ldamelio

I knew things were going too well. I had a great weekend at NJMP, got promoted to white and had a hell of lot of fun. My detailing guy was coming today to do the annual refresh on the ceramic on my car (718 Cayman S). I thought I'd give him a head start and remove the track rubber with 3R.

A few drops ran down the headlight (Cayman) and the results are pictured. Bad cracking of the polycarbonate. Bottom line - I'll need a new lens. There are a couple of places that can do this if you send in your complete unit. I may give a local headlight restoration service a shot for a temporary fix and replace the lens in the off season.

So.....be careful out there with the 3R. There are no warnings in their literature about this and I could only find one reference on a Bimmer forum to the same thing. I've e-mailed Mothers and will see what they say. Any insights on some temporizing improvements or course of action would be appreciated.

Inrev

Woah! I've seen some delaminating on the edges from PPF but this is new. 3R eats through plastic enough that it sometimes eats through its own container but this is something else. How long did you leave the 3R on before wiping it?

dgrobs

I use the Mothers on my cars, headlights too.

Never seen anything like that. really sorry that happened to you.

I was at Lightning this weekend too, just instructing as my car needed a fuel pump (in the shop now).

What number is your car? I had a student in White and in Green, Silver 718 GTS Cayman in white.

As for your headlights, just patch them if you can and do the real fix in the off season.

LWG

Got to be pretty strong - wow! Sorry this happened to you.

I usually polish it off or use wd40.

pjazz

Do your headlights have Ppf? Wondering if that could just be ppf. I’ve had no problems with R3. I use something similar called molecular and no issues with that either.

ldamelio

No PPF on the car or lights. The R3 was on there maybe two minutes or less.

dgrobs - I was in the Agate 718 CS #82. Yellow painters tape on the headlights. There were 3 GT silver Caymans in the group. Two that were driving together very slowly every session for some reason and one that was keeping pace.

Looks like either entirely new headlight if I can get compensated somehow or I'll do Rennlights or Lightwerkz lens replacement when the car can sit fir a week or two.

dgrobs

Good call on the headlights.

My guy in White was one of the 2 slower GTS's. The other one was his brother-in-law. Both Silver.

Both seemed to be somewhat timid of their throttles, and my guy was in front of his BIL all the time.
I was able to fix a lot of things with my guy, but we ran out of time as I really wanted him on much more throttle, including in the straights. Yes, they were both a bit off the pace for White, but they were holding their own and not holding folks up, at least my guy wasn't.

I remember you out there. You were killing it. Very smooth and very precise and deliberate inputs. Nicely done.

Me" There goes 82 again". Him: "Yeah, he's really fast". Me: "You know, if you use that pedal on the right a little more, he wouldn't be flying by us like that."

Live and learn I guess. Wish I knew that was you. Woulda stopped by to say hey. Next time.

Cuda911

Odd, I use that same product all the time on my 718 Cayman S. Never any issue at all. Great product in my opinion.

ldamelio

I'd always been happy with it also and this clearly isn't a common issue or it would have been all over Rennlist long ago.

Just putting it out there as a warning to keep it away from the lights. Hopefully they step up with a product warning.

Zhao

Honestly I just use glass cleaner for rubber. It works good enough usually a few wipes and my rockers are clean again. 0 risk with that stuff.

I used to use this stuff for road grime. it never damaged plastic. https://ducanautomotive.com/product/...-coat-remover/

tar/wax/grease remover is used on cars for stuff like this also in autobody shops. never seen a problem.

stownsen914

Thanks for sharing this info. How bizarre that it damaged the plastic so severely.

Nickshu

Use SD-20 it's way better that Mothers R3. Especially b/c it foams so will stay on horizontal surfaces for contact time. Although I never had a problem like this with R3 or SD-20.

docwyte

Been using it on my 996 turbo without any issues. This is kinda scary tho, definitely don't want to damage my car

WillyDaP

Mr. El Cheapo, here, I have used 91% Isopropyl Alcohol and a soft cloth for years to take off OPR. It seems to work quite well and seldom do I have trouble getting the road course clagg off. Never tried anything else since I have always had good luck and after seeing the issue here I am glad I stayed with the cheap solution.

lgusto

Awful to see that. Hope it's an easy fix.

I've always used a wet magic eraser with a light touch. Rubber comes off like...well...magic.