| Author | Message | ||
     Roderick |
Question for anyone with experience in the autobody dept. Recently my '07 Grand Cherokee got bumped in a parking lot. Nothing major, just the rear bumper fascia got dent in the right rear corner. The Jeep dealer will charge me about 350+ for an unpainted fascia. At best, I would get 'OEM quality', allegedly, and same with the paint job. If the diagram is any indication, removal would take at best an hour and I can do that meself at home. And then there is this... http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Painted-to-Match-Rear- Bumper-Cover-2005-2010-Jeep-Grand-Cherokee-Laredo- tow-/350880119694?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Access ories&fits=Make%3AJeep%7CModel%3AGrand+Cherokee&ha sh=item51b215bb8e&vxp=mtr It is exactly what I need and painted as well. So how close to 'OEM quality' or even good quality can I expect from a reputable autobody shop or this ebay seller for this part? I understand that autobody repair shops would rather use aftermarket items as much as possible to keep cost down. I just wonder if the plastic is going to be flimsy or warped or whatever. Roderick | ||
| Raceautobody |
You get what you pay for. A copy is a copy. If you can afford an oem go oem. If your jeep is a piece of shitt then drive it the way it is before you waste your time and money on a sub standard quality part painted by someone that can't verify color match and you can't verify quality before you pay them. Al FYI the rear cover in the ebay ad is for a Lorado with tow without park sensors, The dealer priced with tow with park sensors $357. OEM with tow without park sensors is about $290 | ||
| Skntpig |
I have an aftermarket stock replica rear bumper skin. Mine appears to be similar to OEM. You are going to notice more in the prep and paintwork if it is a bad job than the actual plastic. Mine looks great but then the shop does excellent work. We bought an aftermarket fiberglass (different style) bumper for my girlfriends car to change the look. The bumper was very rough when it was received. It took the shop a bit more time to fill holes in the fiberglass and straighten and install correctly. In the end it looks great...but again due to the skill of the shop. You can have great parts but if the prep and paint is bad you will notice that more. | ||
| Satori |
You might also see if you can find out from a car dealer or two who does that kind of repair work for them. Their is usually a good shop or two that specialize in that type of work. I've seen these shops do excellent work usually at half what it would cost to replace and paint. The person to talk to would be the used car manager or manager that makes those decisions. | ||
| Strokizator |
I bought a pre-painted tailgate for an 04 Dodge Dakota off e-bay, may even have been the same site. You supply them with the paint code and get the part in a few days. The silver paint was off just a little, probably because the truck was 10 years old. Still very close though. I'd do it again - saved me a bunch of money. | ||
| Etennuly |
Actually most reputable body shops would rather use OEM parts to avoid potential problems. It is either the customer or the insurance company wanting the cheaper parts. You cut your own throat by being a vehicle owner who gets paid for a repair and shops around for the cheapest deal. You can pocket a couple hundred bucks.....but don't expect a 100% proper job with any kind of guarantee. If you have a nice clean low mileage vehicle that you want to keep, and you expect any kind of guarantee, then get it done right. If you can live with the color being a shade off and a little miss fit here and there that no one else might notice, by all means, feel good about that couple hundred bucks you spent elsewhere. If you order that part on E-bay and it does not match or fit well, then what? Are you stuck with it? Who pays for shipping it back and again? How long can all of that take? If it does not fit you will find out when your original one is off. Are you going to put it back on and take it back off for a problem with it? Then there is the whole quality of the paint. Will it fade to powder in a year or two? Will the paint peel or crack in shipping or while installing it? Insurance companies actually like it when people get the check and do what they want for repairs. They can not go back on the insurance company for anything even if they find supplemental hidden damage. The job has to be opened up in a shop and reinspected if further damage is found. If they pay for OEM and you buy aftermarket they are done. This order by color code thing reminds me of a car theft ring in the 80's, where they would find car parts to order by color code to fit the customer needs. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
My S-10 was totaled at $5,900.00 when a dude ran a red light in front of me. I bought the truck back from the insurance company for $1,200.00.Took an hour to find all the parts on Ebay. Total repair was $600.00 including $125.00 to get "carry in/carry out parts painted.   | ||
| Thumper1203 |
Roderick, I used the ebay "painted part to your door" earlier this year for a PT cruiser front bumper fascia in silver.. It was packed/protected well for shipping, the paint is a near perfect match and the piece fit very nicely. I did notice some small prep shortcuts before paint, but all in all I was very happy. I do think the competition is good for the "runaway" charges at the local body shops.. | ||
| Ourdee |
Why not pop the dent out? Silver is the hardest to match. | ||
| Roderick |
My '07 JGC rear bumper is without chrome trim, without park assist sensor, and with tow package. Color = black. I cannot pop the dent out because the plastic, and am guessing it is plastic, have quite a few wrinkles at the damaged area. The material seems to be a 'heavier' plastic grade than what I have seen before on sedans. It somehow feels thicker and stiffer. The paint is cracked on the area, of course. So what does a body shop do to color match, besides going by the paint code? Do they, the reputable ones, take into account some color fading on the rest of the vehicle or something like that? I just want to be reasonable informed based on real world experience. It was a parking lot hit-n-run job here in LV. The BMW X5 next to me took the most damages. Roderick | ||
