To Paint or not to paint?

[VTrescueS2000]

So in the lovely traffic of northern Virginia last night, some volkwagen driver drifted into my rear bumper leaving a small scratch in the paint from the license plate :eek: (the whole area could be hidden by a quarter for size reference). In Virginia your insurance rates go up regardless of fault if you report an accident to ANY insurance company so we're trying to avoid this by doing it off the record. A local body shop tells me about $400 to take the bumper off, repair, clear coat, and blend it. The question is - since I have an 04 Silverstone, is it worth the risk of never getting the paint match just right? The scratch cant even be seen from a distance, but its definitely not buff-able. Thoughts? Experiences with silverstone paint jobs? Any advice is appreciated. I'm taking it to a really high end body shop on Monday for a second estimate. :think:

[jgadams]

I had the front bumper replaced on my Silverstone two years ago and the color was matched very well.

Your estimate is pretty close to what I've seen for the same procedure on a front bumber.

[Justin6264]

Take a look at Touchup123 - that might be able to fix it to your satisfaction. It's a DIY kit that people on the other site have used with some success.

http://www.touchup123.com/

[Fuzzy]

How about a mobile bumper repair company. We have them out here on the left coast and they do pretty well. Granted it is not nearly the level of work (they leave the bumper on and don't bake the paint) but use OEM paint codes and blend accordingly.

Your gonna get nicks/marks on the front and rear. Just part of the joys of public roads. At least you have someone that is gonn apick up the tab. Half the time a scratch is a gift someone leaves you while the car is parked and no note.

[VTrescueS2000]

Wow thanks for all the responses so far. Keep them coming!

While I think I'll let this guy foot the biil to fix the rear bumper, I'm fascinated by the TouchUp 123 kits for my front bumper - any more success stories with this stuff?

[repiv]

For that small a blemish, I wouldn't spend that kind of money (and I do have such scratches on my rear bumper, too). Besides the one you've already found, there are other options.

1. I remember at Fall Colors a few years back, there was a company that did airbrush repair on rock chips. Such a technique may work very well for you and costs less than $100.00 (probably much less if it's just one small ding).
2. Check out the "Langka" product. It's a touch up system that the DIYer can use, some with exceptional results. Costs a few dollars.
3. Do the repair at home in the traditional way. A bit of touch up paint, wet sanding (or rubbing compound), repeat as necessary, clear, wet sand (rubbing c.), repeat as necessary, polishing compound with power buffer, wax. I did a pretty sizeable ding on the hood of my black Viper years ago like this and you couldn't tell where the scratch was. Check out some "How To's" before doing this, though.
4. Leave it alone.
5. Put a sticker over it. I hear the Spoon ones give you 5 hp. :laugh:

[mcajr]

I spray dupont at work and have sprayed several silver stone bumpers, the color is usually a little darker, but over all not too bad compared to a lot of other colors. color match also depends on where it is on the bumper, for instance if it's damaged right next to the quarter panel, you'll have a butt match, where the two different paints will be right next to each other and the color match won't be as good as if say it was in the lower middle part of the rear bumper, in which case you would blend it out and color match would hardley be an issue. on lighter silvers like sebring silver and the silver on the newer civics an extra coat of clear can darken the panel slightly, but since silverstone is a darker silver it's not really an issue. depending where it is on the bumper you could also have them do a spot blend, where you repair the area, put color on that area and blend the clear out. this won't last as long and doesn't always look perfect. touching up the area will always be noticeable on silver (though it works very well on black), the metallic in the paint will always gather together and make it look darker, so it'll look like a dark spot. as far as mobile repair people, from my experiences i would never use one, the quality is usually less and the paint jobs are usually really dirty and almost always have fisheyes (at least the ones i've dealt with)

[AP1SLPR]

So in the lovely traffic of northern Virginia last night, some volkwagen driver drifted into my rear bumper leaving a small scratch in the paint from the license plate :eek: (the whole area could be hidden by a quarter for size reference). In Virginia your insurance rates go up regardless of fault if you report an accident to ANY insurance company so we're trying to avoid this by doing it off the record. A local body shop tells me about $400 to take the bumper off, repair, clear coat, and blend it. The question is - since I have an 04 Silverstone, is it worth the risk of never getting the paint match just right? The scratch cant even be seen from a distance, but its definitely not buff-able. Thoughts? Experiences with silverstone paint jobs? Any advice is appreciated. I'm taking it to a really high end body shop on Monday for a second estimate. :think:

I have an 00' model Silverstone. The whole car was repainted almost 4 months ago. 2 months ago some kid rear-ended me. I decided to go with the AP2 rear bumper. Had it painted off the car without blending, and I can not tell. It looked really good. The body shop I took it to had some "photo" thing that matched the paint without blending. Now, I am not sure if that only worked because the paint was only 2 months old at the time. You can also go to paintscratch.com and just order some touch-up paint from them. They need your paint code and 6th digit of VIN to make sure it is the right match. You can also order the clear coat thru them also.

[VTrescueS2000]

Well the shop I went to is talking about a spot-blend. Personally, I'm starting to learn towards a touchup123 kit and I'll just forget it. Seems like a lot of fuss over a tiny scratch.

The spoon sticker option sounds pretty good... I've been looking for an extra 5hp. Anyone know of any 10hp stickers out there? :rofl: