so i was involved in a minor fender bender this last weekend and a car lightly tapped me in the front (im assuming from reversing out of the parking spot) . broke my front license plate plastic bracket and scuffed the surrounding paint towards the passenger side. i buffed out all the scratches but what remains is a spider crack in the paint. my front isnt that pretty but paint chips i can fill in with touchup paint. these are a little more fine. is there any way to fix? i may get the whole bumper painted probably next spring season (winter might worry me so i'll hold off for now)

if anyone had their bumper painted is it easier/cheaper to remove the whole piece for a respray then give it to the shop with the paint code and say go to town on it or just leave them the car and blend certain areas? how much did it cost you?

thanks!

 

My paint shop did mine, but he is a friend, so friend price was pretty cheap. I would take the bumper cover off once you get an estimate, as that saves them time. I'd guess under 300 bucks, for prep, primer, paint, top coat..... I have done both cars, and both times I took the covers off for them.

 

now that's a price i can live with. i went out during my lunch and had an estimate and they want a womping $1,496.93! honestly, i only have scratches on my bumpers not dents and they are deep enough that my nail will catch it so i cant buff it out but nothing major. their reasoning for that price was majority removal of the bumpers. if i took them out myself and bring it, im looking at around 3 hours of prep and paint time. how hard was it to you to disassemble?

 

What color is your car?
Unless your car is black, white, or yellow then it's metallic. Don't ever count on removing your bumper and just sending it to the bodyshop and expecting it to match if it's metallic.
They'll probably need to blend it into the fender. because some colors are worse than others to match. Price varies from shop to shop, even city to city. Usually around $300 to $400. Maybe less at Maaco.
Good Luck

 

Shop around, (you have all winter) they're rippin you off.

 

luckily i have black so i thought since it wasnt metallic it would be cheaper. Maaco is on the list for quotes but didnt visit yet. im not trying to make it show car quality but enough to please my eye..and i'm half blind lol

 

My body shop painted my new bumper for $250 before I installed it. Probably less prep work than a used one.

James

 

Been awhile since I have had them off. I remember a few screws in the fender well, and the rest are up front. Remember to remove the temp sensor. Start by taking the upper and lower grilles out and go from there. It wasn't bad. I do remember jacking front end up helped a lot. You can do it.

 

well just got another quote from a collision center and they wanted 350 each bumper and that's without in on the car and a 5 day down time. i contacted maaco and they'll do $360 for both-- no appointment and a two day down time, again, without the bumpers on. so i think the next step is to learn how to take the front and rears off. my first choice would probably be maaco. i know it's not reputable as some other shops but as long as it's not an eye sore, im okay with it !

 

I would check with Maaco - I bet their price on painting it on the car wouldn't be much higher, it has a nice seam where it's attached, shouldn't be too hard to mask. Or buy yourself a cheap gun, a compressor and a pint of paint and do it yourself. I painted my entire car for less than 800 bucks. Base coat/clear coat combinations are really forgiving and getting/having a compressor around is always beneficial.

Dave

 

i've always wanted to try painting but always worried about the paint not matching. i have a small airbrush that i use for my hobby but never for application like a car. i'm also concerned about my space: 1. i have a garage but i don't know if it'll be big enough 2. an enclosed space so that dust and specs dont wind up on the paint. in the near future, i'm probably going to cave in and buy the gun and compressor

 

BEATv1,

You won't have any problems matching black. You could put up some plastic sheets to protect any overspray in the garage, but with the new guns, over spray really isn't much of a problem, at least not like it use to be. Base coats go on like primer, if you miss up, just wait for it to dry and sand it off, then reshoot. The clear coat could be tricky but if you take your time, spray it a little dry (until you're more accomplished) and just build up the coats, you will be alright. Bluffing is the key and you could probably find a guy who details cars to buff it out for you. Since you will be spraying it kind of dry, you will have orange peel, just wet sand it down with 1000 grit until all the orange peel is gone and it's totally flat, no shinny spots of orange peel, then take it to your buffer and it will come out beautiful. If you do get a run, (in the clear coat) put some masking tape on both sides of it and then take your time wet sanding it (even as course as 400) until it's flat, you will have to take the tape off and look at it several times, being super careful not to sand the surrounding area, once it's level, wet sand it with the 1000 and buff it out. Watch a couple of videos on painting and you'll do it well. Worst case - you take it to Maaco. If you go to Maaco, ask them if they are using a base coat, clear coat combination and not a single stage paint.

