Procedure to Repair and Repaint Front & Rear Mustang Bumper?

RED2001GT

Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
Mar 18, 2003
270
2
18
I was at my body shop today and I noticed that the shop had both front and rear bumpers sitting on top of a special metal stand. There was one bumper on each stand. I noticed that there was smoothed out filler/putty on both bumpers in the small areas on the bumper where both bumpers had damage to them from the hit and run accident.
Anyways, I also noticed that the Torch Red factory paint was still on the rest of the bumper on both bumpers where there was no filler/putty. I would like to know HOW the body shop is going to repaint both bumpers when the original factory paint is still on both bumpers? Will the body shop have to sand off ALL of the factory Torch Red paint that's still currently on both bumpers in order to paint them? Or are they going to only "spot" paint over the areas where the body shop put filler/putty and leave the original factory paint on the rest of the bumper? I would think that they will have to repaint the ENTIRE bumper? Is that correct? WHY is the factory paint STILL on the rest of the bumper? Is this a common body shop practice to leave the factory paint still on the bumper while they put filler/putty on the bumper to do the repairs?
I would like to know.
 
  • Sponsors (?)


It really depends on the size of the damaged area. If the area is small, then it can be filled, sanded, the area around the filler (few inches) should also be sanded/scuffed, and it can be painted/blended to the rest of the paint without having to paint the entire bumper.

Having said that, if your bumper has a good bit of damage AND/OR has other spots that are faded, chipped, or just look crappy ... they should re-paint the entire bumper. Either way, they do not have to sand all the old paint off. They would just scuff it up with some fine grit sandpaper or a scotchbrite pad (so the paint will stick) and spray it with the basecoat color then clearcoat. Make sense?

For what it's worth, next time you go to the body shop you should just ask them how they plan to spray it. If they are going to blend it or scuff the entire bumper and re-spray...
 
I go to school in autobody, and they should either scuff the rest of the bumper and blend it together, or just scuff it and repaint the whole thing, depending on how much they are getting from the person. with a color like torch red, it shouldnt be terribly hard to blend in the color especially if the damage is around the curves of the bumper
 
They repainted the whole front and the whole rear bumper. I didn't think about it until the last minute and I forgot to ask them whether or not they will repaint the entire bumper because I thought that they would. Anyways, they repainted the whole front and the whole rear bumper and they ALSO added 3 coats of clearcoat to both bumpers.
 
n0v8or said:
What was the cost to fill and repaint both bumpers?
The total cost was $641.22.
They took both bumpers off and they also took off the front and rear lights and the front grill off the car. They then took off the reflectors from the rear bumper too. Then they straightened out a crease that was in the front bumper with some type of heat source. I think that they used a heat lamp for this, but I am not sure about it. They then fixed the scratches and the small gouges in the front bumper. The rear bumper had minimal damage to it. There was only a 6" inch circular crack in the paint and a small 3" inch wide scuff/scratch mark on the left corner of the rear bumper. I am not sure how they did this, but after they put filler/putty in the areas where the bumper had scratches and small gouges in it they repainted the whole bumper. I am not sure what other work that they did before they repainted the whole bumper. They also put 3 coats of clearcoat on both bumpers. The only other thing that they did was align or straighten something that connected to the front bumper because the front bumper was pushed "in" about 1" inch on the driver's side only in a small area just below the hood where the plastic part of the top of the bumper connects/meets the edge of the hood. There was nothing that was bent or broken that was located behind the front bumper before they did the adjustment/straightening. Everything behind the bumper like all the panels, including the bumper bar, the bumper shocks, bumper shock tubes and all the sheet metal and metal connecting parts and panels all around the front bumper where the bumper cover goes on were all straight and undamaged.