All:

I posted a few weeks ago that my less-than-five month old TL got rear-ended while at a stop light. The hit was about 5Mph, but the bumper of the other vehicle was low enough to pull the bumper down and off it's mounts. Several mounting brackets were bent or cracked as was the bumper.

All I needed was a new bumper and to have several bent/cracked mounting brackets replaced (there was no damage to the vehicle's sheet metal). So getting it fixed should be easy right? WRONG!

Welcome to the insurance "system". After calling several body shops, I took my vehicle in to Acura of Boston because they have a body shop and use factory paint - I want my TL repaired correctly by guys that repair Acuras for a living - not by "Bob's auto body". When I get there, I'm told that the bumper will be replaced as will the mounting brackets that were bent or cracked (Great!). Then they explain to me that the OEM replacement bumper comes un-painted and will need to be primed/painted (Fine - I knew that). Then the body shop guy tells me the bumper will be "blended" with the quarter pannels......

The other body shops that I contacted mentioned this "blending" to me as well, so I asked what was meant by this. His explanation: basically, the body shop not only paints the bumper, but they also paint the rear quarter pannels to match the paint. The guy points out to me that they would be painting/blending the entire rear quarter pannels - which includes that part that extends over both doors. Then they would clear-coat the repainted quarter pannels. So in my best "you're fucking kidding me" voice, I tell him there is no god damn way they are painting 1/3 of my new car to fix the cracked rear bumper.

After a lot of hassle, he agreed to not paint anything but the new bumper. I actually had to sign a waiver that the rear bumper might not match the body paint if they don't blend it with the rest of the car.

Here is what I gathered from my discussion with the Body shop guy (and why the system sucks). Basically, they should only paint the bumper (he told me if it was his car, that is how he would want it done). However, with plastic bumpers, they are very hard to match correctly. When they only paint the bumper, the customer complains and the insurance company won't pay until it matches. So the way they do it now (to get their money and avoid the hassle in the first place) is to force the bumper to match for all bumper replacements - by repainting almost 1/3 of the car. They essentially extend the mis-matched paint to the rest of the car until it blends.

To me this is absolutely crazy. It's why I hate stupid plastic bumpers like the ones on our TL and it's why I hate our insurance system.

To make things worse, even though I dropped my TL off a week ago, it's not ready. Why? Because they found 2 additional mounting brackets that were cracked and were not on the insurance adjuster's list of parts that would be paid for. So they had to contact my insurance adjuster for permission to use/charge for the parts. The adjuster took 2 days to get back to the auto body shop with the approval (he had the wrong call-back number).

Give me the brackets and a new painted bumper and I could have fixed this in under an hour.

Once I get back my TL, I'll let you know how this "simple" bumper replacement went. I'm not optomistic that my new TL will back to the shape it was in prior to the rear-bumper damage.

 

I would've gotten it blended. Your car...good luck with it.

 

Same thing happened to my non-TL car about a month ago. I backed into a friend's car in my driveway and needed to get a new bumper and tailight. Took it to the local body shop and they tried a couple of aftermarket bumpers which didn't fit and finally got the OK from my insurance company to get an OEM bumper.

The bumper had to be primed and painted and they did an EXCELLENT job of matching the color without having to repaint anything else on the car. Pretty sure my bumper is also plastic, so not sure what your body shop is saying about the inability to match the color.

I'm also in Mass, BTW..

Regards

 

Some jackass scuffed my front bumper and I took it to the Acura dealer's body shop to have it replaced. The bumper came in unpainted in a week and they painted it using the paint code from the car.

I took it in on a Mon and got it back the next afternoon. They just replaced my bumper with the new painted one...no blending bullshit needed.

Before I took delivery I parked my car in direct sulight and even shone a strong flash light at all angles to see if I could even detect a defect or deficiency in the color matching...I could not find anything wrong.

Our accessories come from the factory pre-painted so paint matching should not be an issue with today's high tech color matching systems. There are no "blending" issues there.

