Technically, I live close to a sign that says "Half way to the North Pole". Realistically, it might as well be the North Pole. It is a 9.5 hour drive to Portland Maine. I do a lot of work there, so if I can find an installer close to there or Boston, I'll be ecstatic.

Driving across the Canada/US border with my car gift wrapped in blue painters tape... well that is a video I think would go viral. I can just about hear the sound of the rubber glove snapping in the opening scene!

 

How do we know those were not there before they applied the blue tape?
I bet the blue tape guys could make a nice counter video. haha

For a one way trip to ppf installer I would still go with blue tape.

 

I never thought of painter's tape... and I'll probably try it. But in all honesty, I am hesitant about coming across the border with a 911 all taped up. It is always serious business crossing for work, let alone drawing attention to yourself. This could be interesting. I might be posting a request for legal help after this one. I'll definitely post pictures!

 

Just a suggestion, put blue painters tape on first then a layer of duct tape, yeah it looks ugly but it 4-6 mils thick and will offer much better protection than the only the blue tape. The layering allows the use of the thicker duct tape and the ease of removal due to the blue painters tape. There is also an option of Xpel Trac tape? I have to deal with this again in a couple days as my wife's new M4 arrives at the dealer.

 

Protective film is OK for the paint. I have it The tires do pick up lots of tiny pebbles and gravel. Your avatar shows your car parked on a shoulder which looks like gravel. Plus, the Pzeros will be as hard as rocks in cold weather so can't be thier stickiness. They are terrible tires.
I am more bothered by the sound of the tiny stones bouncing off the wheel wells. It seems they have no protection.

Best to park your freshly-detailed 911 in the garage and take pictures of it. Too fragile to drive on anything except perfectly smooth asphalt.

 

If you are constantly driving on gravel roads, rock chips will be the least of your problems. Suggest you obtain a solution to protect the water cooling fan slats in front of the front wheels.

 

My 997.2 just turned 50K miles and I don't have all these debris on the tires, nor on any under panels. In your case, it looks like you just drove through Dakkar off-road series.

 

I too got off to a rocky start with my 17 C2S, just from the occasional gravel roads around town.

I you really want to see what a rock-magnet these cars are, try unscrewing the fender liners and see what they're holding. They're like stone-chip maracas. I posted about this last year if you're curious: https://rennlist.com/forums/991/9926...der-pants.html

 

That is what I am talking about! I haven't been on any gravel roads... this debris in my wheel wells are the tiniest of road stones from asphalt, not gravel.

The picture (back a couple of posts) showing the tire with micro-pebbles embedded in the compound is what I and everyone else here with Pirelli/Michelin-like soft compound tires are picking up. The accumulation on the suspension is a bit shocking; but not unreasonable considering what I hear. I hope it is ok. We don't have an option. I just had to check it out and take a look for myself.

However, now I am wondering if these stones will get into the calipers? Could that happen?

 

Drove this guy across the border on the way to a bachelor's party in Vancouver. It was pretty funny. Once the Canadian customs guys realized we were Navy and this was a squadron car, we all had a blast with it. US customs on the way back, however, were just as stoic as they could be.

 

I've only heard of this being a problem on PCCBs when stones get between the outside of the caliper and the barrel of the wheel, or occasionally in general when it gets caught between the rotor and the thin metal splash shield and makes a terrible noise until it dislodges or you back up.

Since it looks like you might have to deal with pebbles a lot, there is one other place that pebbles are known to cause a problem and the symptom it isn't initially intuitive. If you ever hear one of the two cooling fans in the front start running full blast even at idle you probably have a pebble jamming the other fan. You can hear the roar and feel the air blasting out of one wheel well and then you'll find no air coming out of the other one. There are posts about it on the 997 and 991 forums.

It has happened to me twice in about 7 years on both a 997 and already on my new 991.2 just last week (Texas uses macadam on some streets, gravel pressed into tar and it doesn't all stay stuck, gah!). The dealers are familiar with this and can normally diagnosis this and fix it. Both times for me the dealer covered it under warranty. Some people have taken care of it themselves, but I gather it won't stop the fans from running oddly until the code gets cleared.

How does this happen? The cooling intakes in the front has exhaust outlets built into the front of the front wheel well. Rocks can be carried around by the tire and tossed forward and down into that. On rare occasions one of those pebbles can jam the fan blade for the intakes. There isn't a lot of room between the blade and its housing. Once the fan controller detects a jammed fan, it turns the other one to full blast to compensate for the potential loss of cooling (so I'm told).

Hopefully you won't get this, but I wanted you to be aware of the symptom if/when you see it.

 

There must be something wrong with the fender arch design on the 991's. With only 500 miles and only 2 short road trips around Central Oregon High Desert I needed a re-paint on the bottom half of the car. Chips went through the PPF.

 

wow! that looks like it was sandblasted.

 

I like to drive and really do not want a garage queen for the winter. After talking to a few PCA members here in Bend, OR I found out that the sand ODOT puts on the roads here is from ground down lava stones. So yes it's like sandpaper. I think that if the front fenders had a little more of a fender flare, bigger lip, maybe that would help catch most of the stones. Mud Flaps?? I hope not.

 

I'm shocked, shocked to hear there are rock chips going on here.
Round up the usual suspects!
Icebreaker, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.