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I have had some cracking in the driver's side carbon fibre door sill that recently appeared to be spreading and the resin coating lifting. The following outlines an 80% fix (in my estimation) using fiberglass resin available at most auto parts stores (3M Bondo Fiberglass Resin). I have never worked with resin before and would rate this relatively easy to do, but I learned a bunch doing it and will share herein. Total cost ~ $20 Total time – 2.5 hours (+2 hours drying time for the resin) Tools Painter's tape Sharp utility knife Picks Sand paper grades (220 to 2000) Power drill and polishing wheel (or equivalent) Preparation First, I taped off the working area to minimize the potential for scratches. I removed all of the old cracking and lifting resin using a sharp knife and a couple picks to gently pry off the existing clears coat. Cut straight lines around the working area to limit the amount that breaks off. The resin coating has a tendency to lift, so delineating a working area by cutting into the existing good resin is critical. You need to cut all the way to the carbon fibre base. I should have done a better job of doing this everywhere. I would also suggest bevelling the edges to get a better adhesion and transition between the old and the new surfaces. I sanded the area around the area to be repaired with 220 grit to create better adhesion. I then cleaned the area with compressed air and wiped it with acetone. Repair Mix up the resin and apply liberally to the area with a paint brush. You need to fill a better part of 3/32" (2.5 mm). You will also need a rag to continuously remove the overflow of resin to keep it off the painted part of the sill. I had a great amount of difficulty getting the areas to fill near the curve of the sill (gravity was working well today). It took two applications of resin to achieve a reasonable result (but not great). On the second coat, I deliberately mixed more hardener and waited about 5 mins for it to thicken before I applied it. I also used a plastic putty knife to apply it, to get a better adhesion in the curve. This produced a reasonable result, but resulted in a rougher surface than I would have liked. Note: the tape is critical in keeping the runoff resin from sticking to the painted part of the sill. However, do not wait to long to remove the tape as the resin hardens it becomes difficult. I ended up waiting about 1 hour and had trouble. I used my knife to cut the resin at the edge of the sill, but it was a delicate and difficult operation. Next time I would test it after 30 mins. Let dry for 2 hours. Finishing Nothing hard here, just lots of wet sanding. I started with 220 grit to smooth the roughness and create a smooth transition between the old coating and the new resin (I actually used my Ryobi orbital sander to do this). Then by hand did the following (probably overkill): 320 grit 600 grit 800 grit 1000 grit 1500 grit 2000 grit I then polished with my electric drill using Meguiar's #2 Fine Cut Polish– 2 passes Meguiar's Plastic-X Polish – 2 passes. The outcome is acceptable in my opinion. There is a bit of bubbling under the old resin which shows up in the pictures and the area under the rubber weather stripping is a bit dull in sheen and less smooth, but otherwise I feel better off that when I started. The flash actually makes the repair looks poorer than it is to the naked eye. Next, I will repair the two cracks in front of the area that I just repaired.

The finish on the U-shaped silver trim that surrounds the shifter boot on the 996 (1994 C4 I my case) can start to bubble and lift, as you can see from the pictures. While I had read that it would require a full replacement the boot assembly (over $250) as the trim is an integral part of the boot assembly, I decided to try to remove and repair it. Trim removal from shift boot assembly It is possible to separate the trim from the assembly. Six plastic studs are molded into the back side of the trim to hold it in place in the boot assembly. Starting at the open end of the “U”, I pushed from the backside and lower part of the trim. It took some time to work them free and separate it. Go slowly, be firm, but gentle. Removal of old trim finish The trim is a piece of U-shaped plastic covered in a foil-like silver finish. It is this finish that was bubbling. Starting where it had bubbled up, I used a sharp knife to peel the old foil off. This can be time consuming because the foil adheres quite well where it is not bubbled. Using a sharp blade (razor or x-acto) flush against the surface allows you to peel back the foil enough to use your thumb and forefinger and pull it off in small to medium-sized strips. I also found that if you do this at the edges of the tri, you could get larger edge to peel off. You want to be careful not to gauge the surface as this will likely show through when you paint it. I removed 100% of the foil from the visible portion of the pieces, all of the edges, but could not get about 15% to 20% of the foil on the inner (concave) portion of the trim piece to come off and did not think it was necessary to spend any more time. Refinishing Preparation - Very lightly sand the outer surface of the piece with 220 grit (I did not have any 360 or 400) to rough up the surface and smooth any knife marks. Wipe it down with a damp rag to remove the sanding dust and then wipe with a rag dabbed in a small amount of acetone to clean the surface. Prime with Dupli-Color grey primer – 3 light coats. Finishing – Finish with 3 coats of Dupli-Color VW Diamond Silver (P/N 8802029) and 2 coats of clear coat. (I took the trim to the store and VW Silver was the closest match). Reinstallation The trim piece simply snaps back into place. Conclusion The silver is a pretty close match (the picture is not representative). The new finish lacks, perhaps, a bit of metallic lustre, but is much better than what was there. Total time was about 1.5 hours, but it took about 8 hours with paint drying time.