Fellas,

Today I bought the Ford Molded Splash Guards for the F-150 WITH wheel lip moldings. I have an FX4. Is there anything I should know before I attempt to install them myself? For example...

1. The instructions say to remove the wheels. Is that necessary?

2. If you have the instruction booklet, what is that tool between the drill bit and screwdriver in the Tools Required section?

3. What size drill bit do I need?

4. There was a rumor before that some holes on splash guards were mis drilled. Is this true? If so, which ones and how do I rectify the situation?

5. How long should it take the average Joe to do this whole process?

6. Am I better off paying the dealer $35 to install them for me when I take it in on Wednesday?

Any other useful info, not covered above, would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

If your going into the dealer anyway and don't mind paying the $35. then i would just have him do it, unless your into throwing things on it yourself.

 

Don't know about the tool, or wheels, size of bit or misdrilled holes, but i do know you should purchase (a minimum) of an 18 pack of bud-light before you do the job.
Personally...i would pay the 35.00 to have the dealer do it, you paid good money for your F-150, so it would be a good investment.

 

1. There is some holes on the rear splash guards that are not drilled properly so you will have to drill them yourself.

2. You have to pull the wheel trim pieces away from the body for a proper fit so that requires pulling out some of the tabs that hold the trim to the body. Mine were stripped when I pulled them out so I had to buy some aftermarket ones to put back in.

3. The rear wheels do have to come off and my Lariat 18" wheels aren't exactly light and easy to maneuver.

4. Now that I can look back on the installation -if I could have paid somebody $35 bucks to put them on - I would have done it in a hearbeat.

 

Not trying to put anyone down, but if you have that many questions with the installation of the splash guards, my opinion would be spend the $35 on your next visit to the dealer, then sit back and enjoy how they look. I installed mine myself, but if I could have gotten them installed for $35 I would do it in a heartbeat.

 

I bought the molded guards for flareside f150. I had to none of this. I simply unscrewed the existing hardware and put the guards on with the new. Did I get lucky or something because I have a flareside?

 

You can take this one to the bank...YES get $35.00 and have Ford install them for you...This answer is based on how you put your questions...All these smart people here can't be wrong...

 

As Obi-Wan Kenobi would say, "Your instincts serve you well." My first instinct was to have the dealer do it. And that's what I'll be doing.

To answer jkempster...It could be a styleside thing. That's what I and most of the others have.

To ask robnton...So I can tell the dealer, you have to re-drill holes on the splash guard, right?

 

Guigster and others,

I did the splash guard install yesterday in about 1 hour. Personally, I like working on my cars when I can and I hate to pay the dealer when I don't have to. If time is of the essence and you are going to the dealer anyway, $35 isn't too bad, but this was a two-beer job!

Guigster, I am going to answer your questions below for you or anyone else that may want to do this install. I learned a few things when I did my install and Ford's instructions really suck:


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Guigster
[B]Fellas,

Q1. The instructions say to remove the wheels. Is that necessary?

A1. I did not remove my wheels. I turned the front wheels to the side and I crawled under the truck and maneuvered around the rear wheels. The rear wheels were trickier, but it can be done.
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Q2. If you have the instruction booklet, what is that tool between the drill bit and screwdriver in the Tools Required section?

A2. That is Ford's version of what appears to be a socket wrench.
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Q3. What size drill bit do I need?

A3. I used a 1/8" drill bit, which makes the holes in the wheel lip moldings a little small, so you have to thread the screws through them.
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Q4. There was a rumor before that some holes on splash guards were mis drilled. Is this true? If so, which ones and how do I rectify the situation?

A4. The bottom holes on the two rear splash guards (for Styleside) did not match up with the holes on the truck wheelwell. To get around this, I installed the guards using the top screws to hold the guard in place and then I drilled through the hole in the wheel-lip (laying underneath, from the back of the truck) through the guards. I preferred to drill the plastic guards to match the truck instead of trying to drill through the metal on the truck.
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Q5. How long should it take the average Joe to do this whole process?

A5. 1-1.5 hours (if you don't remove the wheels)
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Q6. Am I better off paying the dealer $35 to install them for me when I take it in on Wednesday?

A6. If I was taking the truck in and they can do it without a wait, then go for it. If you have an hour or two to spare, I would do it myself - I hate waiting around at the dealer.
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Any other useful info, not covered above, would be much appreciated.

Other Info:

1. The plastic retainers that hold the wheel lip moldings will most likely not be reusable once you take them out. My kit had 4 new retainers that I inserted through the guards and the wheel lip moldings (under the truck), but the old retainers were trashed.

2. Ignore in the instructions where it tells you to take out two of the retainers on the front wheelwells (Instruction Graphic #10). I took out two on the first wheel, but realized I didn't have to, so for the second one I just took out the bottom one. You can destroy that one when you take it out (I did) because there will be a screw that holds the splash guard on in this hole anyway, so it doesn't matter if you can't reuse it.

3. In the rear (Instruction Graphic #6), I just cut-off the retainers with sidecutters from the inside of the wheel-lip. I was afraid of damaging the rear fender when I tried pulling out the retainers with pliers. These retainers are replaced with screws from the kit anyway.

Oh yeah, another problem with the dumb*** instructions from Ford is that they tell you to use a 5.5 mm socket. I have tons of sockets (standard and metric), but don't have a "x.5" anything. You'll find that a 7/32" will do the job.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope this helps you or anyone else that gives this install a shot.


Wattman1

 

HAHAHA,,thats funny wattman...I have tons of tools and I DO have a 5.5mm socket. But in all the years i've owned it, its never been out of the tool box. Maybe I should get some splash guards so I cn use it for once.

 

Thank you very much wattman1. I'm dropping the truck off at the dealer today anyway, so I'll have them install the guards. However, when I mentioned to them last week about the possible mis-drilled holes, they didn't know what I was talking about. I plan to print out your instructions and put them in the bag with the splash guards. God, I hope they don't screw this up.

 

I installed mine with no trouble. The hardest one was the first one, but once you figure out what goes where, it's a breeze.

I have the ones without the wheel well molding. I did not remove my rear tires. I couldn't get my power drill back there so I just used a regular ratchet. With the front ones, I turned the wheel to the left to install the left on, turned it to the right to install the right one.

The $35 I saved, I spent at Circuit City... I let them install my XM Commander!!

 

C'mon pay $35 to dealer for something I can do in an hour or less. I installed mine like TUFF said. And I cut off those clips on the moldings it's easier.

 

I have this bad feeling that they screwed up. The dealer just called me and questioned if I paid for my splash guards yet or not. I said, "Yes I did. Last week. They were in the back seat." She said, "They were?" I said, "I wrote all this on the night-drop-off envelope. Even had instructions in there about the holes not lining up and what to do." She said, "Yeah he mentioned how he needed his drill and stuff."

All of which to me says, they didn't read the envelope, went to parts and got new guards, and the dip***** drilled holes through the truck instead of through the splash guards!

I haven't confirmed any of this visually yet. But I have a feeling it's not to my specifications.

 

Argh. Good luck Guigster. Sounds like they handed 'Billy-JoeBob' a drill and said 'Get Er' Dun!'.

Let us know how it turns out.

RP