How easy to replace bumper on car?

[germdoc]

My son did some damage on both sides of the bumper of my 2002 Honda Accord coupe. The estimate for having body shop repair would be $650 or so--$250-300 for part, $200 for labor, $200 for painting.

I have come across what sounds like a reputable dealer out of Napierville, IL, D&H Parts, that can deliver painted part for $275. The question is, how hard is it to replace a bumper? I would think this just requires removing/replacing a few bolts, but I am very naive when it comes to car repair, esp. body work.

Any thoughts?

[crokett]

Since you are getting the bumper painted already for 275 you are saving 125.00 for painting and another 200.00 for labor. Consider taking the bumper somewhere and have it installed. I bet they can do it in an hr and you will still come out way ahead.

[dbhost]

I am not familiar with how Honda attaches their bumpers. BUT... Typically the bumpers on most modern automobiles consist of an outer shell, or "bumper cover", a high density foam subsurface, a steel bumper, and some sort of mount, typically an energy absorbing bracket of some sort.

Go to your local public library, they should have a body repair manual for that vehicle. (Okay, well my local library has the one for my Saturn SL anyway...). The body manuals typically show you the process, and illustrate where, and what kinds of fasteners there are on the thing...

I would think it would be a few bolts / screws holding the cover on, remove the energy absorbing brackets, then remove the foam from the steel inner bumper, reassemble with good parts...

[Shep]

In my professional opinion I would not do this yourself. Replacing the bumper is pretty straightforward, however making the bumper match the color of the rest of the car is difficult. Given that your sons car is 7 years old the paint color has probably faded slightly from its newer condition. A bumper cover that is already painted might not perfectly match up the way you want it to. Also if the part is an aftermarket bumper cover you might run into problems with it fitting properly. There are many aftermaket suppliers for bumper covers. All of them have slightly different fits. They may look similar but you may notice sligt gaps where the corners meet if they are not properly alligned.

I work in the Rental Car business and the best thing to do if the bumper cover is damaged would be a moble bumper repair company. They can come out, mend/fix/paint the bumper for about $150-200. I have them even do work to my 2001 Grand Am GT. I hit a boulder in a parking lot (don't ask) and caused a nice volley-ball sized dent/scrape in the driver side of the bumper. They came out, popped out the dent, resurfaced the scratches, reshot the paint and made it look brand new. Arround here here we have companies such as Magic dent repair, and Dent wizzard. I've even seen them repair bumper covers that had decent sized gash in the bottom. It's worth the call.

[crokett]

Shep, thanks for the tip. I have some scratches on my rear bumper that I will get them to look at it. I was envisioning insurance claim, body shop, etc and paying out of pocket since the damage would be less than my deductible anyway. Somebody tagged me in a parking lot a while back - hit n run.

[germdoc]

Thanks for advice. I am not TOO concerned about slight differences in color or fit--it's a car my son drives, not me, and anything would be an improvement over current snaggle-toothed appearance!

[OpaDC]

Just a note to be careful. Make sure the energy absorbing parts are not damaged. If they are and you just replace the bumper you may compromise the safety of the vehicle. Check to see what the repair shop planned on replacing.

[herb fellows]

Just a note to be careful. Make sure the energy absorbing parts are not damaged. If they are and you just replace the bumper you may compromise the safety of the vehicle. Check to see what the repair shop planned on replacing.

Similar to what I was thinking. Also, where there are multiple parts involved, and aftermarket vs original equipment, be sure you are comparing apples to apples.

[tuttlejr]

I did not know that cars had bumpers any more. Those are just plastic fascia plates. The Audi seems to not even have those. Those so called "bumpers" are very expensive to repair and do not actually protect any thing at all. The old Model A Fords had good bumpers and so do most trucks.

[Woodshark]

Thanks for the timely posting of this topic. Just yesterday I was returning something to Northern Tool and I scraped a high curb while pulling into the parking lot. Normally I'm driving a van with a higher clearance but that day I was driving the wife's new Honda Accord. Her car has less than 10K miles on it. The curb hit cracked and scraped the underside of the front bumper pretty bad.

I thought for sure we were talking about $1000 to get it fixed. Looks like it will be under $400. Didn't even know there were companys that specialize in bumper repairs until now. Gotta love this internet thing!