Another Paint estimate question

[23109VC]

I saw another guy post a paint estimate question, and I have a similar question / issue.

My car is going into the body shop for a small fender repair. a woman backed into me. my left front fender is pretty dented/smashed in. the bumper cover has some small superficial damage near where the corner lamp/lens is...they may or may not replace mmy bumper cover...

while my car is in the shop, I had though of having them do some "extra" work to make the car come out looking better than when it went in. I had though of doing a GT3 bumper conversion, but I expect it may cost more than I want to spend for that..we'll see... that's another issue.

the things I WOULD like to get done are the following:

1) paint the rollbar. either silver to match the shifter/door pulls OR do it in ocean blue to match the exterior of the car.

2) repaint one side mirror - it has preexisting damage/scrapes from the former owner..it would be a small job, but they woudl likelyneed to paint the whole thing

3) all 4 wheels have road rash/ scrapes. i had though about having them repaint the wheels to get htem looking new again

4) I thought about buying the rear diffusers..to make my cars rear end look more like the 03-04 boxsters. i've seeen them installed on older 986s and they look good. I would buy the parts off ebay, then pay the shop to install and paint.

4) the car has lots of small scratches and marks that normal wash/wax/claybar did not remove. I was told I coudl probably get a lot of them out it the car was wet sanded or polished with compound..I assume a professsional body shop has in house detail guys who ccould go over the entire exterior - after the car has been painted, and get the sides/rear/other parts of the car sumper smooth and glossy - to make it look as good as possible on the existing 10 year old paint... the car has NEVER been hard core detailed except by me..the former owner my dad washed it, but rarely waxedi t, but did keep it indoors..I've owned it the last year and have done several waxes and one full clay bar job...but the paint is surely oxidized and would benefit from some kind of professional "deep" polishing... IF that would actually hlep and remove a lot of the small fine scratches and get a deeper gloss back...

my question is what will I expect to pay for the above "extra" jobs. i will likely NOT do all of thema s the combination of these would easily be m ore than I want to spend, but if I can get any of these items at reasonable prices, I might do one or two of them.

My insurance will be paying for the fender, and possibly a new bumper cover if the job warrants it. it's possible it won't even need a bumper cover.

***IF the car does NOT neeed a new bumper cover - iw oudl really really like them to respray the front end bumper cover and hood area to totally take away the rockchips... assumiong I do NOT get a bumper cover repalcement, I"m going to have to pay out of my own pocket for the respray of the front end...minus the area they spray on the left fender....

what is THAT going to cost me? part of me hpes my bumper cover is repaced as they will have to respray more of the front end on the nisurance companies dime, but I have no idea what the criterai is for whether a bumper cover needs to be repalced. if it is damaged, it looks mostly like small cracks where it meets the fender, but I don't see any blatant damage from teh outside..the fender took most of the damage...

any input fromm you gys would be great.

if I get NO bumper cover out of the insuranc,e my number one priority would be to get the front end repsprayed... not sure how much that woudl cvosdt.

the body shop I will take it to has an impeccable reputation. they only work on imports, and do AMAZING work. they routinely have lambos/ferraris/etc in their shop. my mom had her old volvo damaged and took it in and they flat out told her they only work on $$$ cars and wouldn'tw ork on it...depsite it being an import. they refuse work on American cars. they are good...so whatever they do will be done right..that I know from past experience on other cars.

i coudl also find some bargain place that would wheel and deal with me..but i'm afraid teh work woudl suck, and it woudl look like crap... so I expect the prices I will pay will be for real quality body work, not ghetto body shop prices..

any ideas on prices I should expect to pay? ways to convince them to do more work for less money? any suggestions? thanks!

[23109VC]

another question!!

the front of my car has always looked like it since I have owned it. these lower vents are white/grayish.... but I believe they may have been black when the car was new and have simply worn the paint off and become the current color... ?





my car is about to go into the body shop, and *IF* I am correct, and these things are supposed to be black, it would be the ideal time to have them either repainted and/or replaced iwth new black ones.

