tobism

Greetings,

I just recently picked up my first Toyota, a '97 4Runner Limited... WOOHOO!!! It's burgundy with silver cladding and fender flares...boo-hoo. I'm not into the silver cladding.

I was wondering if it's possible to remove the cladding and the fender flares, and replace it with the more simple fender flares from an SR5. Here are my questions:

1) Will there be holes in the door left from the cladding?
2) Will there be adhesive on the paint and how do I get rid of it?
3) Do I need to remove the door panel?
4) Will the flares from an SR5, any year, cover up the holes and fit correctly on a 1997 Ltd?
5) Is it possible to paint the cladding black?
6) Does anyone have experience doing this that they can share?

Thanks!

Stump1883

I have a 97 LTD as well, it is white with silver cladding, a little easier on the eyes than your combo but still not my favorite. IF I ever do anything about it I would paint it to match. I think that is a much more economical decesion and alot less hassel. You would have alot of holes to fill and sand and end up painting all the door all over again. Just go to a reputable shop, a Toyota body shop if you have one and get them to match it. It's been done a few times around here that I know of, maybe one of them will pop in here and give some insight.

Welcome aboard, lets see some pics.

4RunnerKid

if you plan on wheeling it, you might want to think about shooting it with bedliner... just an idea...

SLC Punk

Like Stump said, it would be easier to paint it. bamachem painted his limited cladding to match.

lee

yea, look at bamachem's rig.. its awesome color matched.

i wouldnt deal with removing / replacing the cladding.. its too costly, and you never know if it'll come out ok.

i know the fender flares do indeed leave behind holes.. not sure if sr5's smaller flares/lining will cover them up.

Stump1883

I don't think they would match up or cover them, my dad has a 96 SR5 and his flares are so slim compared to mine and they don't come anywhere near as high as mine do. Not to mention, once you pull them you'll have a nice little line where the flare gasket sat on the body. Just color match it, then you'll look like one of the 99+ models with color keyed cladding.

No point in asking Andy how much his cost b/c I'm sure he shot it himself so it cost close to nothing for him. There are others on here that had it done professionally though.

tobism

Who's bamachem and where can I see his 4runnah?

I like the color match idea, but don't you think it'll be difficult to match? Paint might be faded, etc. I'll probabyl have it professionally done because I don't really have the time or garage to do it myself. Is the paint color something that every body shop should have, or should I go to a Toyota specialist?

Thanks for the advice, this forums rocks!

X-AWDriver

I think there also will be holes once you remove the cladding too.

bamachem

hey, that's me... i have a 99 sunfire red. i shot the cladding, two front fenders, new scooped hood, arb sahara bar, rear tag surround, and rear bumper (all sunfire red) last year and it all matched up fine. if you've never done any paint work, then this probally isn't the time to learn. one guy, i believe candido tapia, had the cladding on his black 4runner painted to match as well. if i recall correctly, it was something like $2000 to paint the cladding, bumpers, and tag surround, and that was several years ago.

X-AWDriver

Remember a good paint job isn't cheap and a cheap paint job isn't good so you may have to bite the bullet if you want a paintjob to last more than a couple of years especially if you off-road.

midiwall

Hey Andy... Can you confirm if there're holes when you pulled the cladding?

bamachem

i didn't pull mine. i slid paper behind it and taped it off on the doors. i pulled the flare gaskets and masked them off. i pulled the tag surround to paint it.

to answer your Q, yes the cladding and flares have square holes in the fenders and doors for the fasteners and NO, the small SR5 flares do NOT cover the holes left behind, even on the SR5's w/ the fat flares and nothing on the doors.

Bob_98SR5

tobism,

yeah, im not a big fan of two toned paint and cladding either.

1) Will there be holes in the door left from the cladding?
Yes.

2) Will there be adhesive on the paint and how do I get rid of it?
3M makes a great adhesive remover called "3M Adhesive Remover"

3) Do I need to remove the door panel?
I am not sure. Refer to my answer in #6

4) Will the flares from an SR5, any year, cover up the holes and fit correctly on a 1997 Ltd?
No, they will not. The next best flare will be the Highlander style OEM flares. It does not have any fender or body flare material that covers the exisiting Ltd flares. Look here:



...pretty sweet, well maintained 4runner. i wonder who owns it?!!?

5) Is it possible to paint the cladding black?
Yes. And even pink too

6) Does anyone have experience doing this that they can share?
try doing an advanced search of "skyrat" as the user and "cladding" as the search topic. i believe he took detailed pics in the post. Also, Candido (Ctapia) had his fender flares removed and repainted. He'll know and Candido is cool too. Bamachem did the same thing too.

as others have said, its an expensive proposition to either have it painted or have it completely removed and then have the holes filled and painted. then you have to worry about whether or not you want to put different cladding on it (stock/oem silver trimmed fender flares, oem "highlander" style flares, bushwackers, etc) or none at all.

to me, the best option would be to have your existing Ltd cladding painted at a later time. or, you can sell it (some people in the past have looked for it) and use it towards doing whatever you decide to do.

bob

midiwall

Gotcha'.


Ahh... bummer. I lost a flare a couple of weeks ago, and was thinking of moving to Bushwackers and removing the cladding. But if there're holes there, then I'd need to find someone to do some body work.

Bob_98SR5

Mark,

Sean at TLT has some Ltd pieces for sale. They're black though so you will have to have them painted.

Bob

Jason B

Honestly, the easiest thing to do would be to re-paint the flares/cladding you have now. As others have said, there will be holes everywhere if you remove them. Also, an added benefit to the cladding and flares is built-in sound proofing. If you do take it all off, you will get more road noise.

tobism

Well, I guess I'm looking for the most economical solution. Ideally I'd like to have my existing cladding color matched to my burgundy paint (anyone know the "official" color name for '97 Ltd?), but I guess that's not so cost effective unless i do it myself.

I think what I might do is just buy black, unpainted '97 Ltd cladding and install that. What do you guys think? Anyone know how much unpainted cladding for a 97 Limited will cost? Does anyone have an idea where I might be able to get it cheap? Maybe I should just have a body shop strip the paint off my existing and reinstall?

Thanks again, Yotatech faithful!

Bob_98SR5

tobism,

buying new cladding is going to cost you a fortune. as others have said, remove yours to save a little cash and then have a body shop paint your existing fender flares.

you might get lucky and find a set of ltd fender flares but you'd be REALLY lucky to find a complete set for an affordable price.

bob

ianshoots

Search some other 4runner boards, and see if anyone has black cladding that they would want to trade for your silver....you never know. I don't know what combos the colors came in, but there's probably someone somewhere waiting for you to help them out in colormatching their silver runner..........