e-man

Hey guys. Nothing special. After 2 months of owning the car, I finally just got around to having the rear bumper refinished. I took it to a local body shop that my Lexus dealership uses. They did a pretty nice job. It set me back $225, but it was worth it. I was getting tired of looking at all of those cuts/scratches. Here are a few before pictures:

e-man

Here is one more before picture from a different part of the bumper:

e-man

And here's a picture from today:

e-diddy

Looks nice. It seems like they did a really good job.

chicagoblknazn

How long did they have the car?

I used to live on the northside, so my bumper is tore up to shreds and needs to be redone.

e-man

They had the car since Thursday, but didn't start working on it until yesterday. I was leaving town on Thursday for a fishing trip, so I dropped it off and told them to take their time. I ended up not going to Carnica for a number of reasons. I took it to a local bodyshop in Westmont called Collision Craft. I think $225 was a fair price (assuming it holds up). Chicago -- let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to shoot me a PM.

e-man

lexusk8

e-man, $225 is a decent price for the work your Lexus-affiliated body shop did for your bumper. For a few cuts and scratches, there's definitely no need to replace the bumper. It's certainly nice to feel new paint again

Word of caution: Unless your body shop took off the bumper from the car, check for signs of overspray on any of the neighboring body parts (i.e. rear quarter panels and rear wheels).

chuckb

looks good e.

RMMGS4

iTrader: (5)

It's a simple job that not only looks, but feels good doesn't it?

It show's you take pride in keeping you car up.


Way to represent the brand .

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

Looks great 225 is not a bad price... I'm sure you wanted the money for something else mmmmmmmmmm another mod Good work

cHiTwNGS43

iTrader: (1)

e-man where you from???i saw the mcgrath plate holder....i'm from wheaton...you should meet up with us sometime...pm me if interested...

e-man

Well, after two days, the honeymoon is over and I've realized that the paint really does not match up very well. I knew going in that this might be a problem, but it's not even close. It's hard to explain, but the bumper is much, much lighter (maybe more silvery) than the paint on the metal. The factory paint never matched up perfectly, but this is a little ridiculous (the first picture does not do it justice, but check out the color on the top of the bumper versus the color on the trunk). Does anyone know if paint "settles" or fades after the first few weeks? Is there a way to wet sand it or something that will take it down a few notches? I just don't want the mismatch to be as noticeable. Any thoughts?

e-man

GS300Rich

Sorry to hear that the paint is not matching. The only thing I can think of is take it back and have them respray it.

e-man

Well, the good news is that they have to respray it anyway (at least the top half) because they messed up the seams where the bumper meets the rear quarters (which is located on the top half of the bumper). When I first brought in the car, the body shop manager told me that they were most likely going to take the bumper off before they sprayed it, or, at the very least, loosen it a bit so they could get in the cracks. Well, they did neither, and it was immediately noticeable. The manager was apologetic, and told me that I should bring the car back at my convenience and they would re-do it (which would entail painting the entire top half of the bumper). The strange part about it is that the bottom half of the bumper looks fine. It's just the top half that looks off (maybe that's because that's the part of the bumper that is adjacent to the painted metal).

Anyway, so I am going to get a second bite at the apple on this one. The problem is that I'm wondering what can they do the second time around (on the top half) to make it match the painted metal better. Do they need to mix something into the paint to make it a little darker? Does anyone have any experience with this?

e-man

e-man

The more I look at the picture I posted above, the more I see how bad the match is. Look at the top of the rear bumper compared to the trunk -- it's much more silvery/blue, isn't it?