Hope this helps.

Z

 

On Halloween, I was stopped at a stoplight and was rear-ended too by some clown (literally). Not much damage, just a couple of scrapes. My body shop just removed the bumper, repaired and painted it. They did a great job, the color matched perfectly and it was a good as new. Then the day before Thanksgiving I had to go to the grocery store (stupid me). I was in-n-out in 10 minutes and as I approached my car, my eyes were focused on my bumper since it was so bright and sparklely. You guessed it, to my horror I see long gash in my bumper, in the same exact spot. It's back in the body shop again, ouch.

 

tell me about it... I got rear bumper replaced at my cost and the matching sucks.

 

Chief:

That's one of the main reasons why I didn't want them to blend. The piece of crap bumper that comes with the TL is only going to get whacked again and again. I don't need the rest of my car to be painted and messed with every time my bumper needs to be repaired.

We were on the Acura lot when I was discussing "blending" with the body shop guy. I showed him 4-5 brand new TLs - all different colors. It was easy to see the difference between the bumper paint color and the body paint color - especially on the white and the silver models.

I'm betting they can match the paint at least as closely as they come from the factory - which ain't all that close.

 

Where did you go to get the repair done in Mass?

 

You get what you pay for...shoulda rubbed some garam masala on it

 

I'm thinking of taking my car back... since the front bumper was replaced under warranty, they did shitty job on that too but they did match the color on front bumper.

 

I would...make them do it right. Today's paint code mixing systems really take away alot of guess work.

Good luck to you.

 

lumpydog, the matching problem can depend on the color of the car. Some colors are easy to match (black of course), while others aren't. My friend works at a body shop and showed me one day how they mix the paint. Every color needs like a minimum of 3 different colors to be created, some can use up to 6 or 7. They have this computer with a scale, where they pour each color into the mixing can according to the computer's readout but it is not uncommon to put a wee bit more of one color vs. the other and this is where the problem arrives. Plus, you have to factor the discoloration that your vehicle has suffered from exposure to the environment. I can understand your frustration, but I also understand that it is not easy what the body shop painters do.

 

A place called American Autobody & Repair. They claim to do some color matching magic, which is largely the reason I went with them, additionally, they're like 10 mins from my house.

Regards

 

What I want to know is:

Why can't Honda sell pre-painted bumpers? It isn't like the bumpers are painted with the rest of the car, as we all know....

They sell pre-painted door handles and XM antennas, why not bumpers?

 

Blending is the proper, professional way to do paint repairs. However, I don't quite understand it with the bumper. Bumper paint should have flex additives added, so the paint doesn't crack when the bumper flexes. This and maybe other differences in the paint on the bumper is a big reason why Acura, as well as others, have such difficulty matching the bumper color.

So if a body shop blends the bumper paint into the metal body, they are spraying the paint with flex additive onto the metal. Maybe this is a problem, or maybe it isn't, I don't know. Or, they may not be using flex additive, which would be bad.

In any case, a good shop can probably do a good job of matching the bumper paint without blending, as good as Acura did in any case. But don't be shocked if it isn't perfect, and looks worse/better in some lighting conditions.

For repairs to a metal panel, you DO want the paint blended if you care about the car's appearance, even for "easy to match" colors. Even black and white have to be mixed. Many blacks have metallic these days, and there are lots of variations of white. Even non-metallic black has variations of gray/blue. or other colors in it. Blending and proper matching is one reason why some shops can be really cheap while others can cost 5 times as much. Among other reasons are the prep work that goes into the job, the actual quality of the paint used (surprisingly expensive, not like house paint), experience of their workers, etc.

