Cooper S Side Skirt Conversion

Compared to the Cooper S side skirts, the Cooper ones are very flat. There is no contour to them. Too plain for me. On the other hand, the Cooper S side skirts have a very pleasing shape with gentle curves. It gives a slightly wider look to the sides. The solution for me was to get a set of used S side skirts from a friend that had installed the MINI aero kit side skirts.

Follow along as I install the new side skirts.

(Click on any of the images below to see a larger version)

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Stock factory Cooper side skirts. No contour to them at all. Pretty flat. Boring!		Start disassembly by removing the rear screw that connects the side skirt to the inner rear wheel tub.
Then remove the rest of the lower skirt retainers. There are several of these. First remove the screw.		Then use a chisel or some other flat object to pry the retainer bases out of the skirt. They go up in to the body and do have to be removed. They will be reused to reinstall the new skirts so do not damage them.
Here's what you have left.		See that shiny sill plate?
Rip it out. It is held on with double-sided adhesive. You'll need to buy replacement sill plates unless you are REAL careful removing the old ones.		Here's why you ripped them out. There are four of these clips under the sill plate. Remove them too. I just used my chisel and knocked the heads off of them.
Here's the really hard parts. Grab the top of the skirt and start pulling. You will hear A LOT of plastic snapping and breaking. Fear not, those are the heads of the retainer clips breaking. You can see the body of the clips still attached to the car. Pop those out too.		All gone. Ready for beauty.
Here are the retainer clips. To install the new skirts, you'll need a total of 4 of the white ones, 18 of the middle black ones, and 8 of the little black ones on the right to do both sides.		These are the mounts in the side skirts that the side retainer clips go in.
Just slide them in the slot.		Reinstallation is the opposite of disassembly. Line up all those side clips in to the body holes and knock them in place.
Then install the new clips that go under the sill plate and install new sill plates.		Reinstall all the lower skirt retainers and rear lower screw and you are all done.
Much better.		Here is a closer view. You can see the contour.

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