Yea, it was time. No pics yet though....still haven't had a chance to sit down and figure out how to work my new digital camera. It looks alot cleaner from a distance, but up close, it's nasty. Them molded suckers did a good job of scraping the paint off where they rested against the body, and the fronts actually have spots where the paint has flaked right off. Seems the mudflaps do a good job of holding junk between them and the body that eats right through the paint...kinda defeats the purpose of mudflaps IMO. Hopefully the body work to clean it up won't be too pricey....gotta get the tailgate straightened out anyway.

Still considering debadging though...but I'm afraid of what I'll find underneath the mouldings of a 7 year old black truck. I'm sure it won't be as bad as the mudflaps (since they have some movement and gaps to them), but I don't want it to look like either, and I can't afford to have the whole truck re-sprayed right now. (whenever I do win the lottery, the truck's gonna be a retro satin black anyway)

Once I get the time and energy, I'll take some pics that'll make you cry

 

i bought the GM molded mud flaps when i first got my truck, then i didnt like them and took em off and they also screwed up the paint on my flares!!

 

Tim you have a nice truck man, thank God yall took your mudflaps off.

 

Same story here with the OEM mudflaps. They were on less than a year, but still managed to scrape the paint down to metal.

 

Yea, I guess it doesn't take long. I've had mine on there since I bought the truck in 99, so you can imagine how nasty it looks now

 

Now I'm glad I've resisted taking mine off. I know I should, but mine do a great job of keeping crap off the sides/fenders and I just can't bring myself to do it!

Bud, sorry to hear about the 'damage'. That satin black sounds killer, though; can't wait to see the results of THAT!

Good luck!

 

I have a set that I only install on the rear when I go to the track. It keeps all of that rubber off of my exhaust tip and rear quarter panel. I lined the part that contacts the outer body with felt from a Joanne Fabrics so that would not happen....even tho they are only on for a few 1/4 mile passes at a time. I also bought plastic threaded clips so that they don't scratch even the inner fender. I saw my friends 99 and he actually had a big *** rust bubble where his rubbed the paint off and our great salty winter roads and bad weather started to eat his truck. Good move for all who ditched them.

 

I Couldnt Tell Ya About The Mudflaps, Cause I Never Had Any On My Truck And Never Will, But I Can Tell Ya About The Body Moldings. Mine Is A 99 Also And I Took Mine Off About A Year Ago, I Think It Looks Much Cleaner. All I Had To Do Was Get A Lil Compound On The Paint And Some Waxing And You Could Never Tell They Were There. I Think You Should Definately Do It

 

That's good to know...I'm leaning in that direction more and more each day