Oh no...

[The Stiglet]

I can't believe it. Week 1 of ownership and my car has been damaged by a Royal Mail van who reversed into it this morning. It's white - how the hell could he miss it?! Luckily, a neighbour witnessed it and wrote down what had happened on my screen. To his credit he apparently put a business card into another house. Anyway, he probably broke the rarest thing on the car - the near side front indicator lens

I've done a search on this forum and the TVRCC and I've learned all about the little blighter. There are none for sale and even Autofast don't stock the part anymore. What can I do? I've seen other pictures with the Kia indicators and I don't like them and I hear you need to fabricate something so the front bumper stays on?! Is this the same with the BMW E30 indicator lenses?

I'm really hoping you guys can help as I'm pretty gutted. If anyone wants to sell me one they have been hoarding - how much is a lot?!

On a more positive note, it was such a beautiful day I put the roof down for the first time and blasted down the M3 for a bit...I couldn't stop grinning, it was exactly what I'd hoped for! I was alone but tried to speak as I would to a passenger and couldn't even hear my voice! (Re-reading that it does sound a bit odd, but it was funny at the time!) Tunnels...don't even get me speaking about tunnels!!!

The only downside is getting out and seeing the smashed indicator...

Cheers in advance
Pierce

Edited by The Stiglet on Saturday 21st February 22:00

[mep12345]

If you use the Nissan Teranno/Maverick ones then you don't need the insert, or need to do all the work of seperating the backs from the lenses as the whole unit fits straight in and covers the end of the bumper trim (although it doesn't overlap it like the originals so if your lenses are securing the trim like some then you'll need to sort the trim - there is a thread on this somewhere)

See www.gbsportscar.com for looks and how I did it. BTW my pair of units including the back plug and wires came to £5 off ebay. If you get from a scrap yard though make sure you get them to send the plug and a bit of the wiring as well otherwise you'll be making up your own plugs, which isn't easy.

Mark

[TVRMadPaul]

If it had to hit something then it was always going to be the rarest item on the car. No matter what you do you'd never been able to protect them so this just forces you down the path we've all trodden on.

I posted this a while back when I fitted BMW E30 you've probably already looked.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
They were easy to fit but they are only the lenses so you have to get the orange lense off which is bonded onto the back part of the unit.
There are alternatives and the Macerick ones are probably the easiest to fit but they do require a little rewiring nothing too difficult. So there are chooses just depends on whether you want to keep more to the original look with the orange lenses or go like I have with the smoked effect. Personaly I think the ones I have are a vast improvement over the originals and sit much better within the recess. The only problem is the ends of the bumper do need filling a job I still have to do.
I suppose you could insist on the insurance company getting the originals or at least covering the cost of buying the originals. I think on eBay where they rarely turn up they can go for quite high prices what shall we say £50 each.

[Stev8s]

I might regret doing this but I have one going spare.It is not noticeable from the outside but it does have a small crack in lens if you look inside.Knowing my luck I will let it go and someone will reverse in to me!!!
Be happy to help out buy us a beer at S club

[The Stiglet]

Stev8s said:

I might regret doing this but I have one going spare.It is not noticeable from the outside but it does have a small crack in lens if you look inside.Knowing my luck I will let it go and someone will reverse in to me!!!
Be happy to help out buy us a beer at S club

Sir, that goes beyond the call of duty, seriously!!! Especially as as I know how rare they are now. Thank you very much for this offer but amazingly, for both of us, it turns out they were not the original lenses! I went and had a proper look today and one lens has JAPAN written on it and both of them do not hold the bumper strip, there is the gap everyone talks about. Somebody must have glued the bumpers to the body work so it looks like I'll be able to go down the E30 route. I'm all up for the Nissan Terrano lenses but I'm a little bit scared of changing wires and stuff...I haven't done that before - I'm sure it is incredibly basic but I'd prefer to do that sort of thing with someone who can 'supervise' me! I'll have a little look on fleabay tomorrow and see what I can get.

My clutch linkage has started to squeak now! I think it needs some lubrication but not sure how to access it - do I need to put it on a ramp?

The car has been used everyday this week and it certainly seems to have been performing better, starting faster etc so I think I'll be finding all the little things that need attention during this next week of driving.

Thanks to everyone who helped!