O.K. Si I'm sure theres already a thread for this but I can't find it so here goes. I just bought a Gray 93 FZJ80. Its the perfect color EXCEPT... The previouse owner painted the fender flares a weird blue color and it's flaking off. I was wondering if anyone knew a way to get the blue paint of so I can get them back to the original Gray.
Fender Flare Paint Removal (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Juergen Heinemann
- Start date
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sandpaper or just take the flares off and have the holes filled and painted.
Just sand them with a good orbital sander and a soft backup pad with about 320 grit. It is easier to do this with them still mounted on the truck. Take it down first in a small area and see if you can determine how far down the previous paint job went and try to get it all down atleast below that layer since flaking insicates poor adhesion so you don't want to paint on top of that. Surely they didn't go down to the plastic so try to locate the factory primer layer and start there. Don't use anything like paint remover because it will get into the plastic and will wind up ruining anything you put on top. If you are sanding and begin to see black, stop there because you have gone to far and with to many bare plastic spots showing, you will need to use plastic adhesion materials before painting and they can sometimes be very difficult to work with. do as much as you can with the sander and then finish the edges and other hard to reach areas by hand. 400 grit to 600 is what you want to finish everything with to get rid of the deeper 320 scratches and just keep everything clean and free of sand or dirt. Use wax and grease remover on all surfaces before sanding to prevent pushing the contaminates into the paint surface. Hope this helps and good luck with everything. Are you going to try to match the rest of the trucks factory color? If so, you will probably need to start with the paint code and do some tinting until a match is found. One idea which might look good and be easier to work is take the paint code and have it mixed and make the paint 2 or 3 shades darker and it will set the flares apart but similar to the rest of the truck. It will help keeping it from looking like you tried to match it nus just couldn't. I did a complete overall refinish on my '97 about two years ago and mine is probably the same color "moonglow silver" but I altered the origional paint code slightly bu replacing the medium coarseness metallic with coarse so I just used fine and coarse instead of fine and medium.
Should he fill them with Bondo or is there something better?
- Thread starter
- #5
Juergen Heinemann
Heres some PICS of the truck. So you guys can see what I'm up against. Thanks for the advice as well! I want to get as close to stock as I can. But the Idea of going a bit darker sounds good to.
Heres some PICS of the truck. So you guys can see what I'm up against. Thanks for the advice as well! I want to get as close to stock as I can. But the Idea of going a bit darker sounds good to.
My flares are fiberglass...
To do it 'correctly' you'd need to weld in new metal and go from there. If applying bedliner over the holes you can get away with just a small square of metal tape.
I don't think I would fill them with bondo but others have done it. I would try to cut small pieces of sheet metal, just a little larger diameter than the holes and place them onto the back side and weld them up. Probably only a couple short beads or tack welds is all it should need. Just be careful not to let t much heat build up on those spots. Just do one quick tack and then move to another area while that one cools and then slowly get them all welded then you can grind the welds down as smooth as possible and then use the body filler on those low spots. I know it is alot of work doing it this way and you would also have to repaint those areas and blend into origional paint which can be difficult. If you don't want to use the flares what you might want to do rather than welding up the holes, I would try to find just the right sive plastic hole plugs to cover them up. You can find the plugs at the auto parts stores and you will have to use either black or white colors or you might try some Dupli Color plastic paint and spray the hole plugs with a color that is closer to the rest of the truck. By using the plugs, you will always have the option to reinstall the flares but you would have to order all new flare mouldings in silver which adhear to the back edges of the flares. They will keep the flares from chaffing or rubbing the paint underneath.
Here is the link to my page showing my Land Cruiser during the refinishing process.
Overall refinish on 1997 Toyo...
Here is the link to my page showing my Land Cruiser during the refinishing process.
Overall refinish on 1997 Toyo...
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I think going with darker instead of lighter like it is now would look better. It's like when the factory uses a two tone paint job and the darker (3 or 4 shades of orig.) goes along the bottom and around the flares. I think the Land Cruiser 40th anniversary series has a two tone paint job.
