No problem Mike. I'd say they were sil covers (according to the GPC website that sells genuine VW ones). You need them for GTi or G60 arches as the bottom of the arches sits out from the sil leaving a gap. I'm currently replacing the sil covers on my GTi and without them the end of the arches have an obvious gap. This gap is then covered by each end of the sil cover. Non GTi or non G60 90 spec arches sit flush against the sil so don't look silly without the sil cover. I'm not to sure but you may need to drill some holes for the pop rivets to go into on the sils. Make sure you treat any rust on the sils before you put the covers on as water and muck gets trapped under the sils and they can rust through. One more thing, my golf has black tape along the top of the sil. This is to stop the top edge of the sil coverfrom rubbing through the paintwork and causing you more grief!
By the way, the covers on your wheels make it look as if you have massive disks under your alloys. Nice!
Persevere!
M