This weekend some friends and I road tripped down to San Miguel for a friend's bday. I ended up mowing down an old barbed wire and wood fence after I hit some gravel going around a sharp turn. I was really lucky and didnt really get any damage, but my front plate was smashed and twisted, I got two nice brown marks where I hit the posts (and lots of paint scrapes and cracking around that), a broken bottom drivers side turn signal, a flat tire and a loose brake line. Luckily the hood, headlights and everything else was spared any damage, although I'm not sure if I dented the exhaust. I need to get my alignment fixed too, it tracks fine, but straight is about 1/4" off center to the left... I'm going down to the mechanic to get that checked out tomorrow.


So I pretty much need a new front bumper, and while I'm at it I want to touch up the paint (or replace if its cheaper) the hood where theres rock chips. Does anyone know of a good bodyshop somewhere in the south bay? I dont want to spend the money in some crappy shop and have the paint not match or the parts not fit right, but I dont have an unlimited budget either :/


Some before pics (I'll get some after shots tomorrow)

<-- by Paul Ritchie

 

Sonny Van Auto Body

365 Phelan Ave
San Jose, CA 95112
(408) 998-9762


its a real small place. Its owned by some vietnamese dude and his sons work there. The place seems kinda run-down, but he does good work for a good price. I had them do my rear lip.

he also did a full 03 front end conversion on my friends 99 TL. looks flawless to me

 

Hmmm I might have to check them out.


BTW I did leave the guy a note (two actually), we were outside the house for like 20 minutes calling but he wasnt there. Its in the middle of nowhere and from what I hear its been hit a bunch of times.

 

Does anyone know where I can buy an OEM Primrose bumper cover? The bumper supports arent damaged at all, its just cosmetic.

BTW if I bought a bumper cover, would the guys at the shop install it or would I have to buy it from them?

 

you could just have the shop install it.

 

Sorry about the double post, I forgot about the 5 minute edit thing





I got off pretty easy considering how hard I hit that thing...

 

Well I took it down to the mechanic and had them take a look at the steering, luckily nothing was loose or broken. It just needs an alignment and the steering will be done. The bumper shouldnt be a big problem, my friend knows a professional bodyman who lives down the street from him and I've seen his work (OEM quality). A little bondo and a respray and it'll be as good as new.


The one thing that I have to fix is the tranny, when it was up on the lift the mechanic let me poke around under the car while he was getting the recipt ready. Everything looked great except there was a little hole in the front part of the bellhousing... Its very small, about the size of two pencil erasers which was probably opened with a rock or something. So tomorrow I'm dropping the tranny to check for any debris/damage and extra wear to the clutch and flywheel. It doesnt make any horrible noises, but I'm going to check it out and clean it up since I'm sure a bunch of dust got in there, then I'll just knock the little flap out and JB weld it closed. I have a lot of mechanical exp and my friend has worked as a Honda mechanic for a while so it should be a relatively painless job (I hope).

Hopefully all these repairs wont cost too much or my wheels/tires/springs may have to go on hold.

 

would it be better to touch up paint or just repaint the car?

 

youre comparing a $5 bottle of temporary touch up paint to a 2k+ paint job. Different situations call for different things. As for the OP, it seems like he CAN use touch up paint, but for a temp solution, looks like he'll need to repaint soon.

 

i do have quite a bit of dings and then this big scratch on my door from going to this concert a while back.

 

how deep are they? if its minor then touch up paint should be fine for now. If your scratches are like ones posted about though, you'll prolly want to get it repainted soon

 

im gonna need to get sum pics up too see better but it looks like a rock scraped across for about 4 inches that would be the worst one then minor ones

 

I have this scratch from when my window was busted out and glass rained down the side of the car. It doesn't seem that deep,its not to the metal, but it's white. Is that just marred clearcoat and can be buffed or is that through the paint to the primer?

 

Holy threadjack batman...

Dude, that front bumper is totally repairable by a good bodyman. Trust me, mine was wanged out on my 240sx and on my CL. Both repaired by me. Can't tell I did any repair at all. The one on my 240 I actually cut a piece out of another bumper and grafted it in.

Evan

 

 

Sounds like clearcoat, but depends how deep it is. You can try wetsanding using something like a Langka Complete Wet Sand 2000 Kit (mentioning this in particular because I've gotten good results with this myself and in fact just ordered a 2nd kit yesterday). However, if your fingernail gets caught in the scratch, that usually means that its down to the paint and is too deep to fix.

However, with wetsanding, you can go too deep and have no clearcoat left...so use at your own risk.

 

hahahaha that looks exactly like my bumper. i brushed up against an embankment drifting and broke my blinker in the exact same spot and got backed in to 3 times. so i kinda need a primrose bumper cover too. anyone know where i can get one pre-painted?

 

I know this is an old post, but this place is good for anyone else looking:

Automotive Enterprise
191 Industrial Rd
San Carlos, CA 94070
(650) 592-7000

They actually specialize in restoring vettes.

 

hey wussup guys n e of u kno a website that i can find a nice 97 cl grill

 

i have one but its blacked out completly

 

http://www.acuraoemparts.com has them, but they're pretty expensive because they're brand new. If you're lucky, you can pull one from a junkyard or look on eBay. I picked up a slightly damaged one on eBay, but it didn't matter because I sanded it down completely and painted it. $30 plus some paint, and I have a great looking grille.

 

wtf joey! why is your car 4x4 status?

 

what u guys think about these scratches body shop touch up?

 

ahahah nice av spec!!!!

 

Holy crap I thought he totalled the TSX