Installing side skirts, mud flaps and seats - Any advice?

[BadBong]

Hi everyone,

Broady has kindly offered me some help to get some of my cosmetic parts installed this coming weekend.

I just want to find out whether anyone has any hints and tips / 'things to watch out for' when installing the following parts:

Installing myself:

- Mazdaspeed seats
- Strut bar

Installing with Broady's help:

- GV Lip
- Side skirts
- Rear mud flaps

Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated.

P.S. decided to chicken out of doing the boot spoiler myself so that'll have to wait until my next service and i'll ask Mania to put it on for me at the same time.

[Jeo]

Provided the seats have the right rails, really easy. Unbolt current seats, bolt in new ones.

The GV lip on my NA needed to me to remove the two most outer bolts from under the front bumper, place the lip and put those two bolts back in, then drill holes in the bumper that line up with the holes in the lip, bolt in place using the bolts provided. I would assume the NB is the same. Again, not at all hard.

Haven't done the other three but I'd imagine double sided tape and a few screws for the side skirts, and tape again for the mud flaps.

[Juffa]

Just a couple of hints from me.

1. Take it slow and easy. Check it twice, fit it once.

2. If you have some old sheets/blankets lay them on the centre console. This will help protect console from being scratched when you remove the old seats and put the new ones in.

3. As Jeo said, with the GV lip, you should be able start by using the bolts on either end of the front bumper. On the NA these hold a small metal brace/bracket that keeps the lower front edge of the bumper in place. Once attached at these two points line up the top edge of the GV lip with the bottom edge of the bumper, and use the holes in the GV lip as a template to drill the holes in the bumper. These is not a lot of room for error, so check twice, drill once. The bumber is quite soft, so the drill bit will go though easily, so no need for a lot of pressure or drill bit speed.

Have fun. It these sort of projects that allow you to get more aquainted with your car.

J

[philz]

when tightening up the screws for the Strut brace, remember to not over torque them.

[Garry]

If any of the body parts use double sided tape then make sure you clean the paint thoroughly where the tape will attach to the car to remove any polish or wax.

[BadBong]

Thanks guys, appreciated.

What would you suggest as a cleaning agent Garry? The side skirts will definitely have double sided tape. I think the GV has a little bit as weel at the top.

As for the seats, i'll definitely cover everything inside first before beginning work and i'll follow Spy's advice from the other thread.

[philz]

you can use dish washing detergent + water, it will take off wax, oils and everything.

[BadBong]

OK...ISSUESSSsssss here.

Got my mazdaspeed seats tonight - they look great.

After spending 45mins thoroughly cleaning them and putting on a fresh layer of Mr. Sheen, they look almost new.

Given that i've never pulled seats out before, i (fortunately) started with the passenger seat. Finally got them off after a few goes and sprays of WD-40 and vaccummed the carpet again... so now we're ready to put the new seat on.

and that is where i've hit the great wall of China...

I can't get the holes of the rails to line up without substantially bending the corners... i even tried bending it a bit here and there and whilst the back just managed to line up with the holes (with a fair bit of gap), the fronts are just out of wack, especially the front right, which is closest to the centre console.

So now i'm left with just an empty passenger space (the Mrs. ain't very happy about it its current state either )

Can someone please help? (I've spent a good 2 hours trying to put the seat on - lining it up, taking it off then bending the metal a bit more to line the holes up a bit better... repeat 10+ times).

Aren't they suppose to just line up given that they are NB seats?...For goodness sakes...

[philz]

What seats are they? like specifically which Mazdaspeeds, and what brackets?

[BadBong]

The black 'leather-like' ones with NB rails.

they looks like they should line up but somehow they just don't without some good old bending of the legs, which made me hesitate.

So now i'm in a bit of a limbo.

[philz]

Have you tried alternating the seats around? I believe driver and passenger rails are different?

[BadBong]

well... the seat belt buckle will be on the wrong side wouldn't it?

[philz]

Yes but it doesn't hurt to try, you can unscrew the buckle out easily and swap them on different sides, since they are a universal seat.

Also on the rail leg there should be an imprint of "NA" or "NB", this will confirm if it's the right rail.

[BadBong]

THAT, I didn't know... will definitely check it out first thing tomorrow and possibly try the opposite seat as well.

Thanks Phil.

*why can't things JUST work?...

[Jeo]

These seats?






I had genuine mazdaspeed rails and my drivers seat went in like a dream, passenger was an absolute prick. Took me and a mate about an hour of cocking about trying to bend it in to shape before shelving it for the evening and taking a dremel to it the next morning. I ground out the hole a little so that the bolt could fit and also used a slightly longer bolt.

Sorry I didn't bring this up earlier, I assumed that my bracket must have been bent in transit or something as the drivers seat went in so well.