sbmiller24

Apparently while I was in town, some jerk decided to not pay attention to how he was driving and he hit my front bumper and left. Now, I do not know how this happened, but there IS and obvious scuff mark and the paint immediately peeled of the front bumper. Needless to say, I was sick to my stomach and immediately began searching for ways to fix this problem.
I quoted a few auto body paint repair shops here in Baton Rouge and the price ranged from $300-$600 dollars to repaint the bumper and blend it with the surrounding panels. The only problem is that I have vinyl racing stripes, so its not like they could just paint the only half of my bumper where the blemish is. Im guessing they would have to remove the stripes and reapply them after the painting was over.
I've also looked at NewTakeOff.com and they have a new front bumper for $200+ shipping. Then it would be $100 to get the new bumper re-striped and I could install it myself.

So, my questions are...
1. If I got the new bumper, do y'all think it would match the paint on the rest of the car?
2. Is $100 unreasonable to get just the front bumper re-striped?
3. What do y'all think the best solution is?

Any help will be greatly appreciated and I am working on attaching pictures!
Thanks, sbmiller24

rocket237

So the bumper was stressed and peeled the paint? I would get it painted, and as far as blending, the stripe and seams act as a natural blending agent. As long as the paint is close. Tothe untrained eye ( and even a few trained ones) they will will never know. I would just paint the section of the bumper, Ask the body shop for a reduced rate, and agree if it comes out ****ty, then doo the whole bumper, stripe it later.

Tanner05

I would just get a new bumper.
I put a New Take Off on my '05 V6 in '11 and the paint matches perfectly.
As for re-striping the bumper, that seems like a high price you could always try to do it yourself.

sbmiller24

@Rocket237
Thanks for the reply! So are you suggesting that the paint shop only paint the side of the bumper that the blemish was on? I am worried about the paint quality not being up to par, and then the clear coat or something coming off in the future like it has on my 96 Chevy Silverado.

@Tanner05
Thank you for your suggestion! I was leaning more towards that solution but was concerned about the paint not matching. Your experience has made me want to go the new bumper route even more. My car has never really been exposed to sunlight for prolonged periods of time, so hopefully it has not faded at all! Thank you!

tigercrazy718

hey man that really sucks. im in baton rouge too. where are you looking to get it repaired? i have a body shop guy that worked on my car after it got hit. i got a NTO bumper like you and the paint matched perfectly. let me know

sbmiller24

I called
-J&S Paint and Body Repair
-All Star Toyota
-Medine Collision

All were between 300-600 dollars, which was a bit more than I wanted to pay.
Who did you have in mind Tigercrazy718?

tigercrazy718

check out guillorys automotive. tell him that Ian referred you. guy does good work and is really fair price wise. but for you i would do the NTO bumper and have him do the stripes. i know he does painted stripes but im sure hes done vinyl stripes before

pascal

Looks like that bumper has already been painted and the prep sucked.
It shouldn't peel off like that if flex agent was ever used...

To save this bumper and do a good job you'll need to strip the paint and it's time consuming, thus costly.
If the $600 quote you got involved stripping, then it's not a bad quote.
But since the CS kit is about $400 or slightly less, it might not be a bad idea to go that route and get a new look to boot.

sbmiller24

@tigercrazy718
Thanks! I will definitely be looking into Guillory's Automotive. I know buying a whole new bumper for such a relatively small blemish sound extreme, but some parts on the rest of the bumper were also somewhat in bad shape. I guess the previous owner had also gotten in a fender bender and I didn't know about it? Oh well.

@pascal
Thanks for the info! I am not exactly sure what those quotes included being that I got them over the phone with out the collision repair people actually looking at the car. I've read a some of your old posts and you seem to be very wise in the automotive paint field.
As for the CS bumper, do you know if they sell them pre-painted? I would be most interested in that because of my fear of getting a bad paint job.

sbmiller24

Some other angles of the spot, and another blemish on the bumper...