The "DE-" process

[lucazuma]

hey you guys,

sory havnt been around much since i joined but i own 2 ducatis as well and i have had to take care of them a lot lately....so

i did some reserch on the forum and understood that fewe things seem to be a must:

1) de-amber
2) de-snorkel
3) de-cat
4) de-sticker

...any particular sugestions on what should be done first or precautions i should be taking?...something i forgot?

please advise....

thanks
luca

[lucazuma]

...so sunday i got on the car and tryed a few basic mods.

I used denatured alcohol to wipe off the "security" stickers...

maybe used too much or stickers have been on for too long (its a 2002) but on driver side the bottom one (not the one on the lid to the mirror) came off but left a white mark! looks like the glue-melted plastic didnt come off all the way. The white is in the texture of the vinyl...so i bought a gue remover aplied it and no result. So now im thinking "well, i whent with a lighter technique so now lets try with a tougher one.." i serch for the nail polish remover...apply it, wait, rub...nothing. Repeated 11ty billion times...no result.

On the other sun shade, i used the nail polish remover from the beginning. Tabed the sticker with a soked q-tip...and with a rolling movement, took the thing off NO PROBLEMO!

moral of the story? INHO do not use the denatured alcohol...(the way i used it at least )

any how,

cheers

[lucazuma]

...so after 3 good hours of sweatting in the garage at 90+ temp, in the process of trying to take the stickers off, i wasnt happy. I thought i had to do something to make me happy or i would have ruined my week-end.

I read all the different threads on the snorkel-ectomy. Grab the gloves, the screw driver and head for the air intake.

I unscrew the duct and start pulling to losen the sleve. Apparently i pull too hard...sleve and grate come out together. I now realize that one of the 3 plastic toungs that hold the sleve in place is broken ...o well there are 2 more...

So now i grab the snorkel and, remembering what i read ("you will have to pull HARD) i want to losen it up a little before i actualy go for it...OUCH the friggn thing comes out as soon as i pull on it just a little with the result that was greatly anticipated on all the de-snorkel threads: i cut my finger!

...at least the car sounds better now!