Thomas,
There were similar panels on my series 3 made out of steel unlike on the earlier cars were they were aluminium, they were riveted to the outer sills and spot welded to the chassis which was bad news in terms of corrosion, they did not have the drain holes your car has but once they were removed on my car to replace about 1" of the lower side face of the chassis on the drivers side and check the passengers side we left them off at its far easier to keep the steelwork clean and protected with wax or oil in this area.
Geoff.
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