Removing Stone Guards

[AC130Tron]

About 3 years ago, my ’83 944 was in a front-end involved fender bender (not my fault!). The body shop who did the repairs removed and replaced the front wheel well stone guards as part of the repair. I bought a complete set of stone guards and they were going to replace all of them for free, but they could not get the passenger’s side, rear wheel well guard off—and this was a body shop who did an outstanding job on my car, overall! The stone guard has further deteriorated to the point that it is an eyesore.

Any thoughts on how to remove it?

[Bukowski]

I got this!

It's called an "eraser wheel"!

3M has one - I used it for this! Magical! You can take other glop off your car too, like Scotch tape holding down the windshield seal!

[Bukowski]

[actually looks at picture]

Holy living mother of ...

Did they SCRAPE it?!?!

[Dray110]

Try using a heat gun and adhesive remover

[IdahoDoug]

Use a good blow dryer - plenty of heat. A heat gun can very easily blister/soften the paint while you are scraping and working on it. Get a plastic scraper with a strong thin edge. Apply heat directly at the edge you are pushing and use a rocking motion and force to wrinkle/scrape/smear the film off. You will be left with goo. Buy a spray can of 3M Adhesive Remover. Spray on. Respray to keep wet, then use the scraper to remove the goo. Worth the $ and they'll have the small pink scraper that's good for this work as well. Some have luck just repeatedly spraying the part before scraping and its so fractured the 3M product soaks into the adhesive and makes it all come off in one gooey scrape. That's also a good strategy. Be sure to clean it well so your work does not have grit in the goo. By that I mean use the spray around the edges where there may be a dark line of dirt embedded in the adhesive that will cause scratching.

I just did this on my passenger side and will complete it when the car is not tight against the wall. I owned a 3M Clear Bra shop for 15 years.

[Pauld_94S2]

No heat needed!

Here's a simple and easy way to strip this stuff off paint. It works for both the side molding adhesive and the plastic chip protection panels over the wheel arches and in front of the rear wheel wells.

Buy some WD40 (I like the gallon size, it's not that expensive and you can use it for lots of other things), and plastic chisels/scrapers.

Here's Harbor Freight's scraper example, but you can find on Amazon and in home stores.
https://www.harborfreight.com/4-piec...set-95832.html
https://www.harborfreight.com/wd-40-...ant-62232.html

Spray the area you will work on with a light misting of WD40 and let it sit for a few minutes, or up to 1/2 hour if you can restrain yourself. You can also brush it on, but spray is faster.

Grab one of the two medium sized scrappers and angle it parallel to the paint but with the edge touching the body. Use short, slow, forceful strokes to scrape the adhesive off on the side molding, or the plastic surface of the stone chip protectors. Experiment, you will find the right motion.

Re-apply WD40 as needed, it will act as a lubricant on the paint and a solvent on the adhesive. The WD40 will have no effect on your paint and it washes off with soap and water.

The adhesive should break down and become gummy, so some old rags to clean the scrapper are helpful. You may want to put some cardboard or newspaper down if you are on a driveway for easier cleanup.

For the plastic stone chip protectors, once the plastic is scraped off, spray more WD40 over the adhesive and it will begin to dissolve and come off with the scraper. The longer you can leave the WD40 to soak into the adhesive, the easier it comes off, up to a point, typically 20-30 minutes. Spray one area and scrape in another.

You can use a soft rag or old microfiber towel with some WD40 on it to clean up any stubborn patches of adhesive. Wash with soap, polish the paint, and then wax. Perfection!

I'm NOT responsible for anything you do!
No warranty of any kind expressed or implied.
Use at your own risk.

Enjoy!

[Bukowski]

FYI

Eraser wheel - rubber. Friction. Friction makes Heat. Easy to control.

Also rubs glop into little balls that eventually come off. Might need a finishing clean up?

[944 S2]

I used an erasing wheel. It's a bit of a melty mess, but you'll get there. Take care to not go thru the paint. Got my wheel from Amazon.

[Pauld_94S2]

Wow, you guys like to do this the hard way?

[drkshdw]

An eraser wheel and goo gone worked great for mine but they were on factory paint. I tried doing the same to a Lexus that had a been repainted (body shop, not maaco) and it took the paint off. YMMV.

[matt1415]

An 83 944 if never repainted will have 2 stage paint (no clear coat). How ever you choose to remove the stone guard be careful you are not removing the paint as well. Try and avoid too much heat and friction, I know from experience what these paints are like. Best of luck

[Ga 951]

My experience on my '88 factory paint (no clear coat), was some paint was taken off in small chunks. Required a respray of the panel. I was fortunate to be able to do it myself.

[IdahoDoug]

Paul,

Interesting on the WD40. I've never tried that but a nice thing to know. I also like some of your tips on laying down paper - a good idea because once you start you will realize you are making a mess of globs of gooey adhesive and it's nice to just roll up newspaper vs trying to pick this up off the drive. Ditto the old rags to wipe the scraper. You will go through a quarter roll of paper towels as there is simply no other way to clean the scraper on each scrape.

Be cautious about rubber wheels and the like. As pointed out there is potential for heat or friction damage. I suggested the 3M Adhesive Remover because it was formulated to work very well but avoid harm to paint. Don't forget to first clean those edges where grit is embedded in the old glue. You will need to press fairly hard and that grit will scratch the paint unless you take the time to first remove it so the plastic is not carrying grit across your work surface.

[AC130Tron]

I’m not quite sure what they did to it, but it does look scraped. Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll get after it and see what works. I forgot to mention that I had the whole car repainted in the late ‘90s and had it clear-coated.