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41 Posts
I'm extremely sad to say that I had my first accident with the Elise a couple of weeks ago when a lady backed into me while sitting at a red light. Although the damage didn't seem too great, I knew it wouldn't be a cheap fix and was absolutely grateful that the lady was actually insured. Since my tow hook was sticking out at the time, not folded up, I believe it saved my car from damage that would've crept further up the clam from the massive Camry bumper. The contact with the tow hook, in addition to me laying down on the horn, prevented her from doing worse damage, at least from an aesthetic point of view. The clam is cracked above the air dam with another minor crack to the right. At this point I don't think there is any internal damage as it was a very, very low speed accident. Her insurance (Mercury) estimated the damage to be $2000, at which I had to laugh out loud. When I took it to my body shop of choice (Avio Coach Craft) the quote was $17000+, which was more along the lines of what I expected. The lady admitted fault and I got the green light for repairs, which is good news. Here is my dilemma: I now have an opportunity to replace it with another 2005 clam shell, which I'm not sure if they're still on backorder or not, or replace it with something newer where I may finally be able to upgrade my headlights to LED. I've searched and searched but can't seem to find anything about this headlight conversion. Is it possible to switch out my front headlights with LED and can it only be done with a >2005 clam? While it's in the shop, I'd also like to switch out all my louvre panels to mesh and would welcome any advice there as well. They won't remove the clam until they get a replacement one first, so I'm just hoping there isn't any internal damage. Please, if anyone has had experience with switching out clams with a different year I would appreciate your feedback and also the best place to find one. The body shop recommended against replacing it with a refurbished clam, which is one of the reasons why I went with them. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!