[TenOx]

My tale of woe regarding trying to replace my lost covers when the only part I could find doesn't fit my car!

I believe there were several bumper variations installed originally. Most common apparently was a bumper that sat further out and required the washer-cover with longer supports behind it - and that's the one they sell based on my VIN, but it doesn't fit. My covers & the nozzles were stolen in a parking lot and I've been trying to get the right parts ever since. I've decided to trim and modify the wrong part and see if I can MAKE IT FIT!

Even if I trimmed this part so it was short enough to retract, and remove some of the web from just behind the front of the cover, at the bottom, the 4 retaining slots are too far back to allow this version of the cover to retract into the bumper. The piston/squirter part sits too far forward, IOW.

I've ground off some of the plastic support-web, as above, but they will not retract. So I'm going to cut another slot on each side, closer to the front, using a drill, Dremel, chisels, box-cutter...important to mark the position the same as the other two sets of slots, same spacing apart, then mod the new slot to the right size: then when the piston retracts the cover back to the hole, it should fully seat the cover. This will require shortening the front-to-back length too.

It's taking HEROIC lengths to go to to install these parts: I wish I could find the proper ones! Matched my paint on the first try - with some silver from a can. HTH

UPDATE: Trimmed the new ones, put in slots after carefully marking them, then installed and they work. But need to find a replacement bumper, hopefully an M-3 conversion style