Hope it helps,

Dave

 

it helps tremendously in a way that i want to buy everything and go to town. haha well being my first job, i would want to start with something smaller (i thinking the windshield trim) thank you for the advice as i will be referring to this post when i do get the supplies. and i'll also ask maaco what kind of paint job that price reflects.

is the crossfire in your user gallery the one you painted?

 

No, but there are pictures posted in the "what did you do to your crossfire today" tread, before, during and after pictures, several posts. It came out nice.

Dave

 

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...e-today-2.html


The above link will take you to the post where I placed the finish pictures, but if you go back several posts, you will see the base coat, then the clear coat, the wet sanding, and finally the buffing.

Dave

 

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...today-157.html

your link brought me to page 2 of the thread, i just searched your posts and found it at around page 157. im ASTONISHED! your work looks fantastic. i don't know if i have the patience to do all that but man it was worth it. i liked the satin-like finish of the base coat without the clear lol yeah i think i'll work on smaller projects for now and when i'm ready will upgrade to my car. first things first is to get it mechanically sound (this weekends project, fix those damn leaky valve cover gaskets!)

 

Sorry about that, I just copied the link when I was on the pictures and that was what came up? It looks like a lot more work than it was, took me three days to get the body ready, I had a lot of door dings on it, and four days to paint, cut and buff it. Thanks for the compliment, there are a lot of little things that can happen, especially in a glorified back yard shop, but I can't say anything went wrong, the paint laid down really nice. What makes a paint job look cheap or bad, in my opinion, is an uneven surface, like with a little orange peel. The light reflects at all the uneven surface and it gives you that cheap look. Once you cut it (wet sand it) making it smooth as you can see in the picture I took of cutting, you get rid of all that nonsense. Then when you buff, you get that deep natural shine that only comes from an even and smooth surface. I always put on four good coats of clear sometimes five, I want enough on it to really cut.

Dave

 

You can paint it yourself but you need to know a few things before you start. You need a compressor with enough capacity to power the HVLP guns, many of them require 10-15 cfm at 40 psi. You will need a good fluid filter and pressure regulator, also a good respirator and goggles. You do not want to spray it slightly dry, that happens when you have too little fluid and/or your gun is too far from the work surface. You only want 2-3 coats of clear and you never touch the base color, no rubbing, sanding etc. If you get a run in the clear, they make a small razor tool to repair this. Wet sand the clear in steps all the way up to 3k to 4k grit before buffing, and for beginners it is best to use good foam buffing pads like 3M. They run cooler and will help prevent burning your finish. If your clear uses an epoxy hardener, you want to make sure is it dry before trying to buff but don't wait for days or it will be hard as a rock. There are some decent videos on Utube but the best bet is find an expert painter and pick his brain, I like to chat with a guy named Ryan Oreck of Oreck Designs, His cars have won national recognition.

 

amazing. it's kind of scary approaching this but it's a skill that would be quite handy later on. i do watch videos and read other forums on their techniques and it doesn't seem that bad. again, ill probably start on something small and towards the spring. winter is coming and i dont want to risk some hard work with potential bruises that the weather brings. in the mean time, i have a lot of learning to do.

 

That's the way I learned but I am lucky in that I have a friend who teaches auto painting at the local VoTech school and Ryan Korek whom I mentioned earlier is willing to share his know how with me. By the way, Eastwood has a nice paint gun called Concours, which while not a Sata, etc, is a nice gun for the price and only requires about 5-6 cfm at 40 psi and paints nicely at 29 psi. It's critical to have a compressor which can provide enough flow to the gun, if not, you get splatters and will never get a nice finish. Good luck.