shields purchase and install on 355 - how to

1) Purchased shields on ebay .....Scuderia shop, UK....very good quality, delivery and price ($200 US) and are very thin, see pics compared to a cent. Those are the closest shields I found to the oems.

2) Place painter tape 4" accross the fender crease from the door and down 1.5" from crease. This will coincide with the vertex of the top left shield corner. see pics. These measurements are the ones I used and were taken from other web sites. I cannot guarantee accuracy compared to OEM.

3) Clean shield position with rubbing alcohol to remove any grease/polish from the paint surface. Position shield before peeling 3M back and verify straightness/location. Mark the bottom vertex of the shield with painter tape to assurae shield straightness. See pics.

4) Peel 3M tape and start sticking from the top of the shield down. Note the shields are slightly flexible and curved. Use a dry sponge to press firmly against the shields.

5) admire !!

Hope that helps.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Nice, very nice

 

Did you find that the shields needed bending slightly in order to fit the curvature of the wing? I bought some recently but haven't got around to fitting them yet and they certainly appear as though they will require a slight amount of pressure to form them into the correct profile.

If they did require a little forming, did you do this on the wing itself or prior to fitting using something else to act as a radius of curvature?

Thanks.

 

This is only an assumption. If you look at the last two pictures, they are bent, and I assume they were shipped that way.

 

From the photo's these look to be slightly to far forward on the guard.

Also I notice your car has not got the side repeater indicator? That is unusual.

Nice job!!

 

What is the lifespan of these shields in relation to how many times can you take your car through a carwash before they fall off?

LoL

Just kidding! They look great!

 

I have stick-on shields on my F355 and was thinking of replacing them with new stick-on ones.
Is there a way to SAFELY remove the old ones without damaging the paint?
I've been reluctant because of possible paint damage.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I just recently purchased a set of shields that required minor "flattening" (although they fit elsewhere on the fenders, they had slightly too much bend to fit flush where I wanted to place them - which I believe is very close to the "proper" location). I dry-fitted them first with the tape backing in place on the shields to determine how much bend needed to be taken out (note: be careful not to let the metal edges scratch the paint while moving them about. The backing on my shields was only about 1mm thick, so I didn't have much room to play with). The shields had about 1.5mm too much curve to begin with. I placed the first one on a soft-cover book and pressed lightly with my palm to straighten it out a bit, then gave the dry fitting another shot. It took a couple of rounds of this to get the first one to fit perfectly. I then used that one as a template to straighten the other (laying the second shield on top of the first and then flattening it a bit on the book - 3-4 iterations of this - to ensure they ended up with the same curvature). Just take your time, and don't try to take too much bend out at once (press lightly). Hopefully you can look past the shadows in this lousy photo to see how it fits now. Sorry, I don't have any pics of the straightening process I went through to get to this point...
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Use a fishing string to saw it off. Be very patient, patience is the key….

 

They came curved. Actually, they were slightly over curved, but when you push to stick them, they follow the contour perfectly.

I had older ones, the top of the shield sticked out as they were too thick to bend.

I removed the old ones by waiting on a cold day (very cold) below zero degrees and removing them slowly. no damage occured as the sticky surface was very brittle.

car wash !!! man my car is only washed with a silk sponge J

 

I measured my factory shield placement and got slightly different measurements. The 1.5 inches from the top is very close, but mine are about 3.5 inches from the door.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

ZERO degrees! The closest we get in Honolulu is about 59°F and that's maybe at 1:00AM once every couple of years!

 

kheim,

if you measure accross the crease it should be about 4 inches....at least that is the info. I found.

Could you check ?

Thanks

 

Sorry, I misunderstood how you made your measurements. I remeasured by using the crease as a reference and found that it is just shy of 4" from the door opening and just over 1.5" down (I measured at a right angle from the crease). I also measured the front of side of the shield since the placement is perpendicular to the ground, it measures 1.75" from the crease.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Well it looks perfect to me, nice job