W202. Sill cover removal, how?

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John Jones Jr

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Mazda MX5 10AE, W201 2.5-16, W202 230K Sport man, Honda Accord & Suzuki 'Ricer'.
Hi Guys,

I need to remove both sill covers from C230K Sport, as I'm attending to the dreaded rust spots and want to do a general check over before winter.

Can anybody advise on how to remove them? I looked & searched the forum but had no luck finding a relevant thread.

Thanks in advance,
 
From memory:

-Start at the front by unscrewing the visible screw underneith near the front wheel arch.
-Next to it, pop out the black oval clip by inserting a screwdriver
-Next work your way along the botton by prising out the large black clips.
-Now, open both doors and pull the skirt away from the wing, it will get caught under the front door.
-You need to prise the sideskirt up off the cars sill by wedging a flat head screwdriver between them both (careful not to scratch the chassic)
-With the skirt coming away, work on pulling off the rear arch section
-It should now come off, keep an eye of the clips as they will ping everywhere.

-Recoil in horror as your car looks like a piece of the Titanic, no seriously, you might want to budget a couple of hundred £££ before you start as its highly likely you car will need alot of bodywork.


An even bigger horror is re-fitting them and trying to aline the whilte clips on the rails of the skirts.
 
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Good man KillerHertz. I reckoned it wasn't rocket science but just didn't want to damage the covers or break too many clips. Yes, I'm expecting the worse as far as hidden rust goes but if I get it cleaned up and well protected that will be peace of mind. Not too sure how far I'm going to go with this car, not worth sod all but I enjoy it especially now with the few extra ponies, so I may not bodge it.
 
Who's a lucky boy! This is the worst of both sills. Relief! :D
 
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Another shot.
 
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Those jacking points dont look very good to be honest...! typical facelift W202

Id get them proffesionally fixed soon if you want to keep the car on the road longer than a few years.
 
Cheers again KillerH, your info was spot on, I only managed to break one clip and lost none.
 
Those jacking points dont look very good to be honest...! typical facelift W202

Id get them proffesionally fixed soon if you want to keep the car on the road longer than a few years.

Maybe they look worse in the crappy photos. I won't bother with B/shop, a good going over with a high speed wire brush, plenty of cleaning and treated with Bilt-Hamber, etc,etc, and they'll be fine. I can always check them again in 12 months if I've still got the old girl, which is 50/50 at the moment as I've got a project in the back of mind. We'll see. Thanks anyway for the info.
 
I've just gone over the front jacking point & rear drain hole with the grinder. Hasn't turned out too bad at all.




Edit: excuse the crappy photos getting down & under the car to take the shots really shows my phone camera is fairly useless.
 
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Good effort! remember, anything which isnt shiny sliver is rust & will grow again.

What about the inside of the sill? chances are it has no protection at all and is just as bad...
 
Put a light into the drain holes & jacking points all seems o.k. and dry too, nothing visible except undercoat & creamy wax runs. The worst bit, the rear drain hole, again the same. There's even a couple of wax runs on the outside of the sill, so that's promising. What I'll do is inject some wax or some such in there anyway. I reckon I got lucky judging by some other W202's.

While I'm here, any idea how to remove the rubber strips on the bottom of the doors?
 
Put a light into the drain holes & jacking points all seems o.k. and dry too, nothing visible except undercoat & creamy wax runs. The worst bit, the rear drain hole, again the same. There's even a couple of wax runs on the outside of the sill, so that's promising. What I'll do is inject some wax or some such in there anyway. I reckon I got lucky judging by some other W202's.

While I'm here, any idea how to remove the rubber strips on the bottom of the doors?

Those sills look really good for a W202.

The strips just pull down.
 
DM, will I break clips pulling them down?
 
From my experience you are more likely to pull clumps of metal from the doors than break the clips :)

A small flat head screwdiver is best for removal
 
You must have a Friday car.

Without being OTT about it, yes. Mind, there's plenty of scabs all over it, 46 to be precise, admittedly some are tiny superficial rust spots but they're there all the same.

So, in a nutshell I'm attending to all the rusty scabs but in the process doing a bodge - 13mm wire brush in a drill attacking the bare minimum of surface area, treat it, apply the primer by dabbing a cloth with primer to spots, repeat several times and then the same with the 'top coat'. Sand complete body down with 2000 W&D + soap & water, then cut, polish & wax. Bloody hell it's easy saying it! :( :D The plus side is it will look far more respectable, wouldn't notice it on galloping horse ;) and protect the body from deteriorating.
 
Almost guarenteed to break some of the white 'flower' clips under the doors, but not the actual strip.

If I were you, I would order a set off eBay else it will never fit water tight again.

Pretty much all the clips are here:
mercedes door trim clips | eBay
 

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