Get your mind out of the gutter.

So we are cleaning the inside of our 997 and she is wiping some of the ***** with a Meguiars moist cleaning cloth. Everything was fine until she touched the up and down style buttons for the auto temp/fan. As soon as she touched them the paint started spreading. See attached pic.

It's a mess.

I tried cleaning it off with a variety of things up to and including paint thinner but the spreaded paint would not budge.

Any ideas on either cleaning it off, or do I just gently go back over the top of it with a flat black paint and Q-tip?

 

Looks like she took the paint right off. If so I think you will have to replace the panel which includes the two switches.

 

haha; we're men! our minds are always in a gutter

wow, that's lame, think someone used something to touch it up? or was that original plastic?
my Targa's buttons were worn like that, but it didn't bother me, but I could see how this situation
would be annoying......

good luck; when it doubt, use a sharpie!

 

http://stickynomore.com/

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/9...l-buttons.html

 

testor's model paint- even has a little brush for ya! Mask, paint, sip beer. You can even listen to music!

 

I don't think that's something stuck on there. The buttons themselves are white with a black paint on top. If they feel slightly rubbery to the touch, they are notorious for the paint coming off leaving a white button behind. My guess was that the original paint had worn off and they were blackened with a 'sharpie' in the first place.

Your options to fix are basically listed in the threads above:
1) Sharpie. About $1 for the sharpie to fix. You won't have the fan or temp label anymore (but I suspect you didn't have that in the first place). It also won't light up at night.
2) Button refinish. $80 if you remove the buttons and send in. $160 or so if you send whole module. Looks close to original, but a bit shiny. Also at night the 'temp' and 'fan' don't light up like they used to. But they still do a little bit.
3) New Climate module. $500ish when I checked into it. Will look original because it is.

In my case, I had the buttons refinished by Stickynomore.

Best of luck.

--Von

 

Plasti dip from home depot in black. Has a texture finish that is similar to what is on the rocker finish. I used this with the smallest brush I could find at the local Michael's. Spray some in a container and brush on. If there is a bunch peeling off I'd send off the switches.

 

Do a full mask job and air brush them in gently.

 

you could just go down to the dealer and trade it towards a new 991

 

Nah you don't want one of those...

 

Sell the car, she needs a new Porsche.

 

In my short tenure here, I have seen this pop up more than once. The coating on the temp and fan switches in the 997.1 is terrible. That's not white paint, you've wiped the coating off of the switch and that's the white color of the base plastic showing through.

It is possible to remove the switches and re-paint them. How difficult that is, I have no idea.

And yes, Testor's model paint would be more durable than the OE finish.