Struggling to get the side skirts off my classic - the bolts on the underneath are just spinning, and i cant get/find access to the other side to where they are attached - anyone had similar problems?

Ash

 

I had the same problem, they were a ball ache to remove and don't get me started on the rear spats..

Ended up forcing one or two off in the end and then cutting them out afterwards

 

Ugh! thanks for that but not what i wanted to hear - did you end up damaging the skirts at all? (havent tried the rear spats yet! )

 

Soundslike either the square plastic retaining clips have rounded or the sill where they seat has rusted through. I found putting some pressure with a long screw driver on the cover while unscrewing helped but as I was replacing the sill sections it wasn't the end of the world if the sill got damaged.

 

Aye that's true - I'm in the same situation you were I think - will just try to get the sill off in as best condition as possible and repair/fix the sill afterwards

 

What is the reason for removal? If it's for rust repair I would just rip them off as best you can without damaging the covers and just redo the sill as chances are they will be rusty.

If it's not for rust repairs then a die grinder with carbide bit can take the head of the screw out to take covers off and deal with what's left once removed.

 

they dont look too rusty, but its hard to tell. Ill probably cut off the head then assess the damage . so hard with less than 1.5ft room each side of the car!

 

Yeh its a pig of a job when you don't have a ramp but Yeh take off the heads and if you need to cut and weld at least you can take the fixings with the old crap. I have all new coming just to make sure

 

If it's not for rust repairs then a die grinder with carbide bit can take the head of the screw out to take covers off and deal with what's left once removed.[/QUOTE]

This is exactly what I did, the skirts weren't damaged at all.. just took the head off and pulled the skirts off over what remained. Then removed the residual afterwards..

On my 1999 I had to remove the bumper to remove the rear spats but on my 1995 I removed the spats without removing the bumper.

 

A good tip here: when I did mine, I bought all new clips that the bolts screw into for the damaged ones, they were pence each from a dealer. Then I bought stainless roofing bolts to replace all the bolts.