Strake install - Zaino Issue?
 

The strakes just came in the mail and I can't wait to install them. The instructions say to use 'white gasoline' to clean the area where the strake adhesive touches the car. I Zaino'd the car last weekend....

Is there a household product I could use? I have no idea what white gas is...

THX!

Rubbing Alcohol
 

Rubbing Alcohol

I ignored that part of the instructions, which is probably a good thing since I think mine are slightly crooked and maybe need to be repositioned. Anybody know where I can get some really sticky thin two sided tape?

You've got me very confused about ignoring the instructions and being slightly crooked??? Ignoring all that you can get the 2-sided tape at home depot (that is if you are in the US). Make sure you get the grey moisture proof stuff.

You can use anything that will clean down to the paint, I used denatured alcohol, but dish soap will remove Zaino and almost any other wax and leave a good surface to put the adhesive on if you make sure it is dry.


Getting them on straight is probably the most difficult part of the project so I am not sure if the directions helped all that much.

When you remove the crooked strakes make sure to use a hair dryer or something to heat them up so that you don't take any of the paint with the adhesive.

Yeah, I was pretty paranoid about alignment when I was fitting the strakes on my car. I found that the paper template you stick on the car wasn't very useful in getting the strakes aligned accurately.

The thing I noticed was that when properly aligned the strakes are parallel to the horizontal bars on the air vent grill. The other thing I did was measure the distance tip to tip between each strake to make sure that they were parallel with each other. Using this technique the strakes went on accurately first time.

Another word of advice. When you remove the grill from the car after the template alignment step with the strakes attached BE VERY CAREFUL not to let the tip of the strakes impact the paint. I nicked the clear coat removing the straked grill and it pissed me off no end. It was easily rectified, but I could see that it would be possible to do a lot of damage with these sharp metal strakes.

Oh and another recommendation, use a cross head driver bit from an electric screwdriver to undo the wheel arch clips. The wheels get in the way of a regular screwdriver.

I skipped that step too
but I had a friend help make sure I put them on straight

Sal Zainol called me last night and said rubbing alchol would work fine for small areas. I tried it and it worked great!

As for alignment.....I'm a type-A and even if NASA measured and attached the strakes, I would still think they are crooked. I used the templates and eye-balled the rest. All-in-all, it turned out great.

Advise: Rub the alchol where the strakes touch the paint and ignore the picture in the instructions which say clear a large area around the grill. Also, rub until you feel the 'slippery stuff' is gone (5-10 strokes).

Thx for the help!

post pics of your new mod