My Stone Guard Removal Experience

[zooklm1]

Wanted to share my removal experience. Like many others in the 944 community, I still had the original stone guard on the car. They had become cracked, hard and seemingly impossible to get off without causing significant damage to the underlying paint. I had various levels of success solvents, careful use of scrapers and razor blades and very light sanding. After a lot of searching I saw a mention of using steam. This reminded me that I had a great steamer and I had the time to use it this weekend. While I did not take any in process pictures, my basic process was to apply steam to a small area to soften the guard and then scrape with a plastic putty knife. That would leave adhesive residue to which I would apply more steam and rub the area with the plastic putty knife to rub/scrape off adhesive. I would repeat until most of the adhesive was removed and would use a microfiber cloth to rub off the last bits. I would then move to the next area. The plastic putty knife is important because while it worked to remove guard/adhesive, it did not damage the paint. I have this steamer https://www.daimer.com/steam-cleaners/kleenjet-200s.htm and had it set to 60 psi (4 bar) boiler pressure at 300deg F. Attached is a photo showing the front fender location.
Lee

[Tom]

Great post. Harbor Freight actually sells a pretty good steamer too, which I've used for the same purpose. My favorite scraper for this are those spreaders they sell for bondo. They work well and are soft enough not to leave any marks.

bondo.webp (27.06 KiB) Viewed 615 times

[zooklm1]

Tom,
“ Harbor Freight actually sells a pretty good steamer too” is good to know. I got my steamer used many years ago when I needed to remove really old window tint. I found it on Craigslist for a really good price. My wife thought I was crazy (not the first nor last time) when we drove about an hour to buy it. The positive for her was we combined it with a side trip to a local winery and had a tasting. She became a fan when I used it in the kitchen to clean grout that had not come clean using several conventional methods.
Lee

[944m3]

Great tip. I need to do this too.

Question, would a heat gun work as well?

[zooklm1]

It might. I did not try a heat gun because the gun I have does not have much control and sends out a fairly wide heat pattern. You might try applying small increments of heat and see if the guard/adhesive becomes pliable.
Lee

[EuroFighter2003]

Great post. Harbor Freight actually sells a pretty good steamer too, which I've used for the same purpose.

Is this the steamer you are referring to Tom? I am about to attempt to do this same job myself.
https://www.harborfreight.com/1500-watt ... bkEALw_wcB

[Spokayman]

6 or 7 years ago I removed the front stone guards on my 968.
I recall using a heat gun (carefully), a plastic scraper, and a rubber wheel on a drill.
Of all the tools the rubber eraser wheel was the most effective and with careful use I didn’t mar the paint.
I used solvent of some kind to remove the remaining residue. Probably just alcohol.