Cost for scratch repair
 

I scraped the corner of my car a few months back and I've finally got around to getting it looked at. What sort of price would people expect to pay to get this fixed? I got three estimates from three different body shops. The highest of the three was nearly six times the amount of the lowest. I don't want a shoddy job, but at the same time I don't want to get ripped off either. Any info. much appreciated.
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I've paid ~£200 to have similar damage fixed on the rear bumper and they did a very good job, was part of a larger insurance job, otherwise I'd attempt doing it myself and only take it to the garage if I wasn't happy with my own work.

There's basically two ways to approach it at vastly different prices, either match the paint color as close as they can and blend in a small area OR, repaint the whole panel. When they blend a small area, it will be hard to detect when its a fresh repair, but over time with differential fading between the original and new base coats and differential oxidation between the original and new clear coats, then the repair would eventually become more obvious. When the whole panel is painted, the same thing will happen, but because there's a gap and the surfaces are viewed at different angles, it won't be nearly as obvious. If the car were a daily driver going to sit outside in the Texas sun, then it'd be better to do the whole panel. But if its going to live in the garage and you are going to be dedicated to keeping it polished and waxed, then you more likely can get away with a blended repair and save some money. If you want to have the whole panel repainted, you might get lesser quotes for masking it and painting it in place and more expensive quotes for removing the bumper cover and trim and painting it off the car. If you want to do the whole panel, pay the higher cost to remove it. Some of the variation can also be the brand/type/quality of paint which can vary quite a lot. Some paints are much better than others. And the shop's labor rate may be different too depending on the reputation of their staff. Just have to ask those questions to determine what you are getting for the extra cost.

850 usd. Remove bumper, remove trim, prep, paint, clear and reinstall.

As others have said it depends on the approach to repair.

For that damage I would go with a localised blended fix. A mobile paint man would charge about £150 for that.

A proper repair would need the bumper removing and stripping. If you can do that yourself and take a stripped bumper to a body shop they would prep and paint it. I did that a few years ago and it cost £220 for a proper prep and paint.

If you want the body shop to remove and disassemble then you will pay much more. Removing the Chrome (actually Stainless Steel) trim from the bumper is time consuming as all the screws will need to drilled/ground to remove them. So I'd estimate around 3-4 hours labour for removal/stripping/reinstall. So maybe add another £200-£250.


Make sure you're comparing apples with apples with the quotes.

I would go to paint shop and get a matching paint in a spray can for less than $25.00. Youtube DIY is next step. Cheap and easy.

Thanks for all the help. All the estimates I got were pretty vague.The jobs weren't defined at all. They were:
Local "spray & bake" paint place £80
Mobile repair guy £175
Body shop and repair centre £470

Does the first one sound too cheap?

Yes £80 sounds a bit too cheap. The others sound about right.

Had a friend who had a cheap respray done on his cherished 1984 Ford Granada. He got a small scratch on the wing that I offered to help him with. I rubbed it first with a little bit of Isopropyl Alcohol on a soft cloth. It took it back to primer!!!!

Stay away from the "baked enamel" places. You want a decent quality urethane.

The mobile repair guy will likely do fine. Probably all he does several times a day day in and day out for dealerships....

You might ask him if you can sand it for him...They seem to skip that step....and the paint peels off in a five years.

You do more damage of respray the entire bumper. I rather keep the original paint and have mobile spot paint for $175.00. All car dealers do this to fix minor job.

Thanks all. Think I'll probably go with the mobile guy.