Cracked and chipped front bumper replacement advice

[dorgasm]

Just looking for some advice about replacing my front bumper. I bought the car (e46 320 Ci) recently enough with a cracked and badly chipped front bumper, knowing it would need replacing. I'm just wondering if anyone has ballpark figures for how much this kind of replacement should cost me?

My car is Mystic Blue colour, so I think it'll too hard to find an already painted bumper from a breaker. I'm interested in this bumper here, I'd just need to get it painted. Is this good value at €200 and would getting this bumper repainted cost more than an unpainted replica?

The only option I'm considering is the MTech 2 style bumper that came with my car. I see a lot of M3 replica bumpers for sale but I don't want to put one of those on. If it worked out nicely price-wise, I'd happily buy a replica MTech 2 though.

Any advice or info would be great!

[Venom]

Just looking for some advice about replacing my front bumper. I bought the car (e46 320 Ci) recently enough with a cracked and badly chipped front bumper, knowing it would need replacing. I'm just wondering if anyone has ballpark figures for how much this kind of replacement should cost me?

My car is Mystic Blue colour, so I think it'll too hard to find an already painted bumper from a breaker. I'm interested in this bumper here, I'd just need to get it painted. Is this good value at €200 and would getting this bumper repainted cost more than an unpainted replica?

The only option I'm considering is the MTech 2 style bumper that came with my car. I see a lot of M3 replica bumpers for sale but I don't want to put one of those on. If it worked out nicely price-wise, I'd happily buy a replica MTech 2 though.

Any advice or info would be great!

Sorry and I don't mean to sound smart. If yours is chipped and cracked why not get the a body shop to plastic weld and paint it?

Surely if you are going to buy and paint a new bumper it may actually work out cheaper to do your own?

[dorgasm]

Not sounding smart at all, thank you, this is exactly the type of advice I was looking for. I didn't actually know this would be an option.

I've mentioned to a few people that I was going to replace it and nobody mentioned this option. If I could get it repaired and painted, then happy days. I'll post up pictures of the damage sometime today so you can see yourself if it's possible.

Would most crash repair/body shops do this sort of work? I'm based Cork and Kilkenny btw, if anyone knows of reputable places there that do it.

[Venom]

Not sounding smart at all, thank you, this is exactly the type of advice I was looking for. I didn't actually know this would be an option.

I've mentioned to a few people that I was going to replace it and nobody mentioned this option. If I could get it repaired and painted, then happy days. I'll post up pictures of the damage sometime today so you can see yourself if it's possible.

Would most crash repair/body shops do this sort of work? I'm based Cork and Kilkenny btw, if anyone knows of reputable places there that do it.

Most should do yeah. If you youtube it you'll see how it's done. I'm no painter myself but afaik they will plastic weld it, sand it down, use filler, sand again, prime, paint etc etc. :smiling:

[dorgasm]

Not sounding smart at all, thank you, this is exactly the type of advice I was looking for. I didn't actually know this would be an option.

I've mentioned to a few people that I was going to replace it and nobody mentioned this option. If I could get it repaired and painted, then happy days. I'll post up pictures of the damage sometime today so you can see yourself if it's possible.

Would most crash repair/body shops do this sort of work? I'm based Cork and Kilkenny btw, if anyone knows of reputable places there that do it.

Most should do yeah. If you youtube it you'll see how it's done. I'm no painter myself but afaik they will plastic weld it, sand it down, use filler, sand again, prime, paint etc etc. :smiling:

Brilliant, that could definitely knock the costs down anyway! Have scratch the length of my door panel that needs looking after too, so every penny saved on bodywork will count. Thanks for that again, going to look into getting that done now :happy:

[E46Padge]

Post up a picture. I paint my self. Depends on time and labour that goes into the bumper before paint. Also if it's peppered with stone chips it could or not been painted before poorly with cheap paint kits ect. So that layer would have to come off to prevent a majority of chips in the future.

Edit.
Personally I'd stay away from the rep bumpers some are good and others are crap. Also iam not sure you can get coupe rep bumpers? Only saloon and m3?

To give you a idea of price
To paint a new/second hand one with no repairs. You removing and fitting it ect 150
few minor repairs. Gash hear and scuff there. You remove and fit ect 200
Bad damage eg a days labour in repair. 250-300

[dorgasm]

Post up a picture. I paint my self. Depends on time and labour that goes into the bumper before paint. Also if it's peppered with stone chips it could or not been painted before poorly with cheap paint kits ect. So that layer would have to come off to prevent a majority of chips in the future.

Edit.
Personally I'd stay away from the rep bumpers some are good and others are crap. Also iam not sure you can get coupe rep bumpers? Only saloon and m3?

To give you a idea of price
To paint a new/second hand one with no repairs. You removing and fitting it ect 150
few minor repairs. Gash hear and scuff there. You remove and fit ect 200
Bad damage eg a days labour in repair. 250-300

Thanks for that. Those prices are well within what I budgeted for this repair/replacement.

It's not just stone chips on my current bumper, there's large sections of paint completely scraped off so it looks absolutely terrible. The mesh in the centre is all cracked and destroyed and also the housing for one of the fogs (aswell as the actual fog light being missing).

If I could get it painted for 150 like you say, I'm half tempted to buy that new bumper I linked to above. The fogs, housing and mesh alone could cost me another 80-100 so 200 doesn't seem like a bad deal for the whole thing. I'd post pics but I work in Kilkenny and my car is in Cork until I can get it NCT'd. The wait is killing me.

[JohnH]

I'd say it'll be more like 250 for the repaint but that's about it.