Also, I don't think there is necessarily such a thing as "Acura paint" outside of the factory. The Acura shop will buy their paint supplies at a local paint/body shop, like everyone else, not order it from Acura. (I don't think there's a part number for paint in quantities greater than tubes of touch up paint. And Acura probably even sources that from a touch up paint company.) Acura itself buys the paint from somewhere (e.g., PPG), and they don't make it themselves. An Acura dealer won't necessarily be able to fix or paint an Acura any better than another shop, especially for something as simple as a bumper replacment. Usually, the best shops are some of the independent ones. I'm sure there are exceptions.

 

Economics and logistics.

It keeps the inventory down if you only have to stock a limited number of bumpers to meet the anticipated demand. If you had to stock bumpers in each color, that would increase your inventory and storage costs.

Bumpers are larger than door handles and XM antennas, and cost a lot more to paint. There is also a greater potential for damage to a bumper and the necessity to package it to prevent that damage, which again increases costs.

 

I had my rear bumper replaced about 3 months ago from some lady rear ending me. Paint was a bit off but not too bad.

I went to go pick up some Chinese Food last Sunday, as I am walking back to my car I am like.....DAMN why is the paint on my rear bumper sooo off. Then I got Closer and I am like SHIT! Paint looked so off cause the bumper was bent, some ass hit my TL and drove off. Bumper came off its mounts on the left and cracked the bumper as well. Back in the Body shop again for another new bumper...lets hope they match the paint this time.

Figure I Add my new 2nd new bumper story to everyone else. LoL

 

Oh your probably thinking why would I take it back to the same place.

I had my front bumper repainted under Warranty. Front Bumper Matched PERFECTLY. This place does all of Acura Body Work and I recieved Great Service.
I figure it can happend anywhere and I think It depends on the painter. Correct me If I am wrong.

 

So a few weeks ago I posted about what a PITA it was to get my rear bumper replaced after I was lightly rear ended at a stop light.

It took the body shop (Acura of Boston) almost two weeks to fix the bumper. They claimed that, after they removed the bumper, there were other mounting brackets that needed to be replaced – and there was some body work that needed to be done (I sincerely doubted that there was any body work necessary based on the speed of the accident). They had to wait for my insurance company to approve the additional costs – it took 3 days to get the approvals. Sweet.

A snow storm stopped me from picking up my TL on a Friday – so the service manager asked me if he could fax me the papers so I could sign them… “That way you can pick up the car over the weekend.” Signing the papers means I approve the repairs and they get paid by the insurance company. My response was something to the effect of “do you think I was born yesterday? I’ll sign the papers after I verify the work was done correctly.” It pissed me off that he even tried to get me to sign off on the repairs sight unseen.

On Monday I go to pick’er up and I was pumped to see that the paint matched beautifully! However, I knelt down and immediately saw that 3 of the bumper fastening clips were missing. The service manager went inside and came out with 3 clips and installed them (he pointed out that 2 of the clips were used but that was all he had – fine no big deal). While he’s inside, I check out the mud flaps – one is really loose. I immediately saw that they had mounted the mud flap mounting bracket upside down (I made the same mistake at first when I originally installed them). This kind of ticked me off, but I figured I’d fix it myself rather than stick around and watch the service guy screw around with it.

This past weekend I fixed the mud flap and then took a really close look underneath the bumper at their work (using a flash light). I found that the new plastic bumper absorber (a part that mounts to the frame, inside the rear bumper – used to cushion a collision) was not fastened properly. Apparently the guys at Acura of Boston can paint, but their re-assembly skills suck ass. The only way to fix this is to take off the rear bumper – which I do (a pretty simple task – I followed the excellent instructions posted on this forum). I remounted the bumper absorber correctly and took a closer look at the rest of Acura of Boston’s fine work. I was pissed to find that the two mounting brackets that were supposed to be replaced were not replaced (after the accident I had pulled back the bumper and pointed both damaged brackets out to the adjuster – who listed them for replacement – I had also pointed them out to the service manager). The metal bracket below the tail light was simply bent back and the plastic bracket was still cracked. Prior to dropping off my TL, I had marked both brackets with a screw driver so I could tell if they were actually replaced. Sure enough both of my marks were still there - they had not replaced any brackets at all - including the “additional brackets” that they found after removing the bumper. Additionally, (surprise, surprise) contrary to Acura of Boston's claim, there was no sign of ANY body work being completed..

