Thanks to the many how to posts on here, I decided to go ahead and do this today since my faded out grey flares and valence looked pretty bad.

I got all the flares off fairly easy, had ordered a new box of clips but only needed about 5 total of them. Also got new push-pin/tree fasteners since its easier just to cut those and replace them than fight with them. Sure was dirty under the flares, I cleaned them all up and put a coat of wax on the areas that they cover. Fortunately, no rust anywhere. This truck is suprisingly clean and rust free even underneath for an Ohio truck.




Got them cleaned and painted with about 5-6 thin coats of Krylon Fusion satin black. In the second pic, you can see where I hadn't yet done the front valence and the difference in color.




Instead of fighting the bolts under the bumper to get the valance off, I just un-bolted the bumper and took it all off. Easier access that way. While that was off, I got out the wire wheel and used some of the POR-15 I had left to paint the bumper brackets, tow hooks, and some other stuff in the front frame area that looked kinda grungy. In this pic is my brand spankin new A/C condenser that I had to replace recently....always something!



All done...looks alot better! Just need to wait on the neighbor or the wife to get home to help me re-align the front bumper.

 

looks good

 

Looks great! Any mods to the Escape yet?

 

Nah, its a lease so not much going into it. Front windows are tinted 20% to match the rest of the factory tint, has silverstar bulbs in it....thats probably all we'll do to it. I can aggrivate the wife enough buying odds & ends for the Ranger...lol

 

That looks much better!

 

Oh yea!! Took many years of aged look off it....the paint looks great but all those swirly mold lines and fading in the plastic made the truck look like crap.

 

Thinking about doing the rear bumper cover/pad too but it's got a scraped up place in it from the previous owner. Might just look for a better junkyard part first.

 

If you don't find anything in decent shape I'm pretty sure they're not too expensive to buy new!

 

You're probably right...I need to check RockAuto...got my new Motorcraft A/C condenser from them for a killer price and showed up 2 days later, good company. I need to take the rear bumper off anyway...it has a ding in it that I need to fix thanks to some idiot running into me at a stoplight a few months back.

He mostly caught my hitch with his Dodge Neon and curled up his whole hood. I had some green paint to clean off and a door-ding looking spot in the bumper. I was feeling like a good mood kinda day that day so my neck didn't suddenly hurt and he was very appologetic and had insurance so I didn't worry about it too much, got a small check from his insurance so I was happy.

The local U-pull usually has a decent selection of Rangers sitting around and most are either rolled or wrecked in the front so good rear bumpers are a dime a dozen....depends what kind of mood the staff is in as to what kind of price you get though...lol

 

It's amazing how much better Rangers look when you paint the plastics.

 

Very true

 

Like new again! Nice job!

 

Thank you

 

Good mod, nice work.

 

Yeah I need to do that soon. I got black fender flares with a gray valence.....fail.

Anyways, truck looks good!

 

Thanks. It was much easier than I thought so go for it!

 

Ugh...looking at that third pic makes me realize how much I need to do some exhaust on this truck..

 

If you don't mind me asking, how did you prep the area for painting? I was thinkin whipping the plastic down with some mineral spirits or alcohol. Then taking a scotch pad to it to rough it up a little bit. Then add several layers of duplicolor bed liner spray. I painted my step bars with that stuff, and it came out extremely well.

 

I washed them really well with dish soap and hot water, let them dry, scuffed them up just slightly with some fine scotchbrite pads, washed them again, let them dry for a few hours in the sun, and then sprayed them with about 4-5 thin coats of the paint...easy.

 

^Ok man thanks! I was planning on doing that, but I just wanted to make sure before I jumped in. I'm going to whipe the plastic down with rubbing alcohol right before I paint, to make it sticky and dry.