Take pliers , go straight on get both squares and turn. After that you can slide it out the slot. I removed all of mine and only ruined the first one trying to figure out how remove them. Replacements on Amazon and ebay .
In my case, NEVER!
^^^^^ Agreed ^^^^^ No high pressure wash on the underside of a protected oiled or filmed vehicle. I pick a nice day above freezing if we get one in the winter and spray with a hose and then only use spray not a hard stream. Vehicles only require a minor touchup and usually costs no more that 50-60 bucks.
I live in Wisconsin so lot of snow & salt, plus I live in a private dirt/gravel road. So as soon as my Maverick arrived this December 8th. I had Bullet Liner in Green Bay rustproof/undercoat it plus spray-in bed liner. They use Auto Armor, a two step process that sprays a mostly clear waxy rustproofing in all the nooks and crannies, rockers, hood, tailgate, doors etc. using factory drain holes. This stuff creeps about 4 inches to spread well. After it hardens, they then spray a black table undercoating to seal it all in. This Spring I will take it back in for a free inspection and if necessary, a touch up. This stuff stays pliable so won't chip off. Cost for the rustproofing/undercoating about ,,$500.
I‘m in OH and want to get rustproofing done asap, just picked my Maverick XLT up yesterday. Has anyone heard of Woolwax rustproofing? I researched and am thinking of getting it.
Woolwax is a great way to go. Fluid Film is more-or-less the DIY version of it. Any lanolin-based coating will work totally fine, and can even be a little more forgiving than other undercoatings (it can be wiped or rinsed off with a towel or high pressure sprayer). That's also about the only con that comes to mind, you don't want to run your Maverick through an automatic car wash doing the chassis rinse, the high pressure spray will likely take off some of it.
Bullet Liner uses Auto Armor, like I mentioned. The rustproofing part is a lanolin, waxy spray to get in all the cavities. After it sets, Bullet Liner then sprays a pliable petroleum spray to seal everything, won't crack & deadens road noise. I am very happy with this.
Then the people at consumer reports are being paid by the manufacturers to say that. If you live in the rust belt, every vehicle should be rust proofed some how, some way lest they delaminate like a piece of osb left in the rain.
You are correct about the shields. They cover much of the bottom of the vehicle. I took mine off, the inner fenders out, and the interior door panels off. I then mixed chain saw bar oil with linseed oil, and thinned it with kerosine and after wrapping all the electrical connectors with tin foil, soaked it down with small fruit tree sprayer. When you use linseed oil, you must thoroughly clean residual overspray from the paint because it will be difficult to remove if you let it dry. I plan to do a touch up every fall.
Just a side note. The door panels come off super easy if you don't want to drill holes.
