I've been thinking about adding fender flares for a while now, the truck is starting to show the effects of the harsh salt roads here and all of the wheel wells and behind the head lights are peeling and in some cases already chipped off and rust is poking through.

There is plenty of time to save it which I plan on repainting the wheelwells after I get all the rust off, but since my truck is the rare atlantic blue colour (PBJ) the only place I can get paint from is the dealer. Then I have to worry about trying to match the paint....

I think I want to add fender flares after I've repaired the area - what do you guys think? I'll get some pictures up tonight to show the damage. Has anyone ever installed fender flares? How did they fit? They will help hide the paint differences.

Thanks again.

 

In my opinion these trucks look immensely better with the OEM fender flares installed, rather than without. They fit perfectly, and are secured with 3M automotive double sided tape on the top edges and screws on the underside.

 

I agree. The Durangos and Dakotas look 10x better with the OEM flares. They fit like a glove.

 

i guess im diffrent i dont like the flares on them mine didnt have them and looks a little diffrent and you dont see them to often

 

Well I've always liked fender flares on dakotas, give them more of a wider look - seem like a bigger truck.

I need to add them now to help hide paint defects tho - trying to pick up any pair I can and I'll probably paint them myself - maybe black to match my rims, window tint and tonneau cover - but I don't want it to look too tacky.

 

black fenders on that blue (truck in your profile?) would look fine.

 

I put Bushwacker fender flares on my Dakota a while back, and left them unpainted. I really like the look it gave to the truck.

But, I think my kit may have been a defective set, as mine didn't have any of the dimples they advertise on the commericals that show you where to drill the holes.

And, the screws that came with the kit were crap, had hardly any threads on them.

So, we went to a hardware store and got some stainless sheetmetal screws with the heads painted black, with unpainted stainless washers.

We just went ahead and chose our own hole locations, which worked out nice since there were some painted-over rust spots we had to avoid anyway.

Long story short, the bushwacker flares are really good and fit well, but get better hardware.

 

+1 for Bushwacker flares. I bought their "Street Flares" and had them painted the same color as the truck. I think they stuck out about 1" or so. They really added character to the plain jane wheel wells.

 

I would use Por-15 behind them cause those flares are known to trap road salt and rust out seen quiet a few pics that behind the flares are rusted out

 

If you're going to put flares on, be sure to put some sort of undercoating behind them as moparman said. Here's what was hiding behind my flares when I took them off:

IMAG0295.jpg

Don't really have a good shot of the other side, but it was as bad, if not worse than that ^