I can see there will be some crap getting behind those and causing problems with the body work.
How right you are
@hard top
After my initial investigation ( see post # 31)I decided to investigate further.
After taking the mud flap off ,it looked like this.
The clips which hold the flaps on had all but destroyed the flanges they grip onto on both sill and wing. At least the mud flap will have kept most of the muck out of the sill.
WRONG...... as I found when I pulled the wheel arch liner out.
The "accumulations" in the sill extended about 8" back from the wheel arch.
The front wing was not much better (some paint bubbles started showing last year).
After digging out the extent of rust in this area can be clearly seen.
The front of the inner sill doesn't look too bad but the outer requires some serious repairs (or replacing).
Again applied a coat of Aquasteel to tide it over until I get a chance to sort it properly later in the year.
Other side pretty much the same and same treatment given.
In total I estimate there was around 3kg of muck removed.
So getting back on topic. I think there was comment about mud flaps being functional. The design of the OEM flaps which has holes in it and clips that grip the panel flanges certain function to cause corrosion. As for keeping cr*p out they don't work. At least if you don't have them you can see the damage and fix it.
..I think they are good as they prevent road crud, chippings, stones etc. from blasting the front of the sills. when I replaced my sills I packed the area in front and behind of the the return lip with Waxoyl underseal.
