updated 11/13/2022
N.B. I am a DIYer with no automotive expertise
- Cost: $669 + tax
- Difficulty: Easy
- Materials: Fender Flares, Instruction Sheet, 16 retainer clips, Automotive Trim Removal Tools/Retainer Clip Removal Tool (or a screwdriver, but much easier with the tools), rubbing alcohol, paper towel, polyurethane sealant, scissors/knife, tape, stool (optional)
Shipping
Installation
Instruction sheet and fender flare
Wipe the install location with alcohol, then remove the 5 retainer clips (3 on the door side and 2 on the front end making sure there are 3 in between).
NOTE: The lowest clip on the door-side is a short clip as compared to the longer clips all the others have. This makes re-installation impossible, so while you’re not supposed to remove the 3 towards the front of the Maverick, I swapped the middle clip with the short one which fits perfectly.
To dry fit and mark the alignment points, you place, and resecure 3 of the retainer clips (don’t have to push them in all the way).
Instructions called for a grease pen to mark the alignment, but I used painter’s tape as a guide. Less cleanup.
Remove the clips and the fender flare, then per the instructions, cut the 3M tape in the middle and tape them off. Honestly, before I realized I could use a plastic pry tool to help, this was the longest, most frustrating part of the installation. It’s impossible to get the edges peeled up without nails! The pry tool made it a cinch.
NOTE: As I’ll post a picture a little further down, just peel most of 3M liner at the bottom part of the flare (closest to the wheel). Otherwise, it’s really hard to pull it off later.
Polyurethane sealant. I used Automotive Amazing Goop because I happened to have it on hand. The little nozzle I bought for it is super-duper helpful. Use your sealant in the built-in channel
Here we go! Same as before, place the flare on, line it up, secure it with the 3 clips. Now with pressure as you go, pull the red 3M liner off.
As mentioned above, the lowest 3M liner got stuck underneath and was difficult to remove, so just pull most it off before placing the flare. Makes it much easier.
Yay! Here are the 2 front sides! After doing the first, the 2nd is very easy.
Midway point!
AAAAND here is where I hit a snag. As it turns out, the rear retainer clips are ALL the small/short clips. And there are 7 on either side that need to be used. I tried, but they are way too short to be able to hold the rear flares in place. Thanks, Ford, for that heads up! So, I have ordered what I think is the equivalent of the OE clips and then a set of generic clips just in case.
The installed flares look good, though. 🙂
CONTINUED!
The retainer clips from Amazon arrived and, wow! I can’t even tell them apart!
Alrighty, then, let’s get installing! Removed the 7 stubby clips from the rear. Here’s an image for size comparison. I said earlier that the most time-consuming part of this install was peeling the 3M liner…it is not. The most time-consuming part is trying to remove these stubby clips. They spin all around the place and it’s more difficult than the longer clips to get a good hold. You get into the groove after a time, though.
During the dry-fit, new, longer retainer clips work perfectly!
Peel, then secure!
Installed! Looks like I’m going to need to go back and apply trim restore again…the fender flares are clearly newer
Repeat on the other side! Now…I will add a warning here, because after doing 3 of them I was getting a bit cocky. For the very last flare, I decided NOT to do a dry-fit/alignment tape. Don’t do that. It ended up fitting just off-kelter to where the retaining clips wouldn’t even go all the way in, but the adhesive had already stuck and there was no going back.
It’s done! Here’s a before and after install picture of the last flare.
Completo!! It’s amazing how much different the Maverick looks with the fender flares on! I honestly can’t really remember what it looked like before!
Notes
- They look really good. Really.
- Installation was an overall breeze after I procured the proper parts. As you can see in my pictures, I do not have a driveway, but never had to move my car out of the parking space to install these.
- After a week of driving, the flares give noticeably more drag and therefore reduce the gas efficiency. That part I’m not as big a fan of, especially since mine is a hybrid. Then I started wondering if the cab spoiler would help the aerodynamics at all or is simply another cosmetic thing? The internet is not yielding any real information about that. Hmmm…next addition? 😀
