Mazda5 side skirt removal?

I have a 06 mazda5, fantastic car if I do say so myself.. but sometimes, i treat it like its a bit more of an suv then a mini-minivan...

Anyhow, I was out with the wife over the weekend to go get hard wood, and I took the wrong driveway to the store... But there was a connecting dirt incline to the proper driveway/parking area... an elevation difference of say 3/4 feet... anyhow, the incline had been used before, you cound clearly see people had taken their cars up it to the second area...

Long story short, as i drove up it, i kind of bottomed out on the drivers side, as the front wheels were on the upper partking area, and the back were still on the dirt hill... I took it at an angle to avoid a bad elevation difference....

the side skirt on the drivers side didnt really break, as much as some of the brackets that hold it onto the car broke... two to be precise, right under the drivers side door.

My question, is how the hell do you take off the side skirt? I looked under it to see there are some...for lack of a better description, slots that the skirt slides into and brackets that hold the side of the skirt onto the car??

I have some double sided tape holding the area onto the frame, as there is a gap between the skirt and the body of the car... nothing huge, but ugly non the less.

If anyone has had some experience at taking them off or on, please let me know..

Thanks!

Mu understanding is that you can just replace those slotted things. It is not easy to remove the skirt as there are some 12 - 14 clips that run the length of the car.

If you can, losen around the front and back where the slide clip is, you will find that it is a plastic part that clips into holes in the underside of the panel.

Thanks for the heads up.

The slotted clips are still in one piece, its the side clips that run the length of the car that broke.

Its an unusual break too, the clip itself is still in the car, the holder that attaches the clip to the skirt is what broke. I may try to pry off a couple around the broken ones, and use a plastic weld to fix it... cant be any worse then how it is now.

Cheers,
n

The plastic clips are designed to break away quite easy at the slightest impact. There is no way you can glue them. They are not that expensive so I suggest you just pick them up from your Mazda dealership and stick them in.

Heck if you are going that route, might be better just to rip the whole thing off and put all new clips in.

Forgot to mention that when I had to replace the side sil, The part I ordered was factory painted and had all clips attached. I bleieve I had to buy the slotted ones that go in under the car.

Intersting. I dont really want to tear the whole thing off if I dont have to.

How much force does it take to pop the clips on the side off? I guess I can try, whats the worste that will happen? I break another clip? lol.

Not much force.

As mentioned before, these things are designed to break off easy in a collision. When I rippied my damaged sil off, I had to use pliers afterwards to remove some of the clips that were left in the lower rocker.

If your sill is OK, just buy the clips, rip the whole thing off and put it back on properly. I'm sorry to say if you try to just repair the few that are broken, you may never get them all without a small gap showing. Just my 2 cents.

Your probably right. Im just holding off on it till we get some decent weather. being that your in toronto, im sure you loving the hot to cold weather as much as me. Im getting some new rims/wheels put on shortly, i may get them to pop the whole thing off while its on the lift.

Thanks for the info.

I suggest not driving while getting hard wood with your wife.

ha! tough skill... too bad she's pregnant!

Mine's pregnant with #4. I think I might have found out what causes that....