zaque

These headlight covers seem to be be pretty weak plastic as they snapped along the vertical sides above where they're bolted to the headlights themselves.
Is there a better alternative that fits well, looks clean and OEM, and isn't too expensive?

Also does anyone have advice in dealing with insurance? They're saying $364 to fix this. It looks like it's around $200 for the pair of OEM headlight covers. Decent paint with the factory montego blue and blending it into the bumper, hood, and fenders a bit I imagine is going to be around $1000. Even if I just got the headlight covers themselves painted, that's going to be a few hundred and not match well.
Only way I can think to do it for $364 is.. dunno maybe there's a montego blue RX7 in a junkyard somewhere. It's still probably not going to match to my own 24 year old car's paint.

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

If you are in constant contact with the Insurance Company this may be an Idea.
Now is the time to look for alternative looks for your car..say a Flushmount headlight system.
My thought: pitch to the Insurance that the cost to replace the stock items back on the car would be MORE to replace than you purchasing an aftermarket kit for the Car.

silverTRD

iTrader: (36)

It shouldn’t really matter what the insurance estimate is, it’s just an estimate. What matters is what the shop says the actual parts cost. Take your FD to a shop and have them deal with the insurance. It cost what it costs, and the insurance will have to pay, get it done right.

Acesanugal

iTrader: (5)

There seems to be a little disillusion here in regards to the relationship between an insurance company and the body shop.

These situations frequently become a pissing match. The body shop may say, 'this is what it takes to do the job right'. Then the insurance company comes back and tells them, 'this is all we will pay for'. Either compromises or shortcuts happen, both of which can shortchange the repair.

An experienced painter can match the color of the headlamp doors to a close proximity of what is on the rest of your car now. It will never be absolutely perfect without blending, but close. Having the car buffed and polished would increase the visual effect of matching somewhat. However, even if you blend into the bumper, fenders, and hood, you will still be left with a half glossy, buttery looking car while the doors, roof, and rear body will still be wearing the same paint as before. Again, keeping the car polished and protected will lessen this. Montego blue is just one of those tri coat colors that is a nightmare to deal with.



Has the car been appraised and insured at its true value? Most insurance companies will only cover up to 80% of the vehicle value before it is considered a total loss, but it can be a negotiation.

You could argue that the rarity of the vehicle warrants proper blending into the front of the vehicle and then try to see if they'll reclear the rest to put the car back to pre-incident condition, but I very highly doubt that would happen.

Tough place to be.

evo_koa

iTrader: (2)

I bought a new OEM front bumper, headlight covers and passenger side fender. I work at a large Ford dealership and I had a painter paint all of the items for me. He did it on the side and I only paid him $300.00. We have a camera system that takes pictures on several of the body panels and then it tells the painter how to mix the paint. It turned out really well.

Acesanugal

iTrader: (5)

These spectrum analyzer 'color cameras' aren't nearly as accurate as most people imagine. In most cases, you still have to mix the paint and do a sprayout card to physically compare what the camera/computer is telling you to reality. Chances are the color is close, but not close enough. Adding to that, its likely that the system will show many variances based on model year and application to the color its telling you to mix. These systems do not tend to work so well on difficult tri coats and high pearls, but generally work better with basic non-metallic or more typical colors.

evo_koa

iTrader: (2)

It Was a perfect match on my car. Check out the photo.

Acesanugal

iTrader: (5)

It looks ever so slightly darker to me, but its also a bad picture for reference.

You also didn't comprehend everything I just explained, clearly. Those systems are more accurate with a basic color such as yours.. but motego blue is about as far away from basic as you can get, now isn't it ?

I'm not saying a match can't be done, but to do it properly takes a shedload of experience, knowledge, and true skill to get it as close to a perfect match as possible.

