Hey, I scratched my front bumper so I took it to the body shop. The scratches were from rubbing up against another car. There were no gouges, just paint scratches. I took it to the body shop and they gave me an estimate of $450.00 to paint the front bumper.

When I picked up the car, they had only painted the area where the scratches were. The estimate stated 2.5 hours to "paint front bumper."

Does anyone find this a little shady? I think they should paint the complete bumper, at least to color match. I think $450 should include painting the complete bumper. I told they owner and he said he would paint it for free but he didn't charge me for it and he should have explained it better.. I don't think so.

Wouldn't you think that for $450, and for the sake of color matching, they should have painted the whole bumper? I know it wasn't painted because all of the small rock scratches and other divots were still there.

He is going to paint the bumper for free, but does it seem like he was trying to scam me? I have been to this guy a few times before. I would expect the bumper to be completely painted for this price, do you agree?

 

Agreed.

 

If the estimate clearly states painting the front bumper, then I agree with you. How ever if estimate only indicates to repair the damaged area, then I agree with him.

At any rate you are getting the bumper so he is in essence admitting he is wrong.

Good luck

 

yea you kinda got bamboozled there... but i still think you got ripped off.. I know you pay for the quality but 450 is quite a bit on the higher end of a job that could be done for maybe 300-350.... I have been quoted by some of the better known bodyshops here in dallas with 350 which is quite reasonable.

 

I had a guy rear-end me in my '08 TSX. New bumper cover and paint was $475 - and this was at an Acura facility.

 

If you can see where the painting was done, and it doesn't blend into the other paint...I wouldn't pay him at all, and I'd take it elsewhere.

 

You can't really just re-paint a plastic bumper. This is why simple scratches (and/or "rubs") are difficult to fix.

$450 to "airbrush" the bumper is a rip-off. Should have been $125 including labor, with the caveat that you can still see some damage...

 

I am not saying he didn't do an ok job painting the damage, because he coverered all of the damage. My issue is.. I was expecting the whole bumber to be fresh and clean of any chips and stuff, and when I looked around the left and right sides, I could see small paint chips, which are from normal driving. Which is cool except when you pay someone 450 to paint the bumber. I can understand if I paid 200 for an air brush but they definitely only painted the affected area, and that is quite a lot to pay. I charged it, so if I wanted I could dispute the charge with the charge company, but I am just going to take it back and he said he will paint the WHOLE bumper... I thought it was a little costly but I have been to this guy before and he always did reasonable work...

 

I did a repair on several scratches on my bumper in the past and if you have the patience and the interest to do your homework, it's not that difficult to do. The most important thing is you have a matching paint and the polishing tool and pads. But my paint job was pretty decent. I used a spray can, sand papers, rubbing compound, putty to patch any deep area, and an random orbital machine to do the final polish. Cost me probably around $50.00 and some elbow grease, and a lot of trial and error.

 

Ok, here's my two cents.

If the touch up looks good I'd rather have that than I would a total repaint as the panels sometimes don't match at the lines where the panels meet.....

But $450 does seem a little steep for just touching up a spot.