The shop (SDR of Cockeysville, MD) repairing the damage to the nosecone bumper and doing the prep on installation of the facelift bumper emailed me today and said they were doing a test fit of the facelift bumper and having problems getting it to fit, so they invited me to their shop to check out what they were doing to see if we could find solutions to the fit issues. They also sent some detailed photos of the fit issues. When I first looked at the photos I panicked thinking I had wasted my time and money. But when I studied them more carefully I figured out what the problem was -- they hadn't installed the right and left mounting brackets that hold the facelift bumper in place near the edges of the headlamps. So I rushed to the shop to work with them. Here's what the test fit revealed and a few photos of what was done.
First, the Tesla parts must be used to make this work. The aforementioned brackets are especially critical. Here's a photo of the mismatch without the bracket installed.
Without the bracket the area around the headlight leaves a sizable gap.
Once we got the brackets installed (they go under the tab at the inner edge of the headlights) the fit improve dramatically (excuse my fingers in the photos).
Here's a larger shot of the overall fit.
The gap around the inner ends of the head lights won't be a concern -- it's not a problem. But the curvature of the pre-facelift hood leaves a sizable gap between the hood edge and the black T surround.
You can see the gap in the photo below
As the whole area is black, it doesn't show much but we were concerned it may allow water incursion into the frunk. Bad!. But as we were missing one piece (the cover over the open area show below, behind the nosecone, which is different on the facelift bumper). That might close the gap.
The hood latch mechanism also seemed to get a bit in the way when we tried to close the hood. The top is plastic so we think we can cut some of that away to provide the needed clearance.
As my insurance company will pay some of the cost of refinishing the hood (it was creased a bit by the fender bender) I may decide to spring for a new 2017 hood ($1,800), which will eliminate the curvature gap.
So this is a work still in progress. I'm now fully confident it can be done, but there are many install details yet to be worked out. Fortunately SDR has agreed to take many photos are their work proceeds. They're still waiting on parts from Tesla so we're probably a week away from having all of those details. Once it's all figured out SDR will do installs for other Tesla owners. Because they do a lot of work on Teslas, they have a good relationship with the Rockville and Baltimore, MD service centers. And they have a very talented staff as well. The fact that they were willing to work with me is also a major plus.
If you're considering buying the parts for this install, I'd recommend holding off for now. The issue of the gap created buy the different curvatures of the nosecone and facelift hoods may prove to be a major problem and if fixing that requires replacing the hood, it may be that the aftermarket solutions may be the best and most cost-effective approach. We'll see.