| Skntpig |
My buddy is a paint in the car lot guy for high end cars. He learned in his Dad's body shop and progressed to this. You would be amazed at how many $250K+ cars he has done. He is a master at his craft. He mixes his own paint using the codes first, then matching to a paint swatch book that cost him $2K, then tinting to compensate for fade and quality of current finish based on his experience. He matches factory orange peel, flat sanded Ferraris and everything in between. There are some Aston Martins that don't get a paint code. They are one off hand mixed by the factory and most touch up guys won't attempt a match. His secret is blending to a natural body curve or change in contour. He rarely, if ever does a whole panel. He doesn't do hoods because they are too big and flat and you see the blend too easy. You will see it more if the slight color change is at the body gap between a front and rear door. It's definitely an art. | ||
| Torquehd |
I've been looking at purchasing a paint gun, any recommendations? Will an Oreilly's paint gun do a good job, or is there something better that I should consider? | ||
| Lynrd |
I cruised ebay for a while and scored an olde binks #12 primer gun and a nice Devilbiss finish gun for something like $30, along with a box of spare parts. A quality paint job is much more in the prep work (first) and quality materials (2nd) than in the gun, but a good gun doesn't hurt either. | ||
| Sifo |
Most work doesn't require that good of a gun. If you are going to get into expensive custom work, then a good gun becomes essential. Just a bit of spatter looks really bad when you are shooting candy colors, pearls, etc. In an opaque color or the clear coat, it can be dealt with pretty easily. Same with a slightly uneven spray pattern. 30+ years ago when I was in a paint shop, I had access to top notch equipment. It does make a difference. A couple of years ago I picked up a very cheap touch up gun for small projects. I've managed to turn out work that impresses most people greatly. If I were going to charge money for that work, it would be done with an expensive gun though. I would charge accordingly. Spraying the bumper of a Jeep, or similar work? A cheap gun will work pretty well for you. You'll know when it's time to spend some real cash. | ||
| Etennuly |
What Skntpig has pointed out is right and correct. When a bodyshop has a proper professional paint mixing system it will have color chip cards with the color variances for nearly every color. There are variances in the factory color based on batches which may be slightly different from painting the first car of the year to the 100,000th car of the same color for the same year. How well the bodyshop does with the colormatch is in the hands of the painter/mixer. It is an art that does not allow one to become lazy about it. The color is black on your Jeep. Is it a metallic/pearl black? If not you have a pretty good chance of doing your on line paint program without color matching being too much of an issue. I have had "do it yourself" customers bring me parts to paint for the same kind of program. If a shop is trying hard to maintain it's reputation on painting/color matching ability it usually will turn down the work. Just ziptab, your outcome is great if it is what makes you happy. Most of my customers would not be happy with the color match from the right fender to the door and hood. The fender and air dam are 'whiter', where the door and hood have a more yellow/gray tone. It would be a do-over at my shop before it ever left the paint room. This is the kind of thing that can de-rail a painter's reputation. If I put that kind of color match out, even on a ten year old vehicle, if my next customer with the $140,000 new vehicle sees it, he will likely not be bringing his vehicle to me for paint work. I cannot know if the paint work is right without the vehicle being in my shop. Either my jobs are ALL good, or my entire body of work shows up as NO good. By the way.....white is generally a difficult color to match.  Cheap paint guns work OK on solid non metallic/ pearl colors.....most of the time. They do wear out fast though. It seems like you can get one or two paint jobs out of them and the needle/seat air cap looses it's fit. No matter how clean, they go down hill fast, then you can relegate to primer gun for a while. I have a stack of them, where in the same time frame I have had one DeVilbiss, two Sharpe and one Binks gun for years. | ||
| Roderick |
Guess I will have check the paint code, but from a cursory check online, looks like there is only (gloss) black for '07. There is always the dealership to make sure. I need to schedule a safety recall on reprogramming the transfer case anyway. That safety recall came out in Jun '13. Roderick | ||
| Skntpig |
My friend was repainting a deep scratch on a Porsche GTS RS in the quarter panel near the roof for a luxury car lot a few weeks ago. The sales manager was really upset, downright pissed, when the painter wouldn't tell him which side it was and how much of the car was repainted when it was done. I guess based on the location he thought he could identify where the repair was. It's definitely an art | ||
| Etennuly |
