DeathrayLiotta

Grazed a light pole backing out of a tight parking spot yesterday and...yeah. See picture.

Anyone have any idea what this is gonna run me to rectify at a body shop? Should I take it to the local Porsche place or an independent?

Would really like at least a ballpark idea of what this is gonna cost.

Thanks!

FredR

The damage, whilst annoying as hell, is on the bumper line and that is plastic. so no rust issues ultimately looming.

To do a proper repair would involve removing the bumper line and is no small task. If you are into concours levels of perfection then by all means bite the bullet but in the meantime perhaps you can consider living with it [temporarily at least] to see how it manifests itself.

If you have a good paint shop locally get their take on it by all means but just be aware that cheapo repairs on the bumper line often end up looking very cheap somewhat quickly -preparation being everything when painting on these things.

Has that bumper been painted previously by any chance? The thing is supposed to absorb minor flexure and clearly that has not.

DeathrayLiotta

Any thoughts on how much that might cost, though?

Adk46

I recently purchased a new front bumper cover - $1070, if I recall, from a Porsche dealer (shipping is otherwise expensive). My local small-town shop with a good reputation painted it (black) for about $300. I did all the work otherwise. I replaced the chin spoiler, too (about $500 from Roger).

The same shop had previously quoted a respray on the bumper of about $800, including the labor to remove and re-install. It wouldn't have worked out, though, since they found my old cover had been resprayed many times, and was banged up. I was surprised that they could find the necessary labor hours in their system - that means you can just stop at a shop and they can quickly give you a quote.

Your damage is to the rear, right? More $, I'd guess.

FredR

Curt has given you a good start and his post indicates exactly what I was alluding to in that preparing a previously painted item, especially one that might have already been painted inappropriately can take a lot of manhours to prepare correctly

The cracking in your photo of what superficially looks reasonably good condition paint, suggests to me that you can expect the type of scenario Curt has highlighted.

It is also quite conceivable that a good local shop might be able to do you a reasonable cheapo repair but that is a bit of a crap shoot.

I got whacked up the rear much harder than your impact and saw no cracking on the original paint that was mechanically damaged. Ironically about 6 months later I got whacked again and although the reapir was done in the local main dealers workshop I experienced cracking. I complained about this and they re-did the paintwork at their cost, this time with a lot of care and attention.

Bottom line the ability of the shop that does the repair and their rates will determine the cost

951and944S

The bumper is fine but the entire area will have to be da sanded down to the base surface, i.e., all paint, primer will have to be sanded away and feather edge sanded to an area in dimension greater than the spider web cracking.

The problem you have here is that this color (any high metallic) is hard to match and will have several "variables" listed in the paint supplier's code lookup where varying amounts of tints will shade the paint.

So...., it's doubtful that any body shop will want to paint just the bumper because with an abrupt paint line like bumper to fender, the newly painted piece will stick out like a sore thumb.

Even in the event that the paint mix is spot on with original factory new paint, yours has spent many years in sunlight and environmental conditions that have changed it.

What they will want to do is "blend" the two panels that intersect with the bumper.

So they will repair and repaint the bumper itself and also lightly sand the two adjoining panels to overlap the new bumper paint onto the next panel with a gun method that tapers off the spray the further away from the bumper the gun nozzle is called "blending".

This will trick the eye into thinking everything is a perfect paint match as the colors gradually blend back into your original paint not sprayed on the two bordering panels.

Then they reclear all three panels.

Depending where you live, I'd estimate this job to maybe $1200-$1500 depending on the level of quality the shop can supply and what your expectations are.

T

Feld

Having been in the automotive refinishing business 25 years I can recommend to find a shop that uses a high a high end paint line, including water based color. Water based colors such as from BASF and PPG (there are others) will have better color match. Independent shops are fine as long as they use one of these lines. The bumper is definitely repairable but will need to be removed to achieve a proper repair as mentioned above. A proper color match should not require additional blending of adjacent panels, something you want to avoid since it increases thickness of paint and may be discovered when selling car.

joejoe

Replaced bumper and lights on my '86.5 about 1 1/2 year ago. Cost was under 2k through insurance. There are pictures of damage in an old post.

951and944S

If the color were white, black, red, yellow, even a few metallics I would agree,

not this color.

If you could repair and spray this color and it matched directly with no discernible difference in all lights without blending, it would be sheer luck.


T

DeathrayLiotta

Sounds like I may just have to live with it. Swell. I just don't have that kind of money.

hacker-pschorr

What's the rush? Not like the car isn't derivable.

Shopping around is how you answer your question. Check with a local tech school with a body class, go to cars & coffee & ask around etc....

The more work you are willing to do yourself could cut the final cost in half or more. Removing a bumper isn't the end of the world, even easier with a friend.

951and944S

Yep, and there's enough help on here to walk somebody will little to no body skills through this job.

Even purchasing a DA sander, the 3M Hookit paper, primer, supplies (masking etc.), basecoat paint, clear and a gun good enough to do this job, $4-500 tops.

T

DeathrayLiotta

Admittedly dumb question, but would it be cheaper just to repaint the whole car at this point?

OTR18WHEELER

^THIS!...
A lot of you don't know I used to rebuild totaled VWs, I even did a overall on a 944 and a color change in a '74 'vette.
Best case, less cost, would be confined to the rear, but ...even you will know, and never sleep well at night again. At least 1k.

951and944S

No.

To do a good job, you would need to have partial interior moved to do the jambs, up to the door seal pinch weld, around the hatch opening, etc., then you open yourself up to a small fortune in new weather stripping, hood badge, door handle, mirror gaskets, etc., etc.

A normal level quality job with good materials, less gaskets, weather stripping would run $4k and up.

A high quality job where the car is taken down to factory sealer, primed in epoxy, hand blocked with a guide coat to remove all imperfections and sharpen body lines then high quality materials, RM Diamont, DuPont, PPG etc, $6k and up.

I am doing an '86 944T right now.

Could you get a $12-1500 total spray job...?

Probably.....

T