996 backed in to - paint damage to rear bumper cover

Hello all, First post here, so pardon me if I'm in the wrong place. Unfortunately my 1999 996 had an encounter with the rear of my neighbor's S-class today. They backed into it while leaving their driveway during the ~1 hour window I had the car out to clean the garage (timing was awful I guess ). Thankfully they have agreed to just pay out of pocket for the repairs, so the monetary side of this should be relatively hassle-free. By some miracle he managed to just clip the bumper cover, and not the tail light, deck lid, or and of the sheet metal behind it. Even more fortunately, the bumper cover itself didn't crack (so no need to do any structural repairs to it). The unfortunate side of this it I'm pretty sure that the whole bumper cover is going to need to get sanded down and freshly painted. There is about a 10x15 cm area where the paint has all either cracked or peeled off of the primer, and an about 5x2 cm area where the plastic itself is exposed. All things considered, I got pretty lucky. This could have caused more damage, or been done by some random person who didn't leave a note, so I guess I lucked out in a way. Has anyone had experience with this sort of thing before? Should I be sticking to a Porsche-approved center, or will that not end up mattering? I've never had to get paintwork done before, so this is all pretty new to me. I tried calling my local dealer (Rusnak in Pasadena CA) to get their recommendation, but they didn't have any ideas. I'm going to try calling their service department tomorrow when they open in hopes that they might know more than the general operator. I'm assuming I don't necessarily need a proper collision center since nothing structural got damaged, but I don't really know if they do better paintwork on average or not. The paint is arctic silver metallic (L92U) if that matters at all, and all of the paint on the car is original to my knowledge. Pic of the damage (yes I know its dirty, I was going to wash it this evening, but gave up on that after the incident): Thanks in advance, and once again, my apologies if this is in the wrong place.

I had same experience not too long ago but in my case the taillight chipped I went to my trusted body shop owner does work on Ferrari he owns 1) and Lamborghini(he owns 2) my bill for the paint and crease repair came to about $800 Mike

Speak to the local dealership's service department, ask them where they take vehicles for collision repair assuming they don't do it in-house. Take the car there, you are not paying and the work should be 'up to standards'. Simple. How much time and risk are you willing to take on this?

Same experience with a stone wall and an embarrassing scratch. Reputable local Indy repaired and resprayed. Looks perfect. I took it off and brought just the cover to them and picked it up a week later. $750

I did my front bumper cover because it was pretty dinged up with I got the car last year. Took it off and had my local body shop guy respray it. Just under $700.00. Best,

Had my local body shop painter respray the front bumper because of stone chips. Paid $400 and good as new. Another shop quoted me $700 just for comparison...

Hard to tell from the picture, but is the bumper skin warped or dented from the hit? Obviously, the paint is screwed, but curious if the bumper is warped. Many body shops don't repair urethane bumper skins but prefer replacement instead. Just went through this a couple of weeks ago. That can change a $500 - $700 respray to a $2000 - $3000 job. The OEM Porsche bumpers are crazy expensive. If it was just paint, I'd help the neighbor out with costs and remove the bumper myself and take it to the body shop. I've done that many times. Saves labor costs. The last bumper respray only cost me $350. That included sanding and prep.

Thanks for all the replies! The bumper cover itself isn't dented, cracked, or warped (thankfully, like you said, OEM bumpers are certainly not cheap, even used). Just cracks in the paint and a chip in the primer (there might be a scuff in the plastic where the primer chipped, but I'm assuming that can be addressed by sanding and a tiny bit of filler, its at most 0.5-1mm deep and maybe 1x2cm in area, cant really tell if its just how the surface is supposed to look or not). 'll call my local service department today and see if they can offer recommendations for local paint shops (as far as I know none of the dealers in my actually have a paint booth). I'll post some better pics of the damage when I'm done with work today. Took that one in haste right when it happened, so its pretty poor.

My recco is a combo of what DDz and B3 say. Call the Porsche dealer’s body peeps. Then the best local indie paint shop. Price it for you removing/replacing bumper cover. Has worked perfectly well for me either way. If the cover is damaged or dented beyond surface scratches, probably need a replacement cover. Good news is these covers sand down and take light Bondo pretty well. Then discuss with neighbor over some adult beverages. Good hunting.

Just spoke with Rusnak Porsche's service center, they were able to recommend an approved collision center (DC Autocraft in case anyone else is local and needs a reference point). Waiting on the estimate. I'm going to do some research on local independents as well to have 2 quotes to compare. Here are some better pics of the damage in the meantime: Thanks again for the advice!

Some colors are difficult to get accurate match, silver is definitely one of them.

Update finally! Ended up asking the independent mechanic I go to for bigger jobs recommended a paint shop. They quoted ~1800 USD for the work, tax included. Turned out pretty well. Can't see any mismatch in color, and the finish looks good. I don't have a paint meter to check depths, however. Pics of the right side since the sun wasn't cooperating to get a good pic of the left. All looks the same though, full repaint of bumper. Car also wasn't totally clean in the pic. and there was some swirling in the old paint to begin with. If anyone is local and wondering, the paint shop I used was Markham and Boling in Pasadena. Thanks for all the advice offered here, I do appreciate it. ​​​​​​​

how much did this cost you? I'm going through this now, damage a bit worse but getting insanely high estimate from Porsche - recommended shop thanks

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How much was the estimate? A picture of the damage would help the crowd. What part of Nashville metro? Did you get the estimate from Crest? They weren’t too pricey when I used them for paint work two years ago.

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1800 USD and change to remove, sand, prep, paint, and install the bumper cover.

I requested estimates by email from the three Porsche approved collision centers closest to me to paint an Aerokit front bumper. West Coast Specialties was $650.00. There was no response from Amato's which I expected having dealt with them before. They aren't interested in any car that doesn't cost at least $200k. Phillip Thearle's was $690.00. This was with me doing all the install work. My issue is that both West Coast and Philip Thearle's wanted me to leave the whole car with them. I asked if I could just leave the bumper that's currently on the car and they said no, they had to have the car. When I got the engine cover and wing painted, the guy was able to do a fantastic job matching the paint with just the fuel door as a sample. Besides being an extra hassle to drop off the car, it could sit overnight in a unsecured area which is a deal breaker for me. I'm going to keep looking. Too bad my other guy retired.

wow, SoCal911t wonder why the front cost so much less than the rear - crazy! (maybe c Thanks H-Atkinson , very helpful. I'm getting a quote for $3800 but includes a dented engine cover. hatchetf15 , photos are confidential for now. Crest is oob, replaced by AW in Franklin. Very impressive facility but I'm getting some sleazy vibes from the customer rep so far. I'll confirm what seems like his bs this week and see what happens. Likely I'll take it elsewhere, these big corporate style operations feel like a spider web.

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Yup. Def go elsewhere.

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Probably more for mine since there was sanding and prep work involved. My cover had already been painted (poorly) once under prior ownership.