Mazdaspeed side skirts- are mine really genuine?
 

I was giving the car a wax over the weekend (we're coming into summer in Australia now, so time to give it a detail :) ) and when I got to polishing the side skirts, I noticed that they are made of a sort of "squishy" material, not fibreglass or plastic or urethane. More like a soft rubber or foam type of thing, with the gloss paint over the top.

I can push my finger about an 1/8" into them, and they spring back out. Seem to be retaining some water in the pores of them, as water squeegees out when pressed. I'm thinking I'll pull them off and investigate, because I dont want rust to form behind them.

Car is all original from Japan, skirts appear to be in the shape of the Mazdaspeed ones, mounting hardware looks good quality. Just wondering if anyone had seen a "genuine" set of the MS skirts before, and could confirm the material is this rubbery stuff :icon_tup:

Pull them off and look for the mazdaspeed logo

Looking at your sig pic, they may be the '99 spec OEM side skirts. Those side skirts (I have them on my car) are thick foam and squishy. I think any of the Mazdaspeed parts are fiberglass.

Not sure why Mazda used that thick foam, they're a bitch to get paint to stick to.

Don't try and take them off, BTW - they are BIG TIME on there, they're installed with multiple fasteners, tape, and glue. You'll destroy the paint on them trying to remove them.

Dale

Sure enough, you were on the money Dale. I looked up pics of 99 spec side skirts, and they match mine exactly. And yep, these are made out of some sort of thick spongy pliable foam. When I looked closer, I started to see what you mean. There's lots of fasteners, black glue and double sided tape under the area I can pry off to look at. It scared me, so they will just stay on there :lol:

My bet is if I started screwing with them, I would bend them (the foam being really soft) taking them off, and that would cause the paint to crack and flake off. Although the paint does flex inwards 1/8" when pressed, I think it would be a recipe for disaster. I'll leave them alone til I do a respray later :)

Mine were spongy just like those pool noodles they sell in the dollar store