Ackkk..put a dent in my 02 Tundra!!

After moving about 57 loads of belongings from my old house into my new house all via Tundra I had a misshap with a fencepost in my back yard on the very last load!! What bad luck!! Woe is me!!!

What I did was scrape the flared cover thing that is above the rear wheel against the fence post, resulting in a dent and a slight seperation from the body. The thing looks like it would be pretty easy to just replace. I have no idea what to do, should I take it to the dealership to get fixed, body shop or what? I also have no idea what $$ will be involved. The body looks ok so I think it's just the flared part that needs replacing. Some of the paint could use touching up too as I have acquired quite a collection of small scratches over the past 6 months (All you have to do is look at this paint funny and it scratches), thought maybe about having this done while it's in the shop. I love this truck and I can't let it exist in a dented or scratched state for at leat another couple of years. What do you all think? Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

[Blender]

My passenger front flare got pulled off on a car's mirror at school (my fault, but the spots at school sure are small). A new, black, flare is $160 with out mudflap or mounting hardware. These wierd clip things are used to hold it on. They are color coded to their location and can be purchased at Toyota dealer for about $10. Chances are by pulling off your flare you will need all new clips. The screws into the fender should be fine though. It takes two or more people to press on the flare and line it up. It takes a suprising amount of effort to push it on, but nothing will break. I would suggest trying yourself and taking it to a body shop if you can't do it. The dealer will unfortunatly rip you and everyone else off for simple labor.

Blender

[Blender]

There are currently four black fender flares with mudflaps for sale in the classifides section for $150 plus shipping.
Just another option if you forsee yourself messing up more flares in the future

click here

Thanks for the advice blender, if I can get the flare replaced for < $200 and some sore muscles I'll be happy. One thing I was worried about is that the flare appears to be painted like the rest of the body, will a black flare match or will the paint have to be matched? Someone was telling me today that the paint matching was going to be expensive...maybe not though......

[beckerg]

If it's just a black fiberglass flare it will need to be painted. Having just had one painted and replaced I can tell you a couple of things that my body shop found out the hard way.

1. Get the clips Blender was telling you about. It is just about impossible to re-use the old ones.

2. Make sure you get the rubber fairing as well. It attaches with sticky tape and you will not be able to re-use the old one. Be VERY careful when you go to attach the new one as you only have ONE shot to get it right. (My body & paint guy had to order another one as he did not get it on right the first time. This entailed yet another set of clips as well.)

3. The other thing is the (anti-chip) clear plastic decal that goes on the lower leading edge of the flare. The body shop had to order two of these as well as they were not able to get the first one to adhere without bubbling the first time.

Good Luck!

[userw5]

Originally posted by jonwest
After moving about 57 loads of belongings from my old house into my new house all via Tundra I had a misshap with a fencepost in my back yard on the very last load!! What bad luck!! Woe is me!!!

What I did was scrape the flared cover thing that is above the rear wheel against the fence post, resulting in a dent and a slight seperation from the body. The thing looks like it would be pretty easy to just replace. I have no idea what to do, should I take it to the dealership to get fixed, body shop or what? I also have no idea what $$ will be involved. The body looks ok so I think it's just the flared part that needs replacing. Some of the paint could use touching up too as I have acquired quite a collection of small scratches over the past 6 months (All you have to do is look at this paint funny and it scratches), thought maybe about having this done while it's in the shop. I love this truck and I can't let it exist in a dented or scratched state for at leat another couple of years. What do you all think? Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

I would take it either back to the dealer or to a reputable body shop and have them fix it. This is why you have insurance.

Jeff

Yeah that thought crossed my mind but given a $300 dollar deductible and probable resultant rate increase I might be better off fixing it out of pocket.

Today as I walked to my Tundra when I noticed a bright red SR5 Tundra parked right next to my sadly scarred one....the red tundra had RUBBER flares! Wow I think that maybe another Tundra owner was trying to tell me something. ...hehehe. I figure maybe they had replaced thiers with the Ivan Staurt ones...but man that's like $1k isn't it? Might be worth it if you're prone to scrapes though. I just realized that my scrape was inevitable as I had been driving an early 80's corrolla for 10 years before buying the Tundra....too much mass difference there to not wind up scraping something.

[lmasi74]

There is a company out of California called performance products and they sell tons of stuff for Toyota. I looked in their catalog and found a couple different flares including O.E. flares. They have painted and unpainted. $347 and $581 for a set of four. It's a little higher than your $200 but it is a solution. These guys are great to deal with and they have alot of other stuff that you might want in the future. They have a web site, www.performanceproducts.com, you might be able to check it out right online, but you can at least get a free catalog. Good Luck.

Larry