Front Wheel Arch Foam Strips Necessary?

Hi 996 ers, I have been going through the process of preparing my 2003 C2 for its first winter in my ownership, so wrestled all the undertrays and wheel arch liners off, including manky screws and seized speed nuts. I cleaned everything down thoroughly with a short powerful jet wash in preparation for applying Lanoguard moto grease and the spray. When doing so, a piece of foam strip about 3cm wide/1cm thick started hanging down from the lip of one of my front wheel arches. It was gritty and was not going to stick back so I pulled most of the rest of it out. I also removed the one on the other side and have since liberally applied Lanoguard grease all round the arch lips and the little inner 'gullies' at the top where the arches are rolled slightly. Have I messed up? I assume the foam was there for a purpose, but has anyone else removed them too, any issues? If I have to replace them I will but perhaps feel happier with the grease there instead of wet foam. Cheers, Simon

Is this in place to stop the ***** shield from rubbing the inner wing?

Probably, but they are thwe most stupidest idea ever!!! They hold moisture which then starts to rot the wing from the inside.

Thanks Alex, yes I do have the tiniest bit of surface rust appearing on the edge of the folded/rolled bit at the top of one arch, which is right under where the foam was. To my thinking having the grease in the gulley and Lanoguard over/around the rest of the arch seems a lot more sensible than soggy foam dripping water into the gulley for days after everything else has dried out... think I will leave it as it is for now and check for evidence of rubbing in the new year. If it does rub, I'll perhaps cut out some strips of that roll-on butyl sound deadening stuff and use that just to prevent abrasion of the inside of the wing. I'll get the rust warning sorted properly at the body shop before it comes a bigger problem as there's another patch at the bottom rear of the arch near the skirt to make it worthwhile doing well.

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Yes I expect that, will try it without and keep an eye on it for rubbing.

...if you've got some rust near the skirt you might want to remove the skirt just to inspect that area further ...

or just buy a used rust free wing and swap it over.

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Thanks, yes that is in the plan for spring, I've got all new clips/screws/adhesive to remove & refit the the skirts but decided to get them off for inspection once the weather is a bit more forgiving and the Christmas chaos as passed. Priority was to get some underbody protection on as I intend to exercise the car on nice days throughout winter as I reckon that is better than laying it up. I will probably add some additional protection to the sills before refitting the skirts, probably get the skirts and both front wings resprayed at the same time. The rust (at the moment) is just on the outer surface and the metal is totally solid and no bubbling on the inside so hopefully a straightforward job to freshen up and then some PPF just on the lips to hopefully resist stone chips.

Someone has removed mine as I have removed my shields from the arches at the front and did not have any. I have chosen to paint the area’s that have surface rust, and leave them so that a gentle wash down can be carried out if it is necessary, my reason was in case I have to do any maintenance in those area’s they are not covered in a sticky substance, hindering the work.