5spd97

The front of my 97 SC3 is pretty severely chipped and scratched and there are creases where the front plate was. The hood and fenders are in pretty good shape. Would I be better off just buying a new front bumper cover and having it painted or should I just let the body shop work with what I have? I got an estimate of about $800 to repaint the front bumper and fix a small damaged area on the front door and blend in the door paint. I'm also trying to minimize the downtime as it's a daily driver.

Guitarman

If you happened to know the price of a new bumper cover then it would be a bit easier to help you decide, that's going to be a big factor. It would have to be fairly inexpensive though to make it worth it.

That said, I think I'd just have them strip and repair / respray the existing cover. Good luck, just my .o2.

5spd97

I think the new covers are $300 -400. I guess my real concern is not understanding how they fix dings and gouges on a plastic body panel. I'm guessing that they sand out small defects, but what do they do with deeper dents and is it a long term fix? I have a friend that backed her Camry into another car and dented the rear bumper cover. The body shop tried to save her the cost of a new cover but the damaged area still catches my eye.

Guitarman

There are special epoxy fillers that are used on urethane bumpers, to fill damage such as yours, and a good shop will know how to use them . If uncertain, simply ask them about it before you give the nod.

As for your friend, well, all i can say is it's like anything else; communication on exactly the result you expect ,is necessary, and as we all know, too many shops these days will gladly cut corners. Just like a bad paint job, anything can happen if you don't let your expectations be heard.

Now, some shops will prefer to swap the part out for a new one IF the damage is so excessive as to demand more labor hours than the price of the new part would require, saving you $$$ in the long run. It'd have to be pretty bad though (broken through or cut) to warrant that IMO, because a small gouge or 2 can be redily repaired with fillers, , sanded and painted. Good luck.

5spd97

Thanks, I appreciate your help. Based on what you said, I'll probably stick with the one that I have. It'll probably be a month or so before I can get it done, but I'll let you know how it turns out.