Crunch! Mercedes - 1 Porsche - 0

OY! My SO backed into my car. Caved in the front bumper and cracked it too. I popped the dent out (it was the radius of a small melon). So what should I expect here? Repair and repaint? Replace front bumper? No other visible damage that I can tell.

I closed the garage door on the rear bumper of my 996 leaving three DEEP parallel scratches. Body shop fixed it (fill in and paint) as good a new. Make sure that they intend to remove the bumper in order to repair. You can save a few bucks if you do so yourself.

I would take full advantage of the SO. You could fulfill all of your wildest dreams...Oh yeah and I know I'm getting old, but I can't see anything in that pic?

they will repair the bumper.

Thanks guys. Seal grey hides imperfections well (which is why I have it), here is an extreme close up. Porsche dealer quoted me approx $1,600 to replace and paint. Anyone recommend a good body shop around Princeton, NJ? As for taking full advantage of the situation. I am pondering taking this opportunity to "repair" my car with maybe a GT3 or RUF front bumper. Anybody have any recommendations for a new front bumper?

What, or Who is an SO?

Significant Other PC for "my bee-atch". :-)

Still none the wiser here.

Oh! My house would not be a fun place to be if that happened... yikes! To fix that bumper you're probably looking at $1000. It looks like it's going to need to be fixed, then painted and they probably need to paint the entire bumper and they'll definitely need to clearcoat all of it.

SO = Significant Other. Wife.

Thanks riad for the translation! Sorry Scouser, I was speaking "American".

$1600 sound way outta line, so would $1000. I'd say $500 would be reasonable, the only problem is, it's so hard to get reasonable prices when the car is a Porsche.

I think $1600 sounds reasonable if they are going to *replace* the entire bumper. If $1600 is just to repair and repaint, that's another story.

$500 if it was just a repaint, but with the damage an independant will probably charge close to $1000 give or take 10-15%.

Call Dave Sano of Sano's Cutom Paint in Dayton NJ [phone removed]) about 15-20 minutes from Princton. Stop by and have them give you a quote. I had a similiar situation but it was my rear bumper. I have decided to have my front bumper resprayed at the same time, so I removed the rear/front bumpers/lip myself, did the body work myself on the rear bumper, DA'd both bumper using 600 grit paper. Sano's will have the responsibility of shooting all pieces with a 2-stage Dupont paint.

Porsche quoted $1600 to replace and paint. I got a quote of $700 to repair and repaint. The high quote was $2,000 to replace and paint from an indy. Damn, and I'm going to have to get a new clear bra installed too. Does 3M make a film which protects against stone chips and the rear bumper of an E Class? If I get the OEM aerokit front bumper, does it look weird without the side skirts, or are the side skirts pretty much a required upgrade? Has anybody a pic of a car with just the aerokit front bumper?

Why don't you have the deer whistle in your list of mods? I heard they're good for 5-10 hp.

LOL. There, is that better? They also repel elephants, giraffes, wildebeests, hippos, lions and tigers. I haven't hit any of those since I've stuck those onto the front grill.

Can you get insurance to cover this? You probly have a cracked radiator duct and possibly some other plastic pieces that need to be replaced under bumper. I think you should either repair or replace with a GT3 bumper. GT3 bumper will look fine without the side skirt but if you are going for the upgrade, you might as well do both. I debate on the usefulness of clear bra on the bumper. Sooner or later, the bumper will get damaged and having the clear bra makes it more costly to repair this. I have one on too and it adds several hundred to the repair bill. The irony is that clear bra is most invisible on the bumper. Look around on eBay for bumper cover as well. I just picked up one there.

Found a GT3 Cup bumper for $799 on eBay. Item 8071097026. You might need a couple more ducts to install this. But add another $500 to have it resprayed, your ride will look pretty damn good.

I would take full advantage of the guilt factor and get a RUF bumper.

... and, at the very least, a BJ!

From her good looking friend.

When I backed into another car in my driveway (not much way to blame it on anyone else) .... I bought a new back bumper (don't know how price compares to front) from Suncoast in Florida. Local dealer price, including tax but minus PCA discount was about $850. Suncoast price, UPS to body shop was around $700. Price to prep, cut bumperette holes, and paint (I installed) was a little over $300. Perfect paint match, as I left them the old bumper to sample.

What hospital is the SO in??? Want to send him/her a get better soon card!

I had a rear with simialr damage repaired on my 993 for $400. Couldn't tell it ever had a problem.

ppffftt, for me it would just be an excuse to go with a turbo bumper....

Heck, if you're going that route... "Honey, I hear the '07 Turbos come with an extra heavy duty bumper"...