Advice on removing door ding strips & stone guards

ancosta · 05-05-2009, 07:10 PM

Hello, I'm a new / 1st time Porsche owner. I picked up a 944 from Tampa FL this past Friday off eBay after having it inspected by Dave White Racing in Tampa. Drove the car back up to Atlanta, and I'm enjoying it very much.

My 1st order of work is to get the outside of the car cleaned up. It is white, and the stone guards are heavily cracked, as is the porsche lettering on the back.

Also, the door ding strips are heavily chipped and mangled.

This coming weekend, I'm planning to do a full exterior detail of the car. Cutting compound, polish/sealer, wax, etc.

I'm on the fence with pulling the ding strips and the stone guards before I do the detail. I've read in prior posts that the stone guards can literally take several hours to remove. Also I am not sure if in pulling the ding strips if I can expect to see discoloration from where the paint wasn't exposed to the sun.

Any experience in these areas would be helpful as I get ready to get the car cleaned up.

Thanks again & looking forward to being part of the forum here...

Andrew
88 944

Techno Duck · Techno Duck's Garage

They do take a long time to remove, it really depends how badly cracked the ones on the car are right now. The more cracked, the longer it will take to get them off. I would just remove them and replace them with new stone guards. Even if the paint is discolored the new ones will hide that. I ended up not bothering to replace them on my 951, there is a very slight discoloration, but is not noticeable unless your really upclose to the car and looking for imperfections (this is on a guards red car).

For removal, a heat gun and plastic scraper work well. After wards you are going to be left with a mess of a glue. Acetone, nail polish remover, adhesive remover..whatever you have handy ... and just goto town with scrubbing it off.

962porsche · 05-06-2009, 05:03 AM

what i use in my shop is an eraser wheel it removes the over lays and glue at the same time . to do a hole cars over-lays your looking at about a half hours labor . i would not opt for using acetone unless you know the type of paint thats on your car . acetone is a very eggressive solvent . if you use a solvent like that i would test it on a small spot first . the best thing to use would be a grease & wax remover (pre paint cleaner) BASF MAKES A GOOD CLEANER CALLED 900 . you can get it at your local Glasurit - RM paint and auto body supply store .

ace_944 · 05-06-2009, 06:10 AM

How important are the stone guards? I don't notice them on many other cars, would it be dumb to just go guardless?

ancosta · 05-06-2009, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 962porsche

what i use in my shop is an eraser wheel it removes the over lays and glue at the same time . to do a hole cars over-lays your looking at about a half hours labor . i would not opt for using acetone unless you know the type of paint thats on your car . acetone is a very eggressive solvent . if you use a solvent like that i would test it on a small spot first . the best thing to use would be a grease & wax remover (pre paint cleaner) BASF MAKES A GOOD CLEANER CALLED 900 . you can get it at your local Glasurit - RM paint and auto body supply store .

Do you recommend a specific eraser wheel type? Would it be sufficient with a cordless drill? I am concerned about cooking the paint.

30 minutes to remove the overlays sounds very interesting though!

Thanks
Andrew

kdjones2000 · kdjones2000's Garage

My cracked stone guards came off pretty easily with a strong hairdryer and a plastic spatula. I used isopropyl alcohol and some tar remover to clean up the adhesive, scraping with the plastic spatula. It does take some time.

The rear PORSCHE decal was much, much harder to remove. I ended up with a combination of decal stripper (Used very carefully), eraser wheel, and tar remover to clean things up. The decal remover is very agressive and can affect the clear coat if you aren't very careful with it.

Good luck,
Keith

porsche4life · porsche4life's Garage

The door mouldings are double stick tape and urethaned on. unless you are about to paint i wouldnt touch them.

jbaeng · 05-06-2009, 11:04 AM

I took my stone guards off a few weeks ago. I used a plastic putty knife and a heat gun (just keep it moving to not overheat/blister the paint) to remove the top guard surface then the plastic putty knife along with 3M adhesive remover (a tip from Cecil at Bodystyle) to get the glue residue off. It helped to keep the plastic putty knife tip sharp with some sandpaper on a smooth surface. It took some time but the guards were all cracked and the car looks great (if only it started today!!)

ancosta · 05-06-2009, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by porsche4life

The door mouldings are double stick tape and urethaned on. unless you are about to paint i wouldnt touch them.

Thanks for the insight - when you say they urethaned on, do you mean a urethane adhesive? Is it not as simple as using a heat gun and pulling the moldings back?

porsche4life · porsche4life's Garage

The mouldings will come off but the urethane will stay. At least chunks of it will.

962porsche · 06:43 PM

the eraser wheel i use was almost 400 dollars and its 15 years old now . from day one i have only use the wheel to remove adhesives from cars . under hoods , over-lays , pin stripes and so on . it spins at a low speed so no burning of the paint . i know they offer cheaper ones like AP's pinstriping eraser part # 3543-32 at autobodytoolmart.com for about 125 dollars and replacement eraser pads for 10 bucks each . i don't know how this tool works its not the one i have but should do the job ! i have a dynabrade dyna-zip . i love this tool ! did you ever hear someone say they know an ez way to remove the adhesive from the sound pads on the inside floor of there car . yep in about 2 or 3 hours labor for the 944 body cars .

ancosta · 05-07-2009, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 962porsche

the eraser wheel i use was almost 400 dollars and its 15 years old now . from day one i have only use the wheel to remove adhesives from cars . under hoods , over-lays , pin stripes and so on . it spins at a low speed so no burning of the paint . i know they offer cheaper ones like AP's pinstriping eraser part # 3543-32 at autobodytoolmart.com for about 125 dollars and replacement eraser pads for 10 bucks each . i don't know how this tool works its not the one i have but should do the job ! i have a dynabrade dyna-zip . i love this tool ! did you ever hear someone say they know an ez way to remove the adhesive from the sound pads on the inside floor of there car . yep in about 2 or 3 hours labor for the 944 body cars .

I just picked up a couple of astro eraser wheels, now if I could only find an arbor to allow me to run it with an electric drill, I'd be all set...