Has anyone seen the FX4 stepside flares painted? If so, were they smoothed out from the factory textured look? I am pondering ordering a set from ford and having them painted arizona beige to place on my son's 2005 step side XLT.

 

You can order a set of fender flares for a lariat or king ranch that will already be smooth and ready to paint. Don't get the FX4 flares if you are going to paint them. You can also look into EGR, bushwacker or other types of fender flares.

Also, going with factory flares will require you to do some drilling into the fenders as the XLT's don't have the mounting locations for the FX4 or Lariat flares. Going with an aftermarket brand might be a better idea for an F-150 that didn't originally come with them since they will have a different mounting system. Also check out ATS, I think they have a fender flare available for the F-150's too.