Bluesman

I think setting aside $150 for the whole mod is reasonable. Expect to pay in the neighborhood of $50 to have it painted.

Here's the story. I changed the emblems on my car. However, the rear "L" emblem gave me a lot of trouble. The tape residue from the old emblem sat like cement on the face of my trunk. It was the only one that gave me enough trouble where it tested my patience. I had a lot of trouble removing it. Hence, I decided to get a flathead screw driver, wrap it in a terry towel and scrap it off. I felt the pressure point and it didn't feel the least bit sharp in any way. I thought it was safe. Well, it wasn't. I ended up scratching the face of my trunk in the emblem area.

To say the least, I was surprised and pissed. The emblem didn't really cover the scratches. The only good thing was that I managed to remove the $&#@ing residue, but at a big cost. You could not feel the scratches, but you could see them. I tried to remove them with Scratch X without luck. My mechanic couldn't buff it out. Hence, I went to three different body shops for quotes. I wasn't going to leave it the way it was. The first two places quoted me $300 to paint the entire trunk and the spolier. They both told me that I had to paint the entire trunk as it was the only effective option to make it look good cosmetically. I went to a third body shop and they told me that I did not need to paint the entire trunk. They said I could just paint the face of the trunk and blend it in. They quoted me $175 for the job includiing painting the spoiler. I decided to go with them as they have been in the neighborhood for many years. As I was giving the guy my info so he could fill out a form, he recognized my last name. It turned out that his sister and my sister are good friends. Hence, just like that, the price dropped to $80. My stupidity ended up with a happy ending. I'm happy with the paint job. It looks good to me. It's not noticeable that it has been blended in.

The lessons here are don't be afraid to shop around and never take a screw driver to the body of your car.

Bluesman

I almost forgot. He quoted me $200 to make my car one-tone instead of two-tone. Very tempting. That's a steal of a price. If I had a darker colored car, I wouldn't think twice about it.

3rdelement

iTrader: (1)

purchased the same lip yesterday. and also found a body shop that does a good job on luxury cars. . . so once it arrives and is painted and installed i'll post pictures.

Stub333

Post those pics up when it's done...we have the same car I want to see it in white before I buy it!