Fitting Brabus side skirts

The Brabus side skirts are not cheap but are a really nice accessory to have. They also fit to the car very well which helps them to look standard as well as them being secure. Note that the skirts on the coupe and cabrio are different so it is important that the correct ones are fitted to the car.

Brabus Side Skirts (coupé) part number: Q001 5045 V001 C63L 00
Brabus Side Skirts (cabrio) part number: Q001 5046 V001 C63L 00

As standard, the side skirts are black plastic and secure directly to the tridion.

Start by removing the rear panels from the car. It is easier to remove the front panels as well but it is possible to access one of the retaining clips by simply freeing them at the door hinge.

By lifting the front arches away from the car, you can see a retaining split rivet as indicated in the picture below. To remove the rivet, pull out the centre of the rivet with some pliers or wire cutters.

There are additional pegs which secure the side skirts under the car as circled below:

In total, there are 5 rivets along the length of the side skirt which need to be removed.

The final rivet is located in front of the rear wheels.

With the rivets removed, the bottom of the side skirts which will free.

Pull the rear section of the side skirt away from the car which will release one of the press-studs.

Slide the side skirt towards the back of the car. You will need to be firm as the white split rivets need to be separated from the back of the skirts.

The front section of the skirt will come away separately. You can simply pull this away from the car as it will only be held in place with one press-stud.

The skirt will now be free.

New side skirts from smart will come complete with a fitting kit which comprises the following black inserts and white press-studs. In addition, we recommend that you get some replacement split rivets to replace the old ones removed from the old skirts. The part number for these is Q000 1789 V000 0000 00.

The press studs come complete with a base section which inserts into the tridion. The T-piece slides into the side skirt before clipping in place.

We recommend removing the old bases from the tridion and fitting the new ones first.

The new stud bases simply press in to the tridion.

Take the T-piece section of the stud and slide onto the mounting sections of the side skirt as follows:

Slide the stud along the mounting bracket so it is in between the two dimples as follows:

Fit all 5 studs to the skirt.

Offer the skirt up to the car and align each stud with the base sections.

If the stud doesn't align, nudge it across slightly so that all studs correctly fit. Push firmly so that all studs are fully engaged.

With all studs engaged, the skirt will hold itself to the car fairly well.

Take the black inserts and push into the base of the skirts until they clip.

Now take the split rivet and fit it through the hole into the centre of of the black insert and into the underside of the tridion. Repeat for all 5 inserts.

Fit another rivet to the skirt by the rear wheel:

And the final one to the front:

Repeat for the other side skirt. Finally, fit the front and rear panels to complete the installation.

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