I googled for photos of early model boxsters, but many of the photos are CURRENT photos of OLD cars and they all are like mine...so either they also have worn...or they are supposed to be gray... I don't know.

thanks guys! if I have to repalce these, I believe they are only $30 each and I can get them from a porsche parts guy...but wondered it they are supposed to be black

[23109VC]

no one ever replied to my thread, but many looked..... if anyone cares...I had my estimate done. .. total repair bill is right under $3000. shop said my bumper cover is okay, but it does need to be removed and repainted, just not replaced.

so all my other thoughts/inquiries about upgrading to a GT3 bumper are moot...my bumper is not being replaced. it only had scuffs/scrapes (minor ones), no cracks. I do get a totally new front left fender. they WILL have to repaint the bumper and blend into the hood..they agreed to do the additional painting up onto the entire hood if I just pay the extra/difference, which should be minimal.

the shop quoted me various prices for several small spots where I have superficial damage..all were very reasonable.

the only "job" I asked about which I got a "big" $$ figure on was the rollbar. He guesstimated the job wa about a $700 - that includes removing the rollbar, painting, and all the reassembly. he said most of that cost is getting the roll bar our/in. I suspected it might be costly...so that job is not going to happen.

the upside to this whol emess is when I get my car back, and the detailign is done it's going to look 10x better than before it was hit..so there will be a happy ending to this story...

I forgot to ask him about painting my wheels. two of my wheels look perfectly fine...hairline scratches here/there but nothing major. one wheel has a nice chunk missing near the lip and ONE is really scuffed up... I'd like to get one or two repainted.. not sure what they wold charge to do that and how hard it is to get them to match the other two if I do not paint them all....

[Johnny Danger]

23109VC,

I read your post, however, I am not sure just exactly what it is that your asking for in terms of feed-back ? Based on your "wish list" of things that you want to have repaired on your boxster, it seems like a relatively small project. I am sure that in the hands of a skilled repair shop, they can restore your vehicle to exacting standards. As far as what the insurance company is willing to cover, that is anyone's guess. Unfortunately, insurance companies are always trying to mitigate their losses when it comes to paying out a claim. All one can say is, "stand your ground". Also, as far as out of pocket expenses are concerned, if there are things that you want to have repaired that are above and beyond the initial claim, expect to pay a premium. Needless to say, autobody work is very labor intensive, and highly regarded facilities pride themselves in their work.

p.s. The silver front bumper grills in question, are in fact the original color from the factory.

[DamageINC123]

I agree with Johnny, I am not sure what you are asking.

If you are interested in getting the vents painted its a simple DYI job.
I carefully stuffed newspaper through my vents to prevent overspray on the plastic behind the vents. I carefully taped them off and painted them with Krylon that was made for plastic. The color I used was satin black. They turned out great!!

[23109VC]

i guess my initial post was long/ rambling, and not very focuses...

essentially I was wondering what various "extra" jobs would cost at the body shop.

at this point, I'm likely going to get some spots painted - what I get charged will depend. the stuff that is next to/close to areas they are already painting mgith get done for free. other stuff that is totally unrelated / not capable of being "buried" into the insurance claim will be out of my pocket - but they are being pretty good with prices. for example, I have a nice set of scratches on the side mirror. theformer owner backed out and ran into somethign that was sticking out and put nice deep scrathes into the top of the mirror... way too deep for touch up paint. it needs a new spray job. guy said they would pull it off, spray it, and only charge me $50.

they said they will repaint the lower vents in my bumper cover for free or super cheap. I told the guy that I knew i could buy them brand new from Porsche / Sunseet / Pelican for about $30 each. he said it would be less than $60 to have them paint them..so again..we're taling small dollars to paint the stuff I want.

it all has worked out for the best really. getting hit has turned out to work to my advantage as my car will look a lot better after it's repaired than it did before.

I have to talk to them about my center console.

any of you venture a guess as to what htey would charge me to paint it? i am going to pull it out for them, and I will reinstall it.. so all they will have to do is prime/paint/clear it.

bumper plugs wants $400 for one. what do you think it would cost to have a shop paint that piece assuming there is NO removal/install labor - just the cost to paint it??? i think having my center console in ocean blue would look great! the rest of my interior is black.

i don't like the interiors that have tons and tons of paiting...but JUST a center conslel...to me, looks nice. subtle yet classy.