944

[mwb1234]

For my 1984 944 I need to have the plastic stone guard material removed. It is the clear plastic material behind the wheels on the lower body. Anyone know what to use?

Also need to polish the plastic sealer on the alloy portion of the original wheels. Suggestions?

Edited January 16, 2006 by MWB

[magcuda]

those stone guards are a pain in the butt. get some glue removing solvent and plastic razor blades. time and patience is needed or you will screw up the paint.

[ekeeton]

Here's how I did it on my '87 944. First of all my stone guards were really old, maybe even the original ones. They were discolored to a medium gray color and cracked. (I have a white car so the stone guards should have been either clear or white.) If you're working on a perfect paint job or guards that were recently installed, your results may not be the same.

Heat the stone guard with a heat gun. Work in small areas. Make sure you aim the gun at the stone guard and keep it moving. You don't want to make your paint bubble up. When the stone guard softens, take a scraper of some sort and scrape off the guard as well as you can. It will become a big gooey mess and it won't all come off. Do the best you can and move on to another area. After you've taken off the top layer, go back and see if you can get anymore off using the same technique.

For the scraper I used a plastic putty knife at first. It worked pretty well but the edge of the knife itself melts reducing its effectiveness. Towards the end of the day I stole a teflon or silicon heat resistant (not sure what it was really) spatula out of the kitchen and it worked better. Don't get caught by the wife doing this. It's probably better to go buy one for yourself. Just make sure you get something heat resistant. You can also use a metal scraper or razor blade. These scrape better but you have to be very careful not to damage the paint.

After you've scraped off about as much as you can, get some GoofOff and get the rest of it off. I didn't try every product out there but this is the only stuff I found that really works. I also got some paint on my cloth, about like what you'd get from using a mild polish on the paint. My paint is far from perfect so it didn't worry me. Everything came out fine for me, but if you're finicky about your paint test whatever product you decide to use to remove the adhesive.

The GoofOff will soften the adhesive residue so that you can roll it up into little balls with your plastic scraper. Some of these will want to stay on the car but they will soon dry up and you can flick them off easily. When you get down to the end the GoofOff will just dissolve away the remaining adhesive.

Overall, the whole thing is a PITA. It's going to take around an hour for each decal, so you're looking at least a half a day.

[Peanuttyler]

I did not have a heat gun but I used a hair dryer with a putty blade. It took some time but it worked. Goo gone and a little WD-40 to finish it off. Took all night but looks much better.

[william_b_noble]

if you read the factory manual, it says to use a heat gun and peel off - this workes for me - of course once they are cracked with age it's harder. above comments on technique are good.

by the way, I need to get rid of an 87 944 quickly - anyone want one (southern CA) - needs a some body work, but mechanically great, new clutch,etc.

Edited May 14, 2007 by william_b_noble

[Gordon Rankin]

What do you want for it? I am in Tustin (right nextdoor)

Gordon

949-235-1583

if you read the factory manual, it says to use a heat gun and peel off - this workes for me - of course once they are cracked with age it's harder. above comments on technique are good.

by the way, I need to get rid of an 87 944 quickly - anyone want one (southern CA) - needs a some body work, but mechanically great, new clutch,etc.