AEV Bison flares on Z71

I do not remember reading anything here before on the site. Hopefully they were right when they said they will fit.

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16WhiteColly said:

I do not remember reading anything here before on the site. Hopefully they were right when they said they will fit.

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I really hope they do. It was tough enough dealing with a Canadian AEV rep. and playing phone tag to get fitment answers. Plus shipping to the Yukon is always tricky.

There are templates on the AEV website. Both the ZR2 and Bison use the same fenders as the other trucks, so a flare for one is a flare for the other. Tape the area with blue painters tape to avoid unwanted scratches. Cover the whole fender if you feel necessary. Triple check the hole locations. Use a punch to center the hole and provide a starter. Hitting them all with a smaller drill bit first can prevent drill bit drift.

What are you planning for the front bumper? The flares are made to be used with a ZR2, Bison or aftermarket front bumper. Otherwise, there WILL be a weird edge to the front of the flare.

Thanks for the tips. I was a machinist tech in a former life, so im not worried about the actual install. Just worried they have different body lines or some odd snag along the way.
I plan to add a bumper next winter, so for now I will deal with the funny looking lip edge of the flares. The main goal is to keep paint on my rear quarters, as I havent even had the oil changed and they look sand blasted.

one negative is that you will have the gas door cutout on the rear driver flare, but since you have a long box it won’t be close to the gas door.

and the fronts will end short unless you have a Different front bumper

I ordered the rear flares from the "extended cab/long box" bison. Having seen very few pictures of them floating around... my hopes is that the fuel door is not actually cut into the flare. I have only found 1 reliable picture of that build spec in a bison. And it had no fuel door to speak of. Fingers crossed. As no one at AEV seems to be able to answer my questions with any level of certainty.

Oh, just saw they sell 2 different sets.

im going to guess the extended cab flares wont have the gas cutout that crew cab flares have?

Thats the hope haha. Its quite suprising how much of a unicorn the ext. Cab long box bison is. No wonder they arent offering the highmark in that option

Bson has a different front bumper that the ZR2. The flares maybe short in the front

Jh8473 said:

Bson has a different front bumper that the ZR2. The flares maybe short in the front

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That’s what I thought when they told him they would fit.

We will soon find out if these flares fit. They are inside Canada and on their way to me. Now to figure out what to use for "rust prevention" on the drilled holes.

Could we get a picture with the front bumper to address concerns about fit with the Z71 bumper?

I dont have one on hand, I will post when I am back home (doing some field work)
I can tell you that there is definitely something "missing" on the front end now. The look is growing on me. Buf there is for sure the need for an aftermarket bumper or to fab up some kind of trim piece to blend the flares.

That looks great. Nice to know what my exact truck would look like with them.

Did you have to drill all the fender holes?

Thunderbear said:

That looks great. Nice to know what my exact truck would look like with them.

Did you have to drill all the fender holes?

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You have to drill all the holes or they wont sit flush (i tried to do so and was unhappy with the result)
Its rather intimidating and there are much bettr ways that these could have been mounted imo.

Yukondiesel said:

Well... im happy to say these flares fit a non zr2 colorado.
However. Installing them with the less than sufficient instructions was quite the event.

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Do you have any tips on getting these installed on the z71 and how you lined up the template to start? I installed the bison bumper over the weekend and also bought the flares thinking the template would give me the confidence to install them. However, given the template uses the zr2 flare holes as a guide, I am feeling a bit blind. I can use the hole off the headlamp filler panels on the front, but damn... so many holes to drill.

Thanks!