Tips:
Estimating
For Body Shops
Powered by: AllCustomWebsites.com
How To Install Side Skirts
Installing side skirts with little or no gaps.
We will also be revealing our secret adhesive that works better then any other product we found after more then 5 years of searching.
You Will Need:
How To Install Side Skirts (lots of info here. Allow additional page load time for slow connections)
Step 1 (dry fitting/test fitting)
Yes we have seen them too, body kit side skirts hanging off, gapped and cracked from
the stress of trying to install them tight and clean. In an effort to aid customers
and auto body shops install their own side skirts cleanly and crack free, we have
decided to write this informative how to section.
Assuming you've already:
- Removed the wheels
- Removed/pulled back the fender liners and mud flaps where applicable
- Removed any other items that may get in your way
- Gathered materials
A) The first thing you need to do is test fit the side skirts.
Don’t force them
on, just slip them on as carefully as you can. Forcing them on will cause cracks,
lightly slipping them on will show you where you need to trim.
The most common area is near the wheel opening edges, front and rear. Mark the areas
that need trimming with a felt tip marker (sharpie works but be sure to remove the
ink before you do your finished work, sharpie ink bleeds). You can use a die grinder
type cutting ball or sand paper wrapped around a dowel. Either way, remove material
slowly. 
Retest the side skirt and check to see if it will slip on without stressing
the fiberglass. If they are stressed when installed, THEY WILL CRACK, now or later.
Repeat the process until you get a good fit. Look for areas inside the door jamb under stress or that need to be trimmed. The most common areas are the bottom of the sill plates (door jamb bottom). Typically the extra fiberglass bumps the inside of the jamb and will need to be trimmed. Mark an area that rubs or will not allow the side skirt to slip on far enough to get a decent fit on the outside body panels. After repeating the process, trimming, cutting or shimming for a good fit, remove them to repair any stress cracks and for primer.
Step 2 (test fitting and repairing blemishes)
2A) After doing any prep or repair work on the outside shell and waiting at least
4 hours for your primer to dry, clamp both side skirts on the car as if they were
going to be permanent. Simple spring clamps are useful in this situation and can
be found pretty cheap at Harbor Freight. If you did step 1 correctly, these clamps
should hold it just fine, if they wont hold them on, repeat step 1 again because
they are still under stress.
After clamping the skirts on, outline the parts with ¾ inch masking tape (figure 1 at the right). This will help when the adhesive comes into play. When its’s time to do your final install, the adhesive will tend to squeeze out from under the side skirts, the tape you apply in this step will minimize the mess and mark the areas that need to be scuffed.
Now, after you have the side skirts installed by clamps, the fit is good, very little stress to avoid cracks, all problem areas have been trimmed, shimmed and whatever else you had to do to get them fitting as if they were factory installed. Also you have outlined all the parts with masking tape. REMOVE THEM AGAIN!, I know right? But this time leave the tape on, this will be your glue line (you will appreciate this step if your not going to repaint the whole side of the car). This step will give your side skirts a cut off line for painting.
2B) Your side skirts removed, tape still on the car to show where the edge of your pieces are, use 80 grit sand paper to scuff up the surface for the adhesive to adhere to. Make sure you don't go over your tape line and scratch the paint, stay within the tape side that will rest under the installed skirt. Also scuff the inside surface of the side skirt with the same paper.
2C) After scuffing both the car surface and the skirt surface to be glued, clean the parts good to remove any dust and debris that collected from the previous steps.
Step 3 (final prep for install using the adhesive)
3A) Note the surface area, check to see if it is hollow, recessed or flat. Basically
you need a good surface for the adhesive, if the surface of the skirt doesn't rest
against the body panels, visually check to see how large the cavity is. If your
side skirts don't fit flush enough, there may be too much
distance between the glued
area of the side skirt and the surface of the body panels.
