With the car having done 96000 odd miles I have noticed that the great british roads have started to take their toll on the Fabia and there are some stone chips on the wings and sills immediately behind the front wheel (oddly, particularly badly on the Driver's side).

The wing appears to be galvanised (or just undercoat is showing) as the exposed surface is a dull grey colour and I can't see any rust. I presume that this can be dried, and then easily touched up with a touch up pen and lacquer kit.

But the difficulty comes when it gets to the bit on the sill, where metal has been exposed and rust is coming. How can I deal with this? Please help!

My ultimate goal is to stop further paint flaking and rusting, and not to make it obvious that a complete amateur has been around the chips with a crappy touch up pen. So what's the advised process to sort this out?

Also, does anyone know (once this has been sorted out) if it is possible to get a clear cover to stick on to the sills to protect them? As per bonnet stone chip protectors really...

Had a similar problem with my Superb Yegnold but this was mainly down to me running a wider track on the front wheels so this didn't help the issue.............. :no:

I solved this problem by fitting mudflaps, I knew the problem would only re-occur and intend to run the car into the ground so it seemed like the better option, the mudflaps have now grown on me and make cleaning my sills and rear bumper a lot easier now, suprising how much crud they stop hitting the paintwork..............

Also, does anyone know (once this has been sorted out) if it is possible to get a clear cover to stick on to the sills to protect them? As per bonnet stone chip protectors really...

Had front mudflaps fitted on my Fabia VRS from being new, sills as new, so as other member has also stated, get front mudflaps fitted (A.S.A.P) to save further damage.

Does your car have a metallic or flat coated/painted surface as if flat coated/painted would put it more in the realms of a DIY paint repair.

You could paint it with a rust-killer sealer for now, to prevent further damage or until warmer weather arrives (next year).

Edited 14 December, 201015 yr by giandougl

Flat Corrida Red finish

Thanks for all advice so far

Well, as you've said, you'll want to get the rust out of the sills. Machine Mart sell Clarke rust eater (phosphoric acid) that you can use to remove it. Bilt Hamber also make rust removing/neutralising products. Obviously, once you've done that, paint it with a rust inhibiting (high zinc) primer, and paint as normal. Depending on how bad it is, you may wish to mask the area & use a spray can, or use the touch-up stick pen (or an artists' paintbrush). Once you've done that, give it a good coat of lacquer to toughen it a bit. I used the brush supplied with the touch-up kit to repair the ends of my sills where the wheel-arch liner had rubbed the paint away (see below), and then spray-lacquered it, and you can only see it if you go looking for it (it has a slightly different "feel" to the finish").

When I got mine, I noticed that there was damage to the sills between the front wheel and front door, and between the rear door and rear wheel, where the wheel arch insert rubbed (there's a little flap that sticks out to allow any gunk to run off). After repairing it, I got around this by adding a spacing washer between the body and the liner (equally you could stick some neoprene or other sacrificial material to the bodywork), and added mud flaps to the front.

Dunno if that's any help..?

The wing appears to be galvanised (or just undercoat is showing) as the exposed surface is a dull grey colour and I can't see any rust.

Whole car's supposed to be galvanised, I think.

Edited 14 December, 201015 yr by martinch

Here's a photo of the damaged area... looks worse than I remember. Thinking I might have to properly take the paint off and do it (or is it a bodyshop job?)

Here's a photo of the damaged area... looks worse than I remember. Thinking I might have to properly take the paint off and do it (or is it a bodyshop job?)

I don't think that mudflaps will cover that up................ :S

The idea of the mudflaps would be to prevent it happening again after I fix it

The idea of the mudflaps would be to prevent it happening again after I fix it

Of course...........

Maybe a smart repair but the area needs to be sand back and treat and primed and painted. The rust creeps under the paint so the area that needs painting is much larger.

What I have ended up doing as a temporary solution is:

I sanded back the areas a little with some sandpaper, to expose clean metal and to roughen up the paint to get my new paint to stick

I heated the area with a hairdryer to make sure that all moisture from the area had gone

I applied about 4 or 5 layers of official skoda touch up pen paint, heating each layer with a hairdryer and allowing to cool inbetween

I finger-applied a thick layer of clear waxoil over the top of this to provide a watertight seal and to protect the paint while it cures properly (I didn't bother with lacquer because it was 1degree c outside and the lacquer would have cracked when cooling I think)

I bodged up some temporary mudflaps to keep mud and stones off this exposed area while I wait for some official skoda front mudflaps to arrive (about £12 or so)

In the summer, if I have some spare time, I will properly clean up the area again, put another layer of touch up pen on it, followed by some stoneguard, and then will put some paint over the top of that stoneguard. I will then probably polish the bottom of the car to try to get the paints to blend, though this shouldn't require too much jiggerypokery as 90% of this affected area is on the underside rather than the side of the car.

For the moment, am happy with a repair that has basically cost me a touch up kit and a couple or three hours of my time.

You have no primer there which is the key really. Id recommend zinc182 primer for bare metal.

I'll probably in which case sand it back to the bare metal and put proper primer on, come warmer and drier weather