Guys,

Recently I swapped out the 99 SR5 black fender flares from the Highlander and moved them over to my 98.

Jalaber did a great write up on installing the black fender flare "gasket" that is common to Tacomas.

When I took them off, I was quite shocked to see the damage that the flares caused. The flares actually damaged the paint enough so that it took me many hours of buffing to get the little but fairly deep scratches out. I still can see them in some places.

If you have these types of flares, I would highly recommend buying the flare gaskets (Toyota part # 75696-35020 ) and installing them asap. It took me about 2.5 hours to clean and install them. I skipped the alcohol pad step (dumb!) but they adhere ok anyways.

I bought and rec'd mine from Partznet.com for about $55, or aobut $11 per piece. As Jalaber explains, you need 5 of these guys.

I wish I had some pics but I was in a hurry to install them. Just go to Jalaber's site and look under his "Additions 2" page and you'll see his write up at the bottom.

Bob

 

Glad to hear about your good experience with the mod!

I plan to keep the rig a long time and anything I can do to keep the paint from getting worn down will help keep rust from popping up later down the road. I am also hoping that the gaskets keep some of the dirt from getting back there. Did you have a lot of dirt back there on the 99 that you removed the flares from?

PS: Dont forget to do the "Roof Rack Rail Removal" tip either. Those rails buff the hell out of your paint also.