Sorry guys, but I like it on. I guess that is what age does to ya.

 

I love how that looks. But I do not think it would good on my silver EX. (There is a all silver EX in town and it does not look good)

 

Hmm, just realized you did not have the 'jack bauer' trim around your wheel wheels, etc...

my arizona beige goes around the wheel wells and includes the front and rear bumpers....

going to have to look at it more closely before I cave to the wife's request and start this

 

i took off 1 side today, it takes away the lines im use to... takin off other side tommrow, put them back on when i get them painted by a shop. I had the full side clad. it looks weird now. It might grow on me

 

Sounds like a big waste of time but............whatever floats yer boat.

 

lol.... the cladding was gold and i painted them with spray paint a year ago they look good but slight diff in black. i want them to color match. really dosent take long at all, goo gone walk away, 20 min later goo gone walk away, comes right off no hard work. play with my truck or play on internet???? TRUCK

 

yeah i have a xlt but the removal process should be exactly the same. the fender flare parts dont have holes behind them as some have feared.

i need to pickup some molded ford mudflaps now to keep the sides clean the cladding on the fender seemed to help that some.

 

Thanks for the tips on removing the cladding. This is one of my upcoming projects. Did you heat them at all before pulling on a corner? Also, any tips on removing the pin striping? I need that crap gone too! Thanks!

 

i did not heat the trim, we just grabbed a corner and pulled lol

the pinstripe is a bitch, plane and simple. i used a combo of a eraser wheel and paint thinner. so long as your paint is fully cured the thinner will not hurt the clear coat but will remove the painted on pinstripe. after that the area where it was will be dull. so i used some rubbing compound then waxed it to bring back the shine.

goodluck, its a fun little project!

 

Thanks a lot for the input. I am going to tackle both projects just probably not in the same weekend.

I have a bit of a head start on the pin striping as it was missing from the back portion of the truck when I got it. I am guessing they had been repainted at some point and they unfortunately didn't bother to finish the job.

 

I haven't even picked mine up yet and I'm starting a list. this will be #1 on the to do list. Where did you get those black trim pieces?

 

never mind. I should read more closely.

 

just started taking off my cladding today, and im liking it much better. I actually think its a good idea to take it all off, there was muddy grit and water trapped behind it! A few places the plastic was wearing off paint down to bare metal, and other places, trapped grit was sanding small holes down to metal. Any place where salt is on the road, you are going to start seeing rust issues here. There is no salt here ever, so luckily, mine had only trace amounts of surface rust (barely visible specs the size of grains of sand) where it was really gritty above the wheel openings. It took some work to get the panels off of the doors, but the rest was ok. It will need some polishing and touch-up, but should turn out real nice.

 

Even though my cladding (Limited with same color cladding) will remain I may take off the door panels to clean it and touch up any spots before reinstalling it. I never thought of salt getting behind it, so its kind of preventative maintenance.

 

Its not the sort of thing you want to put back on, the plastic deforms and cracks when you pry it off from the doors, you end up with a banana after. its the fenders you should worry about, they come off fine. BTW im done, an it looks great.