Fender / dirt removal

sojahseh · 02-25-2013, 08:21 PM

Just dropped 20 lb in dirt by removing and cleaning under the fender. My car's driver side fender is pretty mangled anyway, but in getting a full analysis of the battery corrosion I wanted to remove the fender and look at the backside of the area. The battery put a hole in the side of he trunk about 2" around.

No lie, there was 20+ lb of dirt hung up in all the nooks and crannies of the structure, above the hoses and behind the AC part that resides in the back of the wheel well.

I'm beginning to think my car is carrying 100 or more pounds in road grime. A small persons worth!!

Just a little venting, and of course no before pictures.

fanaudical · fanaudical's Garage

My Targa had ~30 pounds of dirt packed across all four fenders when I got it.

I've looked for fender liners for mine - no luck. Has anybody built any plastic fender liners? Got plans?

KFC911 · 02-26-2013, 02:56 AM

When I acquired mine years ago and tore into her suspension and lightening, I found an amazing amount of packed in/hardened road tar, gravel, etc. Around the rear fender/rocker areas and in front of the fluid res up front. And mine hadn't been "rode hard" at the time....moisture traps

. Get 'em cleaned out and your car will be much happier in the long run

ozracer · 02-26-2013, 03:09 AM

Mine too when removing the ac lines there was a forest hiding in there

ManniB · 02-26-2013, 03:10 AM

When I removed the water tank from under the driver side front fender to clean it up and to replace the hoses, it was one of the dirtiest jobs on my 911 so far. Since it is a US model, a significant amount of American soil is now part of Bavaria ;-)

- Manfred

tratza · 02-26-2013, 03:38 AM

Check the rear bumper. I found mine was full when I was doing some repair work.

shadowjack1 · shadowjack1's Garage

So much dirt came from under my car when I replaced the A/C system that I used it to start a garden. My front oil cooler was 75% blocked. I do belive that the car lost 50#s.

weseeeee · weseeeee's Garage

Ok, I've had cleaning the wheelwells on my to do list for a while. Looks like I should get to it.

sojahseh · 02-26-2013, 05:37 AM

Having to take the fender off just to do the job is a bit of a bear. You probably could get the area 90% clean if you knew where to concentrate on and had the car on a jack stand with the wheel off.

Now that I've had time to think about it also, I think that the drivers side front fender is probably the worst of the four given the amount of hardware tucked in and around it.

The AC thingy at the back of the wheel well, and the bracket for the bumper shock were really caked. The hoses that run along the top were bad too, but it's be easy to clean those with the fender on.