Side Cladding Clips

[Adam Shirley]

I recently removed and painted my cladding. I can hear some faint rattling around the side cladding area and I believe it is because I reused the original clips; a couple of them broke during removal as well. They just don't seem to hold the cladding on quite as tight as before. Where can I order a bag of these little clips for cheap? Any help would be appreciated. As for the painting project, it turned out AWESOME. It looks like a new truck. Thanks to Tom R. for the great project. I'll post some before and afters when I can figure out how to resize the pics.

Adam S

 

[Adam Shirley]

Here's the pics

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Before Painted Cladding

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After

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Before

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After

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I had 2 people ask me yesterday if it was a new truck! Thanks again Tom!!

Adam S.

PS The wife got me new tires for Christmas. I just ordered a set of Michelin Cross Terrain SUV 265-70/R16s from Sams Club. Can't wait to get them on.

 

[Chris Joyce]

Wow! That looks sharp Adam! I also have a black ST, was painting the cladding a long and tough process?

 

[Adam Shirley]

It took only one afternoon. See Tom R's project on painting cladding. If you follow the directions to the T, you will have great results. Cleaning and preparation is the key. A few tips: Tip #1 Don't scrub too hard with the green scratch pad when cleaning the plastic prior to painting. You will not see the tiny scratches on the grey cladding, but they can be seen after they are black. It isn't bad, you'd never notice it, but I see it because I'm looking for it...know what I mean? Tip # 2: Don't bother removing the front bumper cover. You can use plastic and tape just like Tom did in his project. I saw a project where someone removed theirs for some reason. I started to, but it was too much trouble. Tip #3: Don't break the clips. To be on the safe side, go ahead and order a set just in case. While you're at it, order some for me. lol. I had a friend who was a painter help me out. He did more beer drinking than helping, but he was amazed at how good it turned out. I am still very surprised as well. It looks much better than I had expected. Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll be glad to help you out as much as possible.

 

[Tom R]

What do you guys think?

Very nice Adam, it looks incredible! It's still the best bang for the buck visual mod I can think of. Glad you found the project helpful too.



Mine has been done for 20 months now and is still holding up great. I've found a couple of small scrapes that have showed the grey cladding through the black, mainly on the side piece where my shoe has rubbed getting in or out and on the fender flare where a careless person let a shopping cart impact the flare, but it's nothing that a 1/2 day of repainting won't take care of.

 

[Todd Z]

Looks Great !!

Todd Z

 

[Gypsy me]

very nice!

 

[EddieS'04]

Looks very good..good contrast...

 

[albert jimenez]

nice project

 

[Toni Rader]

Love it! I'm new to the site, but I love it, lots of good tips and such. I might do that too next summer.

 

[Yardsale]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but the clips may not be a separately orderable item. Ask the parts dept. Since they don't show, color should not be an issue. Check with smaller hardware stores (smaller than the Home Depot types). ACE comes to mind. There a couple near me (So. CA) that stock full sets of these in different lengths and diameters.