I've been looking through the instructions to fit my side steps and it shows that the aluminium underbody shield below the engine/gearbox area needs to be removed.

Having stuck my head under the car it just looks like only 2 or 3 of the underbody shield bolts on each side are connected to the side sill panels which have to be removed so I'm wondering if the whole shield has to be removed or just the affected bolts loosened.

Cheers

Rob 2017 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography
2012 4.4 TDV8 Westminster - Gone, but not forgotten

Anyone? 2017 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography
2012 4.4 TDV8 Westminster - Gone, but not forgotten

my eldest fitted mine so i dont know what it looks like underneath but he did have to cut a small piece of plastic which was obscuring the mounting location..

found this,
https://www.sidesteps.co.uk/wp-content/upl...ctions.pdf

and theres also a few fitting videos if you google. ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

You certainly don’t need to remove the undershield to take them off, but that isn’t helping - unbolting it might make things easier getting the fibre covers back on, and I don’t think it looks like a lot more hassle to do so.

My Model Year is slightly different to yours and the under tray parts are a little bit different (Duckworths confirmed this), however having removed the steps from mine I noted cut outs to enable the step brackets to be attached to the car. If similar to mine, you will need to also loosen the under trays to get to the bolt holes

Cheers,

Andy SDV8 AB MY 2019
SDV8 VSE MY 2015 - Gone
5.0 S/C AB MY 2010 - Gone
4.2 S/C VSE MY 2006 - Gone

Thanks all.

Seems like the sensible approach will be to remove the undertray as it certainly looks like it will be much easier to re-fit the fibre panels.

Apart from that, the instructions don't look that difficult so will tackle this over the long weekend as the weather forecast looks good. 2017 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography
2012 4.4 TDV8 Westminster - Gone, but not forgotten