Rocketcar

Was thinking of removing the bodykit wheel arch extensions and the side sill covers from my GTS. Would be nice to give everything a good clean under there.
Has anyone done this and is it fairly easy to do? Does much crud get stuck behind them?

Rocketcar

No one done this? Isn't it the same kit as often fitted to the turbos and standard on the turbo s?

I am not meaning the lower door trims, just the wheel arch trims and lower sill covers

BenCD

I very much doubt that anyone is removing body panels, to clean under or behind them.

Out of sight, out of mind.

When it comes down to it, it is just a bunch of plastic.

KBell

I would also be leery about breaking the plastic tabs that hold them in place.
Then the body part would not go back correctly.

Rocketcar

Ok, I will give it a good blast for the time being.

I am taking out the wheel arch liners and giving it a good clean behind them, once all the salt has finished..

I recently took the side sill trims off my 997 GTS, with no issues. Replaced all the speed clips, self tappers and sprayed some protective underseal in there, before I put the sill cover back on.

DrBillyD

I took off the rear wheel arch trim pieces when I installed a trailer hitch and it wasn't bad. Trim is held on by sticky tape (think extra strong Post It Note type material) and went back together just fine. IDK about other trim pieces (e.g. side skirts).

Curt put together a video about trailer hitch install that shows removal:
As far as rear wheel arches go, there was virtually no debris behind them and my opinion is that it wouldn't be worth the effort to remove them just to clean but YMMV.

Rocketcar

That is really helpful - thank you!

I will not take them off if it involves 2 sided tape, and if there was no debris.

👍🏻

Rocketcar

Removed the front left hand wheel arch liner today.

Very clean behind it and also barely any crud behind the wheel arch trim. There is definitely no need to take the arch extensions off - at least for my GTS anyway.

Cleared all the sunroof drains too. Lovely flow now 👍🏻

an7mal

I know this is an old thread, but I wouldn't remove the wheel arch trim unless necessary. It is aging brittle plastic and there is a decent chance that retainers will snap off. The rears are pretty straight forward (snap in) but the front's are an irritating mix of snap and torx screws: the torx heads are hard to find behind the wheel well liners (there is a screw every other clip from the top toward the rear for three screws and one in the very front). About 80% of them are broken on my 2015 (one or two break every time you remove the trim). My wife pulled it loose while washing the her car today, and I managed to stick it one more time after spending an hour trying to glue brittle plastic clips back onto the arch trim piece and ordered a new one. All four of my wheel arches have at least one broken end and multiple broken clips - if you are particular enough to want to clean under there (as others have said, it's pretty clean already), the broken clips would probably drive you crazy.