Fitting E36 Side Skirts

["Alex Matthews" <alex@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As promised in an earlier digest here is how I fitted M-Tech side skirts to
my E36 coupe.

Taking off the old ones

First the plastic rivets along the bottom and in the rear wheel arch must
be removed. To remove the ones along the bottom the center pin must first
be pulled out. You can do this by first using a flat head screwdriver under
the head of the pin (it looks a bit like a nail in the center of the rivet)
to loosen it. Then it can be simply pulled out with pliers. The rest of the
rivet can be loosened by gently levering the base of the skirt away from
the bottom of the car right next to the rivet. It will come out far enough
for you to pull it out using your fingers. 

Next the two smaller rivets in the rear wheel arch need to be removed.
Unfortunatetly the plastic centre pins in these ones have no head to grip,
so there are two options open to us. 

1) Either push the pin all the way through using  a small nail (as a punch)
and a hammer. Disadvantage is the pin remains in the car

2) Or pull the rivet out far enough by gently levering the skirt away from
the wheel arch next to the rivet to cut around the top with a stanley knife
to expose enough pin to get a grip on.

Fortunately for me, on one side the rivets were already loose because the
pins were missing. For the other side I used method 2) above. Although more
fiddly it is satisfying to remove the whole rivet without losing a bit
inside the body panel. 

Now all the rivets are removed there is just a row of white clips along the
top of the back of the skirt holding it on. Starting at one end of the
skirt pull it fairly firmly away from the car taking care not to bend the
skirt you are removing too much (if you want to sell it on!). It is
important not to be too rough if you can help it beause these clips go
through holes in the body panels. Be especially careful by the front wheel
because that panel isn't as secure as those beneath the doors.

The clips will most likely come off the back of the skirt where they're
attached to a rail and will be left attached to the car. They go with a bit
of a crack and will possibly break as they seem to go brittle with age, so
make sure you have enough new ones to replace them all. (11 each side on my
coupe)

To remove the clips from the car grasp one of the tabs on the back of the
clip with snub nosed pliers and pull firmly giving it a bit of a wiggle
(again being careful not to deform the body panels). They should pop out
leaving a green plastic grommit in each of the holes. The skirts come with
a complete set of these grommits, but as the existing ones looked fine to
me I didn't bother replacing them.

Lastly give the car a wash down where the mud has accumulated behind the
old skirts.

Now to put on the new ones (you should have had them sprayed by now)

Prepare the new skirts by following the instructions provided by BMW. This
means putting on the sticky-backed rubber seal along the top. Make sure its
stuck down well and not standing proud. Don't cut it to size until you get
all the way to the end and cut it as flush to the end as you can.

Next fix the new white clips to the rail along the back of the skirt. There
are marks showing where to clip them, but they do slide a bit if you need
to align them later. Also now is the time to put on the tapes that will
hold on the jacking point caps. Thread them through the small hole at the
edge of the jackinf points in the skirt from inside to out so the caps can
be attached later.

Offer up the skirt to the side of the car starting at the front. It helps
if you get someone to support the other end. Just check all the white clips
are in the right place to be pushed into the grommits in the car. Then,
starting at the front push firmly behind each clip until it snaps into
place. You might need to keep the seal from folding at the top as you push
each clip in.

The next step is to put in the new rivets along the bottom. This is simply
a case of pushing them through the holes in the skirt and the car so the
skirt is flush up against the car. Then gently tap the pins in with a
hammer to expand the rivet. The skirt now should be held firmly against the
car.

All that remains now is the two smaller rivets in the rear wheel arch. The
procedure is exactly the same, although it might be necessary to remove the
rear wheel to be able to tap the pins in. I got away with it on one side
but one on the other side just wouldn't go in and was in danger of bending,
so I had to jack up the back and remove the wheel to get at it better with
the hammer.

Hopefully you will now have a pair of new side skirts fitted. Take the
jacking point caps and thread the tapes fitted to the skirts through the
holes in the caps. Then push the caps into place.

Stand back and admire your handy work.

Hope this helps


Alex
328i coupe

------------------------------

End of bmw-digest V9 #97
************************