I painted my cladding but did not unbolt it all because I did not want to mess with the rivets in the fender well. My paint job really sux on the truck anyway so I just taped it off.
does the cladding ever shift to where you can see where you werent able to get it with paint... i was looking at a few other people and saw how they left the cladding on... i might leave it on because it would save an ace load of work and time