Installing Fender Flares on the 4 Door GMC Jimmy with Body Cladding:
Many 4 Door GMC Jimmys such as the SLE model have body cladding and a thin molding along the lower side of the truck. The equivalent Chevrolet S10 Blazer was never sold with such cladding. So, if you want to install fender flares you will have to consider your options about how to do so with this cladding.
First off, lets take a close look at this cladding that only came on the higher trim levels of the GMC S15 Jimmy such as the SLE model:
Thanks to the Michigan Maniac Ron, we came up with the easiest solution for installing fender flares for the 4 Door model S10 Blazer and S15 Jimmy on the GMC Jimmy that has this extra body cladding:
First, Ron has purchased ZR2-style fender flares made for the 4 door Blazer and Jimmy from the online store here: (GMC Jimmy 4 Door Fender Flares) They look just like the factory ZR2 fender flares but they are made to fit the regular (non-ZR2) models.
Then he removed the cladding piece at the rear of the front wheel wells (shown on the left side of the second photo above). He decided to black out the area behind this cladding. This is optional though as the flares cover most of the area anyways.
Second, he removed the thin moulding along the very bottom of the truck below the doors that goes slightly up the rear wheel well (as shown in the fourth photo above). If you remove these 2 pieces, then the front fender flares will fit without any trimming. As you can see in the photo to the left, he also blacked out the area below the doors where the second moulding was removed. Blacking this out looks great and also makes the truck appear to be a little higher. So installing the front fender flares requires no trimming. You just have to remove these 2 moldings on each side.
As for the rear flares, there is some trimming required. As you can see in the photo below, you have to trim the main rear fender flares slightly to accommodate the thin silver moldings that are above the wrap-around back bumper. Lastly, the small flare pieces that mount to the rear doors have to be trimmed to accommodate that small silver moulding and the body cladding that is on the lower portion of the doors.
Alternative options for installing fender flares on your 4 door Jimmy that has SLE body cladding:
- You could remove all of the body cladding. Then there would be no trimming of any fender flares required
- Or if you don’t want to remove any body cladding, that is also an option. Then you will also have to trim the front fender flares to accommodate it.
Please see our series of 3 videos that demonstrate how to install these 4 Door Blazer/Jimmy Fender Flares on S10 Blazers and S15 Jimmys without this body cladding.
Lastly, check out the before and after pics of Ron’s 4 door Jimmy SLE with Jungle Fender Flares installed below! They not only perfectly cover a huge nasty rust patch (that was cleaned up responsibly first). They completely transform the look of the truck! And Ron still has more in store for his 4 door Jimmy including a lift coming up. Thanks for allowing us to work with you via email on this custom Jimmy SLE Fender Flare installation Ron. Can’t wait to see it after the rest of your plans are complete!