If your side skirts suffer from this common condition, there is a fix but it has
to be done before you glue the panels. If you have a good mounting surface now,
you can skip to section 3B. Most side skirts are hollow inside and when they are
trimmed from the mold, they are troublesome to fit flush when the design is wrong
or they are trimmed too close from the manufacturer.
Lay the side skirts upside down (on something that wont scratch your surface), using a relatively new product called Fiber Tech ®, made by Evercoat®, you will need to build a level surface for the glue onto the inner surface, this material is great for making “Tabs” also, tabs will be explained in another section. Tabs help when body kits are made with too little material near the bolt holes, too little material in these location typically result in cracked and falling off body kits. Tabs strengthens the mounting bolts and prevent this this condition. Best of all “Tabs” only take about 10 minute to create and can save a lot of headache.
After laying the side skirt, inside up. Mix up some of the Fiber Tech ™ filler and swipe along the thin edge that needs the flat surface (figure 5). After swiping the material here, swipe your spreader down the length of the edge to create as flat as a mounting surface as you can. After the material dries, use a DA and some 80 grit to level it out. Try to match the surface of the body panel as best you can, keep in mind it doesn't have to be perfect, your just trying to create a surface the glue can adhere to. Test fit the panels again, trim as needed.
3B) Ok, so your ready to install the parts permanently now? Your tape outline is in tacked, you've scuffed and cleaned the body and the mounting surface to be glued, you have your clamps are ready and you some self tapping screws in case you need them. Apply the adhesive using gun or mixing pallet, this adhesive dries slow enough to give you lots of work time, its one of the reason we chose it for all our molded fiberglass parts. Apply adhesive to both the side skirts and the body of the car, using your tape outline as a guide, install the panels one at a time, clamp the same location as the test fit and look for troubled areas. If you did your job right, there should be very little gapping from stress and any remaining gaps can be clamped using the red ones in the picture.
3C) The clamps in Figure 6 shows how you can hold the side skirts on without using self tapping screws and saving you the time of filling screw holes later. They are actually called “windshield molding clamps” and are cheap insurance against the panel pulling away in areas that still have some stress in them. Tip: Moisten the suction cup and make sure the surface is clean before locking the clamps in, you don't want them to pop of while your gone. We always waited for final installs when we had time to allow the adhesive to set. If you clamp them in and go home for the evening, you may come back in the morning to find they popped off and now your glue is dry.
3D) After your skirts are glued, positioned and clamped, you will notice some adhesive squeezing out, this is good, it means your surface is smooth enough and flat enough to make good contact with the body panel. Using your finger in a latex glove, smear the adhesive tightly in the crack like you would caulk in a bath tube, preferably immediately after you get the parts clamped on the car. This step will give you a nice gusset and eliminate a lot of sanding later. Also you can round a plastic squeegee to help. Allow everything to set up for 45 minutes before you leave for the day. Adhesive will set overnight before it is sanded and prepped for paint. You can use filler in it to remove imperfections after it is sanded. Prep panel as usual, prime, block etc. The reasons we choose this adhesive are: Plenty of work time, Powders up nice when sanded, no air pocket problems, no blistering when its heated from the sun. Also, we've never had it come off by itself, but it can be chipped off with a chisel if you ever have to remove the parts.
3E) If your molding the parts, or transition the couture to match a body line, you can now grind away some material because of the fiber tech inside your side skirt. Although this procedure is now finished, it can be the first step in making drastic mod’s to body lines because you have material behind the fiberglass to work with, even if you sand through, its still ok. Also: The same procedure can be used for front and rear body kits.
Next we will talk about building tabs on body kits who’s blot holes always seem to be to close to the edge to get a good bite. Cracking is always a problem in these areas.
Enjoy and stay tuned…
Robert M
17/5/12, 1
•Don’t worry about small gaps between the side skirts.
We will give you the inside scoop on filling these.
•Also check to see how much room you have for adhesive during the test fitting stage.
•You can build tabs for mounting points when the manufacture doesn't allow for them.
•You can use a heat gun to warm fiberglass and manipulate it into place.
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
4