Fiberglass

To start, I was digging through the search and didn't see any fiberglass threads..

I'm in the market for some glass, and was looking for some real world pictures and experiences with what there is to offer on these.. As far as I know, there is Mcneil, ADV, FW, and SDHQ.

What are you guys running and what do you like/dislike about them? I like that FW can run the factory liners, and that SDHQ is a stronger setup. I ran some Mcneil fenders and bedsides on my 3rd gen Tacoma I traded for this, and I have to say the product was mediocre, shipping sucked, and the customer service was right there as well. This was solely my experience, hence why I am looking to get a better understanding of them all before I make my decision this time..

I appreciate you guys, and here is a picture of my old Tacoma

 

Just put adv on mine for LT setup coming Tuesday. Asked around and had good recommendations for them. Fit was pretty good out of box, just a little body work needed.

 

SDHQ for us because they were the only ones to make any effort matching the factory lines of the third gen, and we wanted it to still look kinda ‘stock’ (or at least match).

Turns out the SDHQ glass is sturdy as fuck. I had no experience with glass before, but everyone else who has, had commented on them being strong and well done.

The drawback seems to be the one piece instead of mcneils two piece. It’s harder to mount the front glass apparently. I wouldn’t know, I paid SDHQ to install them because I don’t do body work or interior plumbing.

 

i should add that like @KevinK i didn’t do any of the paint or body work. Paid to have it done.

https://youtu.be/YNQSCcgwvgc

 

Those look great! I do like the look of the 1 piece better, I wasn't to keen on the 2 piece on my old mcneils.. Has sdhq come out with some sort of liner idea yet? I remember reading something about they were working on it..

You happen to have any pictures? Looks great from the video, but can't see super clearly. 1 piece fenders as well?


And it looks like yours have the flare that comes back in to match the factory bumper width? I see Kevin's does

 

one piece, don’t have great pics yet, I can take more when we get back home tomorrow. Here are some when I was putting bumpers back on

 

Those look good. Honestly, the fenders look just like the sdhq ones. How is the wheel well lip for fabbing up some liners?

 

we are gonna find out lol, I actually picked the truck up Tuesday evening, put the bumpers back on wired all lights back up Wednesday in between work calls, then left town yesterday...I don’t even know yet honestly. I can take some more pics of the inside too

 

I have SDHQ on the front and ADV on the rear. I installed the front and said no way to the rear. The SDHQ fit fairly well but they still took some fiddling. I had to make several adjustments before they looked decent. I kept hearing from others with glass that none of them fit great, so I got them as close as I could.

As I said, I had the rears from ADV installed. The shop had a lot of fitment issue and they needed some body work. There were several air pockets in the glass that had to be filled, etc.. in the end they came out pretty well and I’m happy.

 

FW and McNeil are the same, actual blood relations that had a falling out and FW was born. Maybe you run factory liners with FW but not if you're LT. All the LT trucks that I know of run a 0 offset wheel and the FW need to be trimmed.......bye bye liner tabs. My wheels compress way beyond where the factory liners are supposed to mount. That said, I cut my OEM liners, made my own tabs, drilled some new mounting holes in the inner wheel well metal and pushed the cut up liners waaaay up to mount.
ADV and SDHQ are the same design. Put 2 trucks next to each other, 1 with ADV, 1 with SDHQ glass and you'd never guess which is which. SDHQ claims a better quality layup but who knows? Both of these have a far less pronounced bulge, appearance wise, and are 1 piece fronts. They also allow a standard width front bumper whereas FW and McN are 2 piece fronts and require a wider bumper.
I've got FW fenders used and cracked. I layed up 2 layers of carbon on 'em and they're super strong, never gonna crack and spider like glass. But, if I had it to do over, and I probably will, I'd go with ADV 'cause I prefer the look and they're closer and cheaper than SDHQ.
Just my .02

 

Ooo, THE BIG REVEAL!!! Haha, looks great Matt

 

I’m fairly certain some are different widths at the bottom where it meets the front bumper. So kinda depends which bumper you have. SDHQ’s tapers a little narrower and is flush with the stock bumper width.


Here’s one I found on the interwebs. I think it’s FW. Notice the hangover.

 

Good point Joon. Hey, is that a cow patties you're parked on?

 

Oops, sorry my bad on that one. Grew up on a farm, we never camped in the pasture though. My SDHQ fenders fit nice.

 

Nice rides guys

I'm very intrigued with the 1 piece design and how it tapers towards the factory lines.. How rigid are they towards the front? Is the built in bumper cap just connected to that one clip at the corner of the grille and the headlight bolt?

@joonbug did you trim your fenders up to match your bumper? Hard to tell from that shot

@Vizsla you have any pictures of your truck to share?

 

Stewiiiiiiiiie!!!
Looks awesome man!

 

They’re actually very rigid because of the stiffness of the fiberglass even though they only attach in front with only a couple of push pins. My fenders are trimmed but only to enlarge the wheel wells to fit for the LSK kit, not the width of them. Here’s what they originally looked like on my old truck before trimming.

 

Those look damn good with that bumper. I'm a sucker for things fitting and working together, and you guys have me sold on the SDHQ fenders

 

Your truck looks great, Matt!

 

Did you guys coat the inside of the fenders with anything at all? I know sdhq has some extra layering going on; is any of that on the outside or is it the usual resin sheet roughness?

 

OP, I agree with your feedback regarding McNeil 110%.

I regret going with McNeil myself. Had to do a lot of fiberglass work to make them look halfway decent. I wasnt expecting fiberglass to look factory but the set I got was bad. In addition, the fender on the bottom of the package arrived with glass cracks in multiple places. The bedside on the top had a shoe print. Hmmmm......

On a scale of 1-5, my rating is in the negative range in all categories.

 

No joke. They came crammed in a makeshift cardboard box just against eachother all chipped and gouged up. The fitment was the worst I have ever seen, and the customer service was terrible, when it was even given. I think the fenders were like $500 shipped - definitely got what I paid for, probably less

 

I would put linex on the insides to prevent chips and cracks. The hot trend now for the bedsides is to linex the front so you don't get rock chips.

 

You recommend a certain brand that adheres well to fiberglass or is it all the same? Never used any of that crap

 

The big prerunner dudes are using LineX. The stuff adheres to a watermelon, so I'm sure it'll do fine with some fiberglass.

 

Anyone know if the mounting points would be the same between 2nd vs 3rd gen? The thought of doing glass has always been on my mind but I said that if I were doing to do glass, might as well do the conversion to 3rd gen. McNeil does offer a conversion but I have heard that its terrible to deal with. I was wondering if anyone knew if it was similar or the same between the 2 generations?

 

I'm considering the procomp fender flares to give me the needed clearance.

 

I feel like the installation of those would be more difficult than just a full glass fender and bedsides. You'd have to make sure they are even and level on both sides vs just cutting the spot welds and massaging a full fender and bedside in. I'm also unsure of the quality of ProComp flares.

 

Not a lot of people have had good experience with the ProComp. A lot of melted and wavy installs after sitting in the sun.