I am brand new here and honestly none of these threads make too much sense to me but I thought I would ask a question here:

I had to take my lexus gs 400 in for auto repair and they quoted me 1200 cash to replace the front bumper, silver trim, and the padding inside the bumper. No problem....

A few days ago I picked up the car and noticed that there are
1. drip marks which bother me.
2. color is beautiful white pearl but it doesn't match the side fender.
3. there are noticeable 4 small indentation on the bumper near the license plate.

Are all this common? I am going back wednesday and would like to get your advice on what I should say or ask for.

My brother says that they need to fix the paint match and buff out the paint drip because that is not acceptable.

He was not 100% sure on the holes. Are they supposed to be there? I was told these were OEM parts that are new I think. He never said anything about using used. I paid $5xx just for the front bumper which apparently is the going rate.

Thanks in advancce.

 

thats horrible paint job.

 

Aside from the poor paint job the indent ion holes are normal. That's where the OEM lo ends plate bracket would screw I to. The color match is poor, but it looks like all they did was mix by paint code and didn't actually do a color match blend into your fenders. But for $1200 for the total job I'm not entirely surprised.

I don't think you got ripped off, but the dripping paint is not good. They need to fix that.

 

Thanks.

They should be able to fix the paint match to the fender right? I'm planning to go tomorrow to get that paint drip fixed for sure.

Thanks for letting me know about the indents.
I thought 1200 was a lot but what do I know!

I actually went to a auto body shop that our local Toyota takes all of their cars too. I'm surprised that they didn't do a good job.

 

Welcome to CL as a new poster.

On a car that old, especially if the rest of the body has deteriorated some, I wouldn't worry if the front bumper isn't quite perfect. CK6Speed is correct...the small holes probably are for mounting-brackets. As far as paint-match, body shops paint according to the OEM specs/pigments....so if the rest of the paint has faded a little, it may be noticeable. Last of all, for an LS, $1200 for a bumper-replacement and other work isn't bad (parts for this car aren't cheap), so I wouldn't complain about the price.

 

Yes it is a 2000 GS model and it is old but in great condition. The side fender has yellowed a bit so their is a noticeable color variance with the brand new bumper. I completely understand about the price so thats okay but isn't a good auto body shop supposed to color match seamlessly to the existing body in my case the side fender regardless of how old my car may be?

 

Why are the indentation holes normal? If they used a new bumper, as the OP contends, then why not just install the license plate in those holes rather than making more of them for the plate and leaving unsightly indentation from the originals?

 

Yeah I think they did a poor job. I had a similar experience with a new G35 back in the day. I had a scratch in the bumper and they repainted my front bumper , NO JOKE, 11 times. I had to threaten lemon law suit just to get them to get their act together

 

Refund or do-over.
How could anyone return a car to a customer with that drip/chip in the paint.

Looks like they just punched in the paint code, and didn't account for paint fade. That's probably how your paint looked 10 years ago.

I would have gone to a toyota/lexus collision center. They tend to do a better job and stand behind their work, but are more expensive.

 

Thanks for everyones comments.
I will go tomorrow and demand they fix the drip paint and the variation in color.

Why again is there indentation marks from the license plate if the bumper they ordered is supposed to be NEW?

 

Those are the original holes, it looks like they just painted over them. They made new ones to mount the license plate.

 

Because those holes are where the factory mounting bracket would screw into. His license plate is not mounted how the factory intended it to be mounting using the OEM bracket. I don't blame him as I wouldn't want to put 4 screws into my bumper to mount the OEM bracket if I could avoid it. Pictured below might not be the exact bracket, but you get the idea on how it would mount. You screw this into the bumper, then attatch the license plate onto the bracket.

 

I would take it back to the shop for a repaint. Although, my opinion is $1200 was a pretty reasonable cost considering you paid $500 for the bumper. You basically got a $300-$400 paint job when you factor in materials cost, hazardous waste cost, labor, and tax. I myself paid $1200 to get my bumper painted, but that was only for the cost of prepping and painting. I installed it myself and that didn't include the $1,500 cost of the bumper itself.

 

Ah, that explains it. But they could have done a better job filling them in then? It looks the holes are still there, you can even see the outline of the grommet that the bracket 's bolts would have threaded through.

 

The polyurethane OEM bumper wouldn't actually have holes. Just the indents so the installer at the dealership knows exactly where the self tapping screws for the bracket would screw into.

If the body shop where to try and fill in those indentions the cost for the plastic work would significantly increase that $1200 job. That would have also needed to be requested by the owner.