My sport just sailed through its MOT with advisory on slight judder on front brakes (which I will get sorted soon)

While the mot guy was checking my sport over, he commented on how fantastic she was, saying she was mechanically perfect underneath . He has pointed out that there are signs of surface rust on the sills, and advised me to take a look at them .

He has recommended that I remove the side skirts, remove all traces of rust, treat the area, then paint with hamerite where it wont be seen, then underseal and finally refit the skirts. He has said that if I dont look at it this year then she will need welding within the next couple of years . Which would be a shame because in a few years she wont be worth saving due to costs against value etc .

Can anyone tell me how the skirts come off please?..... I have never been any good at getting skirts off (ask my wife )

Pop into Frost on crawford St . Ask for a tin of POR15 better than hammerite

cheers, will try that. but how do these skirts come off

Couple of screws and then some clips...careful though, they can break easily, and are expensive to replace with the proper ones...

and yep, POR15 is much much better than hammerite, I'd suggest metal ready to prep it, then the POR-15 - great combination, and you won't need to do it ever again

Quote..........."He has recommended that I remove the side skirts, remove all traces of rust, treat the area,"

Aye! that's why my car failed its MOT recently, they had to do a bit of welding and that same area. Of curse I never saw any difference when I got it back, but it passed the MOT after they had done that.

Whats easy to break? the clips or the skirt?

if its clips then I will stick the buggers back on

the clips, and yep, bit of sikaflex in there should do the trick

Ok thanks for the help

Thought it worth mentioning...I have a handful of clips if you do need any...forgot about them until just now

Might take you up on them, but not doing it until I can get some time off work and the kids are not at school.

i had my skirts off just to check under them and no rust or any sign of blemishing so no need to remove them unless they are the cause of the rust, clips came off easy and a quick push toward the rear wheel and they popped off.
gave sills a good buff and polish before putting all back.

I will be removing them to be on the safe side. I cant afford any big bills for welding, so I will be taking the advice of the MOT chappy. I can get all my paint etc from my mate, so it is only going to cost me some time and effort

Yep, I'd say it's best to have a good look behind them - hidden rust is the worst kind, because by the time you see it, you have a much bigger repair on your hands than you thought you had...if that makes sense

With the speed these cars rust, I am not taking any chances