Beyond the fact that I had to take apart my bumper and finish the job correctly (everything is assembled properly now – my TL looks fantastic), it ticks me off that these fuckers think that they can get away with this shit. By my count they overcharged my insurance company $200+ dollars for parts and work that clearly never happened. They basically just replaced the bumper and the absorber (and did a half-ass job at reassembling it).

Should I even bother calling my insurance company to let them know how badly they were taken? If you need your TL repaired, stay away from Acura of Boston – they’re just taking the system (and you) for a ride.

 

As promised - you can read about the results of the repair work here: https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...15#post1352115

 

so wait....they never repainted the bumper? they never even touched the car?

 

Hmm not sure how you reached that conclusion - but to be clear, they replaced the bumper with a new one and did a fine job painting/matching it. They did not:
- Reassemble things correctly
- Replace parts that were damaged and supposed to be replaced (but still charged for the replacment parts)
- Complete the body work that they said they did (but still charged for it)

 

Yes...absolutely! Take it right over to your insurance company and watch how fast you start getting your ass kissed by the dealership! Insurance Companies dont take real well to fraud, which clearly is what happened in your case. They just called and got a sight unseen approval for typical rear end damage parts and then got paid for them after not even doing the work. They will friggin be all over that thing man! Take it right over to the adjuster or have your agent lead you in the right direction. This is typical for a lot of unscrupulous dealers and a LOT of what causes ALL our rates to be higher than they need to be. They had to line some dealers pocket.

 

Dude, please, read the posts. He clearly said that they can repaint but not re-assemble.


Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

 

reminds me of when i hit a tire in the road with my g35...the body shop charged my insurance company for 40 hrs of labor to strighten my frame...they only had my car for 2-3 days..so unless they slept in my car, i don't see how they could do 40 hrs of labor on something that barely dented my bumper..i told my insurance company that they were getting scammed, but nothing came of it..don't ever trust ramsey infiniti

 

The bumpers on my Silver TL never quite matched from day 1. They've both been repainted and still don't. The rear is more noticable than the front because of the way its situated on the car. I've noticed the bumper mis-match on most colours for the TL. So if they "blend" the quarter panels, they are either going to potentially mis-match the quarter panels from the rest of the car, or simply repaint for no reason. Since they bumpers don't quite match from the factory, I'd simply repaint them so at least it looks original, knowing they'll be mis-matched.

 

40 hours to straighten the frame? Probably 4.0 hours. Unless the car was a complete pretzel 40 hours does not sound correct. You're talking about $4000 just in frame work, in my area anyway.

Insurance companies and shops work off the book rates. If the book says it takes a certain amount of time to fix something that's what they pay. If the shop does it in less time, they don't refund the difference. Not that I've ever heard of. Any if a part is reusable they will reuse it, regardless of the fact that the insurance company paid them for a new part. I agree it sucks and is not really honest. I don't think it constitutes insurance fraud.. To be sure you get what you/your insurance pays for ask for all of the old parts back and check them against the itemized estimate and invoice.

I'd consider myself lucky that the paint matches so well. I'd gladly trade with you. My car was bumped in a parking lot (hit/run) a few months ago. They replaced the rear bumper cover and repainted the bumper and trunk. The match isn't perfect an it pisses me off every time I see it. It's close, probably about the same as the factory paint job on the bumpers (which never seem to match the rest of the car). But not the trunk matches the bumper, no the rest of the car.

 

I merged your threads, no reason to have 2. Thanks.

 

However, lumpydog stated: "The metal bracket below the tail light was simply bent back and the plastic bracket was still cracked."

It is insurance fraud since the insurance company list the parts for replacement and they paid for the parts to be replaced. They were not replaced.

