My valet garage really got my car good.. a nice large vertical scratch on the front bumper.. very unsightly. I used a lot of touch-up paint so it looks a little better, but really, it just looks awful.

I got a quote to repair the bumper that came in around $550, which means that my insurance would cover about $50 of the work, leaving me with a nice $500 bill to have this thing fixed. I did ask the body shop guy if I could just get a brand new front bumper and replace the old one, but he said the colors would not match up perfectly, and they would have to "blend" it with the hood and surrounding panels. He said repairing the existing bumper would be much cheaper.

So has anyone actually replaced bumpers or other panels and noticed a big difference in the paint color? Is this body shop guy taking me for a ride?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: grammar.

 

A new bumper will have a different concentration of metallic and may look "off" from the surrounding body parts, hence why they would need to "blend" the paint on the hood and fender areas. I can't comment on the price since I haven't had the work done before but there is a risk of it not looking right with just a new bumper.

 

why are you paying for a mistake that your valet garage is responsible for?

 

That's a long story that involved about 3 weeks of my time, lots of finger pointing, language barriers, insurance calls, calls to the valet managers, calls to the valet company, arguments and hand flailing.

It got to the point where I gave up.

Ok, anyhow, what do you suppose the largest difference between colors would be? Would it be like, people would be pointing and laughing from 50 feet away? Or would I actually have to point out that I have a new bumper before someone would notice?

And I guess the tradeoff is would a new bumper that has a potential to look a bit off (and "a bit" seems relative) cost less and look better than a repaired existing bumper? Anyone do any bumper work recently?

Thanks.

 

If you're going with a new bumper, go for an AP2. Order the bumper yourself from Joe at Ganley Honda (PM SanMarinoCpe) and find a very competent paint shop nearby to get it sprayed. My guess is that you will come in slightly below that price, and even if there is a SLIGHT mismatch, you'll at least have a nice new bumper to make up for it.

 

Thanks for the info, MikeyCB. I'll shoot him a PM.