4sight

Hi all,
I'm looking at a car that has wood dash and console accents. Owner says it was an OEM option (not sure of that, probably dealer installed if anything).
The car is in decent physical shape, but I dislike the wood. Does anyone have any experience removing this stuff? It's probably been on there for many years. What do think the chances are of removing it without destroying what's underneath it?


Ugly

NuttyProfessor

These wood overlays are definitely NOT OEM. Porsche did the factory faux wood overlays much different. For example, at the factory, the air vents are completely covered with the faux wood overlay. As you can see, the aftermarket stickers are not covering the vents and don't fit 100%. Notice the gaps. Faux wood stickers are sold by many aftermarket retailers.

If the owner need more proof, then tell him to look at the hood option sticker. The faux wood overlays is a factory option and will be noted as a 3 digit code on the hood tag that can be cross referenced.

Now if you buy this car and want to remove these stickers, be mindful that removing them will be really tricky and you could end up peeling off the original factory soft touch paint. I would use a little heat from a hair dryer and some mild rubbing alcohol. Be careful and take your time when removing.

808Bill

Make the dealer do it as part of the deal...

Atrox

4sight

It's a private seller, so if would be on me to remove.

Paul Waterloo

If those parts did get damaged during removal, you could always replace them for very cheap with items from ebay, etc. No more than a few hundred dollars. If the piece where the lack of glove box is damaged, that's another story.

I have center console pieces from my 99 that I would give to you for $100 plus shipping that are grey. Including the air vents. See post here:

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...-upgrades.html

4sight

That's good to know! Thank you.

peterp

Agree with all of your post, but I don't think that the factory wood trim is "faux" at all. The clear coat material the factory used to seal the wood is a bit "faux" (as in not durable at all for clear coat ), but the underlying wood is real.

NuttyProfessor

Yes, thank you for that insight. I should have been clearer and maybe I am still mistaken, but I was referring to the center dash (i.e. trim around the radio and AC controls) and side vent overlays. I've seen quite a few of the original OEM wood overlays that would appear to be faux vinyl that eventually peels back from the plastic underneath. Maybe it's a type of very thin veneer that is coated with a polyurethane? I would agree the OEM steering wheel and arm rests/trim are real wood, but are the vents and dash trim all real wood too?

Here's an OEM for reference:

peterp

There is no way to know for sure until you try it, but I suspect the trim pieces will come off without any issues. I suspect it is attached with 3M brand dual sided-tape that seems to be almost universally used in these types of applications. Again, there is no way to know for sure, but if you remove it very slowly, it seems like there is a pretty good chance it will come off cleanly without harming the gray bits. Either that or it will destroy the entire interior (<- It's always a good idea to hedge your bets).

I'm pretty certain the OEM is all real wood everywhere. The lighter wood ("light burl wood") looks a bit less real than the darker wood (the "dark wood" option) to my (possibly biased) eye, but I'm pretty sure it's all real wood everywhere in both colors. I would say 100% sure for dark wood since I have that option, I am assuming the light wood would be the same.