I took the flares off my 95 and yes there where holes in the fenders. They are roughly 1/2 inch in diamater. My 99 is missing flair on the front and it has the same holes. I've heard some people have removed there flairs and didn't have any holes. I haven't seen pictures for proof of this. You could put trim on the wheel well edges but it would have to be fairly wide to cover the holes from the flairs. I'll see if I can find a picture of the holes so you have a idea of what I'm talking about.

 

This is on my 99 you can see the hole in the fender that has that strip in front of it. The previous owner ripped the flare off but it left the upper retainment on the fender. those holes are roughly 2-4 inches from the lip of of the wheel well. And yes the wheel is rusty lol. I need to get around to doing something about it and the other 5 but have to many other things going on with the truck.

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How factory do you think I could get mine to look if I bondo and painted the holes afterwards?

 

Factory all had holes for flares, aftermarket does not.

If I had a truck with factory flares I would just repaint them to make it look better because of the hole situation.

I wouldn't try and mess with filler etc, you could spend a lot of time brazing the holes shut and then trying to make it look good...and it still wouldn't. Replace the flares if you need to.

My .02

Steve

 

I agree with Steve. If you where to use anything to fill the holes bondo would be the last thing I'd use. If you have a pick and pull near you I would suggest trying to see if you can find fenders the same color as yours off a half ton. They didn't come factory with flares. I think the 2wd drives also didn't have them but I'm not sure. But then you have the same issue with the rear flares. They attach the same way. If it where me in the long run it would be much easier and you would have a better product if you just paint to match.

 

The holes can be filled and if done properly, wont show up.

Depends how good the body shop is though.

 

Dpends how good the body shop is though.

That is most of the battle at least around here now days.

 

If you're set on dumping the flares then I would find some good fenders that don't have them and have those painted up. Closing the holes up is going to take a lot of work, I'm not sure how the holes will look with plugs or screws installed.

Steve

 

I’ll look into that, thanks

 

I’ve got the obnoxious blue paint from that year of gm, so idk about paint matching the flares. You think it would altogether look much better if my flares were paint matched to my truck, or if I just gave up and left em how they are(black) If my truck was white or maybe a darker color I would lean towards paint matching the flares, but not sure it would look good with the light blue color that my truck is. Just looking for some opinions to steer me in the right direction

 

Later years were dark gray metallic with a matte finish.

If you are painting the whole truck then why not change shades of blue. If done right nobody would know otherwise. Then you could have the flares the same color as the rest?

 

i was never planning on repainting the whole truck. Just the hood, door, and roof becuase they faded. If I did I would definitely change the color of the truck to like black or something becuase it just looks better, but I’m not. I’m just wondering if I should paint match my fenders to the same color my truck is

 

If you have the time and patience to do it I think it's ok, if you're paying a shop to do it you might be surprised.

Steve