99 boxster - Scraped front bumper on road debris - Recommendations on replacement?

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by kpm

Why not have it repaired ? Unless there is a huge chunk missing you should be able to have the gouges filled in with plastic bumper repair material and repainted.

This sounds like the best and cheapest option to me...

Originally Posted by JoeFromPA

I like that GT3 front bumper....nice aggressive look to it. Only slightly obnoxious, which means it's just right

Do you mind me asking how much yours was unpainted? Or do they come pre-painted?

All of the bumper covers come unpainted new (just gray primered). The good deal is to find one used that's your car's body color. But finding one used, without rock chips, and that's not a ton to ship (preferably local) is asking for a lot.

I got lucky and picked up my GT3 bumper locally for $400. I had to have it painted, but I threw it in with a bunch of stuff (humps, side skirts, rear bumper) that was being painted, so the cost was not bad.

Kirk

[JoeFromPA]

Hey guys,

Thanks again for the responses:

1. Honestly, I have no idea what it was that hit the car. I saw it when it whipped out a 335i coupe and flew into my lane. It was crumpled and white/gray and looked like a seriously beat-to-crap old metal trash can lid in the 1/4 second I saw it flying through the air towards the car. It made no metallic sound on the highway and all I heard was a very modest "thud" when it hit the car. Couldn't tell what it hit, wasn't hard, and didn't see it afterwards.

Got home and there's gouges in the bumper cover and big ol scratch marks.

2. So far, one body shop has mentioned filling in the gouges. However, they said that they personally wouldn't JUST fill in these gouges and sand, they'd refinish the whole bumper, because otherwise it wouldn't look good. And they said that insurance may not cover that extra work, so it was something to consider.

Getting one other body shop to lookover it today.

3. Overall, the bumper looks/looked great. This paint on this car is just amazing compared to what I'm used to (Japanese recent enviro-friendly stuff). However, its' got road rash a plenty and the front fascia has scraped across a curb in it's past (possibly more than one).

[blondegenie]

Hi -

I got my 98 Boxter a few years ago and promptly bent the frame of the car (and messed up my front bumper) by parking too close (read: drove right over ithem) to concrete curbs and parking lot stoppers. My mechanic said it would take some body work to fix because I had pretty much pushed everything backward toward the wheel wells.

Two years later - got some other body work done so I had the front frame repaired and the bumper replaced.

Since then I have been obsessed with parking at least 2 feet from any curb.

However, I drove very slowly down a steeply inclined short driveway and (there was no way to prevent this) the front of the car touched the pavement of the street.

I am back with a bent front frame (but not as bad - and my bumper is fine, no damage).

But, I am dismayed that this can happen so easily. I was always told that a Porsche had the strongest steel frame of any car out there....

Anyone have this experience?

[clickman]

Originally Posted by blondegenie

I drove very slowly down a steeply inclined short driveway and (there was no way to prevent this) the front of the car touched the pavement of the street. I am back with a bent front frame (but not as bad - and my bumper is fine, no damage).

There's no way what you described should result in a bent frame. Get an opinion from a shop other than the one that told you that.