Obliviously the Boston Acura dealership is taking shortcuts in order to pocket more money. How did Boston Acura overlook one of the plastic brackets is still cracked and is on the list of parts to be replaced? (Rhetorical question.)

I would show the issues to the insurance adjuster and talk to my insurance representative. You might ask the insurance adjuster "off the record" who they would recommend.

The last time I ask for a recommendation for a repair shop from my insurance, they said that they do not make recommendations for auto repairs. So I had to find a body shop via word-of-mouth.

 

I had someone leave a few small divots in my rear bumper, at the "knees" where oit transitions from the back to the side? I just sanded, Bondoed, sanded smooth, primed, and shot it with a little kit you can get from any good paint store (consists of well-matched paint, a glas bottle and a small pressurized can to propel), and the results looked pretty good to me. I then wet sanded, and polished it out with coarse, medium, fine, then wax coat. Not perfect, but this is my driver, and as many have said, it will no don't have its virgnity taken yet again.

I would not blend - with today's paints and technology, matching should be easy for competent body man - just make sure you do not lowball them, then expect the Moon.

 

I had a red 1995 Integra hatchback before my TL, and the front and rear bumpers were more faded than the rest of the body. I was told this is common when dealing with sheetmetal versus fiberglass. I bought the car used, and would imagine that a proper regimen of Zaino or other wax would have helped keep them closer by protecting the paint better.

I also got rear-ended in my 04 ABP TL (low speed in a U-turn lane) and had my bumper replaced. They suggested they could order the OEM bumper, paint it, and have it replaced on my car in about an hour. No discussion of blending, etc.

However, I did have some suprise damage to my rear passenger quarter panel that needed repair, so went ahead and had them do that as well, got discount since I was doing the bumper.

The rest of my family is accident prone and they go to this guy because of the quality of his paint work. He does not go cheap on the paint products, and he does not cut corners on the multi-stage process. As a result, my bumper is a perfect match.

However, they did tell me that when they repainted the rear quarter-panel, they did paint the rear passenger door as well for "blending." I was upset, but it wasn't like there was anything I could do about it. I'll know better to ask next time. And I wasn't charged any extra for it. And yes, it matches perfectly with the lower sills and the front passenger door. My guess - the accidentally got some paint on the door and thus had to repain the whole thing.

To summarize - rear bumper should be easy to replace, just find a good paint shop. Anyone that tries to blend is probably trying to squeeze more money out of the job or accommodate their sub-par painting skills or products.

 

Any good paint shop will ALWAYS blend the paint. Otherwise you will see a difference between the new paint and the adjacent panel. Most auto paints now are two or more stage. The colour basecoat gets put on first and then the clearcoat is laid over top. When painters say "blend" they are usually referring only to the basecoat. Basecoat must be blended around a repair to achieve an invisible colour match. Blending basecoat requires about one to two feet beyond the repaired area, and colour is applied in successive coats, each coat extending farther away from the the actual repaired area. Near the edges of the blend, there is almost no colour added, but over the repaired area the colour is applied thick enough to completely hide. This process takes a lot of room, but when done properly you will never see a coulour mismatch, even though the new paint NEVER matches the colour or metalflake orientation of the original finish exactly. Once the colour is blended, the clearcoat is applied out to the edge of the farthest panel receiving even a little bit of new colour. Clearcoat is usually not blended. Blending is needed since new paint rarely matches old paint perfectly.

Bumper covers are often blended this same way, within the cover itself...i.e., a small colour touchup to a small area of the cover, then clearcoat over the whole cover. If the entire cover need colour (as when the cover is replaced) many painters will do just the cover itself, and not blend into adjacent panels. This practice is normally acceptable since the paint can usually be mixed to get a very close match, so that any variation between the cover and the surrounding areas will be minimal. Bumper covers on new cars often are far from a perfect match anyway. Most people will tolerate a slight mismatch between the bumper covers and the rest of the body. Those who can't accept this need to ask for blending on the body.