My friend was repainting a deep scratch on a Porsche GTS RS in the quarter panel near the roof for a luxury car lot a few weeks ago. The sales manager was really upset, downright pissed, when the painter wouldn't tell him which side it was and how much of the car was repainted when it was done. I guess based on the location he thought he could identify where the repair was. It's definitely an art That's funny right there! I had a customer come back one time for a paint fade problem on her car. She noticed it after winter while she was washing it for the first time of the year. She had told all of her friends and neighbors how bad my work was when one of her friends finally told her to bring it back to me to see if I would take care of it. She went on about being so happy with the driver side of her car, but the passenger side was dull and fading. It took me nearly two hours to convince her that I had painted only the drivers side of her car as it was stated on the estimate from the insurance company. I explained to her that the part you are happy with is the part that I did. She even called her insurance company adjuster to argue with him about it. At the time the job was completed I explained to her about the other side being faded(it was in my notes on the original estimate  ) but she "would not spend one dime beyond what the insurance company paid" for damage that was not her fault. I had buffed the whole car for free so that the car looked nice for her. Six months later she was insisting that I ruined the right side of her car when the fade came back. Some times ya go the extra mile to find you are on the wrong track. | ||
| Sifo |
My friend was repainting a deep scratch on a Porsche GTS RS in the quarter panel near the roof for a luxury car lot a few weeks ago. The sales manager was really upset, downright pissed, when the painter wouldn't tell him which side it was and how much of the car was repainted when it was done. I guess based on the location he thought he could identify where the repair was. It's definitely an art If he can do that with any consistency, and it sounds like he does, he is really talented. My question though... Can he see any tells? I've felt really bad sometimes when a friend has gotten work done that they are perfectly happy with and they ask me what I think. All too often I can spot the work fairly readily. I hate having to point out the tells to friends because they are just never happy after that. It can suck. She went on about being so happy with the driver side of her car, but the passenger side was dull and fading. That is the worst part sometimes. I had a black Trans AM back in the day that had a UPS truck roll over onto the front clip. I had a shop with a great reputation do the work, and it looked great when I got it back. A few years later, the repaired panels stood out like a sore thumb. No matter what you do, you just can't match the age of the old paint. Even when it looks great now, it will age differently. | ||
| Skntpig |
I don't have any paint experience myself but for some reason I notice repairs all the time. I also don't like to look at friends vehicles after a repair because I normally can see it and hate to let them know. He is also very good at pointing out repairs that most people would think are great. I can occasionally see where his work was done but you really have to study it. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
Etennuly,the hood and bumper cover was replaced in 98 when a kid ran into it with a bicycle.Hood matched perfectly at that time.Sat in the sun everyday at work since that point in time(15 years) so it was bound to change color.It was only kinked on a pinch weld in the last wreck and was completely usable.I could not get a factory painted plastic bumper cover like I did in 98 and had to have this "plain one" painted. Textured grain plastic will never look like a tin body panel.I have retrieved "the original"(!) hood from the local shop's back storage shed and am about to reinstall it as the bug screen will hide the crinkle in it's leading edge.Nearing 16 years old and 233,000 miles................with the original hood back on it,nobody will be the wiser.... | ||
| Sifo |
I hate to say this, but I've actually had impressive success with this...  Obviously it won't replace major body work, but for smooth dents I have managed to remove them remarkably well and there is no paint work which is a big plus. It does help to have some understanding of how the metal is being stretched as it dents and work it in reverse. Would I use it as a professional? Maybe in a very limited way. I did borrow it from a friend though and worked out dents caused by going into a snow bank sideways. Dented the front and sliding door on my minivan just above the rocker panel. It's not perfect, but it's very hard to detect and has none of the typical refinishing issues on an older vehicle. I've also used it to pull a dent out of a bike tank. I got that good enough to live with, but was doing a pearl paint job on it so finished it with a small bit of filler to make it perfect. I was very happy not having to figure some other way of pulling the dent that would normally have required access to a welder that I no longer have, along with the safety issues that must be addressed if you are going to weld a gas tank. It takes some time, patience, and multiple pulls to do correctly, but results can be impressive in some cases. | ||
| Ourdee |
I've used air pressure to pop out a motorcycle gas tank dent. I use a 110 and a 220 volt dent puller at work on steel auto-bodies and a pick to push out dents from behind on aluminum. I don't fix plastic. | ||
| Aesquire |
The "Rochester" solution is to use different color panels straight from the bone yard. All cars here are colored salt streak 6 months a year anyway.  | ||
| Sifo |
I've used air pressure to pop out a motorcycle gas tank dent. How did that work out? The big problem I see doing that is you can't control how the dent comes out. That may lead to a poor result. That was a nice thing about the "as seen on TV" pops-a-dent, you can control what part of the dent gets pulled out first. You want to pull it out opposite of how it went in. That seldom means starting in the middle and using brute force. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
Those guys that "rub" hail dents out from the back side with a ball bearing on the end of a steel rod are magicians! |
