Gen 4 Fender Flares & Mirrors-Paint or Replace

[ArthurKotb]

My 4th Gen is showing her age. She's always been stored outdoors that is sometimes shaded and the rest is full sun. The tops of the fender flares are faded and the mirrors are so bad that the paint is gone and now it's just bare plastic.

I was wondering if anyone had this fixed at a paint shop. I'm handy but paint is not one of my strengths and I don't have the equipment anyway. If you had this done recently, what was the cost?

 

[ktom3001]

My 4th Gen is showing her age. She's always been stored outdoors that is sometimes shaded and the rest is full sun. The tops of the fender flares are faded and the mirrors are so bad that the paint is gone and now it's just bare plastic.

I was wondering if anyone had this fixed at a paint shop. I'm handy but paint is not one of my strengths and I don't have the equipment anyway. If you had this done recently, what was the cost?

I've been going through the same thing with my silver 07.
This is California pricing but in general you're looking at $400 per panel for labor and paint. A fender is a panel, the flair is a separate panel.
You can order pre-painted cladding from Toyota for a little more than that and install it yourself. The color will be a closer match depending on how faded your doors/fenders are but plastic is always a little off from adjacent metal panels.
You can order your paint code in rattle can and epoxy (2 part) clear the mirrors. I did this to my mirrors (1 part clear) and it lasted around 3 years. Mirrors get hammered on these vehicles. You can also order regular black SR5 mirrors if you don't care about color match.
Painted grills are available from Toyota which I did for $250 and it looks great.
I recently had my front end repainted (Hood, flairs, fenders) and you can see the color difference at the front doors. They ignored my request to "blend" into the front doors.
At this point I'm a little torn as to whether I should have them do the front/rear doors now to move the blend to the quarter panel area as I have some clear coat failure along the window ledges anyway.
It could just be that my paint shop sucked at color matching, ymmv.
My roof clear is going as well but I can't really see it so it doesn't bug me as much.
Stay away from touchless/brushless car washes if your clear is still good. I believe the harsh soap is what accelerated my clear coat failure

 

[ArthurKotb]

When you say panel/flair, do you mean the entire flair or just a section? There are multiple sections per fender, so is that $400 for the flair at each fender? That wouldn't be too bad but I worry about the integrity of the plastic after being exposed to the sun for so long. I guess the shop would be able to tell me.

The driver outside mirror is bad. That's the side that's always in the sun in the summer; zero shade. Passenger side is not bad. At least it's painted. I've been thinking of just sanding it down and using a rattle can. I'm not terribly picky at this point. It looks horrible right now and getting worse.

 

[ktom3001]

Yes ~ $400 per flair section. They have to remove each piece and likely replace the clips and gaskets. So you have labor for R&R, prep, paint, material.
Again this is California pricing, Nevada or Oklahoma probably cheaper

 

[88Center]

When you say panel/flair, do you mean the entire flair or just a section? There are multiple sections per fender, so is that $400 for the flair at each fender? That wouldn't be too bad but I worry about the integrity of the plastic after being exposed to the sun for so long. I guess the shop would be able to tell me.

The driver outside mirror is bad. That's the side that's always in the sun in the summer; zero shade. Passenger side is not bad. At least it's painted. I've been thinking of just sanding it down and using a rattle can. I'm not terribly picky at this point. It looks horrible right now and getting worse.

Mine starting to look the same. Silver 2008. Hood is especially bad. Thinking about buying an automotive sander and compressor on Amazon to sand everything down. Take off all the non paint parts then take it down to Maaco and get it painted.

 

[ArthurKotb]

Mine starting to look the same. Silver 2008. Hood is especially bad. Thinking about buying an automotive sander and compressor on Amazon to sand everything down. Take off all the non paint parts then take it down to Maaco and get it painted.

All my metal painted areas are in good shape, except the roof and cross bars. I carry a big kayak up there so I'm not worried about that. The fender flares and driver's mirror need painting. I'm low mileage but it lives outside and the morning and late afternoon sun has damaged them.

 

[ArthurKotb]

I bit the bullet and took my '04 to the Toyota body shop in town and had them paint my fender flares and rear view mirrors. When they got into it the first day they called and said with the '04 models they have to remove the front bumper to get the front part of the flares off. That added about $250 to the original estimate of $1500, which didn't include painting the mirrors. I said those were in pretty good shape and not to paint them.

They had my car for over a week with little communication on its status. I dropped it off on a Sunday afternoon and they started Monday morning. It was a "maybe" for Thursday but a positive for Friday, probably morning. No call on Friday morning so I called them and the tech said the guy working on it took off to get married and the car would be ready Monday morning. No call Monday morning so I called and they said the flares were painted but the guy couldn't get them back on. I hung up and called back to speak to the manager.

He investigated the problem, called me back and said he wasn't happy with the paint job and would have it all repainted. He dropped $100 and said the rear flares look to be separate panels but the front portion under the rear door is all one piece with the fender. He also painted the driver bottom door panel that wasn't originally in the estimate (slight paint color difference when it came from the factory), no charge, and the car would be ready Tuesday afternoon. I picked up the car at about 3: PM. I was happy with the paint job.

Final cost $1907, all 4 wheel flares, driver's door bottom panel and both mirrors.