Repaint or not?

[chuckob]

A friend backed her SUV into the front of my boxster , and the trailer hitch receiver scratched and slightly dented the plastic bumper area. The body guy, who does good Porsche work, says my choice would to leave it alone, (and nobody would probably notice except for me, certainly each time I hand washed it) or to have the bumper taken off and fixed and repainted.

The cost isn't an issue, as she'll pay for the fix, but I'm wondering, if there's any downside to repainting. It's pastel yellow, so it's not a fancy color or anything.

What would you do?
Thanks.

[san rensho]

No brainer. Have it painted. Theres probably a ton of chips in it right now that will also get fixed with the repair.

[Johnny Danger]

Get it fixed .

[Appleguy]

Originally Posted by chuckob

The cost isn't an issue, as she'll pay for the fix....

I think you already answered your own question with this statement above. If the body shop is any good, they'll be able to tint the color so it matches the color pretty damn close.

Good luck!

[blue2000s]

Find a good painter. Many painters will have a hard time getting a color match. Ive had painters who didn't do a good job of getting the paint to adhere to the urethane bumper. Ask to see some of their past jobs.

I've found that some of the best painters are the guys who do very high end custom jobs out of their garage, no kidding. If there are old high end cars in the shop, it's a good sign.

There's no down side to getting it repainted as far as resale value.

[BYprodriver]

Originally Posted by san rensho

No brainer. Have it painted. Theres probably a ton of chips in it right now that will also get fixed with the repair.

+1 on this, Class Auto, in Long Beach right off the 405, paints well. That's where Circle Porsche sends thier cars. While the bumper cover is off clean your radiators & black out area behind grills EXCEPT radiators.

[Jager]

Originally Posted by Johnny Danger

Get it fixed .

Danger, no other words?? Are you biased because the color is yellow? I think we need a picture before we can recommend a member to spend their friend’s hard-earned money. This could impact the friend's relationship, there could be much more at stake here, is it really worth it??

Chuckob, do you have a picture showing the damage?

[Mark_T]

If I might make a suggestion, r+r the bumper yourself and save your friend an hour or two of bodyshop labor rate. If the bumper is already chipped up, you might even want to share the painting cost. It's win-win.

[Johnny Danger]

Originally Posted by Jager

Danger, no other words?? Are you biased because the color is yellow? I think we need a picture before we can recommend a member to spend their friend’s hard-earned money. This could impact the friend's relationship, there could be much more at stake here, is it really worth it??

Chuckob, do you have a picture showing the damage?

The hell with that . If she doesn't pay up I'll send a friend over to put the hurt on her !!!

[manolo]

You don't want that kind of pain... don't make him have to change his shoes.

[chuckob]

Did have the bumper re-painted. Looking back after a three years it was a mistake.

I didn't like the paint job when it was done. I felt it was just a bit off. The painter said it's hard to be exact on an older car because the original paint had faded. Sounds reasonable. Of course he could have told me that before he painted and took my money.

So now three years later, the car has faded more, since no longer have a garage, and it's fading differently than the bumper. Now the color looks completely off, and the new paint chips easier and flakes easier than the original ever did. I should have left it alone, the small dent was much less noticeable than mis-matched paint.

Lesson learned. Original paint is much better than anything that can be done by most paint shops.

[Disaster]

Originally Posted by chuckob

Did have the bumper re-painted. Looking back after a three years it was a mistake.

I didn't like the paint job when it was done. I felt it was just a bit off. The painter said it's hard to be exact on an older car because the original paint had faded. Sounds reasonable. Of course he could have told me that before he painted and took my money.

So now three years later, the car has faded more, since no longer have a garage, and it's fading differently than the bumper. Now the color looks completely off, and the new paint chips easier and flakes easier than the original ever did. I should have left it alone, the small dent was much less noticeable than mis-matched paint.

Lesson learned. Original paint is much better than anything that can be done by most paint shops.

If the paint is done right it shouldn't peel. They need to sand the entire bumper and apply an primer/adhesive promoter or it will peel.

Color matching is always a problem. Age, sun exposure and original color are all factors on how a paint fades (red, for example, is one of the worst colors for fading.) The only way to get a perfect match is to paint the entire car, but a reasonable alternative is to feather the new color into the fender and hood. This is much less noticeable than having the color change abruptly between panels.

I'll repair light scratches with hand paint vs. going an entire bumper reshoot. To do a really nice job you need to sand, fill and polish the new paint and finally add a clearcoat on top. The process is slow but the results are much better than running those nail brush style paint bottles over the scratches.

[mikefocke]

I had a Boxster bumper painted. And the bumperettes. Different painter. Perfect matches and 5 years later still were perfect to my eye. Takes someone who knows what they are doing.

Also had a Lincoln where the body shop took three tries before getting the match perfect. Credit to the body shop, they didn't release the car back to me until they were satisfied and their color match computer agreed with their eyes.

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by chuckob

Did have the bumper re-painted. Looking back after a three years it was a mistake.

I didn't like the paint job when it was done. I felt it was just a bit off. The painter said it's hard to be exact on an older car because the original paint had faded. Sounds reasonable. Of course he could have told me that before he painted and took my money.

So now three years later, the car has faded more, since no longer have a garage, and it's fading differently than the bumper. Now the color looks completely off, and the new paint chips easier and flakes easier than the original ever did. I should have left it alone, the small dent was much less noticeable than mis-matched paint.

Lesson learned. Original paint is much better than anything that can be done by most paint shops.

Did he at least give you a reach around?

You are at least partly to blame, too. There's no reason for driving away with a paint job that you weren't happy with. I would have made him fix it.

While color matching can be an issue, any good painter can handle it and there is no excuse for the peeling. Your painter is a flippin' moron.
I repaired my rear bumpers paint myself using OEM matched rattle cans of paint from automotivetouchup.com. It took a while and I had to sand back and try again a few times, but I got it feathered in and now you would never know there was a repair done (unless you're a pro and look very closely).