Got around to refitting sideskirts

[brucey]

hi all

Have a 2002 996 C2 and you may recall I posted a few pics of the sideskirts where the infamouns tape had come loose and the skirts had got grit and stones caught between them and the car...

Anyway - I sorted out the small corrosion spots by carefully sanding them back in little circles, prepping the surface with POR15 Metal Ready and painting them with blobs of POR15 in silver.

Fortunately I knew the marks would be beneath the side skirts when refitted.

I hate the way the skirts fit normally - the kit is cheap and rusts, the tape is hopeless and they sit too tight against the car, damaging the paint.

So - first things first. Bought a whole new fitting kit, enamelled every part, then gave it all two coats of Dinitrol body wax.

Then, I put a strip of 3M antiabrassive film down each sill where the tape attaches to the car on the sideskirts. I used a single strip about 20mm wide, and applied it so that it would be just above the sideskirts when refitted. This will serve two purposes - 1) It makes removal a lot easier as the 3M tape will come off cleanly, taking the adhesive with it. 2) It will protect the paintwork from the side skirts.

So - once they were all prepped I applied 2 strips of very high bond adhesive tape on the side skirts (after spending a long time with a very sharp chisel and a bottle of white spirit!). I put two strip on to widen the gap between the car and the sideskirts - something I have heard people try and avoid, but I wanted the skirts not to rub up against the car.

Once applied they sat about 1-2mm away from the car - lovely.

Re-did all the fittings properly, even waxed all the screws and replaced every speed nut / screw with original parts (but rust proofed them all).

Then comes the clever bit. So as to seal the sideskirts to the car I ran a bead of Sikaflex in the gap, the length of the skirts. Wiping this clean with white spirit I got a good finish - polyurethane adhesive is virtually impossible to remove, so I ensured the whole area was clean and the bead smooth. The beauty is that becasue the 3M tape sits just proud of the skirts, the bead just sits on that part, and hence will not be a problem to remove from the paintwork should I need to remove the skirts.

So - I'd recommend using the 3M stonechip tape beneath the side skirts. As you can see in the picture the stonechip tape line is just above the sealant, so no adhesive is actually on the car :)

Cheers

Edited September 16, 2007 by brucey

[hjacobs2000]

What were all the products (manfacturer and part number) you used for this project?

[1 PGH 1]

Great idea. I've just ordered the OEM Mk II skirts for my Targa. I'll talk to the installers about the 3M tape ... thanks :)