Cleaning dirt from plastic protector.

parkman · October 17, 2017

Hi, a quick question. What does anyone use to clean the dirty edge, from road dirt, down the front edge of the plastic paint protector on the rear edge of the rear doors.

I find that there is a dirty black line down the edge of the plastic that is difficult to remove. I have tried to clean it with Autoglym Super Resin polish but it hasn't cleaned off.

Perhaps someone could suggest a cleaner that will clean the black edge without damaging the plastic or the paint.

Parkman.

200h · October 17, 2017

i think the answer you will be given is to remove the clear panels

rayanns has done this.

parkman · October 17, 2017

Hmmmm, I would rather keep them on, if only to protect the corners of the rear doors from stone chips.

I think that i will try some rubbing compound on a small cleaning stick.

Having said that I am looking at getting glass coating applied, it just depends on what the guy who does it says about the lasting durability of the coating.

Incidentally, it looks like I have a similar car to you. I bought mine from Lexus, Chester, and it is a July 2013, Gen 3, 300h Premier. First hybrid, and I am very happy so far.

Parkman.

200h · October 17, 2017

i have left the protection on and i just live with it now,i have tried so many cleaning products and nothing has worked,

the only other option would be to remove and replace the panels every now and then.

i bought mine from lexus stoke ,i have been barred from lexus chester, they are arse holes of the highest calibre.

i am surprised you bought yours from chester with your location showing Dublin.

parkman · October 17, 2017

Hi, I have a house up near Birkenhead, but I was looking for a car to export to Ireland where I also have a place.

I went to Stoke before I bought this car. They had a 2015 Advance model with only 6000 on the clock, but there were little things that I didn't like, and couldn't understand, about the car. It was a beautiful metallic navy blue, but all the doors had paint damage down the edges, as if the doors were always opened in a garage and the door edges were banged against the walls. Very strange for such a very low mileage car.

Anyway, the memory seat option on the Premier was actually a deal breaker for me. We also looked at an F Sport and a second Advance model, in Southport and Bolton. Both my wife and I drive the car, and we are quite different in height so I really need the memory seats. The car that we were replacing had memory and the first thing I looked for in the cars was memory.

Yes, I guess that I will have to clean the protector edges as best I can, and as you say, live with it after that.

Parkman.

Martin F · October 17, 2017

Try one of the 'Tar Remover' products. They may work.

rayaans · October 17, 2017

If you want to clean it you need something like a toothbrush to get underneath but I never did this in fear of damaging the paint.

They annoyed me and I found it a genuine PITA to clean them as much as possible so just removed them - looks much cleaner IMO

And no stone chips on this area after 4 years by the way - Im very very skeptical about this little piece of PPF - the place that really needs PPF is probably the front bumper than this area.

Additionally, this particular car was bought from Lexus Chester - cant complain with the service I got, and the deal on the vehicle too.

parkman · October 18, 2017

I might give a tar remover a quick try over the next week or so, I think I have some Autoglym Tar Remover somewhere. I suppose the only problem could be that the paint could get dull after a while even if polish is applied immediately after the area is cleaned.

I sure that the edges will get dirty pretty quickly during the winter as well.

Rayaan, how did you remove the plastic ? Does it just peel off, or do you need to heat it with a hair dryer or a hot air gun ?

Parkman.

rayaans · October 18, 2017

3 hours ago, parkman said:

I might give a tar remover a quick try over the next week or so, I think I have some Autoglym Tar Remover somewhere. I suppose the only problem could be that the paint could get dull after a while even if polish is applied immediately after the area is cleaned.

I sure that the edges will get dirty pretty quickly during the winter as well.

Rayaan, how did you remove the plastic ? Does it just peel off, or do you need to heat it with a hair dryer or a hot air gun ?

Parkman.

I wouldn't use tar remover to be perfectly honest. Reason being is that they also double up as glue removers so there is a high chance it'll seep underneath and cause the edges to roll over. Additionally, being PPF, I wouldn't use a tar remover anyway as they aren't designed to be used on plastic so would imagine that it may stain the PPF itself.

