can this be spray painted ?
 

Hello,

In my continuous journey to find the boxster for me I came across
one in fair condition which needs fixing this among other things,
as you can see in the pictures.

I read some posts here about folks spray painting their front and would
like to ask their opinion if same can be done with this.

Much appreciated !!!

Unless you are very good at prepping and painting or don't care about a hack job painted front bumper that might have the same issues come up after a year or so, no.

It looks like someone already did and something went wrong. Wrong prep, wrong paint, something. I'm not a painter so I can't tell you exactly what it was. I'm pretty sure that before it gets repainted, it needs completely stripped off, if that's possible.

I'd be more concerned why it was repainted. Was it wrecked?

Good luck in your search if this doesn't work out for you,

A couple years ago, I paid around $375 to have a reputable body shop paint a new, primed bumper cover. That bumper is going to need a lot of prep work to strip it, or sand down all of the damage. Painting varies a lot by location and quality, but I'd guess it's a $500 job. A used bumper can be found (shipped) on eBay or car-part.com for about that much.
As a DIY, its a lot of work, but could be done. Not a job for a beginner unless you want it to end up like that again a year or two later.

ANY wax that is under paint will cause peeling.
If you take it somewhere to have it done, my rule of bodywork is "If you can see it, it is expensive".
You might find a place that lets you do some prep (sanding) to reduce cost.
Silver is among the hardest to blend in.

I'm not a painter but I did my own paint on the front and rear bumper covers.

It wasn't particularly hard work - just the usual clean, sand, sand, sand, wipe, sand, wipe, sand, and then prime, sand, prime, paint, and clear. That was my way of saying that its kind of a tedious process.

I put on several paint coats and several clear coats. Be sure to have the clear buffed out after it all cures. I'd say that you almost can't put on too much clear - even 20 year old factory paint is amazingly shiny.

My work came out "good" but no where near the quality of even a low-end professional body shop. But it was cheap - I was quoted $1000 from a body shop and I spent less than $200 in materials.

It still looks good after 18 months but the photo is a bit misleading. When you stand next to it in person, the paint job is not as good as the photo makes you think it is. Its not "bad", just not as "good".

Thus, you'll have to decide what quality is acceptable to you and if you have the skills/patience to achieve an acceptable level of repair.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/Pic21541981896.jpg

Something is majorly wrong with the primer used on that bumper. It's cracking underneath the paint. I've never seen that before

I don't want to be Debbie Downer, but if you're already trying to go on the cheap with a car like this, maintenance will probably eat you alive.

While a cheap car to buy, parts are expensive, and I'll bet there is an assload of deferred maintenance on a car like that.

And I love a project, don't get me wrong. But a man's gotta know his limits...

I can't see any detail at all. Can we get larger pics? Thanks!

I think Redtele58 summed it up best. This car looks like it has not been cared for or cared about. The bumper is probably not the biggest concern, just the most visible.
My current project car cost me $2,500 with a hardtop included. If I didn't have a big pile of parts and lots of DIY experience I could have easily spent $2,500 more already just getting it roadworthy, not to mention cosmetic issues and convenience functions.

986 Boxsters have been around long enough now that a neglected one may be worth it's weight in scrap.

On a good note, you can sell that bumper easily to a spec guy for $200-250 and start over with a new/used one. Most spec boxsters are completely wrapped and the buyer won't care about the paint quality.

thanks guys, yes, the pictures are in high resolution, but at least you see EVERYTHING.

I was thinking the same thing like you on the deferred maintenance,
this is a 1999 car with 120K, the guy has some maintenance documents showing the water pump was replaced 7 years ago, and sparks/coils 4 years ago,
but not the clutch and I can get it for $4k, doesn't look amazing but I think that with a little TLC it could look good,
he also has documents showing he did some regular services at a porche dealership and at a Porche indy specialist.

only issue is to decide if I take it to a ppi, pay $300 and discover that there are $4k-$5k of repairs on it, so maybe can find a car for $8K in better condition.

On the other hand, and this already happened to me with cars in a much better condition,
I ask the owner what if I take it to a ppi and they come up with $3k worth of repairs / replacement (clutch alone is $2k for parts+labor) and then they freak out
so now I have a guy who want $8k-$9k on his car but wants me to pay the extra $3K-4K,

I'm telling you, its hard work, finding the right car and the right seller, don't want to low-ball anybody, just want to be fair, am I crazy here ?

I am in the process of painting my front bumper cover. As others have said it is a lot of work, best to remove it (which is relatively easy and allows you to clean out the radiators while you're in there). Mine has been bumped in the front, repaired and rebumped so there were a lot of cracks and one small gash. I sanded, filled with bumper cover filler, sanded, primed, filled the low spots and repeated a couple of times. It is OK now, a lot better than it was but I did all this work with the bumper cover on the car. This year I will remove the cover and do a light sanding all over and paint the whole thing again. So yes it can be done. Less than $200 CDN. When finished it will be a big improvement but not what a professional could do. I am also worried about touching something with the front end and ending up with the cracks again...

I think OP meant to say can this be spray painted again?

Good luck :)

That depends on what you're expecting. You're crazy if you think you're going to find a 16-23 year old boxster that doesn't need something replaced or fixed. Specially one with over 60,000 miles. You get what you pay for and even when you pay more, unforeseen things can pop up.

itsnotanova - you are absolutely right,
its just hard to find one that was maintained well,
I found a couple that had decent maintenance but the major things like clutch,
water pump, aos etc. were not done and owner doesn't really want to split the cost of these.

I found the Front Bumper Cover with Bumper Lip (Unpainted) part for $407 online
would the cost of painting that bumper similar of different from the existing one ?