Painting Fender Liner?

2004WranglerSE

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Joined
Jul 20, 2022
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Dallas, TX
Hello All, I’ve been searching the site about how to and/or whether to remove/replace the fender liners (wheel well area) of my 2004 TJ. Based on your comments, it’s not the easiest job but is possible (common phrase for the TJ!).

What I haven’t seen is this…has anyone ever painted this area or possibly “restored” it? If so, with what?

I’ve also searched for replacements but can’t seem to locate any factory-style ones on Quadratec, Extreme Terrain, etc.

Thanks in advance!
 
Front or Rear?
The front inner fenders are usually painted the same color as the body. The rear plastic fender liner can be scrubbed and clean up pretty well. I think that addresses what you're asking?
 
The plastic rear fender liners do not accept paint with success..bedliner will fail. I either give them a good bath and reinstall or just remove them totally
 
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I painted the underside of the front fenders.. only the metal. If you're on anything other than surface roads the paint is going to get worn pretty quickly from spray up of stones and sand.

For the flexible lower front liner and for the rear liners I use Griot's Garage Undercarraige Spray applied with a foam pad.
 
Thanks everyone, much appreciated. This is a residential road only vehicle (in Texas), so I'm not dealing with salt, stones, rocks, etc. I'll first go with a deep cleaning and see where this goes.

From reading the site, it appears the front ones are removable but the rear ones should be kept in place.
 
I recently removed the rear fender liners on my 2004 as part of a clean up and paint project. They're held on with those plastic christmas tree fasteners. A couple things surprised me about removing these. The gigantic L and R markings on the tops of liners gave me a laugh. More importantly, i had no idea how much access removing the liners gives to the rear upper shock bolts.

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I recently removed the rear fender liners on my 2004 as part of a clean up and paint project. They're held on with those plastic christmas tree fasteners. A couple things surprised me about removing these. The gigantic L and R markings on the tops of liners gave me a laugh. More importantly, i had no idea how much access removing the liners gives to the rear upper shock bolts.

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I'm chuckling as I envision a hung over factory worker on a Monday in 1997 having the liner all positioned and starting to push the clips in only to discover a bunch of excess material at the front edge because he's got the wrong one. He rolls his eyes, lets out a groan as he stands up from his stool, walks back to the parts cart to grab the other one. This will be the first of hundreds of times this happens, until finally, in 2003, their cries are finally heard and the flares are now labeled with a sarcastically large letter.
 
Not sure bout the 04... but the 05 and 06 have an evap canister of sorts in the rear passenger. I'd think twice of removing the liner as it protects assembly.
 
Forever Black, like most of the products claiming to bring back the black, doesn’t last long.

I prefer to not paint anything plastic…. It takes black art wizardry to get a good finish that will last.
 
I recently used Forever black on the trim of my wife's Highlander. It worked well bringing back the black rubber/plastic trim. I bet it would work on the rear fender liners.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FIU54BW/?tag=wranglerorg-20

If you dig around on websites that deal with the "difficult" (impossible) to paint and have the paint stick plastics, the rear wheel well liners are made from the plastic at the very tippy top of the list of difficulty level. You'd have better luck using a Sharpie to autograph egg yolks, without breaking the shell.
 
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Not sure bout the 04... but the 05 and 06 have an evap canister of sorts in the rear passenger. I'd think twice of removing the liner as it protects assembly.

'03 and up moved the canister to the right rear corner.
 
If you dig around on websites that deal with the "difficult" (impossible) to paint and have the paint stick plastics, the rear wheel well liners are made from the plastic at the very tippy top of the list of difficulty level. You'd have better luck using a Sharpie to autograph egg yolks, without breaking the shell.

Correct..if we are talking about the plastic fender liners in the rear wheel wells you can't paint them with any success or if you could it wouldn't be worth it since rocks and debris will be continually pounding and ruin the paint
 
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