MG ZR Side Skirts Fitted

I'd been keeping my eye out for some genuine solar red MG ZR (hens teeth) side skirts for some time. After an eternity of waiting some turned up on eBay in solar red in what appeared to be great condition.

Watching the auction like a hawk resulted in bagging quite the bargain, £46 collected.

Hoping that the pictures were accurate I pulled up at the fella's house and picked up the side skirts. A smug grin appeared after checking them over, absolutely mint condition. Still attached to the skirts were all the end caps, however 3 were snapped (probably from taking them off).

I removed them all and with the skilled hand of my father, fashioned some sparkly new ones from aluminium. A far more robust solution and almost the same weight.

To start with he just roughed out the shape, this would allow us to check the form and mark exactly where the edge should be to align with the skirt and wheelarch. Dad had also managed to recreate the tricky tapering radius condition perfectly, two thumbs up indeed.

All marked out, the bespoke end caps were filed down to the correct shape and test fitted.

Fine tuning done, the caps were removed and sprayed satin black.

After jacking up the car and removing the wheels, the wheel arches got a bit of a clean prior to the fitting of the skirts. You can see for yourself the surprising amount of dirt that gets lodged in there.

You'll also note that the stone chip paint on the Rover 25 is black, and would be just about visible above the top line of the side skirts when fitted. As a result, I had the sills sprayed Solar Red to avoid and read through to the stone chip surface.

Due to the shape of the caps, the skirts had to be fitted to the car prior to fitting the end caps. Out came the silicone sealant and some wedging blocks. A good bead of sealant was applied to the edge of the skirt and then positioned under the car. After a bit of tinkering the skirts were in the right place which meant the end caps could be positioned and screwed on.

The car was left overnight and part of the day without being driven to ensure the silicone had enough time to cure.

I kind of knew that the skirts would make a big difference, but actually seeing the change in the flesh is quite considerable.

Without a doubt this is one of the biggest visual transformers you can do to a standard Rover 25, or MG ZR without the optional skirts, and one that I highly recommend. I'll let the pictures do the selling.

Clearly I can't just fit the side skirts and not the rest of the body kit, so stay tuned for more posts to come. Eagle eyed readers may have spotted elements of the ZR bodykit in the pictures above...

Let me know what you think below, were you shocked just how much difference the side skirts made when you fitted them?