each flare

when you install the new ones just make sure the inner fender is between the lip of the flare and the truck and snap it into place

total is about an hours project.

this was done on a brand new truck, so I imagine with some age the clips may be more apt to break. None broke on me.

2020SierraDenali · June 18, 2020

I completed my change-over to painted wheel well trim on my 2020 today. First, I got to say the paint match was superb. I was kind of scared at first, but the Dark Sky Metallic came out very nice.

I did break ONE pin removing the original front wheel well trim. Oh well. Not bad since there's like 80 of them or something like that.

I got a pdf from the dealership for instructions, since I couldn't find much of anything about removing/replacing these. Turns out, the instructions suck. As mentioned, it's key to ensure if you have a wheel well liner, you must make sure it gets covered by the wheel well molding when snapping in the new one. There's just enough sticking out under the fender to ensure it gets sandwiched in between the molding and the fender.

I started at the rear. I started looking around to see where I could attack this, and the rear ones seemed like a good place as any to start. I looked up under the fender behind the rear wheel well and could see 4 reachable pins. I took my plastic "fork" trim tool and popped loose the first 4 pins from the bottom from behind the fender. Easy peasy. Then I did exactly as @cvklok mentioned and started pulling down on the rear of the original molding which released it from the clips holding them on at the top, then I pulled slightly to the rear on the molding to release the front clips from the molding. The very bottom of the front clip needed to be pulled though, it wasn't going to come free by pulling sideways on the molding.

To remove the clips, I took needle nose pliers on the rectangle section of the clips that were now free from the molding. While maintaining slight pressure outward, I took my plastic trim tool and pressed in one side of the wing on the clip and it came partially out but cockeyed. I used the tool on the other side with slight outward pressure and it came free. No damage and no over pull.

The front clips are a tad different in the very front where it attaches to the rubber bumper cover. It has about 4 or 5 steel wedge clips that going into rectangular holes on the front to hold it there, but uses the wing style plastic clips the rest of the way. On these, I carefully popped loose the metal clips on the rubber bumper cover, then pulled the front of the molding downward until all the top clips popped out of the molding, then I pulled the molding slightly to the front to release the rear wing clips from the molding. Again, there's one at the rear of the molding at the bottom that needs popping out by a secure yank. One of these came out clean, but the passenger side one broke. Oh well, not bad. Only one dead clip.

Installation was easy. The new moldings have all new clips pre-installed. There's one yellow clip in the top center. That one goes in first in the middle top hole of the wheel well opening. Then everything simply snaps into place. Again, before snapping everything in, ensure any wheel well liners are situated to be sandwiched between the fender and the new molding lip.

2020SierraDenali · June 18, 2020

Also, although it sucks, I'll leave the pdf file for "installation" instructions from GM. It may help SOMEONE. Once you do one side, you get the idea. And then find out how worthless the actual instruction sheet is.

2020 GMC Sierra Wheel Well Molding R&R GM instructions.pdf

ermirandafire · January 17, 2021

Where did you buy the fender flares from? Did they already come color matched or did you have them painted at paint shop? I haven't been able to find a color match fender flare for satin steel AT4

Edited January 19, 2021 by ermirandafire
added more detail

tone the barber · July 25, 2021

does anyone know where I can buy painted ones for 2018 1500 sierra denali???

DarkSky20 · August 21, 2021

Here’s mine in Dark Sky metallic. Found them for sale on eBay from a gm dealer. Easy diy install, save your money. Denali models should have come this way from the factory