Rocker Stone chips

[goneflyin]

HI all,
New guy here, a friend has a 2003 Viper and is having a big problem with stone chips on the bottom of the rocker panels, behind the front wheels. Anyone else experiencing this?? Solutions??
Thanks in advance,
Don

 

[GTS Dean]

There are two sides of a car - the shiny side, and the dirty side.

 

[Janni]

for Dean...

However, I will agree that the 2003/2004 seems more prone than any of the previous cars to nick up the sills with stone chips. Probably because 1) the tires are pretty darn sticky and 2) then seems wrapped closer to the front wheels.

It's gonna happen - drive the car and have the sills resprayed when they get bad. I am going to talk to the 3M folks to see if they think the film will take the heat of the sills and then install it after I have them repainted.

 

[Viperfreak2]

Mine were bad after 1500 miles. In the spring, I'll have them undercoated then resprayed.

 

[JWALK35]

Mine only 400 miles!

 

[Phoenix SRT]

Sandblasting of the side sills is pretty much a universal problem on the SRTs. Some people have repainted the sills, then applied a protective clear film to prevent the damage from recurring. Apparently this has been successful in some instances.

Note that heat from the exhaust makes the sills very hot and the heat can deteriorate/yellow the protective film. Note also that there are more than one brand of film available. Do a search of prior threads for pretty extensive discussion of the subject.