I see these things every day. I work for a body shop whose lead painter has been in paint for 33 years and did body work prior to that for a further 10. Our body shop has been in business for more than 40 years.. so you can imagine how good we are at what we do.

evo_koa

iTrader: (2)

It is not the best picture. It was the only one I had on my work computer.

I didn't say that the paint would match with MB. I just stated that my paint matches perfectly.

Our dealership has been in business for over 50 years and is still in the same family. I work in the parts department not in the body shop. We do sell 120k-150k worth of parts to our body shop a month, so you can imagine how good we are at what we do.

Acesanugal

iTrader: (5)

Cool story bro, I'm the parts manager for a 5 million dollar a year body shop owned by a dealership that's been around since 1922 owned by the same family and owns eight brand franchises.

You really want to have this contest ?

evo_koa

iTrader: (2)

I am also a parts manager. We both get gold stars.

I am not wanting to have a "contest". I was trying to state that there are other people than you that know a thing or two about body repair.

Acesanugal

iTrader: (5)

So... where's this person you speak of..?

evo_koa

iTrader: (2)

Not me, the painter that did my FD.

Acesanugal

iTrader: (5)

Ah, gotcha. It is a very close match from what little I can see. You will almost never get a color to match *exactly* the same on a bumper vs metal body panel.

insightful

i got an idea, buy them new. because it's better than spending the money to paint a crappy 30 year old part from another car that may last another year or 2 before it happens again...

Montego

iTrader: (1)

Unless you replace them with an aftermarket non-pop up kit there is nothing out there. Yes this is a common problem of our headlights and they all break sooner or later.

Contact Ray Crow for a great deal on OEM parts. I paid $65 for each and that was a few years ago, but I "think" the current price for the each headlight cover is around $80 (I could be wrong though so don't quote me)

First never buy used headlight covers. I can pretty much guarantee you they will have hairline cracks at the tabs where they screw in place. Second, repair or is it a remove and replace? Just clarify that you are getting NEW covers. Third, if you have insurance why worry about the cost of it being $364 vs $1000. Pay your deductible and let them deal with it. Or take the cash (minus your deductible) buy the covers from ray, install them yourself and pay a body shop to match em.

zaque

The current price on the headlight body panels is $116. Ebay and such isn't really any cheaper. There really aren't a ton of them left.
I'm not interested in flush headlights. I think they look hideous.

The paint on the sides and rear is pretty close to like-new. It's only the front that's a bit worn by dust and such over the years.
If just the headlight covers are painted, and the rest is just buffed and polished, it's going to look pretty bad I think. Blended to the fenders and hood, I think it'd be fine though I'd need to pay to repaint the front bumber out of pocket.

Yeah, it's insured for $15,000. A bad repair would lower its value.

Acesanugal

iTrader: (5)

Correct. If the repair gets blended, and you do some paint correction to the rest of the vehicle, it'll likelybe fine. All of this depends on how good the painter is at his job.

Redbul

iTrader: (26)

It is crazy that those flanges are only like 1/32 wide at the base where they connect to the cover. I think they are designed to blow off at 100 mph, so a kind of speed limiter. .

If you buy new, why not reinforce the flange connection points with JB Weld (or similar). Your grandchildren will thank you.

I usually remove the covers if doing any engine work.

Accidently leaning on the covers will cost you.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

Is that a Ray Crowe price? I thought I read someone not too long ago that they were around $80 bucks. But any case whats $40 bucks when it comes to these cars...

Edit-

lol You know that $15K is pretty much on the lower end of the spectrum for these cars, right?

Most insurance policies pay out a "fair market price" of the vehicle, which means they pay out what it would cost to replace it with another car in similar condition. Other people have an "agreed on value" policy. Which is very smart when it comes to modified cars because it takes modifications into account as well as the replacement cost. So if your insurance is an agreed on value of $15K and your car isn't beat, then you should re-evaluate the price of your vehicle with them.

insightful

woulda been nicer if they actually added a lb and made them metal like the FC, those ones are bulletproof.