Boxster got hit day before Christmas! :( - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

I took the Boxster to the store the day before Christmas and as expected, the parking lot was jammed. As I was waiting for cars to move out of my way, an older woman backing out of her parking spot didn't see me/didn't look at backed into my front fender. Damage looks like it's mostly the front left fender and perhaps a small portion of my bumper cover..the impact was basically where that side marker lens is..where the bumper cover and fender meet... lens is all cracked, and damage is around that area. car is totally still driveable, and theree appears to be no suspension/structural damge to anything except cosmetics. I was suprised how calm I was. It was obviously her fault....I just told her not to worry about it...it can be fixed, and not to let it ruin our holiday time... she was very apologetic..exchanged info...I will take the car in for an estimate after the holidays... I'm already trying to figure out how to turn lemons into lemonade.. I figure if my car has to go in for repairs,, and even a small portion of my bumper cover is damaged, they may have to replace the whole thing..meaning they will have to do a new bumper cover and then paint it...meaning I will get a blend job up into my hood..and all the rock chips I was trying to fix with Dr. Color chip will be basically gone/fixed! I don't think you can fix bumper covers..once they get gouged/dented/cracked the whle thing has to go...at least that's my understanding. if that is the case, maybe I can get them to replace it with a 911 or GT3 styel bumper? at the very least, even if the new bumper cover is stock, it will be repainted and look nice an shiny. I also wondered about getting a quote to get my roll bar painted - either ocean blue to match my car, or in aluminum to match my interior trim? no idea what a body shop would charge me to do that? i have a 2000 =- so I had always eyed those rear diffusers...not to expensive to buy either..maybe I'lll grab a set of those and have the hsop paint/install those. i'll have to come out of pocket to get this stuff done, but as long as the car is in there, at least it can come out looking even better.. too bad my headlight wasn't totalled out..i could have gotten cleared ones to repplace the orange ones I have.... anyone have suggersdtions on front bumpers ideas? will they actually replace the bumper if the damage is limited to just the side area under the lens..or can they actually fix that with epoxy? My guess is even with the minimally damaged bumper cover, the WHOLE thing gets repalced...or am I wrong? any ideas on what it would cost me to get the rollbar painted or have those rear diffusers painted/installed? I'm not going to go crazy and have a tone of work done, but I would like to do something... at the very least, maybe they can do a wet sand, detail on teh car overall so that the multitude of little fine scratches/etc on teh car are mostly gone and it looks much cleaner/shinier when I get it back... sucks to get hit, but maybe I can make it work out for me in the end... at least it's not a major hit that totalled my car...shemust have hit me at maybe 3-5mph max...whatever you back out at...relatively slow...

I consider the body shop I use to be among the best available. They told me bumper covers with spider cracks can be repaired but tend to display cracks again regardless of the perfection of the preparation. If you have a desire for a GT3 cover this is certainly a chance for you to take what seemed like a problem and turn it into your own Christmas gift, good luck.

i don't know if I would do the more modern looking GT3 bumper cover.... but I"ve seen the bumper covers on 996 GT3s....that would look pretty cool on my car..they have a more pronounced front lower lip, but overall look very simialr to the boxster cover.... i assume a cover like that likely doens't really cost muchmore than the generic bumper cover the body shop would put on... so I could likely get it swapped on for practically free... painting the roll bar might be pricey if they charge me to remove it,, pull off the front section,a nd then paint and reinstall..... if I do that, not sure if I'd do aluminum color or ocean blue and match the body color....