AKP

Hi,

My new-to-me 991.2 C2S (white color) has factory stone guard installed and the previous owner’d never removed them. Yesterday, I bought my car to a friend’s auto detailer service to remove the stone guards (they were yellow and quite old being 6 years old already) and to do PPF.

My friend called me and told me that the paint of the car are very good after cleaning and detailing (he was preparing the car for PPF wrapping but he was waiting for the PPF to come in).

Anyway, long story short, he told me that there are some stains on where the edge of the clear stone guard used to be. On one side of the car, he can remove the stain completely. On the other side, there are some small stains remaining and he did not want to be too aggressive with polishing or claying. He think they are from dirts, gunks collected at the edge of the clear stone guard and remain for a long time of the clear coat and seeping into the clear coat.

I attached couple of pictures below (zoomed in so the stain can be clear visible. In real life, it is pretty difficult to see if I don’t point it out and if stand 1m away).

Anyone has experienced similar issue and know how to remove the stains?

Thanks.

Cuda911

Try some light polishing cream.

AKP

Thanks for the suggestion. My friend’s auto detailing shop did light polishing already and the stains remain. He did not want to be too aggressive so he did not do more polishing or claying. Do you think if he do more polishing, the stains will be removed? Will too much polishing damage clear coat and if so can the clear coat be reapply (without repaint the panel)?

SConn

How long has your friend been a detailer? This doesn't seem like a huge issue for an experienced detailer, to be honest. Can he feel the marks with his fingernail? If it's just dirt/residue from the factory PPF, it should come off with clay and a polish no problem. He shouldn't even need to be that aggressive.
If he's worried about taking off too much paint and he's a professional detailer, have him use a paint depth guage.
If these are actually scratches, then that changes things. If they can be felt with a fingernail, there is no polishing them out.

Cuda911

Definitely do not want to be too aggressive. As Sconn says, if they are scratches you can make them look better, but not fully gone. If it's surface stuff, it will come off with the right product. You might need to try a few different ones, but looks to me like a polishing cream should take care of it.

AKP

Thanks. He has his own shop and one of the most well known in my city. He services a lot of high end sport and luxury cars including classic cars. I don’t doubt his experiences but his shop deals mostly with Ferrari, Bently and classic Mustang detailing and restorations.

What he told me is that he suspects that dirt, debris, chemical was allowed to sit on the edge of the clear stone guard for very long time and the color got dissolved into the clear coat over time. I’m not very knowledgeable in this area so I may not have explain this well but the gist of it is what I explained.

I will ask him to try polishing the area a bit more. He cautions me that he does not want to be too aggressive with polishing. Thus, U’m asking in the forum for your experiences before I decide the next steps.

BTW, I talked to a very well known Porsche mechanics and maintenance shop in my city. He also told me that he experiences similar issues on some Porsche with stone guards left on cars many years. Due to heat and impacts of the sun, over time, some of the underlying of clear stone guard got dissolved into the clear coat and produce similar effects. He suggest to me just cut new stone guards and put them in place and I won’t see the edge.

Thanks.

dereko

My suggestion would also be just fit new stone guards if you're worried, problem solved

AKP

Just want to update. I talked to my friend again and he clarify that he can certainly polish the stains out but doing so will cause the clear coat to be thinner. He think it is unnecessary to do that now.

Being a professional auto detailer, he suggest not to do it because there is no need to do it now since I will put on PPF on the car soon anyway. He suggest that after I remove the PPF and want to keep the car without PPF, he can polish the stain out and then put on new stone guards or just put new stone guards on (he said the stain won’t be noticeable with new stone guards) to revert back to the original look of the car.

i think he was, more than anything, surprised that the stone guards left on the car for only 5 years cause the stains on the edge.

Thanks.

SConn

Your friend is the best one to make the decision on how to move forward as he's the one who can actually see these stains and what exactly is going on.

I appreciate that he doesn't want to be overly aggressive and he is absolutely correct in maintaining the clear. Many detailers are far too aggressive. Sounds like you have a great plan moving forward!

detansinn

Original damage is always better than a half-*** fix.
It looks like he did a nice job without destroying your paint.