Like the title says, I bumped into another care, fairly low speed (less than 5 mph, just wasn't paying attention in a stop & go situation, completely my fault) but now the paint along my bumper has tiny, thin cracks along a good portion of it. I'm wondering how much this might cost me to fix. Any chance I could have someone buff it out for me, or am I going to have to replace the bumper and have it repainted?

 

Hard to give opinions with no pics. Pics?

 

Can't have pics until tomorrow, too dark right now and the flash on my camera is crap. I was just looking for a best/worst case scenario, I'll update with pics by tomorrow night though if I can.

 

yeah that happened to me, some lady backed into the front of my car, caused a bunch of spider web cracks in the paint, your going to have to strip it down and repaint it for it to be fixed though, nothing simple that can fix it.

 

About how much do you think that might cost?

 

well an earl scheib or maaco could do it for about 200-300.

 

The front cover pays 2.4 hours for paint time. Without pics, it is hard to say what repair time is needed, but it will be over 2 hours, I am sure. Plus, misc R&I time.
$50/hr is about average in my area, plus you have to add paint & materials @ 50% of what the hourly refinish rate is.

My minimum guess is $450. Unless they start adding in blend time.

 

~$400-500 range for a front bumper strip/refinish is what I have paid in the past.

The front ends of our cars take such a beating, I wouldn't worry about it unless you have a garage queen or it starts peeling.

Sucks getting a $500 paintjob done and having rock chips and bug chips 2 days later.

 

Um, You should do some of the prep work yourself to save you coin. Borrow a DA from someone and knock down all teh paint on the areas with spider webbing, dont stay in one place too long, and sand till you cant see the cracks anymore. then take it in and have a shop prep prime and paint.

 

be careful if you decide to do it yourself and use a da sander, i would recommend you do it by wet sanding it by hand with 400 then 600 grit sand paper. if its you first time using a da, it will probably look like a lake when its painted. if you decide to use a da, keep the da as flat on the surface as you can and "feather" the bad spots. just because it feels smooth dosent mean it is, make sure the layers of paint blend smoothly. i guess the best way i can explain it is to pretend your looking a map with contour lines of some hills and mountains, you want the edges of the layers of paint to look like small hills, and not cliffs. hope that helps.. lol. once you get it sanded, you have to prime and paint it. Honestly, painting isnt that hard, you could prabably do it your self and spend less than $100. But thats a whole different ball game. youll need a paint gun, air compressor with a filter, masking tape and alot of newspaper. If you can find someone that will let you use their da, they may have a paint gun as well. You may even beable to talk them into spraying it for you if you prep it and mask it all off. Good luck man!

 

if you don't really know how to repair it yourself, please take it to a professional shop.
I hate to see nice cars ruined by shotty work. If you do it yourself and mess it up most shops will charge more just to fix what you messed up. We also prefer to do our own prepwork. This is the only way we can guarantee the work done.

 

I have sent people away in the past, for doing their own prep work.