You shouldn't get any dullness of the paint unless its already in very bad shape to begin with.

To remove the PPF, I did one side by heating the entire PPF with a hairdryer. Worst decision I ever made as it left loads of glue behind which took the mick to remove.

The other side, I heated a corner with a hairdryer and then just pulled it. It comes off really easy without heating the glue up, you just need a good corner section to hold onto.

October 19, 2017

Tar remover should always be applied to a cloth first so it doesn't run where it shouldn't. But I agree with Rayaans that it's not suitable for this area.

In the past I've cleaned mine with clay bar, just run it down the edges and it seems to pull off the dirt.

Nice to know they can be removed without fear of chips. Seems silly to have them there while the front is being peppered.

parkman · October 19, 2017

All the advice is appreciated. So that rules out tar remover, that's OK because I don't particularly like using it. It always reminds me of the alloy wheel cleaners which usually end up ruining the paintwork on the wheels. I gave up using wheel cleaner years ago after a newly refurbished set of alloys on a classic Merc went dull in about 12 months.

The clay bar suggestion may be worth a shot though, although I wonder if the clay can get at the very edge of the plastic, enough to remove the black mark.

I think that I will end up following Rayaans route and removing the plastics. I certainly agree with the opinion that it would make more sense to be applied on the front of the bonnet. I had quite a big problem with a Merc E220 and the paintwork on the front of the bonnet chipping. I believe that E class paint is very hard, to stop casual scratches, but then chips quite badly when struck by stone chips.

Parkman.

Tel · October 20, 2017

Used to suffer the black line but for years have always brushed dirt & dried the edges in a circular motion that works a treat.

Tel

rayaans · October 20, 2017

19 hours ago, parkman said:

All the advice is appreciated. So that rules out tar remover, that's OK because I don't particularly like using it. It always reminds me of the alloy wheel cleaners which usually end up ruining the paintwork on the wheels. I gave up using wheel cleaner years ago after a newly refurbished set of alloys on a classic Merc went dull in about 12 months.

The clay bar suggestion may be worth a shot though, although I wonder if the clay can get at the very edge of the plastic, enough to remove the black mark.

I think that I will end up following Rayaans route and removing the plastics. I certainly agree with the opinion that it would make more sense to be applied on the front of the bonnet. I had quite a big problem with a Merc E220 and the paintwork on the front of the bonnet chipping. I believe that E class paint is very hard, to stop casual scratches, but then chips quite badly when struck by stone chips.

Parkman.

clay bar won't be able to get into the edge I don't think.

Wheel cleaner shouldn't be ruining wheels unless dilution is off. Id say the refurb was poor.

October 20, 2017

On yeah. I forgot to add that it didn't work ;)

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk

parkman · October 21, 2017

Hahahaha, Sean, nice one.

Rayaans, the refurbishment was top-notch but the wheel cleaner was aggressive enough to dull an extremely well finished sets of rims. I was using the Halfords own brand spray-on cleaner. The same product had started to do the same to an original set of Jaguar XJR rims, as well. Jaguar Liverpool advised me to stop using the alloy wheel cleaner, and then get the wheels professionally repolished, which I did. The guys that did the wheels managed to polish the wheel paintwork back to original so at least I didn't need to have them repainted.

That was a couple of years ago, and I have never gone near any alloy wheel cleaner products since.

Anyway, I have decided to remove the plastic protectors when I next do a polish of the car. A good coat of Collinite 915 wax should remove any signs of the protectors from the doors.

ThomasLexus94 · February 5, 2021

On 10/17/2017 at 11:37 PM, rayaans said:

If you want to clean it you need something like a toothbrush to get underneath but I never did this in fear of damaging the paint.

They annoyed me and I found it a genuine PITA to clean them as much as possible so just removed them - looks much cleaner IMO

And no stone chips on this area after 4 years by the way - Im very very skeptical about this little piece of PPF - the place that really needs PPF is probably the front bumper than this area.

Additionally, this particular car was bought from Lexus Chester - cant complain with the service I got, and the deal on the vehicle too.

Do you know if it is possible to buy the protector? One has came off and I am looking to replace it.