so...mother came to town for some business and dropped by to visit. she's super anal, so along with other things, I decided to put my front plate back on (she notices small things like that)..

few days later, day she left, I took off my plates. and lo' and behold, while i had my plates on, SOMEONE, parked in front of me and probably kissed my bumper...as a result? I have a very nice imprint of my license plate holder on the front of my car now.

Do I need a new bumper or you think this will be fixable








and for bits and giggles, full aspec before the horrid event that has happened:



as you can see, it's not THAT visible a few feet away, but up close.....i cringe....that screw mark is SOOOO clear, i mean i can still see the plus sign

 

ah looks painful, but not too too bad

However, the car looks GREAT Aspec'd

 

not a pretty site.

 

new bumper, or put the plate back on to cover it up...then look for someones ass to kick...

 

I personally would probably put the front cover back on. I'd rather look at the ugly plate than the ugly screw dent! Of course, if you want to pay for the new bumper then...

 

so you guys dont think that the dent is repairable? looks like a complete front swap if i want to fix it?

 

That would be my choice too .... BTW, you work for the big O ? Just guessing from the parking lot ....

 

You're 21 and are worried about your mom getting mad about no front plate?

Anyway, I'd look into getting it fixed and sprayed. Won't be noticable and it'll be pretty cheap to boot. I got my cracked bumper fixed and the entire bumper sprayed for $200.

 

haha anyway to divert the fire man....she's not my real mother, more like an aunt and she has her own kids aka i'm kinda on the side, parent's died when i was young.

anyway, that's not important, so you think it's a patch up job right?

 

I'd say so. Mine was cracked right to the left of ACURA underneath. Maybe a couple inches long and maybe an inch was visible from the front. I think somebody at the exhaust shop, tint shop or garage where I got it inspected did it since it's been so cold. Pissed me off and I took it right in to the paint guy the day after I discovered it. Granted, I'm semi friends with the guy so he really took it easy on me and it just so happened two people who were supposed to drop their cars off that day were no shows, so he was pretty idle. He was able to scan and match the paint so that I can't tell it's been painted. Just make sure if you do get it done they use flex additive. As far as the product he used, I believe it's specially made for bumpers, and I don't know if it will hold up in those dimples or not. I'd take it in for an estimate to know for sure. He mentioned it'd be roughly a grand for a new bumper and I'm pretty anal but no way I was spending that much. Take it to a few places for opinions; I'm sure you'll find someone who will do it for 3-400.

 

Joe, how the hell do you drive around here with no front plate and not get pulled over?

I took mine off once, and put it back on three days later after the 2nd time i got pulled over

 

it is repairable and very easy...

that's what i am currently doing with my bumper, i hit a stop sign pretty bad and had a deep dent...

its just you have to sand it around those wholes, apply feeler to cover the wholes, let it dry for like 10 hours, and start sanding again to make it smooth, then apply primer and then just paint the whole bumper.... pretty simple, and no need in skills, just matter of time...

 

LOL paz, i have no idea; the first few weeks I had the plates off, I got pulled over like 2-4 times per week. Then it just kind of stopped.

Haven't gotten pulled over in a long time now in MO; (knock on wood)


btw I'm meeting up with Jay tomorrow to check out his ride, and i think i'm gonna do the install Thursday with his buddy, if you got time on Thursday you should give jay a call too

 

thanks for the info i'll have to look into this. only problem is anthracite is such a bitch to color match T.T

 

it is definatly fixable..but take it to a body shop dont do it yourself,its more than just a little bit of sanding here and there and filling it with body filler...and if it takes you 10 hours before you can sand it you are doing something despratly wrong..body filler that is properly done is ready to shape/sand within 10 minutes or so depending on the amount of hardener. just...take it to a pro shop...its def fixable. and the whole bumper dosent need to be painted so dont let them tell u it does,but it will need to be clearcoated entirely ...

 

ugh...freaking bastards; i saw some guy on the ave (uw district) hit some car about 4 times while backing out from a parallel spot and just LEAVE...he must have known that everyone was watching, including the owner of the other car...WTF freaking morons...

looks like something that could be pulled out via paintless dent removal???

 

Sorry to hear that, but by the way I want to take off the front license plate of my TL as well. Can u please teach me how to do this without damaging the paint or bumper. Thanx!

 

Where can I get the "ACURA" word paint?

 

im pretty sure people are just using stickers,but im not postive for everyone.

 

It shouldn't be too hard to fix they are probably going to put in a filler where the whole is, sand it down, and respray. It'll cost maybe $500, depends on where you go, I was quoted for $560 just to fix a scratch in the lower area of the front bumper. I haven't fixed the scratch yet, that was too much to pay, although the bulk of the cost was 3hrs of labor for removing and putting the front bumper back on.

3hrs x $75/hr = 225 (bumper removal and to put it on)
1hrs x $75/hr = 75 to paint the scratch
2hrs x $75/hr = 150 to clear coat whole front bumper

Subtotal = $450
Then add Tax 6%

You get the idea.

 

By the way what color is your Acura logo? It seems to match the grill a bit better than mine.

 

What's up guys. I have been gone from the forum for a while due to my gig in San Francisco. (almost done, just 1 more month)

I have been running without the front plate for about a year, and have never been pulled over, BUT, I live in west county. You know that the cops use it as an excuse to pull people over to check for other violations more often, the closer you are to the city.

(now that I have said this, Murphy is going to screw me and I will get pulled over the next time I am in town. LOL.)

BTW, where did you get the white Acura decal for the front bumper? I want one, it looks great on the Anthracite.

Cheers all.

(just realized I need to change my avatar pic as the Pathfinder has been replaced:-)

 

Terminex!! Matt!!! so good to hear from you, also good to hear that you'll be back in STL for longer durations in a month

anyway

Terminex, Eoanou, Sondinh you can get the decal from Domeddecals on Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/O4-07...spagenameZWDVW

and the color I got is Brushed Aluminum. it matches AM very well


Sondinh all you need to remove the plate is a flathead and a phillips screwdriver, you won't be scratching anything lol....just make sure you also have the caps that go over the holes where the screws are. Usually you can just pick em up at the dealer, if not they're like $10 or w/e. but dealers usually keep a bunch because they have to put the plates on the cars.


well, i guess i'll just have to find a few body shops to grab some quotes.

 

Bondo and touch-up paint

 

RonJon front bumper, lol.. jk, easy fix though, a little bondo and touch up, and you're good to go.

 

Where do you get 560? 6% of 450 is 27, so 477 would be the total. Besides, they don't need to remove the bumper to do this, so you should be able to get the whole thing done for 2-300. And 3 hours anyway to remove and install the bumper??? How incompetant is this shop? I think they're trying to gouge you!

 

About how long do these 3 DIMENSIONAL DOMED VINYL INSERTS last onto the front bumper? How hard is it to install? Do I need any other materials to install this vinyl insert? By the way I have an 04 NBP (Nighthawk Black Pearl) so what color of the vinyl inserts would stand out the best? Please give me some comments. Thank you!

 

^^my god, do you ever search?

 

Well I just had a similar front bumper run in with a driver. The front bumper is going for around 286 from Acura. It was about 137 for PPG paint. Do the math and add about 100 for someone to spray it. Might even make your aspec match your bumper if the color is slightly off.

Hope it all works out. PS AM FTW!

 

The domeddecals on ebay include the following colors: BRIGHT SILVER, BRUSHED ALUMINUM, BRIGHT GOLD AND BRIGHT BLACK. How do I check what the color looks like before ordering the domeddecal? What does bright gold looks like?