MartinC2S

I did this a couple months ago but thought I would finally share my experience.

As you can see form the last 2 pics the change is quite substantial. My car is a '98 with what I believe to be the original guards. The removal wasn't that difficult but what I found to be the key was warming the film up to the proper temperature.

I didn't have a infra-red thermometer to measure the temperature with but basically I found that if you heated it up too much it would rip/pull apart really easily and if you didn't heat it up enough the glue would stay on the car. You can see a little bit of this in the first pic. Basically if I was patient with slow and steady heat application the guards pulled off easily with very minimal glue residue to left behind on the car.

I also made sure to clean the line that was left behind by the old guard. This actually probably took the longest as I wanted to make sure there was no visible sign.

Putting the new ones on took a couple tries but the video that FD has on their site along with those bondo applicators help out a tonne. I'm not sure I got them exactly symmetrical but considering you can hardly see them I'm not too concerned about it.





Passenger side - you can see a little bit of the glue left behind due to not heating the film up enough with my heat gun.








Finished driver side, a huge improvement over the 16 year old guards.





Can barley notice the guard at a distance.

vern1

Nothing like my experience, ya lucky b*stard!!

jstyer

Hey Martin, check your PMs!

Also, stone guards look great.

996scott

ditto that! mine were a pain in the you know what to get off. they look great.

Foxman

New guards look great - so do those BBS wheels!

vincer77

New stone guards really improve the look. I wish mine were as easy to remove as yours were.

MartinC2S

Thanks guys! I think this is the only time I've lucked out in a job being easier than I expected.

The oil change was the complete reverse of that thought so I think I was owed one by the Porsche gods.

Seamless

I have noticed a direct relation between the difficulty to remove these, and the latitude of where the car lived most of its life. The Southern guys seem to always have a hard time.

My original guards came off in a few minutes in one piece each. Not even heat needed.

MartinC2S

Interesting... My car lived in Arizona for a while, then Vancouver and now Edmonton so maybe that's why it needed some heat to remove them. If your car has been in the 'peg all its life then you might be on to something.

Seamless

Yeah my car was originally a Vancouver car, then Calgary, now the peg. So, always north of the 49th parallel.

espanolie

after reading your thread and your experience, am gonna look into replacing my stone guards. i hope my experience is as easy as yours

ble2011

Interesting indeed. My 993 came from TX and the stone guards were all dry and cracked. When removing, a little paint came off. Turned into a huge project. Maybe your on to something.

Kein_Ersatz

So what was the Goldilocks temp point that worked for out for you? On the todo list.

FabianS

I should do mine as well. What kind of guards did you buy? Where?

MartinC2S

I bought the guards from FD, along with the headlight and fog light pieces as well. As for the temp point I didn't have an infra-red thermometer to measure with but I had my heat gun set to 450F I believe and just slowly warmed up the area starting at the top making sure to stay about 10" away form the paint. I'd peel a little of the old guard back until I encountered some resistance and then warmed up the lower section. I repeated this process about 4 or 5 times until the entire piece was off. As I stated at the top you know it's too hot when the guard rips apart and too cold if glue stays on the car. Patience was key.