over a curb, with the side sill extension

[jandree22]

I consider myself a generally good driver, but if there’s one Achilles heel of mine, it’s taking corners too tight. Pulling out making a right yesterday, I hit a curb not with either one of my tires or wheels, but the lower sill extension below my door (sounded very not good). Found a spot to pull over and check it out, and it was a lot less severe than the sound let me to believe, however there was some damage. From the side, it looks fine… it only sustained scrape damage to the bottom of the panel which I don’t care about (you never see it and it’s plastic, won’t rust). The problem however, is that the clips that snap into the frame broke in the middle.

Hard to explain, but here goes. The front and back of the panel are undamaged and still securely fastened, so I don’t have a concern with the panel falling off, even at full speed wind. However in the middle of the panel, the clips snapped away from the inside of the panel, and there’s a ” to ” gap now. The clips themselves are still snapped into the frame as they should be, except the clips’ plastic which was one plastic piece molded to the inside of the panel, broke away under the pressure.

Is there any adhesive or glue that I can squirt inside the panel to reattach the inside wall of the panel to these flat clips? Overall the panel looks fine and it attached firmly to the front and back of the frame, it’s just the middle sections have broke away so it bows out ever so slightly. Looks like a pair of painted extensions can be purchased online for $312, as an accessory, so I will have to call the dealership to find out if just one could be purchased for cheaper. I highly doubt it would be worth trying to track down a used one with the rare nature of this model.

I’m so pissed because when I’m consciously thinking about it, I can negotiate the tightest of spaces no problem, but when I’m not thinking directly about it I misjudge curbs and take them too tight, embarrassing to say the least, ugh. Thanks guys!

 

[nvanvlymen]

You know, i did the same damn thing. I went over an embankment, and the car flatened against the skirt, breaking the clips on the side, so that the part attached to the skirt broke (the top part, the bottom part was still in tact, kind of looks like a bridge, with the clip that attaches to the frame in the middle)

From what I understand in your message, you have the same problem, but both sides broke. Im still looking for a glue that will bond the two. in the meantime, i used 3M double sided tape to keep the top part of the skirt attached to the frame. In my case, i broke 3 clips under the drivers door and the read left sliding door.

To repair it is the problem. You have to take the skirt off, and let the glue set... pending you can find a cement epoxy that wont a- melt the plastic too much and b- will stand up to being re-installed after bonding.

If you find such a glue, let me know. id be interested too.

With the tape, if you look closely enough, you can see a bit of a gap between the top of the skirt and the frame, but, even now i dont really notice too much. something like 1/16th of a gap.

In the image, you cant really see it.

 

[nvanvlymen]

This is a different shot. If you blow up the image a little and look at the join between the skirt and the frame, you can see it bumps out a little where i have marked it. to someone who doesnt know, you would never pick it up.

good temp fix anyhow.

 

[jandree22]

Only the passenger side skirt got messed up by this… it’s still firmly attached in the front and back, but the middle is all separated from the clips. And yeah the flat clips look like they attach to the frame in the middle, and have plastic connections to the actual skirt at the side and bottom, although I personally can’t see the junction point at the bottom to be sure.

And that’s kind of what I’m thinking too… I don’t know too much about this stuff, but it’ll probably have to be some bonding agent that actually chemically bonds (melts) the two pieces together, to get a truly strong connection. I imagine some such goop exists in the auto body repair world as cars are becoming more plastic… the question is how much would they charge to fix it, and is it worth it to just get the damn thing replaced and be done with it. I think I’m going to get quotes for both routes and decide from there.

Frankenstein repairs were fine for my previous cars when they were ten year old beaters, but my baby still needs its get-it-done right pampering at this point

 

[coolmazda5]

Damn, mine have been close to that several times, but it has come down to scratches underneath (both, the 06 and the 08)

I've seen this in Autozone, but never used it. Gorilla Glue is great too i.e. for mirrors, but only works in non-visible areas as it expands once applied

http://www.permatex.com/products/Au...uper_glues/Permatex_Ultra_Bond_Super_Glue.htm

Worst case scenario maybe some of the vendors in the forum may be willing to just sell just "one" side sill instead of the pair

 

[mrbwa1]

Theoretically, you should be able to get replacement clips. When I installed my mud guards (non-side sills) there was a not about other models using the clips and a filler panel ( presumably Euro models ?). You should be able to carefully pry off the sill and replace clips as needed, though not sure I have the nerves for that.

 

[rweatherford]

There IS glue made for bonding plastic. It is plastic epoxy. Body shops use it. There is a special nozzle that they use that blends it perfectly. I have used it to fix a John Deere plastic lawn mower hood and JD locally uses it to fix the new bio-plastic body panels. The bond is stronger than the actual panel.

I was introduced to this at a local parts store that sells PPG paint. I'm not sure who the epoxy is made by, but I could find out for you if you would like. Could probably get a part number too. It is not cheap and it might be cheaper to find a body shop that would fix the clips for you if you took the skirt into them for repair. You won't need very much of it and a lot of it would go to waste.

 

[jandree22]

The clips are one molded piece of the panel, and they snapped off... in other words one plastic piece has been broken into several Thanks for the suggestion none-the-less.

The sill actually has been pryed off, now that you mention it. Dad's a service manager at a big Chevy dealership so I swung by on the way home for work today, and we got it off to get a better look. (Plus he has a clip remover tool available there, which was quite handy!) It wasn't going to fall off as there are majorly serious clips from the bottom up on the front, middle, and end of the panel... and a lot of smaller clips to hold the panel up against the car sideways. These smaller clips that pull the panel horizontal are the ones that broke. Fortunately, these clips [should] have very little stress when they're doing their job.

I stopped at Home Depot on the way home and picked up some Plastic Epoxy to adhere the clips back to the panel. Shortly after I got a call from my pop, he had a few minutes and he tracked down the one body shop guy to ask about it. Well apparently the body shop guy must've taken an interest to the predicament (or sympathized to his co-workers idiot kid), because he offered to give a hand with it. Also, he apparently has some heavy duty epoxy crap you can't get in stores((naughty)). So naturally I'm taking him up on the offer.

We shall see, nvanvlymen or anyone else in the exclusive club, if you need to repair these clips by glueing them back on somehow, it should work. After removing the panel, I have found that it is very flexible good for a repair bond to hold as there just a very weak pull at the connection points, and that section of car is really not prone to flex during driving so stress should be at a minimum. Remove the front screw, then carefully remove the clips, and work on it off the car, then just snap the bugger back on and hope for the best!

I'll update later...

EDIT: Rex, (and everyone else) thanks for the advice. Looks like I just missed your post before typing up my book.

 

[nvanvlymen]

Thats awesome! glad to hear you were able to get the skirt off, and fixed.

I've heard rumors that the skirt is a bitc# to get off.. specialy the flat clips under the skirt. I dont imagin the side clips would pose much of an issue. I seem to have broken 3 of mine, but, they are still attached at the bottom, so it wasnt a complete break.

keep us updated after you've put it back on, and how it holds up.