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How go to about repairing car paint damage

M

morkus64

Diamond Member
So this guy swiped my car a bit ago, and I'm trying to figure out if it'd be possible to either do the paint job myself or do a bunch of the prep work to make it cheaper to do later. Here's the damage:

0525101813b.jpg

0525101813a.jpg


I know the paint color code and found this site which offers it in spray or regular varieties.

Help!

TIA!


Moved.

ATOT Mod ElFenix
 
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Honestly if you have no auto body/paint experience it'll turn out like crap and most likely chip right back off. You could look for another bumper already painted (off a totaled car with front end damage) but I'm not sure how common that color is, I can't say I recall seeing a VW that color.
 
That car, as do most, has a urethane (flexible) bumper cover. As such, the paint must be mixed with an flexing agent so the paint can expand / contract with temperature. If not, it will start to crack and peel off again very soon. It is also usually cheaper & easier for a body shop to paint and install a new bumper cover, as opposed to removing it, sanding, priming, painting and reinstalling the old one.
 
Yea don;t try and do that yourself. if ti was metal maybe. But a bumper cover as well as metal will end up really bad. You need different primers for bumper covers. That and it looks damaged, not just in the paint Dept.

That and if someone hit you is it not their fault? Or did you pull out and cause the "hit"?
 
fixing paint of bumpers is tough. My gf's car got hit in a parking lot. There was paint damage on the body and bumper. They guy at the body shop quoted just the body, then then body and bumper. With the bumper, cost nearly doubled, and it was only a small gash. Body shop owner said bumpers are the worst because you can't buff them out and you can't touch them up without doing lots of prep work.
 
Marlin1975 said:
Yea don;t try and do that yourself. if ti was metal maybe. But a bumper cover as well as metal will end up really bad. You need different primers for bumper covers. That and it looks damaged, not just in the paint Dept.

That and if someone hit you is it not their fault? Or did you pull out and cause the "hit"?
Click to expand...

It was a hit and run - the insurance company basically gave me the estimate minus my deductible and said I can take it wherever I want, so I'm hoping I can get it done for at most what they gave me, but as cheaply as possible.
 
bruceb said:
That car, as do most, has a urethane (flexible) bumper cover. As such, the paint must be mixed with an flexing agent so the paint can expand / contract with temperature. If not, it will start to crack and peel off again very soon. It is also usually cheaper & easier for a body shop to paint and install a new bumper cover, as opposed to removing it, sanding, priming, painting and reinstalling the old one.
Click to expand...

how hard would it be for me to do the removing and sanding (would i strip the pain off the whole thing?), and have them do the priming and painting, then I'll reinstall. Would that save a significant amount?
 
Marlin1975 said:
That and it looks damaged, not just in the paint Dept.
Click to expand...

Is there something there I'm not seeing? The bit where the two pieces meet on the left is bent, but that's just because there is a bent piece of metal underneath that they both clip onto. I'll bend that back myself. The bumper bit isn't cracked or anything.
 
I would get a body shop to do all the work. Matching the yellow to the rest of the car will be a PITA (it will be faded / weathered) and if you get it wrong it will look like shit. I was also told by a body shop that yellow is one of the worst colours to match.

If you do not know what you are doing, you could waste a lot of time and money prepping the body and bumper for a local re-spray and get it wrong. Also if you do the prep work and the paint finish peels or crazes at a later date, you can guarantee that the body shop will blame your prep work.

Edit: It looks to me from the photos, that when the bumper flexed during the impact, the paint coating didn't flex along with it, the paint lost adhesion, cracked and chipped off.

It should be obvious to the OP if the bumper is deformed or cracked.
 
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morkus64 said:
how hard would it be for me to do the removing and sanding (would i strip the pain off the whole thing?), and have them do the priming and painting, then I'll reinstall. Would that save a significant amount?
Click to expand...

Generally, unless you know someone with a shop they won't cut you any deal for any work you do yourself as they'll just do it all over themselves. The majority of the work is in the prep so if it's not done right the paint will just magnify it. Then you go around telling people where you had it done and it's not good publicity for them, hence why they'll just strip it back down and do it all themselves.
 
What I have learned from experience is if you want an excellent repair, just go to a good body shop and let them work their magic. Body shops want the car with the original damage so they can do the best job. They don't want any repercussions because of the work you did.

Case in point, my Mother rear ended an SUV in her Saturn SL1. There was no major damage, but she happened to catch a tow hook or something that grazed the bumper cover, splitting it below the hood, and the hood buckled. I found the used parts, but no one in the KC area had the parts in the correct color. I took it to body shops to see if I could get the hood and bumper cover painted, but no one would touch it because they didn't want to be responsible for what was behind the parts I replaced.

I was told by more than one place that the price of the used replacement parts + the cost of the repaint would have been less if I had just let them fix the damage in the first place.

Cliffs:
Can you live with the damage?
Your DIY repair will suck, no matter your intentions and ability. ( Based on the fact that you even asked about this)
suck it up if you want it fixed.
I a trying to be realistic, not an ass.

Good luck.
 
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