Hi guys I am wondering if any of you have personal pictures and/or directions on how to remove the w221 front/back bumpers and side skirts.

I am able to find the front bumper removal but not the back or side skirts.

Front removal link: http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/EU...ont_bumper.pdf

Thanks

 

W221 Side Skirt installation based on my experience.
There must be a better way, and hopefully this will motivate someone to give up the secret, because my way sucks.

Removal:
One slip-pin insert in front wheel well
Remove all nuts along bottom edge of fabric undercover
Remove all nuts in side skirt attachment cups
Remove Philips plastic screw and expanding insert at ear of skirt on bottom
Remove one slip-pin insert in rear wheel well.

The initial challenge was removal of the old skirts.
There is a dearth of info regarding the process or technique.

After removal of the fasteners, the front section (in front of the door), has several clips inside the fender. I sprayed some simple green in the gap to lubricate the plastic, then pulled directly outward and that section snapped free. (had to pull hard enough to be scary)

At the rear, on the bottom of the skirt, the plastic phillips-headed expanding sleeve screw attaches a plastic bracket to the end of the skirt. The bracket has a bulb-ended pin at the top which secures into a hole in the quarter panel at the top edge of the skirt. (this is invisible behind the skirt). One side pulled free easily, the other side did not, and after substantial force came out with the plastic insert from the quarter panel. (I re-inserted the plastic retainer into the quarter panel and it seems ok)

Along the rocker rail there are 10 white plastic clips. These are hidden beneath the skirt. On the exploded parts view they are # 110.
These fiendishly diabolical clips defy explanation.
On the first side I just randomly applied increasing amounts of force at various angles until they snapped free.
NOTE: the clearance at the cut-out in the skirt to accommodate the rear door pivot is very tight, I applied liberal amounts of silicone spray to protect the rubber door seal where it touches the skirt.

After considerable sweating and cursing, I found that if I applied lifting pressure from the outside (loose end) of the skirt, while simultaneously striking the outside edge of the skirt with my other palm I could get the clips to snap free. This did not work every time, and I would love to hear from an authorized tech the proper way to remove them.

For installation, I found the new skirt to be a bit thicker than the old skirts which prevented the attachment cups from locking into the skirt. This was compounded by warping of the cups. I rectified the warped cups with the use of a heat gun. The parts can be made pliable with sufficient heat, and then may be reformed back into the proper shape. In addition, I cut a slight chamfer into the skirt edge where the cup clips attached.

After several trial and error episodes, I found that installing the cups into the skirts prior to installing the skirts onto the car is advisable. ( I was able to put the rear bracket in either before or after skirt install, it didn't seem to make much difference, perhaps a little easier to install it first)

Back to the fiendishly diabolical white clips.
I could find no way to engage the skirt into the clips while the clips were installed in the car. ( I was however, able to break several with this method)
The only way I was able to get them to work was to remove the clips from the car and install them on the skirts and then install the skirt on the car.

Please note I had tremendous difficulty with this method, but was ultimately successful.
The trick I found, was to attach the front and rear of the skirt into the fenders, and then work from the back to the front engaging the diabolical clips into the chassis holes.

To get them to snap in, I found it necessary to use my knee to press on the outboard edge of the skirt (aligned with the clip) with force sufficient to flex the inside skirt edge so that the white clip was actually farther inboard than the hole it needed to snap into. Then while applying serious downward force directly on top of the while clip area of the skirt, reduce the sideways pressure on the outside edge of the skirt (knee) and pray for a click sound indicating engagement. I needed to be very careful to not entirely remove the sideways pressure with my knee, or the skirt would pop out of the clip)

Note: I found it helpful to mark the location of the white clips with a small piece of masking tape applied to the top of the skirt, directly over each clip, this indicates where to push.

I needed to wear rubber knee pads in order to apply enough force without damaging my knee. Also note is was almost 90 degrees F that day, and that made the urethane a bit more pliable.

The pliable part was important as it took at least 4 attempts on each side to get the clips in. Each failed attempt left the clip fully installed into the chassis, but only partially engaged on the skirt. This meant prying the skirt up far enough to un-clip the clip from the car and re-installing it on the skirt for another attempt. ( a failed attempt usually meant removing every slip already engaged and completely starting over, very hard on the fingers)

Also, don’t forget the silicone lube on the door seal.

In conclusion, I found the whole attachment method of these things to be an engineering tour-de-force worthy of Rube Goldberg.

I wouldn't mind paying a body shop to do the work, but based on my experience I would fully expect most body shops to be lucky to get 2 or three clips properly engaged, leaving an uneven top edge.

There must be a better way, because I found my method insanely difficult.
Hopefully OB1 comes out of the woodwork with the proper method.

 

Something I found on the internet.

 

And another.

 

Has anyone found an easier way to replace one of these. Did the pdf file really want me to remove the rear door?