Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Does anyone run without these at all?
My car is in for a little bodywork and a good check over. Fortunately nothing major has been found except the missing front wing bottoms - that's why they have it.

However I knew I needed the front parts of the trim but the rest is also not going to be able to be reused either so do I splash out and replace or not? Pics would be great.

Also need a new drivers side side/fog light - my replacement one broke too!!
Anyone?

Hi,

I have heard of someone on the forum who runs his 944 without the sill covers on. His opinion was that it traps water between the sill and trim leading to corrosion. I'm going to have to get my sills seen to in the near future but am deciding whether or not to put the trim back on after they've been done.

I've heard a similar argument running about the front wheel arch liners and whether they harbour dirt and moisture behind them. The 924 never used to have wheel arch liners either.

Ben

Mine has no liners & despite being an S2 fronted car I don't have sill extensions. Given the rot in the sills without the last thing I need is a another rot generator

They definitely trap water and muck, but you can alleviate this by taking them off and cleaning the gaps out once a year or so.

I didn’t, and my wings paid the price.

I know a few people run without the trims, but I tried that and didn’t like the look. Admittedly, you only notice if you’re looking for it.

I don't think there is any doubt they trap gunk and speed the corrosion process.
New from Porsche they are 190 a side so not cheap. Spares do come along but invariably they have been damaged by being 20 years old when they come off.
It is purely cosmetic but I can't decide which way to go.
Putting them back on will certainly cost more!

Tony do you have any pics?
Did yours need work on the mounting points to put them back on afterwards?

They do crop up on ebay now and then

I cheated by throwing the rotten wings away and fitting the (cleaned up) sill trims to shiny new fibreglass ones.

(To clarify, I’m just talking about the front pieces of sill trim, at the bottom of the wings. I haven’t had any problems with my full length sills.)

I did take a photo when I took the front trim piece off:



I didn’t like the gap when viewing the car from the side. My wings had rusted so badly there though, that the trim actually fell off. The mounting points were completely gone. It was either patching or new wings and I went for new wings.

I'm currently running without them too & not entirely sure if I should have them fitted. They were taken off by a previous owner, most probably when the sills were done. I do notice that it seems that the mounting threads have deteriorated so not sure what is needed, apart from the trims to re-fit the sill trims!?

You can remove them, clean the whole area (ie de-rust with a wire brush) and apply with Hammerite a couple times - then replace.

I hate the look without them....changes the whole look of the car..IMHO of course..

Pete

I'm running mine without since having new wings and rear sill repairs followed by a full respray. The thing that I don't like is that from the side you can see the jacking points, however they can be removed if you so desire. I'm in two minds whether to refit the trims, and will only do so if I can do it securely and neatly as (somebody else has already said) the original mounting points are either missing or stripped.

I've done some research and maybe rivbolts are the way to go.

Lowering the car also helps the look when the side trims are removed.

As part of my car's repairs and repaint the trims are being returned to black and refitted snugly.

One thing that was wrong with the car was that a previous repair to the rear sill/arch was the wrong profile and the trim had been hacked to fit, hanging loose with a big gap. I got a second-hand trim (£40 I think!) but it wouldn't fit on. This time the guy at the bodyshop has used the trim to shape the repair and it now fits perfectly.