[lupinsea]

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Restoring Faded Flares

CONTENTS

1) Vehicle Setup
2) Overview and Review
3) Write-up


1) VEHICLE SETUP

This can be performed on a stock or modified vehicle with stock, non-painted flares.


2) OVERVIEW AND REVIEW

Overview:
It doesn't take long for stock plastic Jeep flares to fade in the elements. Before you know it the black flares have turned a light shade of gray and look out of place on the Jeep (Fig 1) with its black bumpers, black mirrors, black tires, black top, black door handles, etc. This "mod" restores the flares to their original black finish without painting by using a blow torch or heat gun to lightly melt the surface of the faded plastic.

Fig 1 - Stock flares suffer bad fading in the sun

Review:
The hardest part was removing the fender flares. Especially when the nut-serts spun in the fender sheet metal. However, once the fenders are off this was an easy way to restore their faded color.

The benefit of this method is that it doesn't use any paint. If the flares get scratched up it's the same material through the whole scratch which means it's less visible. Compare this to a painted flare that will show the light faded gray under the paint if it gets scratched

This is not expected to be an ultra durable solution to poor UV stability of the OEM flares. Over time it's expected that the plastic will fade to light gray again. However, all one needs to do is remove the flares again and fire up the torch.


3) WRITE-UP

Remove Flares:
First step is to remove the flare. You'll need an 8mm wrench for the flare screws. For the front flare unhook the turn signal light by twisting the socket on the back of the lens (Fig 2). Remove the front lens by unscrewing the 10mm speed nut on the back.

Fig 2 - Remove the front signal lens, then unbolt
the flare from the fender

If any nut-serts "spin" on you, you'll have to access the back and grip the nut-sert body with some pliers while undoing the screw.

With the flare off there will likely be a lot of gunk behind the flare (Fig 3). Clean this off before reinstalling the flare. Also, clean the back mating surface of the flare itself.

Fig 3 - The flare detached from the Jeep fender. Note the
gunk behind where the flare was. Clean this off
before reinstallation.

Note: You "can" torch the flares while they're still on the Jeep, but do so at your own risk. It's still advisable to remove the flare near the gas cap. That's the last place you want open flame or heat.

Torching the Flares:
Set the fender flare on a non-flamable support, a pair of jack stands work nicely. Then fire up the torch and run the flame back and forth over the surface of the plastic (Fig 4 & 5). The idea is to let the plastic melt "SLIGHTLY" so it turns back to black again.

Fig 4 - Using a blow torch or a heat gun, lighly
melt the surface of the plastic flare.



Fig 5 - Almost finished. Be sure to support the flare on
something non-flamable. Jack stand work well for this.

If you run the flame over at the right speed then only the surface will melt and the back side of the flare will barely get warm. You should see a "wetting" of the plastic surface (Fig 6) indicating the surface melt and the plastic will darken drastically. However, the surface will cool and harden up in a matter of seconds once you remove the flame (Fig 7).

As a test, the surface was scratched several times with utility knife, sure enough, the newly restored color goes all the way through the flare material so the scratches blend in (Fig 8 ).

Once the flares are done with the torching, bolt them back up in the reverse order you took them off.

Fig 6 - The torch should melt just the surface of the
plastic, the backside will barely be warm to the touch.



Fig 7 - It takes mere seconds for the plastic to cool
and solidify to a near OEM factory finish. However,
there's only so much to be done. My flares have taken
a beating over the years.



Fig 8 - Scratch test: the utility knife cut scratches through
the surface yet there is no other color showing, the beauty
of dealing with an integral material color instead of paint.

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[ArrizX]

Thats a great idea.

Looks like it takes much more time then just taping up and painting them. With that considered would you recommend this over paint?

[lupinsea]

Yes.

I did a test with the flare on the Jeep and it did ok. If you're careful you could try that. However, I'd still recommend removing the flare next to the gas cap.

