I had the same stuff happen with my S...I was told that it was never in any accidents. When I took of the license plate mount a month or two later I saw two indentions. I took it to a body shop and told that it was repainted and that it was going to start flaking off.

I was quoted (for a sanding and repaint) approx. $600 for using my front bumpter. Or $8-900 for a new front bumber painted and installed.

Instead, I just bought RyanITV's front end from his 2003 and am going to have that installed.... saving a good $300....

 

Yeah, I bought mine in chicago in midwinter, so it was covered in road grime and I couldn't see the deterioration on the front end.

I just posted an ad in the centex forum that I'm interested in a berlina front end if anyone sees one. Why did they quote you $600 to repaint your front bumper? That seems really high to me! Others have quoted about $200-400 in this thread.

 

$800-900 for a new bumper is reasonable, but $600 using your current one is a complete rip-off. My rear was scratched all to hell and bent the underlying metal when some woman decided to let her Park Avenue contiue moving when I stopped...it cost me $150 even to straighten the metal, sand out the scratches, and perfectly match the paint. It's a year and a half later and you can't tell the bumper has ever been touched.