When I deep cleaned my new VRS (it arrived covered in iron deposits) I noticed that the dealer had left some plastic protective film on the bodywork. It is located on front of the rear wheel between the arch and the rear door. Does this need to be left on or is it there for a reason? I ask as it has already started to gather dirt under the edges.

The film is clear and quite thick. I thought the delivery film was white and quite thin hence not removing it straight away.

Edited 18 July, 201213 yr by Metblackrat

It is applied at the factory and is designed to protect this flared piece of the bodywork from stone chips thrown up by the front wheels.

Most cars have them.

They look pretty crap but they all have them. I can't remember having them on any of my previous cars, and suffered no stone chips whatsoever, but when I questioned them loads of people claimed they were necessary.......

there are also circles of the same plastic where the door bump meet the car body, just a protective film

Mine were dirty round the edges but a good old polish sorted them out

mines gone cream on my white car :(

Same here...cream color on white.

BTW I also put some similar film on the driver's side on the 'threshold' - I don't know if there's a word for the area of the car in English actually - the metal portion of the frame under the door, where it's bound to get a lot of scratches from shoes. I figure that way it may stay cleaner and improve value when I upgrade in a few years to a newer Skoda.

On the Octavia this part of the body is particularly exposed, remove these at your peril as you'll soon see stone damage in that area if you do and most likely also invalidate the body warranty as you are removing factory fitted protection. Even the protection will start to show signs of being hit eventually, after 3 years my old Octavia had a lot of small damage that you could see when looking close up.

Same here...cream color on white.

BTW I also put some similar film on the driver's side on the 'threshold' - I don't know if there's a word for the area of the car in English actually - the metal portion of the frame under the door, where it's bound to get a lot of scratches from shoes. I figure that way it may stay cleaner and improve value when I upgrade in a few years to a newer Skoda.

Door sill.

mines gone cream on my white car :(

Mine have gone Yellow :yes:

Actually the whole bloody cars gone Yellow

Or get modified larger ones fitted by your vinyl wrapper

Check out the Yeti forum, Skoda took them off (as a cost saving?) and then were inundated with warranty claims from stone chips and corrosion.

They are now fitted again from the factory.

Cover it up with vinyl :p

Hello from Australia.

Apologies for resurrecting this old thread. Sadly my 3 weeks old Octavia RS was scratched at a parking lot.

Scratch was about halfway up the rear wheel arch, same level where the protective film on the bodywork is located.

After the repair, I noticed the protective film on the bodywork was removed by the panel beater. It was even removed from the other undamaged side of the car.

Would anyone know if this is a standard practice? Can this protective film be purchased and reapplied?

Regards

Mark

Edited 12 April, 201511 yr by zedley

G'day mate, and welcome to the forum!

Someone had to say it.............