The reason I like this method is that with paint, if it gets scratched you'll see the light gray plastic underneath. This has happened on a number of friend's Jeeps. It's a little easier to touch up, just mask and painta again.

With this method there is no paint so little scratches don't show up because it's the same color all the way through. The other benefit is no drying time. By the time you get to the end of the flare with the torch, wait about 6 seconds and start bolting them back on.

So, all-in-all I'd say time wise it's about even:

Painting:
Clean the flares in preparation for painting, let them dry
Mask off the flares
Paint flares
Wait for paint to dry
Remove masking (hopefully there's no overspray)

Torch:
Unbolt flares
Hit with Torch
Reinstall flares

Or just hit the flares with a heat gun which should be safer for the paint body paint, eliminating the need to unbolt the flares.

[Rafikie]

this is an old trick for restoring atv plastics too, but you have to be careful not to over heat them.

[Aparkhillp]

My flares of course too, faded like everyone elses. My solution is an Armor All product for tires. It's a gel and comes with an applicator that fits perfectly on flares. It takes about 4 minutes to apply and looks great. Give it a shot before u spend a lot of time doing something else.. It's worth the $5. It gives you about 15 applications worth, and that's including tires and all the other plastic on a Jeep that tends to fade.. Also if you want your undercarriage to look good, spray some regular old Armor all on it. You don't have to wipe it off, it will do the work for you and leave no trace.

[Jerry Bransford]

Very nice write up, but just so you know, even that process won't keep them black for long. I did that same thing twice 8-9 years ago and liked the initial results too but it didn't last all that long. It's very temporary at best.

[lupinsea]

I wasn't expecting the torch method to keep them black forever. They faded once and it's the same plastic (just re-heated) so it'll fade again over time. In the future I may do the Amroall stuff to keep them looking dark, but at least this gets it back to a good starting point. As seen in the photos my flared faded to an ultra-light gray. Previous restorative application products (like tire shine) didn't do anything and ended up washing off in a few weeks.

Update: Finished the other flared
Finally got around to doing the other flares but this time I left them on the Jeep and just torched them in place. No problems with the body paint. Despite the flame the metal barely got warm. I think it's such a large surface area and there was relatively little dwell time with the torch since I kept it moving back and forth that the paint and metal never got that hot.

Time
Time wise this is MUCH faster. Takes a few minutes per flare and no need to unbolt or reinstall the flares. No warpage of the flares, either.

Front lenses
I did remove the front turn signal lenses which is super easy and fast to do.

Fuel Filler Heat Shield
Also, around the fuel filler cap, I unscrewed the four retaining screws slightly and slipped some aluminum foil under the lower edge of the fuel filler surround, then tightened down the screws to hold it in place before folding/crumpling the foil up and over the filler. The aluminum foil acted as a heat shield. No problems. Also made sure the filler cap was on very tight before I got near it with the flame.

The Jeep looks a whole lot better with the re-darkened flares. And I'm glad I spent the time to do this. Again, don't bother unbolting the flares.

[kizer]

Heating your flares with a torch = fun
Rubbing those same flares on trees and watching them rip off in WA state

Priceless.

Heya Lupinsea

[lupinsea]

Hey Kizer!

That's what I like about the narrow OEM flares. They're tucked in close to the body so it's my tire that sticks out a bit further and rubs on the trees and logs. My flares are nice and protected. 4+ years of wheel'n, lots of rubb'n, and they've not ripped off yet.

The only downside is mud gets flung up on the side of my Jeep. . . but then, is that really a downside?

[jcssurf]

I agree with Jerry. Krylon Fusion is awesome. Tire wet and crap like that fades really fast, and I don't really see why torching is any easier.

Agreed that removing the flare is the hardest (I definitely would never try painting them on the vehicle). Then you wipe it with some windex and spray it a few times with Fusion, which has to be the easiest to apply paint in the world. The plastic just soaks it up, and thus, I never noticed any scratches that occured on my last Jeep.

I would be worried about melting my flares too much, and the finish not being uniform.